Upset that Cleveland left the quartet to move to Stoolbend, Virginia, Peter, Quagmire and Joe decide to interview potential friends to fill the vacancy, and are approached by a fellow bar patron named Jerome.

After impressing the group with his dart skills, the guys, after 'remembering' that the fact that Cleveland was black was what made it work, decide to let Jerome join as their new fourth member.

Peter grows jealous and, in a fit of drunken rage, throws a bottle through the window of Jerome's home, inadvertently causing a fire and burning down his house.

First announced at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, the episode was written by series regular John Viener, and directed by Brian Iles before the conclusion of the eighth production season.

Voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, who portrayed Jerome in the episode, based the character largely on his role as Rockefeller Butts on the short-lived ABC comedy series The Knights of Prosperity.

[3] In the opening scene of the episode, Peter, Joe and Quagmire are shown watching television at the Drunken Clam, and an infomercial plays for a Rat Pack CD collection of their "most bigoted songs"; members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin are shown,[4] performing several "once-acceptable" songs with offensive and insensitive lyrics.

[4] At one point Peter suggests Jerome grab his nephew and "shoot people in the D.C. area" in reference to the Beltway sniper attacks.

[2] Feeling sorry for Jerome, Lois invites him to stay at their home, with Peter reluctantly agreeing, before suddenly being cut off mid-sentence by the Mac OS X spinning wait cursor.

[5] Soon discovering the invitation to be fake, Quagmire is crushed, causing Brian to suggest that they can be a better team than Lewis and Clark, and a third member who enjoyed "ripping up maps.

In the conclusion of her review, VanDerWerff praised Quagmire's monologue, commenting "it's certainly amusing that the show is spending all of this time tearing down the one character who's a mouthpiece for the creator.

"[8] Ahsan Haque of IGN criticized the episode for its "execution", stating, "Auditioning friends to replace Cleveland seemed like a better idea on paper."

[4] In a subsequent review of Family Guy's eighth season, Ramsey Isler of IGN listed "Jerome Is the New Black" as "remarkably unfunny, with lazy and unoriginal writing.