Last month, Fox’s Family Guy premiered an episode in which the characters imagined President Trump, First Lady Melania and Vice President Pence were going to hang themselves in jail. It should come as no surprise, then, that this week’s episode, “Pawtucket Pat,” went all-in on December 6th to biased political cartoons popular with the left.
As a result, Brian got a job as a “journalist” for a “pop culture site”. Brian’s interview touches on some third tracks that the left usually avoids.
“They’re really good at sexualizing children,” says the interviewer after Brian mentions that he created names like “Abigail Breastlin”.
“I – is that a problem?” Asks Brian.
“No, no, no. That’s a big part of online journalism,” he replies.
While researching an article for his new job, Brian accidentally discovers that Quahog’s local hero and brewery founder ‘Pawtucket Pat’ stole his beer recipe from the Native Americans and then killed them. This leads to a controversy over the statue of Pat.
Brian wants the statue removed, but Peter wants it to stay while Lois briefly makes a rational argument.
Brian: Peter, we can’t leave a symbol like that on the town square. Pawtucket Pat was a terrible racist.
Peter: Well, Tucker Carlson too, but we still greet him at the company picnic.
Lois: Brian, if you apply today’s values to people who lived almost 300 years ago, doesn’t that mean we have to take down pretty much everyone’s statues? I mean where do you draw the line?
Family Guy inventor Seth MacFarlane clashed with Carlson and criticized Fox News while he was with the company. After spending most of his career at Fox, MacFarlane signed a deal with NBCUniversal earlier this year. Family Guy continues to broadcast on Fox, of course, which operates under Fox Corp. with the Fox News Channel.
Peter buys red MAGA-like hats for his friends with the letters “KUTS” (Keep Up the Statue) and Kid Rock shows up for a rally. “Whenever there’s a city debate with racist undertones, I’m on the wrong side,” says Rock.
Stewie suggests Brian demolish the statue himself. “You know what? It’s a great idea. Like not separating immigrant children from their families,” replies Brian.
After discovering that the statue was torn down in the middle of the night, townspeople gather angrily at its empty bust. The only people in the crowd are crazy white men. A shop across the street sells tiki torches. Fox News shows up with a Dukes of Hazzard car.
This scene is apparently intended to evoke images of the infamous Charlottesville rally that turned violent in 2017. For three years, the Democrats smeared President Trump with the infamous lie of “very good people” from Charlottesville.
Eventually Native American tribesmen show up and Lois convinces the crowd of white men to apologize.
Lois: No, no, you know what? Quahog is a wonderful city because we are and what we do, not because someone stole beer 300 years ago. Especially when he did terrible things to some of our fellow citizens.
Peter: Yeah, I think you’re right.
Lois: Thank you, Peter. Well, a lot of angry whites, I think we all owe an apology to our Indian friends.
Everyone: Sorry.
Lois: Angry whites.
Everyone: Sorry!
Lois: That’s better.
Peter: Well Brian, I guess I owe you an apology too. You were right from the start. I’m sorry things got so hot between us and I put a dump in your dog food.
Brian: Wait what?
Peter: I know. Politics what?
The idea that the debate about whether to stay or leave historical statues stems from “angry whites” against sympathetic minorities is a wicked, simplistic caricature popular with the left. Democrats, of course, ignore the crazy left-wing mobs who demolished statues from Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass this summer. The “where does it end?” The question certainly turned out to be valid in 2020. Unfortunately, this rational discussion was never given a chance.
Surprisingly, the episode ends up alluding to her own bias and the larger Hollywood bias during a final conversation with the Griffin family on the sofa.
Lois: Thank God this whole controversy is behind us.
Brian: Yeah. And Peter, I’m glad you came to your senses.
Peter: Me too. You know we could even win an award for it.
Lois: Really?
Peter: Yes, award winners love it when someone with a right-wing viewpoint admits they are wrong. They explain that it is good storytelling and character development.
Chris: Oh, like three billboards.
Meg: And Green Book.
Lois: Drive Miss Daisy.
Chris: American History X.
Peter: Yes, all of that. And many more. But can anyone name a single film in which someone on the left takes a more republican stance? Doesn’t even have to have won an award. Just has to exist. Someone? Something?
The dialogue manages to make a point while being incredibly offensive at the same time. None of the films mentioned represent a character with a “right-wing” or “Republican” point of view. Do we need to keep reminding the left that it was the Democratic Party that enforced Jim Crow’s laws? The white supremacist KKK was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party in the South for decades. Do Hollywood writers who oppose Democrats ever acknowledge the terrible role of this party in US racial history, or the role of the “progressive” left in promoting eugenics and white supremacy for much of the 20th century?
Even so, it’s still noteworthy that Family Guy is at least trying to recognize an elephant in the cultural space. Aside from a few directors like Clint Eastwood, Hollywood almost never creates content with right-wing or Republican heroes. The cultural bias is part of the reason cinema was in decline even before COVID.
So Family Guy created an episode of all the usual disgusting left tropes about white men and conservatives and then admitted that Hollywood in general only creates left trop entertainment. Well, at least the writers are honest about the bubble they live in.
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