Original air date: 4/18/1999
Production code: 1ACX-04
Thanks to Peter being Peter, plans to have Stewie's first birthday party at Cheesy Charlie's are canceled, which upsets Lois—but not as much as having Meg ditch the party to be with her new friends, who are all part of a suicide cult.
"Chitty Chitty Death Bang" contains example of:
- Back to the Womb: Referenced; Stewie, perceiving his time in the womb as solitary confinement following a bizarre air-force mission, is convinced that he's going to be returned to the womb by the Man In White (in other words, the obstetrician who delivered him) and spends the entire episode paranoid about it. This comes to a head when Stewie mistakes the white-robed leader of Meg's death cult for the Man In White; after catching said leader alone in the house, Stewie promptly murders him with a ray gun - accidentally saving Meg's life in the process.
- Bait-and-Switch: While trying to get the parade to his house, Peter picks up a "Detour" sign, making it look like he's going to pull a Road-Sign Reversal. Instead, he uses it to knock the parade leader out and take his place.
- Blatant Lies: Taken to an extreme after Peter loses the reservation at Cheesy Charlie's. His excuse: the owners are murderous, cannibalistic Nazis who captured Peter and Chris. Fortunately. Peter was able to escape by turning into the Incredible Hulk. Unsurprisingly, Lois doesn't fall for it. Brian even knew he was going here before Peter talked with getting a chair out of the kitchen.Brian: Oh, wait a second. *goes to grab a kitchen chair* These are always classic.
- Bowdlerization:
- On Channel 4 in the UK, the flashback where Peter guns down Hanson, thinking they are the Children of the Corn, was shortened so that he fires the gun three times instead of six.
- The original airing of this episode had a part where Stewie (after being asked to make a wish before blowing out his birthday cake candles) imagines sounds of war and devastation before deciding to wish for a 1970s roller disco party. The reruns (including the DVD version) have a different soundtrack where it doesn't include audio of one of Hitler's speeches. Ironically, this doesn’t apply to the German voice track.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Peter's fantasy of an evil Cheesy Charlie's, the owner dressed as a devil tells him their choice of ice cream flavors consists of "vanilla, strawberry, chocolate or people". Peter asks what the last one was and the owner just tells him "chocolate".
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Meg comes home from cheerleading tryouts crying. Peter excitedly asks if she made the team.
- Chris excitedly describes a game at Cheesy Charlie's where you put in a dollar and get four quarters, saying that he always wins.
- Dance Party Ending: The episode ends with everyone disco dancing after Stewie blows out his candles.
- Does Not Like Spam: Stewie apparently doesn't like sprinkles—when Chris offered to make him a bowl of ice cream, Stewie tells Chris to not put any sprinkles on his ice cream, and threatened to kill Chris for every sprinkle he put on it.note
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The flashback to Meg's first birthday, where Peter gleefully informs Lois of all of his daughter's firsts (first words, first steps, first drum solo) which she's missing because of all the kitchen work, as well as the fact that they like her enough to throw her a party, is a far cry from the punching bag Meg would eventually become.
- On a similar note, Lois being genuinely hurt that Meg would skip Stewie's party (and conversely, overjoyed when she shows up at the end). If this happened in season 4 or later, she'd probably say something like, "Meg is gone? I hadn't noticed." And worse, Meg would've ended up dying just like the rest of her new "friends".
- Finger-Snapping Street Gang: Meg says that she has trouble fitting in with anyone in high school, and Peter says he can relate to that. Cut to Peter as a part of the Jets from West Side Story (1961); he snaps his fingers out-of-rhythm with everyone else, messes up the dance steps, and falls over a garbage can.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Meg's "friends" decide to change for the better after Peter's heartfelt speech...right before drinking from the tainted punch bowl and dropping dead.
- Implausible Deniability: In one cutaway, Peter farts in an elevator. He then says "It was you" to the only person in the elevator with him.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: Peter unwittingly gives Meg permission to go to a party at her friend Jennifer's house, not realizing that the "party" in question is actually a cult meeting where the members are about to commit suicide. Peter goes to retrieve Meg from the cult when he tells her that having the whole family at Stewie's birthday party is more for Lois than Stewie; her best memories are of when all three children were born. Realizing this, Meg agrees to come home, along with her new "cult friends". Peter makes a toast, but checks his watch before he drinks the poisoned punch and pulls Meg out as well, obliviously saving both of their lives. Her friends, however, weren't so lucky.
- Literal Metaphor:
- Peter got a "big ass pinata" for Stewie's party. As in, a pinata literally shaped like a giant butt.Brian: I sure hope candy comes out of that.
- Peter hopes to make things right for Lois and "get this monkey off his back." He turns around to reveal he's also being attacked by a circus monkey.
- Peter got a "big ass pinata" for Stewie's party. As in, a pinata literally shaped like a giant butt.
- Never Trust a Title: Keeping up the theme with the macabre episode titles that have nothing to do with the main plot. The title was actually suggested as a joke as a play on the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, since the titles were so difficult to come up with. This is why they were dropped in favor of more relevant titles, beginning with "A Hero Sits Next Door".
- Oh, Crap!:
- Peter has this reaction when he accidentally cancels Stewie's birthday reservation at Cheesy Charlie's and other people start scrambling for it.Peter: Chris? This is a big day for you. Today, you become the man of the house. Because when we get home, your mother is going to kill me.
- During Stewie's birth, the doctor invited Peter to watch. Peter immediately runs out of the room to vomit.
- Peter has this reaction when he accidentally cancels Stewie's birthday reservation at Cheesy Charlie's and other people start scrambling for it.
- Pass the Popcorn: Before Peter can explain why he cancelled Stewie's reservation at Cheesy Charlie's, Brian pulls up a chair. At the end, he applauds him, calling him "the Spaulding Grey of crap".
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:The Man in White: What the hell is this?
Stewie: It's a boy! - Sanity Slippage: Stewie recalls his extended time in the womb began to take a toll on his sanity.
- Suck E. Cheese's: Cheesie Charlie's—exaggerated in Peter's fantasy, where he compares it to a dungeon led by the Devil but averted in reality, as it looks fairly normal for an arcade/pizza restaurant where families take their kids for their birthdays (though Chris does mistake a condom machine in the men's room for one of the games).
- Take That!: Some of the poisons Jennifer puts in the punch include cyanide, arsenic, rat poison and a copy of Paul Reiser's book, Couplehood.
- Would Hurt a Child: One of Peter's Blatant Lies about Cheesy Charlie's.Timmy: I have 13 tickets, now. Is that enough?
Clerk: Oh, sorry, Timmy, but you need 15 tickets to live. [activates the trap door]
