Peter's obsession with 80's nostalgia goes out of control. Meanwhile, Stewie and Doug compete to climb a jungle gym.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: Stewie's attitude to Doug in the episode.
- Charlie Chaplin Shout-Out: When trying out the 1910s, Peter dresses up as Charlie Chaplin and briefly imitates silent movies.
- Comically Missing the Point: Lois tells Peter to stop living in the 1980s, so Peter thinks she meant to live in a different decade. A couple of times, Peter mentions this as what she meant, and Lois starts telling him that's not what she meant before Peter interrupts her.
- Deconstruction: Multiple 80's movies are deconstructed in this episode.
- In order to get a girl's attention , Peter gives Chris a bunch of old 80’s movies and tells him to do what the characters did in those movies. Sometime later Joe brings Chris home and tells them he was imitating the boombox serenade scene from Say Anything... by standing outside a female classmates window with a boombox playing "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel and as a result is being charged with felony stalking.
- In one of his efforts to prove the 80’s are still relevant and timeless, Peter plays up the Wille Coyote/Road Runner dynamic with the gopher from Caddyshack. This backfires for two reasons:
- The Gopher, in clear violation of natural instinct, does his dance routine to Kenny Loggins “I’m Alright” leaving him exposed.
- Peter’s opening salvo to the routine is to kill the gopher with a rocket launcher. From a mere two feet away. Not only does the gopher end up as gore splattered everywhere and not only does the family admonish him for killing the poor animal, he’s the only one shocked the gopher didn’t get away in time.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Emulating activities from '80s movies gets Chris arrested for stalking, while the family chews Peter out for clinging to old movies with outdated values and messages.
- Don't Explain the Joke: The ghost of John Hughes gives Peter advice about how he should stop recreating a decade that's long past and try instead to forge his own path.John Hughes: After all, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Peter: [excitedly] Yeah! Like your movie! - Driven to Suicide: Peter attempts this when he finally runs out of steam of referencing the 80s.
- Hidden Depths: Peter reveals to know how to legally drill a hole in the wall.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While she spends the episode treating Peter like a dog and snapping at him, Lois is right about Peter's references being annoying.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Doug reveals himself to be one as he acts decent to Stewie when helping him when he gets stuck on the jungle gym, only to reveal that he was faking in order for Stewie to give up the frisbee and take credit for it. Later though, when Stewie saves him from falling off the jungle gym, he shares credit with him.
- Oh, Crap!: Doug's reaction when he sees that Stewie has caught up with him to retake the frisbee.
- Running Gag: Peter chooses the Roaring '20s and then the 1910s as his new favorite decades because of the legal cocaine. He then chooses the '70s because cocaine might as well have been legal due to being ubiquitous. Later in the episode, Peter contemplates suicide, noting that coming down from cocaine makes him depressed.
- Self-Deprecation: Kenny Loggins appears in a cutaway to say he still supports Peter making '80s references because he gets enough money to buy a hot tub every time the show uses one of his songs. A shot of his deck shows several hot tubs, with a new one being installed.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: When Stewie and Doug get the frisbee down, the kids down there don't really care since one claims they're different kids from before.
- Shout-Out: Countless media from past decades.
- When Stewie and Doug start their climbing, the crowd includes the Little Red Haired Girl from Peanuts.
- Take That!: When Peter tries to watch a Christopher Nolan movie, specifically Tenet, he remarks about now being lost on the movie, poking fun at how overly long and complex Nolan movies are.
