Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?

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“Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 14
Written by	Mike Barker and Matt Weitzmann
Directed by	Scott Wood
Production no.	3ACX06
Original airdate	December 6, 2001
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List of Family Guy episodes

"Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?" is an episode of Family Guy.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

When Chris starts speaking in black vernacular, Peter tries to get Chris to connect with his Irish heritage, and a trip to the genealogical library reveals the Griffin family has a black ancestor, Nate Griffin, who was a slave owned by the Pewterschmidt family. Meanwhile, Stewie becomes obsessed with the cheerleaders at Buddy Cianci Junior High, and begins following them and listening to their conversations to learn about their techniques on how to pump up the audience during basketball games.

After Peter finds out about Nate in a book on Pewterschmidt family history, Peter demands reparation money from Carter Pewterschmidt, who gives him $20,000. Peter squanders the money to convert the living room into a replica of Pee-wee's Playhouse, which angers Lois. While spying on the cheerleaders in the locker room at school, Stewie hears the lead cheerleader, Cindi yelling at the squad for messing up on their pyramid during practice. He then realizes that the pyramid is their source of power, so he plots to get rid of Cindi to take her place at the top of the pyramid at the upcoming game. At the game, Peter becomes alienated by both the black and white communities, while Stewie kidnaps Cindi, binds her with rope and covers her mouth with duct tape, and hides her in the men's bathroom. He comes out dressed as her and attempts to control the audience by telling them to stab each other with knives. The pyramid falls and Stewie drops the microphone. Peter picks it up and announces to the audience that he realizes he made a mistake, and that he will be sharing his reparation money with both his black and white brothers. Quagmire finds Cindi still hidden in the bathroom stall and is delighted, and exclaims, "Dear Diary......JACKPOT!"

[edit] Notes

A rap version of the theme song performed by Peter is heard over the end credits.
Nate Griffin appears again in the episode "Untitled Griffin Family History".
The Ferris Bueller's Day Off segment of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story was originally going to be placed in this episode, in the part where Stewie and the cheerleaders are in the cafeteria. (DVD commentary)
Many slaves in the US took the surnames of the family that owned them. Then, it is possible that the real family name of Peter is not Griffin, or it may have been that Nate Griffin did not take the Pewterschmidt name.
Peter demands to be called "Kichwa Tembo" (after he discovers that his black ancestor was owned by Lois's father's family). In Swahili, "Kichwa" means head and "Tembo" means elephant. Peter has literally renamed himself Head Elephant. Swahili is mainly spoken in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. However, Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves were almost all West Africans, and would certainly not have spoken Swahili. In any case, it is not expected that Peter would know this, and was just being ignorant.
After reading the diary entry from Nate Griffin about the horse Lucy, Brian turns the book around to show Peter. The entry continues: "She's just a horse, but I could tell she knew she was outmatched. He he he he he he. I stepped in cow poop this afternoon. It was so funny that I almost pooped myself. But luckily I didn't."

[edit] Cultural references

In the opening segment, Peter watches Dennis Miller Live. The segment parodies Miller's use of multi-syllabic words and obscure historical references ("I don't wanna go on a rant here, but America's foreign policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the First Battle of Antietam, I mean when a Neo-Conservative defenestrates, it's like Raskolnikov filibustered deoxymonohydroxinate"). Peter is so dumb that he can't even get past the first "difficult" word of the sentence: rant.
The part at the basketball game where Peter imagines being alone with Cindi (the pretty cheerleader with long, blonde pigtails), and watches her try to seduce him with the sexy music in the background parodies a scene between Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Angela (Mena Suvari) in the film American Beauty. Both scenes end with the cheerleaders (Cindi and Angela) unzipping their shirts. However, fried chicken humorously flies out of Cindi's shirt instead of lush rose petals like Angela's.
When Peter mistakes Chris's slang-peppered speech for speaking in tongues, he tries to perform an exorcism, similar to that in the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist.
Peter's monologue/complaint about Lois's dinner resembles the monologues of any Woody Allen movie. In particular, it is a potential reference to the movie Annie Hall.
In a cutaway, Peter and Chris are playing Operation, except on a homeless person.
The scene showing Ireland before the “discovery” of alcohol features technology similar to the cartoon series The Jetsons.
A cutaway shows Stewie, drunk on Mai Tais encouraging O.J. Simpson not to tolerate ex-wife Nicole Brown being with other men.
Stewie makes a note to himself to try to understand the cheerleaders' fixation with the “homosexuals” in the boy band 'N Sync.
Peter watches a comedian who makes jokes about Jheri curl, a popular, glossy hairstyle among African Americans in the 1980s. The comedian jokes that the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred because “some brother fell in the ocean.” Peter responds by saying, "Oh, God, I remember that; and all those seals died."
The professor of Peter’s African American studies class mentions Thurgood Marshall’s 1967 appointment to the Supreme Court. Peter responds by "whooping", in a manner similar to The Arsenio Hall Show.
Cleveland receives reparations from the family who enslaved his ancestors but, because the family has become poor white trash, they could only give him a tray of Rice Krispie treats.
Trying to convince the group of black men that he's one of them, Peter borrows heavily from a speech by 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. However, instead of referencing various incidents in the civil rights movement, Peter mentions episodes of 1970s/80s sitcoms with black characters, including The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life.
After Peter's speech, he is cheered on by the junkyard gang from the cartoon Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, although the title character is not among them.
Peter uses his reparations money to turn his den into the set from Pee-wee's Playhouse, sings a comical variation of the theme song, convinces Brian to play the genie Jambi, references the King of Cartoons, and screams when Lois says the "secret word" (which is "ridiculous").

[edit] See also

One-drop theory

[edit] References

S. Callaghan, "Husband, Father... Brother?" Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152 - 155.
A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 49 - 50 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf