When Chris runs for Homecoming King at school, the family doesn't believe he has a chance, only to surprise them all when he ends up winning in a landslide—Chris quickly lets his "success" go to his head. Meg eventually admits to Stewie and Brian that she's got a feeling that the only reason Chris was voted Homecoming King is because the popular kids are planning to play a mean prank on him at the dance. However, while investigating to try and stop the supposed prank, they instead discover that the other kids actually voted for Chris out of pity, thinking he's mentally challenged.
Meanwhile, Peter and the gang get jealous when Cleveland starts hanging out with Jerome, so they look for a new black friend.
Tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Chris becomes incredibly arrogant and self-absorbed after being chosen as Homecoming King, acting as if the title had made him an actual king.
- Birds of a Feather: Deconstructed, the fact that Cleveland and Jerome both black is pretty much the only thing the two of them have in common. Jerome bluntly tells Cleveland to his face that he finds him boring and claims to only feel a connection to him because they're both black. Cleveland, offended, in turn says what he's doing was racist.
- Brutal Honesty: Lois very bluntly states she doesn't think Chris can win the race. In this case, it is played sympathetically, as Lois doesn't want Chris to get hurt.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Chris discovers that he's only the Homecoming King because he was pitied by the other students, he's infuriated and calls them for only electing him to feel better about themselves.
- Good Bad Bugs: In-universe, Peter exploits glitches on the NES to win Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble, despite his friends telling him not to.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Deconstructed. Chris is offended that the only reason he's becoming Homecoming King is that the voters believed he was mentally handicapped and only elected him just so they can pat each other on the back for being progressive.
- Landslide Election: Chris won the vote to become Homecoming King because the voters pitied him under the belief that he was intellectually disabled. When Chris finds out that he was elected for pity, he calls out the audience for using him as a charity case to feel better about themselves.
- Last Disrespects: In a fit of anger, Chris destroys a shrine that was dedicated to Kathleen Fitzpatrick, a student who died in a car accident and who was just nominated as Homecoming Queen out of guilt and pity. He points out that she was driving under the influence at the time of her death, and she probably shouldn't be lionized for that.
- Loving a Shadow: None of the kids are nominating Chris because they like him as a person: they are doing it out of pity for his mental condition. It sinks into Chris how dehumanizing this is when they reveal his Homecoming Queen is a dead girl and his classmates are blatantly ignorant of the fact that the girl got herself killed by driving while on PCP.
- Nominated as a Prank: Subverted—as noted above, Meg admits to Stewie and Brian that she thinks Chris was voted in as Homecoming King because the popular kids are planning to play a prank on him at the dance, which leads to Stewie and Brian investigating at her and Chris's high school to try and stop the supposed prank. But after that fails, they discover (through watching a news segment at home) that the students at Meg and Chris's high school aren't planning to play a prank on the latter at the Homecoming Dance—in fact, the rest of the student body apparently thinks that Chris is mentally handicapped and only voted for him as Homecoming King because they feel sorry for him.
- Overly Long Gag: Topped on being a Brick Joke, the bit where Peter and one of his friends plays an old NES sports game (Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble), with Peter cheating using famous glitches in the game, and bragging about how good he is.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Chris learns that he was elected out of pity, he berates the school for objectifying him to feel better about themselves. He also calls them out for electing Kathleen Fitzpatrick as Homecoming Queen, a student who died in a car accident. In fact, Chris claims she was on PCPnote the night she died, which indicates that she had been driving under the influence at the time of her death—this, in turn, indicates that the crash was largely her own fault.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: There's definitely something off about Chris winning the title of Homecoming King—but while his sister thinks the whole thing is a prank of some kind, it's eventually revealed that the real reason Chris was voted Homecoming King is that the other students felt sorry for him (thinking he's mentally handicapped or something).
- With Friends Like These...: The secondary story has Cleveland hanging out with Jerome after his friends dump the bill for their drinks on him.
