Baby, You Knock Me Out

Did You Know?

• The plot parodies the film Rocky III, with Deirdre Jackson being a female replica of Clubber Lang.
• Cleveland's audio birthday card includes singing Hanson's "MMMBop".
• During Lois' final fight, Peter sings Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" and is interrupted by Quagmire.

Plot

Peter eagerly awaits his birthday gifts. After receiving a card from Cleveland, he gets tickets to a female boxing club from Quagmire, where Lois is volunteered to fight. She easily beats her opponent, and the club owner suggests she turn professional. Lois is reluctant, but Peter tricks her into wearing a boxing outfit and takes her blindfolded to a club, pretending it is a fancy restaurant. Angered, Lois imagines she is beating up Peter and wins the fight. She begins training seriously and becomes the top-ranked boxer in Quahog. After her nose is broken in a match, she reveals she fought only because of her hatred of Peter's obsession with boxing, imagining she was beating him up. They agree to end her career and retire.

Production and development

The episode was first announced at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con by main cast member Alex Borstein. It was written by series regular Alex Carter and directed by series regular Julius Wu before the conclusion of the eighth production season. Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors. Staff writers included Alex Carter, Andrew Goldberg, Elaine Ko, Spencer Porter and Aaron Blitzstein. Composer Ron Jones returned to write the music. Guest stars included Luke Adams, Carrie Fisher and Nicole Sullivan, with recurring guest voice actors Ralph Garman, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin and John Viener, as well as Adam West and Patrick Warburton.

Reception

The episode aired on November 14, 2010, as part of Fox's animated night, preceded by The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show and followed by American Dad!. It was watched by 7.00 million viewers and earned a 3.3 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating American Dad! and The Cleveland Show in total viewership, though ratings decreased from the previous week. Critics reacted mostly positively. The A.V. Club's Emily VanDerWerff called it "another strong outing, once it got going" and praised its under reliance on cut-away gags and use of bits like Brian acting like a dog. She gave it a B rating, the second best of the night. Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised its "nonsensical humor" and noted that the boxing storyline was the only plot, which he called rare in sitcoms.