Production code: 1ACX-05
Peter searches for a way to be a hero after his family and friends begin fawning over new neighbor, Joe Swanson, a police officer confined to a wheelchair.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Aesop: "Being a hero isn't always about saving lives and catching bad guys. It's also about just being there for the people you love."
- Characterization Marches On:
- Joe's initial characterization is he barely acknowledges his handicap nor does he let it slow him down or hinder him at all. Later he would be very resentful of his condition and lament how much it holds him back. Also, he doesn't shout as often as he would later.
- Bonnie's initial character was her being very enamored with Joe. Him doing just about anything seemed to turn her on. Later she would be equally resentful for his handicap and be frustrated with having to care for him.
- Meg has a crush on the Swanson's son, Kevin, and tries to get his attention (and fails). Which is strange when the crush went away after the first two seasons.
- Contrived Coincidence: Prior to the softball game, every time Peter encounters Joe he's in a situation where he'd naturally be sitting, unintentionally hiding the fact that he's handicapped.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Peter's plan to improvise in order to stop the bank robbers. That is, somehow draw them into an improv routine and use that to find a way to stop them. Amazingly, it works.
- Disney Owns This Trope: Played for Laughs; Peter tells Joe that playing on his company's softball team is so fun, "it should be illegal, like copyright infringement", before his head morphs into Mickey Mouse's, referencing Disney's lobbying for the Copyright Term Extension Act.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Bonnie is first introduced with brown hair, before she is given black hair in later appearances.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The second half of the episode is about Peter being jealous of all the attention and admiration Joe is getting.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Stewie's first impression of Joe.
- Malaproper:Peter: Holy crip, he's a crapple!
- Rap Is Crap: Peter listens to the police scanner hoping to pick up a crime in progress so he can stop it and become a hero. Brian overhears a gang shooting being described over the scanner and says, "Is it me, or is rap music just getting lazier?"
- Rhymes on a Dime: The Grinch, naturally.
- Spoonerism: When Peter finds out that Joe is paraplegic, he exclaims "Holy crip! He's a crapple!"
- Wham Shot: When Joe is first introduced, he is only seen from the waist up, like driving a car or unpacking his moving boxes. It is not until he arrives at Peter's softball game that he is seen in a wheelchair.
