Pilling Them Softly

Pilling Them Softly
Season 12, Episode 10
Air date	September 22, 2013
Episode Guide
Previous Kimi Stupid Love	Next Underage Peter

Pilling Them Softly is the 10th episode of the twelfth season of Family Guy. It is the 282nd episode, overall.

Synopsis

Stewie is diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Adderall, which Brian takes to write a 2000-page proposal to pitch to author George R.R. Martin at a book convention. Meanwhile, Quagmire and Peter compete, Iron Chef-style, to determine which of them gets to keep his new cooking show.

Plot

When Lois arrives to pick up Stewie from preschool, his teacher informs her that Stewie has problems paying attention in class and recommends medication to treat the problem. Taking Stewie to Dr. Hartman, he provides a prescription for ADHD. Brian objects to Stewie taking pills and finds him doped out in his room. As Stewie lethargically roams around the house, Brian continues to rant against drugs of all sorts, but when Meg points out that it makes some of the kids be productive at her school, he pretends to throw away Stewie's pills and takes them for himself.

Stewie finds Brian frantically working on a model in the basement for a story pitch but is unable to comprehend what is going on. Brian drags Stewie off to a book fair to see George R. R. Martin to show his model and book. When they arrive, a strung out Brian gives his presentation which Martin dismisses as poor crap due to the medication. The judgment brings Brian back to earth and he and Stewie agree that they don't need the pills after all as the real George R. R. Martin chases off the impostor that had taken his place.

Meanwhile, the Beer Bar Buddies are bored with each other's stories while Jerome considers improving his menu. Trying his food, Quagmire is disgusted and sets out to prove that he knows his stuff when it comes to food by inviting everyone to his house for dinner. He surprises everyone by actually being a good cook and they encourage him to take over a cooking show. Peter joins him at the audition for support, and his humor gets them the job as a team. Peter's stunts soon wear on Quagmire's nerves and he fires Peter. However, the show producer offers Peter his own cooking show. Quagmire soon finds his show disrupted by the antics at Peter's show and demands that one of them has to quit, noting that all of Peter's "cooking" consists of putting butter on frozen food. Instead, the producer suggests they have a cook off to decide who stays.

As part of the rules of the contest, the guys are allowed to have assistants with Quagmire choosing Joe and Peter picking Cleveland. They find their secret ingredient is butter as Quagmire starts to panic. An accident with Joe reduces Quagmire to tears which makes Peter realize that he has come close to ruining Quagmire's dream and eats his entire entry, allowing Quagmire to win. However, Quagmire admits that he preferred being friends with Peter and they both agree to get fired by imitating Paula Deen together. Back at the Clam, an angry Cleveland notes that they could have just quit.

Characters

Major Roles

• Brian Griffin
• Stewie Griffin
• George R. R. Martin
• Glenn Quagmire
• Peter Griffin

Minor Roles

• Lois Griffin
• Meg Griffin
• Rupert
• Kimi Quagmire
• Cleveland Brown
• Donna Tubbs-Brown
• Joe Swanson
• Bonnie Swanson
• Elmer Hartman
• Jerome Cool J
• Angela Everwood
• Tom Tucker
• Miss Tammy
• Miss Emily
• Carson
• Kobe Bryant
• Mr. Spacely
• Javier Bardem
• Chris Griffin (Non-Speaking)
• Kevin Swanson (Mentioned)

Trivia

• Chris appears briefly but has no lines.
• The music heard during Peter's show is "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic.
• The music heard during the cooking montage is "Thunder in Your Heart" by Stan Bush.
• Peter takes the cinnamon challenge, which involves eating a spoonful of cinnamon without drinking anything.[1]
• Peter says the only person who can fire him from the cooking show is Mr. Spacely from The Jetsons, who shows up seconds later and fires him.
• Peter's attempt to Google “Jodi Arias bikini” resulted in a significant spike on the search engine.[2]
• Seth MacFarlane won a 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance" for this episode.

Cultural References

• The title is a reference to the Brad Pitt film Killing Them Softly.
• Peter and Quagmire's exit from the show by imitating Paula Deen refers to her scandal of using racial epithets and alleged discrimination, which caused her to be fired from her television show.[3]

Continuity

• Kimi is still Quagmire's wife from the previous episode, "Kimi Stupid Love"