Review: Family Guy: “Baby Got Black”

Spoilers Below

Howdy! Due to Easter festivities last week, there unfortunately wasn’t an episode of Family Guy, but the Griffins are back tonight in one of the most controversial episodes I have ever seen of the show.

“Baby Got Black” starts with Peter, Quagmire, and Joe making a bet to see who can stay awake the longest. It was a close call, but after nearly three days and plenty of hallucinations, Peter emerges as the winner. He then decides to take the family out for dinner with his winnings. At the restaurant, Chris runs into one of his classmates, Pam. The two hit it off and become romantically involved. As it turns out, Pam is actually Jerome’s daughter. The Griffins are more than welcoming of Pam and things seem to be perfect. This couldn’t be further from the truth when it is revealed that Jerome has many issues with his daughter seeing Chris, not only from being a protective father, but because Chris is white.

I actually hadn’t done my research on this episode before I began this review. I had my finals at school this week, so that took up most of my time. I was expecting more of the ordinary, but it was the exact opposite. Family Guy has become one of the few shows on prime time television that can stretch certain boundaries and get away with it. Everybody knows this, but tonight I think they stretched those boundaries just a little bit further.

The first third of the episode was pretty funny, if you’ve been reading my reviews for the past few months, you’re probably aware that I am a fan of when Peter does anything crazy with his friends. Since I hadn’t read up on this episode prior to the watching it, I was expecting the entire episode to be a look at the progression of sleep deprivation. That idea intrigued me, but the first seven minutes or so really had nothing to do with the rest of the episode. I usually don’t mind time killing subplots, it’s just I think this could have transitioned a bit better than it did.

The remaining two thirds of the episode grabbed my attention and didn’t let it go. The writers cranked the racist jokes up to ten, and we even got a musical number that I didn’t think would be possible to air. That just goes to show you how much Family Guy can get away with these days. There was plenty of racism in this episode from both sides, and personally I found it all to be pretty funny. I wasn’t bothered by it at all, but I can definitely see why somebody would be offended by this. Racism is nothing new to the media, but very rarely these days will you have a black man acting as the aggressor. I think it was an interesting idea and hopefully the audience can comprehend it all and respond in a respectful manner. Family Guy does go far with it’s humor at times, but there is usually a message in their madness. What I gathered from this episode is that racism isn’t just black and white (thank you, I’m here all week). It portrayed a more honest story depicting racism as a two-way street.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. I found it very funny and thought provoking. I didn’t care for the first third being filler, but it was hilarious so I can forgive it. There was a Footloose joke in this episode that didn’t relate to the story at all, but had me erupting with laughter. I think this episode will be spoken about for the next few days, and it will probably upset a lot of people. They definitely knew they were walking a scary road when they produced this episode and I appreciate the bravery. I loved how the characters interacted in this episode… that and we had a Cleveland cameo and Easter Egg. I enjoy that stuff.

So, how did you guys feel about “Baby Got Black”? Did you think it was too much? Or did you just find the episode funny? Let us know!