The entire family forgets to celebrate Father's Day and give Stan a redo. But when it doesn't measure up, Stan begins erasing their memories to have them redo Father's Day again and again and again.
Tropes:
- Amnesia Loop: Stan erases the memories of the family every night to force them to redo Father's Day. He is even shown topping up the shampoo bottles and mentioning that he needs to reset the clocks. By the time he's finally confronted, it's already Christmas.
- The Atoner: Ultimately, Steve prevents Stan from erasing his awful tirade against the family because it makes him feel guilty, and him trying to make amends is about the only time he's actually a good patriarch to the family.
- Bait-and-Switch: After driving off the road, Stan asks a mechanic if he can fix it. He then replies that despite the tow truck and wearing coveralls, he's not actually a mechanic but a strange man.
- Big Good: Pope Francis becomes one in the Golden Turd arc.
- Deadly Nosebleed: At some point in October* , Snot stumbles across Stan's plan and is subjected to multiple memory erasures, causing him to convulse with a severe nosebleed.
- Disproportionate Restitution: After Stan's angry tirade at the family, he tries to make it up to them with a SpongeBob cake that just says "Bad Dad Sad" in frosting. Naturally, they don't accept it.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: At the CIA yard sale, someone can be seen carrying a taxidermied Reginald the Koala.
- Failed a Spot Check: None of the family seem to notice that the seasons have changed before Klaus tells Steve what's going on.
- Failure Montage: There is one of Stan rejecting Steve's birdhouses, Francine's exotic dinners, and Hayley's musical performances, accompanied by "Trouble with Dreams" by Eels.
- It's All About Me: Stan steals months of his family's life tricking them into repeating Father's Day until they finally give him a perfect one, all because they botched a day that's supposed to honor him.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Stan uses a neuralyzer-type device to erase his family's memory of the day and make them think it's still Father's Day.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Stan does not erase Klaus's memory because, in his words, "he's not on his radar." Klaus later alerts Steve to what Stan is doing, and breaks his memory eraser to prevent him from resetting the day. He even claims that it "wasn't on his radar."
- Roger is the one who gives Stan the idea to keep forcing the family to redo Father's Day. He is later shot while Stan is being reckless with his gun.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Stan's bathrobe opens up while he sees Francine preparing his dinner.
- Myth Arc: The Golden Turd returns. The Presidential candidate is exposed for a backdoor deal. When his running mate sees the Golden Turd, he is killed for it before his running mate is also killed by the Secret Service. A cleaning woman later discovers the turd, and instead gives it to Pope Francis. Afterwards, the Pope presents it to a council of religious leaders (which includes Beyonce), who vow to destroy it by returning it to Roger.
- Noodle Incident: Klaus tells Steve that one of the things he missed was a story about a boy trapped in a volcano, which gripped the country for months, but ultimately turned out to be a goat in a Starter jacket.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Whilst we do see through Stan's mimics what he's chewing his family out for, the actual words are drowned out by a song. Considering how abrasive Stan usually is to his family normally, what he said must have been truly harrowing.
- The Perfectionist: As the months go on, Stan begins erasing the family's memories after the most minor of errors, such as one drop of water getting in Steve's birdhouse, Francine cutting her hand during a Brazilian steak dinner, and Hayley stumbling slightly during her performance.
- Race Against the Clock: There is a limit to how far back the neuralyzer can erase memories, so there is a time limit on the Smiths finding another one before their memories of Stan's horrible tirade against them can't be erased anymore.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scatman John's song "I'm the Scatman" is playing over it, but Stan absolutely explodes at the family for failing to deliver a decent Father's Day. Through pantomime, we see that he calls out Francine for her alcoholism and sluttiness, Hayley for her drug problem and promiscuity, and Steve for his cowardice and frequent masturbation.
- Reckless Gun Usage: While holding a gun at the family, Stan does air quotes with his finger on the trigger, shooting into the ceiling and hitting Roger.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Stan tells Roger and Klaus how he got the memory eraser, but when he finishes his story, he finds that Roger got bored and left halfway through.
- Shout-Out:
- Klaus references the movie Groundhog Day when Stan reveals that he's erasing the family's memories.
- At one point, Hayley's musical performance is the Bard from Mad Max: Fury Road.
- The memory neutralizer Stan obtains at the CIA sale heavily resembles the ones used in the Men in Black series in both design and function.
- Stealth Insult: On the family's first attempt to redo Father's Day, Stan gives Hayley a backhanded compliment by saying that her song was like early Bob Dylan, "before he learned how to play guitar."
- Toxic Friend Influence: Stan was originally content with a father's day that, whilst not perfect, was still enjoyable. Then Roger gets the idea that it has to be perfect into his head.
