Original air date: 12/6/2001
Production code: 3ACX-06
Peter discovers that he has a black slave for an ancestor... and that Lois' Pewterschmidt side of the family owned Peter's black slave ancestor. Meanwhile, Stewie thinks the key to better mind-control is to hang out with the Buddy Cianci Junior High cheerleaders.
This episode contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: Stewie's attempts to gain control of people using the cheerleader pyramid fails when he learns how clumsy the cheerleading squad really is and suffers a humiliating fall.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Peter is shunned by both the black community after they learned what he has done with his reparations money and the white community for having a black ancestry.
- Been There, Shaped History: A cutaway shows Stewie drunk on Mai Tais encouraging O.J. Simpson not to tolerate ex-wife Nicole Brown being with other men, which is what led to her murder.
- Bound and Gagged: Alpha Bitch lead cheerleader Cindy thanks to Stewie.
- Bowdlerization: The UK TV version cuts the following scenes and lines:
- Stewie's line, "My, so it's that easy to win you over! Consider yourselves lucky I'm not after your gully-holes!" (after he impresses the Buddy Cianci high cheerleaders) was shortened to "My, so it's that easy to win you over!"
- The Irish museum's "Day in the Life of An Irishman" and "Day in the Life of an Irishwoman" displays (the former showing an Irishman drinking in a bar and slapping a woman implied to be his wife and the latter showing an Irishwoman praying and having babies).
- During the part where Peter reads about the Griffin family history in the library (and discovers the existence of Nate Griffin), Peter's line to Chris, "Okay, settle down, spaz", was cut.
- Stewie body-shaming himself in the mirror was cut to remove the part where he forces himself to throw up in a toilet.
- Carter's pre-commercial break line, "Well, 'bout time to be hittin' the ol' dusty trail" after Peter finds out that Nate was owned by Lois' ancestors was cut.
- Stewie peeping on the cheerleaders from inside the locker was cut to remove Stewie's line, "Heavens, it appears that my wee-wee has been stricken by rigor mortis".
- The infamous ending where Quagmire finds Cindi tied up in a men's room stall was cut.
- Black Comedy Rape: Implied when Cindi is found bound and gagged by Quagmire and he says to himself "Dear Diary: Jackpot!"
- Call-Back: Peter already knew he had a black relative. Rufus Griffin was shown in "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'".
- Disguised in Drag: Stewie disguises himself as Cindy to cheer with the other cheerleaders in the final cheer and gain access to the cheerleader pyramid "mind control" power.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Stewie sees Cindy berating the cheerleaders for how terrible their performance was and he thinks she's just being unnecessarily mean to them. Turns out the mean girl Cindy was right all along, as the cheerleading squad was actually clumsy regardless of how good they were and they nearly crush Stewie with their cheerleading pyramid fall.
- Karmic Rape: Implied with Quagmire finding Cindy tied up in the men's bathroom.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The family that had owned Cleveland's ancestors ended up losing all their wealth and became 'poor white trash'.
- Nice Guy: Nate Griffin. His ghost empathetically encourages Peter to give his money away and doesn't hold the fact the Pewterschmidts enslaved him against Loisnote .
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Chris ends up talking in street slang as he picked it up from black players of his high school basketball team.
- Retcon: It seems apparent that Nate Griffin is not an ancestor of Peter's, given the fact that as it was confirmed that Peter is descended from the McFinnigan family, not the Griffin family, due to his true father Mickey McFinnigan although it is still possible for the McFinnigans to have branched off from the Griffins at some point in history meaning Peter could be both a Griffin and a McFinnigan.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Peter's apology to everyone he's wronged is solved with money.
- Shout-Out:
- The part at the basketball game where Peter imagines being alone with Cindi, and watches her try to seduce him with the sexy music in the background parodies a scene in the film American Beauty. Both scenes end with the cheerleaders unzipping their shirts. However, fried chicken humorously flies out of Cindi’s shirt instead of lush rose petals like Angela’s.
- When Peter mistakes Chris’s slang-peppered speech for speaking in tongues, he tries to perform an exorcism, similar to that in the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist.
- The professor of Peter’s African American studies class mentions Thurgood Marshall’s 1967 appointment to the Supreme Court. Peter responds by “whooping,” in a manner similar to audience members on The Arsenio Hall Show.
- Trying to convince the group of black men that he’s one of them, Peter borrows heavily from a speech by 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. However, instead of referencing various incidents in the civil rights movement, Peter mentions episodes of 1970s/1980s sitcoms with black characters, including The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life.
- Peter uses his reparations money to turn his den into the set from the CBS Saturday morning kids' show Pee-wee's Playhouse, sings a comical variation of the theme song, convinces Brian to play the genie Jambi, references the King of Cartoons, and screams when Lois says the “secret word”.
- Peter's greeting to his family and the Pewtersmidts, "Hey, hey, hey!" parody Dwayne's greeting from the African American comedy, What's Happening!!
- After Peter’s speech, he is cheered on by the junkyard gang from the cartoon Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, although the title character is not among them.
- Peter watches a comedian who makes jokes about Jheri curl, an oily, glossy hairstyle worn by African Americans in the 1980s (and mercilessly parodied on such African-American TV and film comedies as Coming to America, In Living Color, and Chappelle's Show)
- The scene showing Ireland before the “discovery” of alcohol features technology similar to the cartoon series The Jetsons.
- Cleveland receives reparations from the family who enslaved his ancestors but, because the family has become poor white trash, they could only give him a tray of Rice Krispie treats.
- Stewie makes a note to himself to try to understand the cheerleaders’ fixation with the “homosexuals” in the boy band ’N Sync.
- In a cutaway, Peter and Chris are playing Operation on
a homeless person instead of the game board.
- Something Else Also Rises: Stewie has to hide in the girl's locker room because the cheerleading squad was coming in and when they start undressing, he mistakes his erection for rigor mortis.
- Spoof Aesop: "It doesn't matter whether you're black or white. The only color that matters is green."
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The infant Stewie develops body image issues and bulimia after spending time learning to take control of the cheerleaders pyramid.
- Weight Woe: Stewie develops this after spending time with the cheerleaders, leading him to inappropriately obsess over his body image in the mirror and throw up in the toilet.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Peter gets called out by several characters for selfishly squandering his reparation money instead of sharing it.
