The episode makes references to "Family Guy" itself. When Bonnie, Lois and Cleveland's new girlfriend come to dance at The Drunken Clam, they state that they would like to make the bar their place to hang out, after Peter grabs Joe's gun and kills himself. It turns out that this was only Peter's imagination as he snaps out of it when Joe starts talking to him; Peter answers that he was having a "Scrubs" fantasy moment. Quagmire responds to Peter's moment by stating that "Scrubs" is the best show people are not watching. Cleveland replies that he hates shows that leave the story for a gag or joke, referring to the numerous cutaways "Scrubs" and "Family Guy" contain. While in the hospital Peter realizes that Mr. Pewterschmidt and Dr. Hartman have a similar voice, then Mr. Pewterschmidt comes into the room and they both start talking about how their voices sound alike; this is a reference to the show's creator Seth MacFarlane as he voices both characters. The episode also makes references to history. In the following cutaway Adolf Hitler is shown juggling three fish while riding a unicycle. After a while the same cutaway reappears, but this time Peter shows up and knocks Hitler off the unicycle and punches him in the face and breaks the fourth wall by saying "See. We had a plan for that all along". It also makes references to Christianity. When Lois suggests that Peter finds a new friend, she tells him to find a kindred spirit like Judas found in Pontius Pilate. This episode drew 8.4 million viewers on its original broadcast. Also, a repeat of the episode on the Fox network December 16, 2007 was number 29 of 94 programs listed by Nielsen Media Research, the audience measurement systems developed to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States, for the week of December 10 to December 16, 2007. The episode received positive reviews from critics. Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode a positive review, writing that it "brings back memories how groundbreaking and fantastic this show once was, and how great the show can be when the writers put their minds to it". He graded "Believe it Or Not, Joe's Walking On Air" 9.3 out of 10. Brad Trechak of TV Squad also praised the episode, stating ""Family Guy" is starting to stick to what it does best", though he called the ending "somewhat predictable".