Original air date: 4/11/2000 (produced in 1999)
Production code: 1ACX-09
Peter runs against Lois for school board president after Peter's favorite science teacher is forced to take medication to level out his mood.
"Running Mates" contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch:Peter: I'm gonna stop you the only way I can...by killing you!'(raises an axe menacingly, seeming about to kill Lois, then fades to outside with Peter in the same pose, who then uses the axe to hammer in a picket sign)Peter: ...in the race for school board president.
- Captain Morgan Pose: Peter repeatedly does this on a school desk in his political ad, including on a desk that's on a soccer field for some reason.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Peter's campaign signs are blue and Lois's are red. That's the only difference between them, because all read "Griffin for School Board President".
- Comically Missing the PointLois: Oh my God, he's wiping that species off the face of the Earth.Peter: No, Lois, the janitor will do that.
- Creating Life Is Awesome: Peter tries this by making sex education "more fun" with the class subjects of reproduction being explained to the other students through song via School House Rock.
- Delusions of Eloquence: During his campaign, Peter describes himself as a "huguenot", which even Tom Tucker lampshades as probably being incorrect. A Huguenot is a 16-17th century term for a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A robot shoots at a girl for not having a pass (she actually had one, but the robot fails to notice it) and later kills Mr. Fargus for the same reason.
- Double-Meaning Title: Peter and Lois are a husband and wife running against each other in a political race.
- Eats Babies: Peter's political slander of Lois includes saying she eats babies.
- Everybody Has Standards: At the end of Peter's attack ad (in which Peter shows the racy photo of Lois), Cleveland states the paid for disclaimer and then adds, "Sorry, Lois."
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Non-death variation. After Peter vows to run against Lois for School Board President for the sole purpose of giving Mr. Fargus his job back, he wins, but forgets about him entirely when Lois asks him if his underhanded winning tactics were for the sake of the unbalanced teacher.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Stewie fires his raygun at the Studio Audience.
- Generation Xerox: Peter's uncle Juárez Griffin's job as a cockfighter is a precursor to the future battles Peter has with the Giant Chicken.
- Gonk: Political pundit and presidential campaign strategist James Carville is not given a flattering caricature, with his face looking like a flesh-colored, squinty-eyed raisin. Peter repeatedly freaks out upon turning around and looking him in the face.Peter: I-I'm sorry, I-I can't look at you, I... I can handle ugly, but this is like "circus" ugly!
- I Did What I Had to Do: Lois didn't like humiliating Peter during the debate, but felt like it was the only choice she had.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: Peter knocks on Chris's door when he hears thumping noises and walks in on Chris trying to break his paddle ball record. Subverted after Peter gives Chris some girlie magazines and leaves the room. He hears the thumping again — and it's not from Chris's paddle ball, as Peter has it in his hands.
- Motive Decay: Peter ran against Lois since she agreed with the school board removing Mr. Fargus. After winning the election he has completely forgotten about him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Peter doesn't mind at first being incredibly callous to Lois in his actions to become school board president, but he starts to feel the pangs of regret once he ends up in a scandal and is advised to blame her on it. When he's about to make his public statement and sees Lois in the crowd, he decides to fully confesses his responsibility in the matter, apologize to Lois for humiliating her, and resigns.
- Mythology Gag: Stewie sings "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" a reference to Rex Harrison's performance in My Fair Lady, which was the inspiration for Stewie's voice.
- Playboy Parody: Peter gives Chris some pornographic magazines which he can 'peek' at instead of girls in real life. The magazines are called 'Playpen,' which is a reference to both Playboy and Penthouse magazines.
- Sore Loser: A cutaway gag reveals that Peter can't handle losing checkers very well. When Brian gets a 'king me', Peter throws the checkerboard into his car, drives the car off a cliff into the ocean, then shoots the gas tank with a gun to make it explode!
- The Stoic: Mr. Fargus, after getting on medication:Peter: Fargus, what happened to you? Somebody give you a fun-ectomy?
Fargus: No, they gave me these by order of the School Board. They said it evens me out. Sorry to fly off the handle. - Shout-Out: In the flashback scene to 8th grade where Peter first notices girls beginning to develop, several girls in the auditorium's breasts immediately pop up, and then after that Peter's breasts immediately pop up. A similar scene in the comedy film Mafia! occurs where the lead character wishes upon a star with a female friend, and her breasts immediately appear.
- Mr. Fargus is a take-off on Mr. Vargas from the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
- Stewie stomps, shouting "Damn, damn, damn, damn!" shaking the scene in a manner similar to Herman Munster.
- When trying to convince Meg that "winning without honor isn’t really winning at all," Lois tries to get the help of one half of the 1990s musical duo Milli Vanilli, who happens to be in the Griffins’ kitchen. This is a reference to the infamous scandal revealing that the duo did not actually sing on their album.
- Channel 5’s Monday Night Debate parodies ABC’s Monday Night Football.
- During the song, Stewie flips through a photo album of his attempts at killing Lois. The last photo is a parody of the shower scene in 1960 film Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- Peter's opening statement at the debate consists of excerpts from the theme songs of Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, and The Facts of Life. He concludes with "Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog!" which is from the production credit for UBU Productions, Inc., the production company of executive producer Gary David Goldberg, who created Family Ties and Spin City, among others.
- Peter claims that Lois "freed Willie Horton" and "nailed Donna Rice." These are references to two scandals in the 1988 presidential election. Willie Horton is a convicted murderer, sentenced in Massachusetts, who escaped prison during a furlough visit home and assaulted a man and raped his fiancé. He was the subject of attack ads aimed at Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, who was governor of Massachusetts at the time. Donna Rice was a model who had an affair with Colorado Senator Gary Hart, a revelation that ended his bid for the Democratic nomination.
- Peter calls Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa "Connie", mistaking her for television journalist Connie Chung.
- Peter creates a new version of Schoolhouse Rock's "Conjunction Junction" for the sex ed class.
- The "XL-K" hall pass enforcement robot is a take-off on the "ED-209" police robot from the film RoboCop.
- In order to help Peter during the scandal, Quagmire hires Democratic political consultant James Carville, made famous during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Peter can’t bear to look at his face, exclaiming "did somebody open the Ark of the Covenant?" a reference to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- The scene in which Peter leaves the high school is a take-off of President Richard Nixon’s departure from the White House after his 1974 resignation.
- "Vagina Junction" is performed by Jack Sheldon, the real voice of the Schoolhouse Rock shorts.
- During the debate, Peter claims that he once "joined some underprivileged youths in saving a community center from being converted into a shopping mall." Lois reminds him that he is referring not to himself but Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones in the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
- Brian reads Faust by German dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a bedtime story for Stewie.
- Slut-Shaming: Peter uses this against his wife Lois to win for schoolboard president. Add insult to injury, he used the picture she made for him for their anniversary.
- Take That!: Peter is repeatedly horrified by James Carville's face."Oh, geez, did somebody open the Ark of the Covenant?"
- That Came Out Wrong: A written example, as Peter's campaign slogan is "Together we can beat my wife!"
- Tranquil Fury: Lois is left trembling in silent rage after Peter's smear campaign.
- V-Sign: In a parody of Richard Nixon's resignation after the Watergate Scandal, Peter gives one of these after boarding a helicopter after resigning as school board president.
- Waxing Lyrical: Peter recites sitcom lyrics in his speech:
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Lampshaded.Lois: You humiliated your own wife! And for what? To get that crazy Mr. Fargus back in the classroom?Peter: Who?
- The question is answered during the end credits. A re-employed Mr. Fargus is walking the school corridor until ED-209 asks for his pass and eventually kills him.
