Christopher Burke

3rd Apr 2017

Family Guy (1999)

Model Misbehavior - S4-E10

Question: When Lois brings in the newspaper and says "look at this" Peter grabs it from her and says "movable printed type. We must hide this from the serfs lest they gain literacy and threaten the landed gentry." "What have you got there my lord?" "Nothing, go back to your turnips." What's the meaning behind this joke?

Christopher Burke

Chosen answer: Peter is acting as if he were a feudal lord in the middle ages, and that newsprint and the printed word were recent innovations, threatening to educate the peasantry and jeopardizing their hereditary rights as the ruling class. Just another one of the show's bizarre asides.

Brian Katcher