Tales of a Third Grade Nothing - S7-E6
Other mistake: In the cutaway at Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln receives a cell phone call from someone who is implied to be Thomas Jefferson. While the anachronism of a cell phone in the Civil War can be ignored as humorously deliberate, Lincoln can't be talking to Jefferson; by April of 1865, when Lincoln was assassinated, Jefferson had been dead for nearly 40 years.
Suggested correction: Where are you getting the implication that it is Thomas Jefferson? You seem to have misunderstood the joke. "I hear you took that black chick home. You're welcome." is not a reference to Jefferson sleeping with one of his slaves. It's simply a reference to Lincoln freeing the slaves. Tom is just a generic name. (Besides, if you're complaining about historical anachronisms in Family Guy cutaways, you're probably missing the point.)
I concede that it's a bit of an assumption, but can you really fault me for making it? Yes, Thomas and its derivations can be common given names, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any from Lincoln's era famous enough for casual viewers to automatically make that assumption.
Conversely, since the allegations about Jefferson and Sally Hemings have endured for 220 years, Occam's Razor suggests it's the first thing probably 99% of us would immediately think of upon hearing "Thomas" and "black chick." And I have no problem with the historical anachronism of Lincoln owning a cell phone. Believe me, I get the joke; his obnoxious behaviour is why Booth shot him, and cell phones are so ubiquitous, it's something we in the 21st century can relate to.
The issue I have is of a factual nature. Even for an animated sitcom, there are certain tenets of reality that I think must be adhered to if a joke is going to be set in a specific time period, two of which are the passage of time and the finality of death. For the sake of argument, humor me and assume that it is Jefferson; it is well-documented historical fact that Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption.
The reason why it's so well-documented is because, in one of the biggest coincidences in American politics, John Adams, a political frenemy of Jefferson's, and under whom he served as vice president, also died that day. My argument is that, given the limited context of the scene, under an assumption that 99% of us would make, the Thomas calling Lincoln can't be who it's implied to be, because who it's implied to be had been dead for nearly four decades.
Except Thomas Jefferson wasn't from Lincoln's era. You say yourself he had died almost 40 years earlier. This error seems to boil down to, "I'm going to assume that it is a Thomas Jefferson reference. I'm also going to assume that everyone else will see it that way. And that the producers didn't realise Jefferson was dead at the time. Therefore, it is an error based on my unfounded assumptions."
