Season 13 · Episode 2 · First aired 5 October 2014
The Book of Joe
Episode 2 of Family Guy season 13 (S13E02), the 233rd Family Guy episode overall. Written by Mike Desilets and directed by Mike Kim. First broadcast on 5 October 2014.
Story
Peter finds that Joe has written a children's book about a paraplegic squirrel, and encourages him to send it out. A publisher takes it under the pen name David Chicago, but Joe frightens the children at his first reading, so Peter steps in and becomes the face of the book. His jokes about disabled people in a Tom Tucker interview go down well with readers and badly with Joe, who quits. Peter's crude sequel empties the room, and he is dropped by his agent and the publisher, after which he apologises. In a second storyline, Brian chases a runner called Chloe, takes up running himself, grows gaunt and superior, and drops her to train for the Quahog Marathon, where his leg snaps at the start.
Production and reception
- Mae Whitman guest voices Chloe, the runner Brian tries to impress. Wikipedia, The Book of Joe
- The broadcast drew 3.63 million viewers, the lowest in its timeslot but second on Fox that night behind The Simpsons. Wikipedia, The Book of Joe
- TV Fanatic's Narsimha Chintaluri awarded three and a half stars from a possible five, preferring the moments where the characters behave as themselves to the longer set pieces. Wikipedia, The Book of Joe
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin, Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin, Bank Teller |
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown |
| Steve Callaghan | Parent of Distracted Kid |
| Mason Cook | Little Boy in Wheelchair, Kid #1 |
| Jonathan Morgan Heit | Little Boy |
| Tatum Hentemann | Little Girl |
Principal voice credits as recorded by IMDb, which lists up to ten credits per episode, so recurring characters can be missing here. Guest voices below come from Wikipedia and TVmaze.
Guest voices
- Mason Cook as Child
- Tatum Hentemann
- Glenn Howerton as Blake Walker
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Sun in African face, CeeLo Green, Cee-Lo Green
- Maya Rudolph as JoAnne Shalit, Chloe
- Mae Whitman as Chloe, Woman
- Robert Wu as Moon in Asian face, Moon
- Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
- Jonathan Morgan Heit as Child
- Ralph Garman as Gene Shalit
Season 13: episode 2 of 18
- E1The Simpsons Guy
- E2The Book of JoeYou are here
- E3Baking Bad
- E4Brian the Closer
- E5Turkey Guys
- E6The 2000-Year-Old Virgin
- E7Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure
- E8Our Idiot Brian
- E9This Little Piggy
- E10Quagmire's Mom
- E11Encyclopedia Griffin
- E12Stewie Is Enceinte
- E13Dr. C and the Women
- E14#JOLO
- E15Once Bitten
- E16Roasted Guy
- E17Fighting Irish
- E18Take My Wife
SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 13 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.
Provenance
Facts only- Data refreshed
- 6 September 2026
- Verification
- Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
- Licence
- Facts are not copyrightable. Source text on Wikipedia is CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikidata is CC0; IMDb data is used for verification under its non-commercial terms.
- Note
- The story summary and notes were written for this site from the sources listed, by Claude in Claude Code on 2026-09-08, awaiting editorial review. Facts only; no dialogue is reproduced. Voice credits: Information courtesy of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com). Used with permission. Guest cast data from TVmaze (https://www.tvmaze.com), CC BY-SA.