Brian's new job as a journalist leads him to uncover that Quahog's hero and brewery founder Pawtucket Pat took part in racist actions against Native Americans. This divides the town on whether or not to remove the statue that commemorates Pat.
Tropes:
- Both Sides Have a Point: The episode makes fun of both sides of the argument over the statue, and it doesn't vilify anyone specifically. They do compromise in the end by moving the statue to a museum instead of destroying it or putting it back.
- The pro-statue mob isn't portrayed as racist for defending the statue; they are portrayed as being afraid of change and not understanding the issue. As Lois points out, there's been a lot of social progress over the years, and you can't blame someone for acting in a way that's common in their respective time period. At the same time, Brian points out that Pawtucket Pat was still a horrible racist who stole from the native Americans, and he shouldn't be glorified for that.
- The anti-statue mob is simply overcorrecting what they saw as an injustice. Pawtucket Pat did commit racist actions against the Native Americans, and something needed to be done. However, they were wrong in their execution; Brian and Stewie still took the law into their own hands and vandalized the statue. The anti-statue mob's argument narrows down to "You're racist for not immediately agreeing with us," then the mob tries to shut down the brewery despite the consequences of doing so.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: While she doesn't like the idea of Pawtucket Pat being a racist and a murderer, Lois also says you can't apply the values of someone alive today to someone who lived almost three hundred years ago.
- Double Standard: Lampshaded by Peter when he brings up how there is a ton of films where someone right-leaning learns to be more liberal, yet nobody in the family can name a single movie (award-winning or not) where someone on the left learns more conservative values.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The anti-statue crowd only has surface-level knowledge about racism and doesn't really understand the greater complexity of racism and how to better control it. They also fail to recognize the consequences of their actions; after rejoicing in the statue's destruction, they immediately plan to shut down the brewery, which only incentivizes the pro-statue crowd because they didn't see a problem with the statue in the first place and were now having their livelihoods threatened.
- Pedophile Priest: Implied when it is brought up that Quahog used to have a statue of a missionary named Father Touchboys before it was taken down last year. In spite of the name being a dead giveaway to the missionary's unsavory nature, Peter doesn't get why Father Touchboys' statue was removed.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode's premise directly parodies the 2017 Unite The Right rally
in Charlottesville, where white nationalists protested against a statue of General Robert E. Lee being torn down. At one point, when it's suggested that the Pawtucket Brewery be shut down to make juice instead, Peter leads the pro-statue crowd in chanting "Juice will not replace us!", referencing the Anti-Semitic chants that were made during the 2017 protests. - Same Surname Means Related: Kid Rock humorously gets berated by his fictional father Adult Rock, who laments that his son couldn't be more like his brother The.
- Straw Character: Downplayed. Unlike a lot of recent episodes tackling controversies, the people who are anti-statue aren't depicted as over-the-top caricatures of "progressives", save for one woman claiming they should shut down the brewery entirely, with it being clear that they have a right to view Pawtucket Pat as a villain and a fraud. Even the pro-statue crowd, despite some jokes likening them to racist white nationalists, aren't treated as monstrous, racist conservatives. That said, both sides seem to drop the issue entirely when the descendants of the tribe Pat harmed and stole from try to make it about wider changes to the overall system and how it treats them.
- Take That!:
- When Brian calls Pawtucket Pat a horrible racist, Peter responds by saying it doesn't matter since they're nice to Fox News personality Tucker Carlson at the "company picnic" even though he's also a horrible racist.
- Kid Rock shows up and isn't depicted in a positive light.Kid Rock: Whenever there's a town debate with racial overtones, I'm there on the wrong side.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: While helping Brian illegally remove the statue, Stewie goes into the public restroom despite Brian warning him not to go there. Stewie brushes him off and then quickly comes out holding a tasty lollipop... only for some captions to reveal that he was in fact "assaulted" by an unseen stranger in some way, and that the lollipop is an imaginary construct Stewie's mind is using to block the memory out, with the lollipop vanishing to reveal him licking the air. Brian goes along with it so they can just get back to the statue.
