and his dog trying to encourage him to give up the drug refers to similarly animated anti-marijuana advertisements sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Reception "Episode 420" was viewed by 7.40 million viewers on its original airdate, receiving a rating of 4.3/6 in Nielsen ratings. The character Brian was awarded the 2009 Stoner of the Year award by the magazine High Times due to this episode, marking the first time an animated character received the honor. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode an 8.5/10, commenting that it "worked out quite well mainly due to the superb musical number". He called the storyline "pretty cohesive" with a "very few truly random jokes thrown in here", though he did criticize the killing of the cat as "over-the-top" and the large amount of blood which he called "disturbing". Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club stated that the episode "showed admirable restraint [...] with its pot-centric plot", and called the musical number "truly spectacular". She graded the episode B, behind the Simpsons episode “The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly” which received a rating of B+; and the American Dad! episode “Delorean Story-an” which received a rating of A. The TV Critic's Robin Pierson gave the episode a 54/100; in his review, he appreciated the plot structure, especially the randomness of Peter's list of hated cultural icons. He did, however, criticize the featured musical number; he referred to it as a "waste of time" and claimed that "jokes about Texans, Michael Jackson, and Helen Keller are so obvious." The Parents Television Council, a frequent critic of Family Guy and series creator Seth MacFarlane, branded a June 6, 2009 re-airing their "Worst TV Show of the Week", due to its emphasis on the legality of cannabis. Controversy The Venezuelan government reacted negatively to the episode and banned Family Guy from airing on their local networks, which generally syndicate American programming. Local station Venevisión was threatened with financial sanctions for broadcasting the show, which was avoided by airing an episode of Baywatch instead and they aired public service films as an apology. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami stated that any cable stations which refuse to stop airing the series would be fined and he also claimed that it promoted the use of cannabis. The government then displayed