The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire/References

The Hindenpeter

• This episode features a recurring joke parodying superhero vehicles such as the Batmobile. Peter boldly shouts “To the Petercopter!”; he then crashes helicopter (which has Peter's face) into Joe’s yard. The joke is repeated with the “Hindenpeter,” which, like the German zeppelin Hindenburg disaster crashes into Joe’s house, something which is met with the scream from Joe of “How can you afford these things?!”
• In a flashback, Stewie encounters Swedish female golfer Annika Sörenstam and looks up her skirt, playing to a rumor that Annika is actually male.
• While the Griffins and friends are playing charades, Joe falls off the boat and begins to drown, Peter guesses actress Natalie Wood, who died in a drowning accident. When Joe is revived, he tells Peter that Natalie Wood was the correct answer.
• A cutaway shows Peter repainting the famous Sistine Chapel, with a portrait of actor/wrestler André the Giant, a reference to the André the Giant Has a Posse street art campaign. He explains that this “would be a little hipper...[to] bring back...those boys you scared away,” a reference to the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
• When Brian hears Loretta screaming, Peter seems to fail to understand what has happened. Brian tries to explain that it sounded like someone was screaming, to which Peter replies with “Trouble at the old mill?” This is a reference to Lassie and the innumerable dangers to which Lassie alerted people.
• Peter says the CPR dummy is “hard, jagged and tastes like alcohol—just like kissing Faye Dunaway,” an actress known for playing coarse characters.
• Peter’s description of Loretta’s affair consists mostly of the word “Bam” spoken repeatedly. After a while, he asks Bamm-Bamm Rubble from The Flintstones to take over, who then passes it on to Emeril Lagasse who finishes with his trademark “Bam!”
• The flashback in which Quagmire must “fess-up to the nation” parodies President Bill Clinton’s 1999 admission of guilt in the Lewinsky scandal.
• Arbitrarily, Peter asks Cleveland about a scene in the Superman II in which Superman uses a “cellophane S” to hinder the character Non.
• To soothe Cleveland, Peter plays an acoustic version of the distinctly non-sentimental The B-52's song “Rock Lobster.”
• A flashback shows Peter in the audience of Crossing Over with John Edward, a show in which Edward supposedly speaks to audience members’ dead relatives.
• A transition between two scenes imitates Transformers animated series Transformers, in which the Autobot and Decepticon symbols alternate as the show moves between scenes showing one group and scenes showing the other. In this case, the faces are that of Peter and Quagmire. On the DVD commentary for this episode, the creators reveal that they had originally wanted to use the actual insignia of both factions, but were unable to acquire the rights.
• Macho Man Randy Savage: Peter takes Cleveland to a wrestling match, featuring “Macho Man” Randy Savage, known for provoking audiences.
• Rocky I and III: When Cleveland is working out, Rocky’s coach Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith) from the 1976 film Rocky appears. The ending scene where Cleveland and Quagmire face off in a boxing ring is a parody of the final scene of the 1982 sequel Rocky III between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Cree. Quagmire evens says to Cleveland, “You wanna ring the bell, Apollo?”
• Popeye: Cleveland swallows a can of spinach - a homage to Popeye the Sailor Man.
• In a flashback, Quagmire and Cleveland imitate the Festrunk brothers, the “two wild and crazy guys” (Dan Aykroyd and Steve Marti) from the 1970a Saturday Night Live episodes. Peter appears dressed as The Coneheads Beldar Conehea, another Aykroyd SNL character from that era.
• Palpatine, from Star Wars Episodes V and VI, urges Cleveland to “let the hatred flow through” him, which was exactly said by Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
• Although Kicked in the Nuts is described as a TV show, it is in fact an Internet website, co-created by Mike Henry, who voices Cleveland Brown. (It could, however, be considered a TV show in the context of the TV-format film festival Channel 101.) The site is mentioned in the DVD commentary as the inspiration for the scene.
• When Peter has a flashback where he is “reading while intoxicated,” he is reading the novel Johnny Tremain.
• When he leaves Mayor West’s protection, Quagmire is given a banana to protect himself with. This is in reference to Monty Python’s “Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit” skit from Monty Python’s And Now for Something Completely Different.

References Explained

• The picture of Andre the Giant on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is referring to an art campaign called "Obey Giant." From obeygiant.com:

  The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. ... The FIRST AIM OF PHENOMENOLOGY is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment. The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker. Because OBEY has no actual meaning, the various reactions and interpretations of those who view it reflect their personality and the nature of their sensibilities.

Read more here, see examples here and here.

• "You've Been Kicked in the Nuts" is a reference to an internet parody created by Mike Henry and Patrick Henry (the same people who wrote this episode). To see the video, click here. The video (Episode 1) also features fellow Family Guy writer Steve Callaghan.

• "Rock Lobster" is a semi-well known song by the B52s who are probably best known for their hit "Love shack"

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