‘Family Guy’ Pop Culture References: ‘We Love You Conrad’

‘Family Guy’ has solidified its place as a show for those who appreciate pop culture with pop culture references from movies, music, and other television shows. This is a look at some of the many pop culture references from the latest episode, ‘We Love You Conrad’, starring the voice talent of ‘The Hills’ star Lauren Conrad saying more than she ever does in any episode of ‘The Hills’ (and Audrina Partridge reading about the same amount of lines, without all of the eye-rolling and blank stares).

The tile of the episode, ‘We Love You Conrad’, was the name of a song from the musical, ‘Bye Bye Birdie. I was surprised that the show didn’t have a “Conrad” Twitty break (in lieu of the occasional Conway Twitty breaks we get to see), but the musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ does have a Conway Twitty reference; the storyline was inspired by Elvis Presley being drafted into the army, and the rock star’s name in the film was inspired by that of Conway Twitty, Conrad Birdie. Hence the song ‘We Love You Conrad’, and the title of the musical, ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. So it did incorporate a Conway Twitty reference in a roundabout way (but why ‘Family Guy’ hasn’t somehow connected Conway Twitty and Twitter yet, I’m not sure).

I really prefer listening to Lauren Conrad to seeing her act (yes, that’s what they do on ‘The Hills’, as surprising at that may seem), and she spoke more in this episode of ‘Family Guy’ than she did on the whole last season of ‘The Hills’. I’m still surprised she did the show; it seems like something more up Heidi and Spencer’s alley (the more publicity those two get, the better; I think they would have agreed to do the voices for sadistic serial killers that target toddlers on the show). But I guess those two were too busy pretending to kiss each other through face masks on their honeymoon in Mexico, using the possibility of swine flu exposure to their advantage (not to mention the fact that I don’t think Heidi could have pronounced some of the words Lauren was reading). Audrina Partridge also had a very small role on the show (I’m sure that this second billing made her love her best bud Lauren even more) which involved taking a crack at man bangs, those ridiculous curtains that some men hide behind and are constantly pushing back from their eyes in an attempt to look cool.

Lauren Conrad was definitely given the full ‘Family Guy’ treatment; she had relations with a dog, got worms, and was compared to William Conrad of ‘Jake and the Fatman’ by Peter. (William Conrad played Fatman). Spencer Pratt wasn’t spared, either; he was compared to Dr. Zaius of ‘Planet of the Apes’. I guess the two of them do share the same flesh-colored beard.

Lauren Conrad did get to portray a genius, however, playing classical violin and recreating a scene from ‘Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (where she says the line, “Can I cook, or can’t I?” and shows Brian the whole little world she has created.) I knew they couldn’t do a ‘Family Guy’ episode without a Star Trek reference!

With Brian’s ex-girlfriend Jillian getting married, I was surprised there weren’t more wedding movie references, but Peter did offer the be ‘The Wedding Singer’, which was a movie Drew Barrymore (who does Jillian’s voice on the show) was in. Jillian’s airheadedness will be missed, with her getting a box of Junior Mints confused with an iPod and getting the term “soul mate” confused with a dance show that I know you miss, ‘Soul Train’, and a movie about the joys of clogging your arteries, ‘Soul Food.

There were also newspaper comic strips references (does anyone even read these anymore?) with a shoutout to ‘Blondie and Dogwood’ (actually ‘Dagwood’, but Brian changed it up to make a crude joke) and ‘Wizard of Id’. Lauren Conrad talked about making a fake sex tape with Bill Cosby for publicity (insert crude joke about pudding pops here); she told Peter they spliced in old footage from television show ‘The A Team’ on ‘The Hills’ to fill time; and ‘Family Guy’ broke the bank for live footage of three late night talk show hosts, Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon, cracking jokes about Lauren Conrad’s relationship with Brian (which mostly had to do with bones).

Lindsay Lohan took a ride with blind Mr. Magoo; Bruce Jenner was compared to a Dutch woman; Peter decided he hated Kix cereal after learning it was healthy; Stewie revealed that he likes to dress in drag and go to Starbucks; Brian wore Austin Powers glasses (reminding us all that Mike Meyers still hasn’t gone back to doing what he’s best at); and Peter pointed out that Sting only sings the last three words of every line in his songs. This is so, so true.

So how many pop culture references does it take to make an episode of ‘Family Guy’? Count the number of times characters on ‘The Hills’ give each other “meaningful” stares, and you have your answer.