History AmericanDad / TropesFToJ

* ForWantOfANail: Stan convincing Creator/MartinScorsese in the past to give up drugs forces Stan to jump ahead a few years and shoot Reagan to prevent the USSR from taking over the USA. Specifically the timeline of changed events is: Stan convinces Scorsese to give up drugs, meaning he never makes ''Film/TaxiDriver'', so John Hinkley, Jr. never becomes obsessed with Creator/JodieFoster and never tries to assassinate UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan to impress her. Reagan, in turn, loses his re-election to Walter Mondale due to not having the added popularity from surviving an assassination attempt. And Mondale, in turn, hands the United States over to the Soviet Union two months into his Presidency.

* IssueDrift: Inverted, as the show effectively ditched the whole post-9/11 satire angle by season 4 and focused more on over-the-top and relatively apolitical {{Farce}}. While the show hasn't avoided politics entirely, it's pretty rare for it to actually be the focus of an episode, and when it does it tends to be much broader and less topical than, say, an episode about, say, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush coming to the Smith household for dinner. ProductionLeadTime was cited by Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker as one of the major reasons for this.

** In "Son of Stan," Stan clones Steve and tries to prove Francine he can raise "Steve-arino" into a better child using tough love and boot-camp-like nurturing to turn into a super child while Francine's HandsOffParenting turns the original Steve into a jerkass slob. Later, Steve-arino disappears, leaving a note saying he couldn't handle Stan's harsh parenting. However, it then turns out Steve-arino kidnapped Steve and took his place to live a good life under Francine's parenting, except Steve-arino ended up somehow becoming incredibly devious with a fascination of abusing and beheading cats and ''eating'' their heads. Stan himself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how every time he trains someone it comes to bite him in the ass.

** Season 6 "Son of Stan", follows this conflict point by point when Stan and Francine fight over how to raise Steve. They decide things by creating a clone of Steve called Stevearino and raising each their way. Under Francine's lenience, Steve becomes a {{lazy|bum}}, {{ungrateful|bastard}}, {{entitled|bastard}} JerkAss, while under Stan's hardness, Stevearino becomes a murderous psychopath. Naturally, the two come to see the value in each others' parenting style, and agree to work together more.

* HateSink: Terry Bates' father Tank. He's highly prejudiced against gay people and disowned his son on the spot when he learned he was gay. He never gives a FreudianExcuse or reason for hating gay people and refuses to take back his disowning of Terry. Even when he sees Terry forgiving him on live television he refuses to acknowledge him as his son. His episode serves to deliver the HardTruthAesop that sometimes you can't get your family to change their minds.

* GagBoobs: In "Helping Handis", some CIA-supplied steroids cause Steve, and later Stan, to sprout comically large breasts. And yes, it's both hilarious and extremely {{Squick}}y.

** Francine addresses her daughter "Hayley [[EmbarrassingMiddleName Dreamsmasher]] Smith"'s excessive piercings in "Stanny Slickers II: The Legend of Ollie's Gold".

** Referenced in the episode ''Iced, Iced Babies'', where [[spoiler:Stan goes to have a vasectomy from a Japanese company, and is asked if he wants to bank some sperm just in case; in addition to a sample cup,]] Stan is offered two magazines: "[[BuxomIsBetter Buxom Octopus Woman]]" and "[[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule Disobedient School Prefect]]".

* IssueDrift: Inverted, as the show effectively ditched the whole post-9/11 satire angle by season 4 and focused more on over-the-top and relatively apolitical {{Farce}}. While the show hasn't avoided politics entirely, it's pretty rare for it to actually be the focus of an episode, and when it does it tends to be much broader and less topical than, say, an episode about, say, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush coming to the Smith household for dinner. AnimationLeadTime was cited by Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker as one of the major reasons for this.

** One episode has a SetBackWhatOnceWentWrong plot where it is shown that a Walter Mondale presidency would have resulted in the Soviets perpetrating a full-scale conquest of America. Stan has to help the president he idolizes, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, prevent this turn of history, but the method of fixing history is not one that he will enjoy...

* {{Gonk}}: The Summoner from "Lost in Space."
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Stan and Francine seem to have a healthy, active sex life. Although Stan doesn't believe in the female orgasm.