After Peter accidentally finds a missing child and is declared a hero, Joe plans a trip to Niagra Falls with Peter, Quagmire, and Cleveland that turns out to be a suicide attempt.
This episode contains examples of:
- Antagonist in Mourning: Even Carter of all people still came to Peter’s funeral in the cutaway.
- Artistic License – Law: Joe gets his job as a police officer back at the end of the episode. When Quagmire asks how he did it, Joe remarks “Turns out not a lot of people want to probably get shot for $24,000 a year.” The average salary for a police officer in the United States when this episode aired was around $50,000. Not to mention that Joe is a lieutenant so he likely makes a fair deal more than many police officers.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the end, Joe saves his friends from going over a waterfall and realizes that he's more important than he previously thought.
- Bungled Suicide: Happens to Joe twice, in less than a minute, having thrown himself over a fence at Niagara Falls, only for a tree branch to catch him.Joe: I stink at this.
- Cow Tipping: Joe impulsively tries this out during the road trip, but because his wheelchair didn't give him a solid enough grip on the ground compared to the cow's hooves, he ended up pushing himself back instead of tipping over the cow. Joe found this exhilarating anyway.
- Despair Event Horizon: After Peter is declared a hero after finding a missing kid, Joe realizes how much of a joke his life is. He's a cop who can't save anyone and is stuck in a likeless marriage with Bonnie. Contemplating suicide at Niagara Falls, Joe anticipates relief from his perceived worthlessness. However, his resolve shifts when he saves his friends from going over the Falls, prompting him to realize he's not as useless as he thinks.
- Driven to Suicide: Joe, almost. After Peter is declared a hero and given the key to the city after he accidentally discovers the lost Nicholson kid, Joe realizes all the things wrong with his life and decides to kill himself by jumping off Niagara Falls.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": A cutaway where Peter imagines his own funeral, which features two fat hula dancers flanking his casket, three monkeys singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, every person in attendance eating a soft pretzel and a short clown riding on a dog giving Meg a Pie in the Face.
- Noodle Incident: Peter tells Joe not to kill himself because Joe would be the tenth friend to kill himself in front of Peter. When Quagmire questions this absurdly high number, Peter counts all the suicides he’s witnessed and confirms Joe would be number ten.
- Shout-Out: In a Cutaway Gag, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is sung during Peter's funeral.
