Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:22, 14 December 2005

Stan of Arabia: Part 1 is the 12th episode of the animated series American Dad!. This episode originally aired on November 6, 2005. The title is a parody of the movie Lawrence of Arabia. Production code 1AJN012.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler Bullock's underlings plan a suprise party for him commemorating 25 years of service with the CIA. Stan in charge of planning the party, which means that Francine is actually in charge of planning the party. Although Stan tries ordering Francine to plan the party, she refuses, as she's performing in community theater the day of the party. She plays the tea-pot in Beauty and the Beast. "It's kindof an important role." (It seems that Stan has a short-term memory when it comes to his wife's outside interests.) At the party, Stan kills Jay Leno for insinuating that Francine wears the pants in their family. Stan's ad-libbed replacement jokes go over like a lead balloon—he jokes about Bullock's intelligence failure regarding his mom's cancer, and Bullock's yellow fever / chubby chasing during his wife's kidnapped absence in Falluja. Stan sings about how he wished Francine had been at the party to save himself from himself.

At home, Roger revels in the four-liter jug of wine Francine bought for him. Steve begs Hayley for a ride to the latest Michael Moore semi-documentary on the insurance industry. ("Prescription for Disaster.") Because only she can drive, effectively he depends on her to leave the house, and Hayley extracts self-humiliation in payment. At the theater, Hayley leaves, being disgusted by the movie not truly being a documentary. Steve tries to stay, but the ushers come and haul him away for being under 17 in an R-rated movie, just before Angelina Jolie's breasts lose their "coverage."

Bullock sends Stan to Saudi Arabia as punishment for the roast. When they arrive, Stan displays crude ignorance about the culture, while Hayley and Francine love how women are dressed like ninjas and therefore "aren't objectified." Stan shows he's right about at least one thing though—the danger of ubiquitous gunfire. At the house, they unpack Roger from their luggage, who reported having defecated during the long wait. Roger looks for the booze, but freaks out to find that Saudi Arabia is a dry country. Francine makes plans to visit the palace when Stan comes home from work. After Stan leaves, Steve and the two women to meet the neighbors. At first, after discussing how their husbands never put the toilet seat down, Francine thinks that "no matter where you go in the world, marriage is always the same," a notion disabused when the neighbor's husband comes home (in the middle of the day, after a very short workday) and all three wifes leap up to draw their husband a bath and make him a snack.

Stan reports to work, where his job is to supervise oil pipeline guards. At first, he's suspicious of them, but after driving a few golf balls into a nearby minefield with them, he opens up. They explain that the reason they wear robes is to be comfortable in the sand and heat, not because their god doesn't believe in pants. Then they ask why Stan is in Saudi Arabia, if he loves America so much. Stan's explanation, which of course blames everything on Francine, befuddles the arabs. "What do you mean? You asked her and she said no? You mean, you told her and she obeyed." "Uh, no." One of the arabs explains, in another musical number, how it's not just the rules of golf that are different in Saudi Arabia. The song is cut short, as the Police of Vice & Virtue arrive and shoot the arab dead, for his third offense of public singing and dancing. Stan is only briefly fazed by the shooting. He comes home and joyously tells Francine and Hayley that women aren't allowed to leave the house unaccompanied by men, and the only reason they could go to the neighbors earlier was that they were with Steve, who's considered a man.

Stan notes that there's no singing, dancing, cursing, no bars, no movie theaters, oh, and "women can't drive or ride bicycles." The "best rule" is that the man has final say on everything, so Stan doesn't have to go see the palace just because Francine wants to go. Francine tries to assert her freedom within the house, at least. She says no when Stan orders her to prepare a feast for his new friends. But Stan solves that problem by "getting us a second wife, you know, to help with cooking and cleaning. Her name's impossible to pronouce, so I just call her Thundercat." Francine is pissed, so Stan tells her, "Think of her as a fulltime housekeeper we don't have to pay or give our out-of-style clothing to."

Hayley is escorted to her date with the neighbor's boy. Although at first she thinks he's an exotic gentleman, she soon finds that he is obsessed with American culture in a dorky, shallow, and out-of-date way. "What ever happened with Ross and Rachel? That Jennifer Aniston, schwing!" She pretends to go to the bathroom to escape his Rob Schneider impression, then runs out of the restaurant, soon pursued by the religious police.

Steve takes Roger (again dressed as a Saudi woman) to the bazaar, so Roger can find booze and Steve can find the Michael Moore documentary on bootleg DVD. Roger yaps and yaps about not finding booze. He finds a dead cow though. Steve is more successful, but the DVD costs "45 foreign money," which he thinks is either really expensive or a great deal. "I should've ordered mom to give me some cash." Because Roger's whining about alcohol had become annoying, Steve sells Roger (as a "woman") to a nasty old man with missing teeth and an eyepatch for a wad of cash. He buys a Mercedes, gold neckchains, gold eyeglasses, hand grenades, and of course the Michael Moore movie. He drives across the desert in circles tossing hand grenades, "I am a MAAAN!!" Unfortunately, Steve is distracted by the in-dash DVD player as Angelina Jolie is about to lose her "coverage" and drives into an oil derrick, out in the middle of nowhere.

At home, Stan and his friends are pleased by the feast made by Thundercat out of the "adorable goat." They give him a gift of a man-dress, the color of which really brings out his eyes, in case his god ever decides to ban pants. Francine is pissed at Thundercat usurping her position as wife, and they fist-fight, but Thundercat has the better of her, smashing Francine's head with the dishwasher door. Out in the living room, Bullock calls to bring Stan home, admitting to having overreacted to Stan's jokes, which were accurate after all. "I like big Asian butts, and I cannot lie." Stan tells Bullock he actually likes it in Saudi Arabia, and renounces his American citizenship.

To be continued!

Trivia

• The musical cue is from Lawrence of Arabia.
• On the date of the episode airing, 45 Saudi Riyal is 11.9987 US dollars, so the DVD was neither really expensive, nor a great deal.
• Roger previously left the house dressed as a female Saudi exchange student in All About Steve."
• No mention of Roger's jewel-encrusted golden poo, seen in Homeland Insecurity, was made, suggesting that these magic turds are only produced in special situations.
• The sign on US embassy says that is hasn't been bombed since.. (and a more recent explosion removed the rest of it). In reality, the US embassy in Saudi Arabia has never been attacked.
• In Burger King, Hayley sits with a Saudi male in the dining section; this can not happen in Saudi Arabia since all females (and accompanying males) must sit in private cubicles in a special family section.

• American Dad!