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American Dad! S2E5 "Stan of Arabia"

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American Dad! S2E5 "Stan of Arabia" Recap

In the series' first two parter, the Smiths relocate to Saudi Arabia after Stan bombs Deputy Director Bullock's Roast. However, Stan finds himself enjoying the culture after finding out how the men are treated.


Episode Tropes:

  • Acting Out a Daydream: In his musical number "I Want A Wife" Stan imagines Francine as a subservient 50's housewife, welcoming him home and pampering him. When he cuts back to reality he realizes he's in a random person's house and asks the terrified homeowner "Oh, did I just sing my way in here?".
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Hayley meets a boy who claims to be a hesitant terrorist and tries to convince him not to go through with his mission. In reality, Kazim works at a shawarma cart and claims to be a terrorist so that American girls will sleep with him.
  • Always Need What You Gave Up: Stan renounces his US citizenship by tearing up his and the rest of his family's passports and quits the CIA after finding he prefers life in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately for him, the rest of his family runs afoul of the law and ends up on death row, with himself joining them once he pleads. Without the passports he destroyed, he has no way out of this predicament. It takes Roger getting the man Steve sold him to to request the execution be called off.
  • Amputative Sentencing: In "Part-2," after Francine gets arrested for dancing and singing in her underwear in public about how horrible Saudi Arabia is, she implores Stan to go to the American embassy to help her out. Stan, who at this point embraced the Saudi lifestyle (for its social conservatism, particularly the misogyny) responds that it's best to just let her case go through the Saudi legal system, and an eavesdropping prisoner tells Stan that thanks to the Saudi legal system he's been locked up in that dungeon for over twenty years simply for stealing a chocolate bar. When Stan doubts the prisoner's story, he raises his hook hand and says: "I swear to Allah." Stan decides that Francine is right and heads to the American embassy.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The Smiths are about to be executed when President Bush suddenly arrives to "bring democracy to Saudi Arabia." But it's actually a dream Stan is having. They soon after get a real one from Roger, who uses his new royal connections to have them absolved.
  • Black Bra and Panties: Francine wears some along with black boots during her song about Saudi Arabia after she strips off her dress.
  • Cat Fight: Francine and Thundercat get into one at the end of part one, with Klaus getting aroused by it. We don't see who won though.
  • Cliffhanger: Part one ends with Stan burning the family's' passports after renouncing his American citizenship, while everyone else is experiencing turmoil one way or another (Steve crashes in the middle of the desert, Francine is getting beaten by Thundercat, and Hayley is being chased by the morality police).
  • Defiant Strip: During Francine's song about Saudi Arabia, she removes her dress, leaving her dancing in her Black Bra and Panties and boots.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: When comedian Jay Leno playfully roasts Stan about Francine "wearing the pants in the family" because she didn't show up to roast Avery Bullock, he immediately snaps his neck right before he could finish his sentence. This ends up backfiring for Stan when there's no one else to lead the roast of his boss and he ends up filling in the role which goes horribly.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Steve got so swept up in God taking the form of Angelina Jolie that he forgets what they told him; namely, they took the form most pleasing to Steve, not their true one. Thus Steven offends and confuses Arabians by saying God's a woman.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: Stan's "roast" of his boss ends up offending everyone which involves joking about his mother having cancer, his wife taken hostage in Fallujah, and how he's a Chubby Chaser for Asian women in an offending Asian tone.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Stan has a fantasy about President Bush coming to rescue him and his family, the Smiths are no longer wearing their Arabian outfits when they're pulled out of the ground just to show that this is a fantasy that Stan is having, when the Smiths are freed for real by Roger, they are back to wearing their Arabian outfits.
  • Going Native: Once Stan learns about the male centric rules in Saudi Arabia, he begins to grow accustomed to their culture, trading his suit for a robe and getting a second wife he calls Thundercat, much to Francine's dismay.
  • Imagine Spot: Stan sings about how he wishes Francine was a subservient 1950s housewife who catered to his every whim, imagining himself in that decade with his ideal family. The song ends showing that he had sung his way into someone's house and ruined their dinner, leaving them terrified that he might kill them.
  • Kissing the Ground: Stan does this the moment he gets off the plane in America.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: Kazim starts to tell Hayley that he's part of "Al-Qaeda," but pauses halfway through, causing her to ask if he meant "Alcoholics Anonymous."
  • The Maiden Name Debate: After finding that Steve is also going to get stoned for being a false prophet, Stan says that Hayley might hyphenate so that the Smith name will live on with her. Except she was also sentenced to death for attacking Kazi.
  • Never My Fault: Stan blames Francine for not being at Avery's roast to help things go well, even though he was the one that caused the mess.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
    • Stan breaking Jay Leno's neck and then filling into his role which goes wrong is how he got reassigned to Saudi Arabia.
    • Remember when Stan burned the passports at the end of part one? Well it turns out he shouldn't have because without them, the U.S. Embassy cannot legally get Francine out of prison and that's after Avery was ready to forgive Stan for his roast.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: You may think that the law against public singing is a parody of the draconian laws they have in Saudi Arabia, but it's actually a real law. The only caricatured aspect is that the guy who bursts into song gets shot on sight (in real life you'd just be arrested).
  • “The Reason You Suck” Speech: Or song in this case. Francine sings about how Saudi Arabia is the worst place in the world.
  • Sanity Slippage: Stranded in the desert, Steve temporarily believes he's a strong independent black woman. He realizes his mistake a second later, and consequently realizes he's not going to last long.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Stan claims that Francine never told him that she was in Beauty and the Beast, even though she mentioned it several times and he even helped run her lines with her.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Francine asks Stan if Bullock has offered him his job back yet.
    Stan: No, he didn't call me an hour ago. Or maybe it wasn't more like an hour and a half ago.
  • Teeny Weenie: Roger goes to great lengths to stall the moment when he'll have to consummate things with the Sheikh, but then when he finally sees the guy's package his hesitancy evaporates on the spot: "Oh, that's what all the fuss is about? Oh yeah, OK. No problem".

 
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Francine roasts Saudi Arabia

When Stan says Saudi Arabia is the greatest country, Francine bursts into song and dance about how Saudi Arabia is the worst place in the world.

How well does it match the trope?

4.88 (17 votes)

Example of:

Main / TheReasonYouSuckSpeech

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