Brian posts a bad joke about Kevin Hart on Twitter, which comes back to haunt him as it's deemed racist and turns the Griffins into pariahs.
This episode contains examples of...
- An Aesop
- Be careful what you say online (or anywhere to anyone) because what you might think is a joke may be considered offensive.
- On the flip side, don't hate someone just because they say things you may not agree with. Sometimes, they may not even mean what they say.
- Adults Are Useless: To Brian after he posts the tweet. Everyone turns on them relentlessly.
- Both Sides Have a Point:
- Brian pointed out that Peter did stuff that was so much worse than what Brian did and he didn't get kicked out or sent to jail. He also pointed to the angry mob that there are many worse tweets and posts that people look at online, but nobody cares, and they worry about minor things.
- Lois not only called out Brian's stupidity in posting a tweet like that, but she did have a good point about kicking Brian out. Not only is Brian a pariah, but it affected them as well even getting death threats and things thrown at their house.
- Break the Haughty: As usual, Brian is quite smug when he starts up his Twitter account again. It quickly spirals out of control. Played for drama this time around, though, as his entire life is turned upside down.
- Cliffhanger: Brian is kicked out of Griffin's house and is forced to live on his own. He remains kicked out by the end of the episode.
- Comical Overreacting: The various angry mobs are portrayed this way, as noted below. They go from simply condemning Brian for his tweet to harassing him at every turn (including demanding he kills himself), ostracizing the family purely because of guilt by association, and resorting to physical violence.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Much like the scene it parodies, Chris and Meg slaughter the sensitivity mob with barely a scratch on them.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- The entire town ostracizes Brian, and then the Griffins, only because of Brian's ill-advised tweet, despite the Griffins having nothing to do the tweet Brian sent and the tweet itself being intended as nothing more than a joke.
- Earlier in the episode, it's also revealed that students at the local college are petitioning for a teacher to be fired because said teacher told one of his students to have a nice day.
- Downer Ending: The backlash from the tweet becomes so bad that Brian gets kicked out of the house and is forced to move into a crappy apartment, doomed to a lonely and miserable life for couple of episodes.
- Et Tu, Brute?: The rest of the family turns against Brian for his tweet.
- Felony Misdemeanor: The townsfolk of Quahog treat a slightly insensitive tweet as an unforgivable crime, and everyone in town hates Brian for that tweet.
- First-Name Basis: Lois, bemoaning the fact that the grocery store staff she thought was so friendly and had gotten to know was ignoring her. The manager curtly tells her the only reason she knows their names is because of their name tags.Lois: But I don't even have to look! [breaking down in tears] I don't even have to LOOK!
- Foreshadowing: The slow-motion scene of Brian about to post his joke and the sound of a gunshot when he presses "Tweet" show that it's going to end in disaster.
- From Bad to Worse: Everyone turns on him over a tweet, then they refuse to accept his apology or realize his point, attempt to lynch him, and then he ultimately ends up having to move away into an isolated life in a run-down apartment.
- Generation Xerox: Like Peter's fights with the Giant Chicken, Chris and Meg can pull off a sustained fight and give more damage than they get.
- Get Out!: Twice:
- At the Drunken Clam, when Joe demands that Peter leave their booth, immediately.
- The family, when they kick Brian out.
- Grammar Nazi: During Brian's attempted apology, he tries to address it towards "humans, basketballs, talking parrots, and whatever else is out there". A woman takes issue with the word "whatever" and suggests "whoever", and someone else tells her it's "whomever".Woman: No one likes you, Mary.
- Group Hug: Averted big time here ... no moral and then a big hug and everything is alright afterward, just a big Get Out!.
- Guilt by Association Gag: Because of being associated with Brian, Chris and Meg are ostracized by the other kids, Lois is shunned at the grocery store, and Peter gets rejected by his friends, complete with Joe threatening to arrest Peter because of Brian's actions. All this happens despite them being just as annoyed at Brian as everybody else was. The moment Brian's kicked out, the town stops going after them and resumes their lives as if nothing happened.
- Hope Spot: For Brian, as he's leaving, Stewie smiles back at him and asks to wait ... only for Stewie to ask for the dog collar. Stewie, after claiming it, tells Brian, "Later!" (as though to suggest he feels at least somewhat bad for Brian's predicament).
- I Warned You: Quagmire tells Peter he warned him about Brian.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Brian's failed attempt to tell the mob that, in essence, they are hypocritical and have made mistakes as well. When an attempt to be nice about it and offer an apology doesn't even gain any headway, his angry rant does.
- Brian accurately points out that Peter has gotten away with doing far worse than what Brian did, though Peter doesn't care.
- While Lois kicking Brian out seems cowardly, she's completely right. She has three kids, one of which is a baby. She needs to keep them safe, especially since Meg and Chris got into a fight at school, where they were nearly killed by a mob of teens. Lois is just putting her children first.
- "Just Joking" Justification: The Griffins as they unsuccessfully try to defend Brian.
- Kids Are Cruel: Everyone at school for Chris and Meg turn on them and even attack them. Chris and Meg show that the feeling is mutual as they kick all the mob's asses.
- Loophole Abuse: One Cutaway Gag has Peter trying to order Shepards' pie at a restaurant, despite it not being on the menu. Peter asks if they have the individual ingredients to make Shepards' pie (one by one), and he ends up getting the Shepards' pie in the end.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: After Brian gives his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the mob and says he should kill all of them, a man immediately rushes him in slow motion as the first few notes of Free Bird play, much like Chris and Meg's fight with the other kids earlier on... But as soon as he punches Brian and gives him a bloody nose, Brian just goes back inside.
- Never My Fault: Brian insists that it was just a bad joke blown out of proportion and goes as far as to shame the angry mob for not accepting that excuse, especially since there are much bigger things in the world to be concerned about. However, Lois points out that it was Brian's own fault in the first place because he should have known better than to post something so racist.
- No Ending: The episode ends rather abruptly as Brian is just shown eating on his couch watching Wheel of Fortune on television.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Chris and Meg deliver devastating ones to every member of the mob that attacks them. And it is epic.
- Not Helping Your Case:
- When Brian tells the mob no one will hire him because of the tweet backlash, Stewie points out Brian couldn't get hired before the whole mess started anyway.
- When Brian comes back into the house after excoriating the crowd, Lois is aghast that he would mention "black porn", something that many people find patently offensive. She also points out that for all of his protests, Brain hasn't done or said anything that had proven that he wasn't racist.
- Persona Non Grata: The main conflict of the episode.
- Pet the Dog: The Griffins at least tried to defend Brian for his tweet, but the people and their friends didn't want to hear it.
- Political Overcorrectness: All over the place, bordering on Political Correctness Is Evil.
- Brian's apology to the mob is met with this at every turn. Him saying "ladies and gentlemen" is seen as sexist by the men because he said "ladies" first. Then he corrects it to "gentlemen and ladies," but then the ladies find it sexist. Then he says "humans in the audience," which offends one guy (and therefore angering the crowd again) because he identifies as a basketball. It just keeps getting more ridiculous from there until Brian finally snaps.
- The students at the local college rally to have a professor fired just for telling his students to have a nice day. Why, you may ask? Because, to quote the student who told Brian about it "Because in our systematic oppressive culture, no day is a nice day", therefore the professor committed a microaggression.
- Despite having nothing to do with Brian's tweet, the rest of the Griffin family are shunned (and later, outright attacked), purely because of their association with Brian. They end up having to kick him out to save themselves, otherwise the mob wouldn't have stopped.
- While using the fact that you're joking as an excuse to say whatever you like is not okay, Brian genuinely was joking, and he got his life ruined for it. Compounding the point tenfold, the sensitivity mob react to being told it was a joke with "There's no such thing as jokes anymore" and "We live in a post-joke world".
- On the subject of Brian's failed apology, the last straw is when, after the mob goes all Grammar Nazi on him and he tells them to calm down, they get even angrier because telling them to calm down constitutes "tone-policing".
- One member of the mob even says that anything that makes them uncomfortable in this day and age should be illegal.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: What Brian goes through in this episode is very similar to what happened to Peter in an earlier episode. They post something online that they think is a joke, but people find it offensive, and when they try to defend themselves, they only make it worse. It gets to the point where an angry mob is involved and people are attacking their house over the incident, causing the Griffins to fear for their safety. The only difference is that in Peter's case, the entire family left town until the whole thing blew over, while in Brian's case, only Brian was forced to leave the house.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Brian gives his speech about how everyone should use their heads instead of ruining his life over a tweet he posted.
- Refuge in Audacity: Brian tries hitting on a college girl in a library by pretentiously quoting a book she's reading, by awkwardly opening a random page to read aloud as she's reading it.
- Rejected Apology: Brian tries to apologize to everyone for his tweet, but they keep rudely interrupting him until he snaps.
- Ripped from the Headlines: High-profile celebrities, members of the media, company executives and others losing their jobs, professions, families and more for headline-making racially toned, homophobic, or in the very least completely inappropriate social media posts. The episode's plot itself most closely resembles an incident involving former InterActiveCorp public relations executive Justine Sacco, whose controversial tweet about traveling to South Africa resulted in her losing her job and forced her into seclusion for several months as the online fallout continued.
- Shamed by a Mob: Big time. Brian is antagonized by everyone in town for his tweet, even by his own family.
- Shaming the Mob: Brian lays a massive rant at the mob after they wouldn't give him a chance to apologize. It doesn't work.Brian: You know what? Fuck you! (everyone gasps) I'm not a racist, all right? I just told a bad joke. There's a huge difference. But nobody on the internet ever takes the time to ask themselves, "Is this worth freaking out over?" or, "Are there bigger problems in the world than this tweet?" Well, I assure you, there are. And just for the record, I love black people. I've watched tons of black porn. So, what do you all want from me, huh? You-you want to ruin my life? Then congratulations. You did it. Everybody hates me. I can't leave the house without getting harassed. No one will hire me. (Stewie: That's been a problem before.) I can't turn on my phone without strangers telling me to kill myself or that they're gonna kill my family. Leave me alone! I'M the self-righteous, liberal douchebag, not you! I've kissed a transsexual before! How many of you can say that?! Where's my fucking medal?!! I am so far left, I'm spinning in circles, you shitheads!!! INSTEAD OF KILLING MYSELF, I SHOULD KILL ALL OF YOU!!!
Random Mob Guy: I'd like to see you TRY. - Shout-Out: At school, Meg and Chris have to fight a bunch of people in a single room set to the guitar solo of Free Bird.
- Skewed Priorities: Brian's argument includes how everyone's focusing on a dumb joke from an account that has since been deleted instead of more important matters.
- Story Arc: This episode began a three-part story arc involving Brian experiencing and living through the consequences of his social media post.
- Suicide Dare: Along with insults and death threats, everyone tells Brian to kill himself.
- Teens Are Monsters: Everyone at the school attempts to bully Chris and Meg for not speaking out against Brian's tweet, causing the situation to escalate into a full on brawl with both sides fully intending on murdering each other.
- That Came Out Wrong: Brian attempts to tweet about how he was kidding about watching the new Kevin Hart movie. Unfortunately, because he also tweeted, "I'm white and went to college #BaywatchMovie", many people interpreted it as Brian being racist towards black people and then turn on him big time.
- Took a Level in Badass: Chris and Meg as they fight against the sensitivity mob.
- Truth in Television: People in real life take social media very seriously, and anything you post will ultimately define how you are perceived socially.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: The residents of Quahog. What Brian did was thoughtless for sure, but they take things way too far and condemn the entire family because of it, even trying to lynch them.
- Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: During the cafeteria fight, one girl tries to stab Meg with a knife. Meg simply redirects the knife into the girl.
- Wham Episode: Brian ends up getting kicked out of the house, with everyone (even his own family) turned against him. By the end of the episode, he's living in a lousy apartment all by himself, his life essentially ruined.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Brian's own family turns on him and, fearing their own safety, kicks him out, Brian rightfully calls them out on it.
- What Were You Thinking?: Lois says this verbatim when calling out Brian for writing the tweet.
- World of Jerkass: Everyone except Brian in the town of Quahog here.
