A Fish out of Water
Peter becomes a fisherman and hunts the legendary killer fish Daggermouth.
Season: 3 Episode: 10
Total Episode Count: 38
Prod. no.: 3ACX05
First Aired: September 19, 2001
Guest Starring: Brian Doyle-Murray
Featuring:
Peter Griffin, Lois Griffin, Meg Griffin
Also Appearing: Chris,
Stewie, Brian, Joe, Cleveland, Quagmire,
Jim Kaplan, Seamus, Salty, Daggermouth, Boom
Boom, Spuds MacKenzie, Tom Tucker, Jake Tucker, Hennessey,
The Stevensons, Connie DiMico, Gina, Principal Shepherd,
Doug, Mordecai, the Dancing Yiddish Clown, Harelip Steve, Carson
Daly, Bernard Shaw
Director: Bert Ring
Assistant Director: Eric Fredrickson
Writers: Mike Henry, Alex Borstein
Storyboarders: Nora Johnson
Plot: Jobless, unmotivated, and depressed, Peter becomes morbidly obese. Inspired by a “walk” on the docks assisted by Brian and a forklift, he resolves to lose the weight and become a fisherman. Joe takes Peter to a police seized-property auction, where Peter buys a boat for $50,000; he names the boat “S.S. More Powerful Than Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk Put Together”.
To pay for the vessel, Peter takes out a dubious loan from Jim's Bank, with his house and possessions as collateral. The bank is so certain that Peter will default on the loan that they sell the house to another family and repossess his furniture before the payment deadline arrives. Peter must raise $50,000 before the imminent deadline or his house and furniture will be permanently taken away from him.
Peter’s new fishing career does not prove very successful, and rival fishermen berate and taunt him. Rejecting Quagmire’s idea of prostituting himself to fat women for quick cash, Peter decides to catch the legendary killer fish Daggermouth for a $50,000 reward. Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe accompany him on his quest.
Meanwhile, Lois takes Meg go on spring break to a spa, but Meg would rather be at the beach. Lois decides to slip off with Meg to the beach but fits in better with the party crowd than Meg does. In a moment of exuberance, Meg flashes her breasts; both she and Lois are quickly arrested. They escape from the police car and are returning home when a car full of spring breakers pull alongside them, honking and yelling. They are not cheering for Lois, as it first appears, but for Meg, who obliges them by flashing again.
Peter and his friends manage to track the legendary fish to his lair, where they discover that Daggermouth is in fact a robotic fish created by Salty; a fisherman Daggermouth is supposed to have killed, to generate a demand for merchandise. In exchange for his silence, the robot’s creator gives Peter $50,000, which he promptly uses to pay off the loan, buy back his furniture, and get the other family
out of his house although the episode ends with them still there.
Original air date: September 19, 2001
After two weeks of being laid off from his job at Happy-Go-Lucky Toys, Peter has grown fatter and lazier than usual, so he takes a job as a fisherman to remedy this. Meanwhile, Lois takes Meg to the beach for spring break — and ends up having all the fun Meg should be having.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Salty (Brian Doyle-Murray) tells Peter that he's in talks with Nickelodeon for a Daggermouth cartoon, a reference to Doyle-Murray's role as the Flying Dutchman on a certain nautical-themed Nicktoon.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Meg upon seeing Lois partying for spring break. Lois actually fits in better than Meg, which makes the situation even more embarrassing.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: In a cutaway gag, we're shown that Shamu once gave Lois a kiss at SeaWorld, resulting in him getting clobbered by Peter, who assumed Lois was having an affair with the whale.
Peter: And how long has this been going on?!
- Brick Joke: "Hairlip" Steve is mentioned in an early scene; at the end of act one, we get to meet Steve when Stewie and Steve pry a Jewish clown off a boat.
Stewie: Hey Steve, you ever think about growing a mustache?
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Stewie.
Stewie: Two men are standing at the Pearly Gates. Oh, God, wait. How did that one go? Anyway, it turns out they're Siegfried and Roy. I'm no good at telling jokes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Lois goes above and beyond to help Meg have fun during spring break, far cry from their more well-known relationship, where Meg literally exists just to be bullied by her family.
- Everyone Has Standards: Peter's offended when he's called a lazy fatass by the man who's prematurely moving into his house, but then adds "I may not agree with what you have to say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
- Exact Words: At an auction, one item up for bid is a "photo of a beautiful 40-foot fishing boat." Peter gets into a bidding war with a man but loses; the man pays $25,000, but it turns out he just bought the photo of the boat, not the boat itself.
- Funny Animal: "Daggermouth and Boom Boom".
- Half-Human Hybrid: Quagmire asks Seamus if an accident is why his arms and legs are pieces of wood. Seamus says it's because his father was a tree.
- Honest John's Dealership: Peter gets a loan from Jim Kaplan to pay for the boat he bought at auction. Jim openly declares that other banks are banks, and may not be kidding about taking Peter's kids as collateral. He also runs a tattoo shop next door.
- Hypocritical Humor: Hennessey tells Peter that Salty was "half the weight" that he is, despite Hennessey being as obese as Peter and Salty being somewhat overweight himself.
- Instant Turn-Off: When Peter and the guys are asking each other if none of them were married and if they could have any woman, who would they want, Quagmire said Taylor Hanson. Joe tells Quagmire Taylor Hanson is a guy, but Quagmire thinks they're joking until Peter backs up Joe's statement. Quagmire was not happy to learn this.
- Lampshade Hanging: Salty bribes Peter to keep quiet about the truth about Daggermouth—saying the longer they linger on this, the faster people will realize a fisherman with zero engineering experience somehow managed to build a sophisticated, talking robot.
- Literal-Minded: When Carson Daly asks the crowd who wants to party, the crowd cheers, and Carson counts the number of people cheering.
Carson: Okay, we're gonna need cake and juice for 14 people.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When Peter bursts into flames, he dryly says, "Oh dear, I've spontaneously combusted." Then he adds, "Quite all right, I've grown tired of living."
- Man on Fire: In one cutaway, Peter spontaneously bursts into flames.
- Ms. Fanservice: Played for laughs. Meg has so much fun that her shirt flies off and she accidentally flashes the spring break crowd her breasts. Later, she does it again to appease Connie D'Amico and her friends.
- Not so Above It All: While at the Spring Break Blowout, Lois revealed that when she's not confined to the role of a traditional sitcom housewife, she can get just as drunk and wild as Peter.
- Orphaned Setup: "So the French guy says: "Deodorant? What's that?"
- Overly-Long Name: Peter's boat is named the "S.S. More Powerful than Superman, Batman, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk Put Together."
- Race Against the Clock: Peter has to get enough money to keep the house before Lois and Meg return from spring break.
- Read the Fine Print: When Peter and Brian return home to find that their house is being
repossessed, Brian asks Peter if he read the fine print on the loan contract.
Peter: If, by read, you mean imagined a naked lady, then yes.
- The Rival: Hennessey actively antagonizes and tries to sabotage Peter, due to not wanting another fisherman around to compete with.
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Shout-Out
- At sea, Peter, Quagmire, Joe, and Cleveland ask each other who they'd have if they weren't married. Peter's answer is the "chick with the three knockers" from Total Recall (1990).
- While on search for Daggermouth, Peter and the guys pass by the man with long arms from the "find the fish" segment of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
- Temporary Bulk Change: At the start of the episode, Peter is grossly obese from being out of work for two weeks. By the middle of act one, Peter is back to his usual weight.
- Twist Ending: Despite getting $50,000 to pay off the bank, the Stevensons still live with the Griffins by episode's end.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: At sea, Peter, Quagmire, Joe, and Cleveland ask each other who they'd have if they weren't married. Quagmire chooses Taylor Hanson. After being informed that Taylor Hanson is a guy, Quagmire breaks down.