Review: Family Guy “Gift of the White Guy”

Overview

Peter must recover Lois’ Christmas brooch after gifting it away in a White Elephant exchange. Stewie changes his attitude upon learning he’s on Santa’s “Naughty List.”

Cutaways

The Three Kings, Jeff Goldblum, Starbucks CEO, Lady Chaos Stores, FOX News, Santa’s North Pole

Our Take

For my money one of, if not the best episode of Family Guy ever, is “Road to the North Pole”. It just so happens to be a X-mas special, a “Road To” episode, classic era Seth MacFarlane Family Guy before Seth got too cool for school, and it’s right up there with Home Alone or Elf as the standard yearly holiday programming I love to re-watch over-and-over again. So, right off the bat ,this special Hulu exclusive episode of Family Guy entitled “Gift of the White Guy” has big shoes to fill. And while the episode isn’t that quite different than a normal FOX airing of the show that would constitute this episode a special streaming, the resulting episode is maybe one of the funniest Family Guy episodes to air in recent memory.

The one-and-only Matt Friend finally makes his debut with one of my favorite of his impersonations, his patented Jeff Goldblum, that we get not just once, but TWICE and both times had me coming away thinking Matt is at the show where he belongs. The writers and producers should have a lot of fun with the budding stand-up comedian long enough before Matt gets his eventual drama turn opposite Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep in whatever Hallmark movie is being pitched right now. Debra Wilson also gets a pretty big spot as “Widow Lloyd” though given what happens at the show’s end this may be the only time we get to enjoy the character for quite-a-while.

I don’t even know what a brooch is, but the centerpiece for Peter’s latest screw up is a perfect catalyst to see writer Joanna Quarishi load up on a bunch of workplace comedy jokes that hit really well and gives us a very well-written plot that takes a common Family Guy trope and elevates it quite nicely. That said, for my money, Stewie and Brian’s plot steals the entire show. Maybe it’s because seeing the two of these together running around for X-mas reminds me of the aforementioned classic Family Guy holiday episode, but old-school fans of the show are going to appreciate the slight peek back at a time when sci-fi was more laden in Stewie plots (and a SAVAGE Rick and Morty punchline, like holy shit, and then an even MORE savage take on Kevin Smith).

Lastly, this special episode features a bevy of cutaways all of which were hysterical. I mentioned the Jeff Goldblum ones earlier, but you could also throw in the Lady Chaos Stores and The Three Kings as just as well and you’ve put yourself together an excellent game of Family Guy. I’m not sure there’s anything here that TRULY makes this a Hulu-exclusive, perhaps more crass dialogue or a longer runtime would’ve helped me get across that line, but FOX’s loss is clearly Hulu’s gain this week and it pays off for the Disney-owned streamer.