History Headscratchers / FamilyGuy

*** Peter did try but he was terrible at it. Now, in terms of why Quagmire got in trouble even though the girl lied, well, to my understanding, in most cases, the prosecution is going to ignore the fact that the girl lied because the crime is still sleeping with a minor, whether said minor lied or not, however, that would beg a question as to how Peter didn't get in trouble for the girl being at the party, too, given that there was alcohol being served at the party. The semantics are complex but that's usually how that goes, especially, since it's hard to prove that one ''didn't'' know that they were a minor (and there are numerous cases where this happens), however, more often than note, this tends to be more the case, if the couple has been intimate, as opposed to just dating.

*** Considering that Dylan debuted after the the first time travelling episode (which was, to my recollections, "Road To Germany"), it's possible that they could have been muddying around between the Road to Germany episode and the Son of Brian episode

*** He got plastic surgery on the rest of his body but not his face.

*** Peter did try but he was terrible at it. Now, in terms of why Quagmire got in trouble even though the girl lied, well, to my understanding, in most cases, the prosecution is going to ignore the fact that the girl lied because the crime is still sleeping with a minor, whether said minor lied or not, however, that would beg a question as to how Peter didn't get in trouble for the girl being at the party, too, given that there was alcohol being served at the party. The semantics are complex but that's usually how that goes, especially, since it's hard to prove that one ''didn't'' know that they were a minor (and there are numerous cases where this happens).

* Is Peter Meg's real dad?! According to Peter in "Screw the Pooch", a guy name Stan Thompson is her biological father? Another headscratcher is, why have a gag like that and not touch on it?
** THANK YOU! Perhaps Peter might have changed his name to Stan Thompson and conceived Meg during that time and changed his name back... he was a Justin once.
*** That does seem something Peter would do. And since they have the same hairstyle, I'm inclined to believe Meg is Peter's kid.
** The meta reason is simply that this was a ''throwaway line.''

** Maybe he did and it fell through

** If I'm not mistaken, WordOfGod says it kind of flip-flops as to whether they do and ignore it or whether or not they just interpret it differently.

*** To top it off, it's hard to make a sexual harassment case if the genders are reversed, as was rather demonstrated by everyone else's reactions to when Peter told them about Angela's harassment. Had he harassed Angela, she, most likely, would have won the case, whereas, in this case, if he tried to sue, he'd probably be rebuffed.

* What I've never understood is Meg's supposed unattractiveness? She looks similar to her mom Lois and her girth also pales in comparison to her father and brother.
** ValuesDissonance. Women are simply held to a higher standard in terms of attractiveness. Peter and Chris are obviously not attractive either, but since they're guys it's not as expected of them to be as it would be for Meg. Keep in mind that Meg's unattractiveness is limited by the amount of artistic detail of the show (only so much can be shown for Meg's acne etc) that make her more unattractive in universe than out. Ultimately, though, it's just emphasized more on Meg than Peter and Chris simply because in real life, society places a higher premium on attractiveness for women than men a lot of the time. If Meg was a guy it probably wouldn't be an issue as much.
** At the beginning of the show, it seemed more like Meg just saw herself as ugly rather than she was actually ugly, as teenage girls are notoriously self-conscious about their looks. She was supposed to look like an average teenager as opposed to the model-thin, jaw-droppingly gorgeous girls who play the "average" teen in other TV shows. And for someone who is supposedly that ugly, she has managed to snag a few boyfriends.
** It's also somewhat TruthInTelevision. A lot of girls who are considered unpopular are also considered homely even if they are of standard looks. It's also something used to make them feel worse about themselves as demeaning the unpopular kids and making them upset is a fan favourite in American society.

* How exactly did [[spoiler:Olivia Fuller survive being in a burning cardboard house?]]
** Probably [[spoiler:because it's cardboard, and not that hard to break out of.]]

* Why can't any characters on the show pronounce "harassment" the right way?
** The same reason why Stewie didn't pronounce "cool whip" correctly and how Meg intentionally mispronounced "while." It's done intentionally as a joke.
** That and "harassment" has more than one way to say it.

* So can Peter and Lois understand what Stewie is saying? Brian mostly seems to be the one to understand what Stewie is saying and so does Chris and Meg. Hell, even most of the adults Stewie interacts with understands him. So why can't Peter and Lois?
*** RuleOfFunny, that and WordOfGod says it depends on the episode as to whether or not they can/can't, in which case, if they can, they might interpret it differently (as seen best in the earliest episodes) or they ignore it.

* Okay, so in "Play It Again, Brian", during the Spirit of Massachusetts number, Peter looks at a bunch of trilobites and picks one up. What's this a reference to?

* In "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)," why was Brian hiding the fact that Stewie was paying for his half of the rent of the apartment? Furthermore, why does he not reveal to Jillian that he couldn't afford the rent to begin with? If he was indeed reluctant to move in with her, he could have simply told her that he had no money for it.
** Brian said earlier in that episode that he didn't want a committed relationship with Jillian, which led to Lois accusing him of stringing her along. Brian then only agreed to move in with Jillian just so he could to prove to Lois that he had what it takes.

** Not quite, if I remember right, some fans found him annoying, along with him not being a major character, so it's not like he appeared in too many episodes before that (I think he appeared in a cutaway before that episode). In terms of why else he disappears after that, him and his partner(can't remember his name) moved away from Quahog or they didn't really live there but were having some sort of destination wedding (where you travel to another place to hold a wedding).

** Don't forget, {{Stat

** The inference is, no matter the circumstances, they wouldn't have taken his side anyway; the whole point of the episode is that people are getting sick of Quagmire, his perversions and his [[SerialRapist general attitude]]. It's telling that not even his close friends attempt to stand up for him (their defences are half-hearted at best). DoubleStandard it may be, but at least they're rid of him for a good long while.

** The point is that it's an example of Double Standards. Seth Macfarland loves taking on pretty much every subject there is to be offended by in a lot of different ways. This was one of them. Especially because he married a "thin hottie" and she married him fat so clearly he was attractive to her while she was not to him.

** Values dissonance. Women are simply held to a higher standard in terms of attractiveness. Peter and Chris are obviously not attractive either, but since they're guys it's not as expected of them to be as it would be for Meg. Keep in mind that Meg's unattractiveness is limited by the amount of artistic detail of the show (only so much can be shown for Meg's acne etc) that make her more unattractive in universe than out. Ultimately, though, it's just emphasized more on Meg than Peter and Chris simply because in real life, society places a higher premium on attractiveness for women than men a lot of the time. If Meg was a guy it probably wouldn't be an issue as much.

** It's also somewhat truth in television. A lot of girls who are considered unpopular are also considered homely even if they are of standard looks. It's also something used to make them feel worse about themselves as demeaning the unpopular kids and making them upset is a fan favourite in American society.

* [[spoiler: How exactly did Olivia Fuller survive being in a burning cardboard house?]]
** [[spoiler: Probably because it's cardboard, and not that hard to break out of.]]

** I always thought of this scene as a parody of the Plymouth Rock story. Which is a story that some 121 years after the first arrival of the Pilgrims a man named Thomas Faunce recounted, saying he had once heard from his father who, in turn, had learned it from another person. Yet this story has become the absolute truth if the Mayflower's arrival, despite there being no reliable evidence of it.

** The law presumes that the girl in this situation is not mature enough to make good decisions about her sex life, and therefore should not be held accountable for getting into a situation that she finds out is much more than she can handle. Seventeen is not terribly young when it comes to having knowledge or experience in sex (and the fact that the girl ends up being seventeen instead of thirteen, for example, could be commentary on how arbitrarily the age is set), but they can still be naive about a lot of areas that adults understand better because they have had more experience. Even so, not all seventeen-year-olds are alike when it comes to maturity, so the episode provides a rather borderline situation for Quagmire to be embroiled in and still come out looking sympathetic to the audience.

*** The law presumes that the girl in this situation is not mature enough to make good decisions about her sex life, and therefore should not be held accountable for getting into a situation that she finds out is much more than she can handle. Seventeen is not terribly young when it comes to having knowledge or experience in sex (and the fact that the girl ends up being seventeen instead of thirteen, for example, could be commentary on how arbitrarily the age is set), but they can still be naive about a lot of areas that adults understand better because they have had more experience.

*** While that may be a good point, the fact they pin this particular incident on Quagmire and ignore the wrongs the girl made still makes the characters look like A: morons that have no idea how the law works (though considering this show's track record, that wouldn't be surprising), and B: extremely petty people that will stoop to any low and look for any excuse to shun Quagmire when they are far worse things he's done on purpose. Also, it makes Peter Griffin look like a complete hypocrite; He'll defend Quagmire to his dying breath when the guy is caught deliberately stalking his wife, but he won't lay a finger to help when he's tricked into doing something that gets him in trouble when it's not even remotely his fault?

*** This is a non-issue. He still worked at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Company at the time.

* Meg was deliberately written as a HateSink so we'd have more sympathy for everyone else.
* what kind of message are we to take away from Jasper disappearing after the episode on same-sex marriage, Half-assed acceptance?

** I always thought of this scene as a parody of the Plymouth Rock story. Which is a story that some 121 years after the first arrival of the Pilgrims a man named Thomas recounted, saying he had once heard from his father who, in turn, had learned it from another person. Yet this story has become the absolute truth if the Mayflower's arrival, even though there's no reliable evidence of it.

** I always thought of this scene as a parody of the Plymouth Rock story. Which is a story that some 121 years after the first arrival of the Pilgrims a man named Thomas heard from his father who, in turn, had learned it from another person. Yet this story has become the absolute truth if the Mayflower's arrival, even though there's no reliable evidence of it.

** Francis was most likely Peter's ''legal'' father. Especially if he and Thelma were married before Peter was born. That would make the Griffins his family regardless of blood. He had also lived forty years knowing his Griffin family and barely knows Mickey. Even if, say, Francis never took Peter as his legal son the Griffins would still be his family through his mother's marriage to him.

->'''Stewie:''' You should know that Mom has emotionally let you go. It won't be long before she takes another.

** There *is* this interaction in 'The Giggity Wife.'
Stewie: You should know that Mom has emotionally let you go. It won't be long before she takes another.
Peter: Owww, my head!
Stewie: She already has two cell phones.

** The meta reason is simply that this was a 'throw-away line.'

*** This is still truth in television. Unfortunately it's really hard to prove you didn't know as it's pretty much her word versus his or vice versa. There are plenty of cases where a (for example) seventeen year old boy has sex with a fifteen year old girl but the parents find out and proceed to court. And whether it was consensual or not is rarely important to the parents. Some people even end up ''lying'' about giving consent and sent innocent partners to jail/register them as sex offenders because they didn't want daddy to be mad at 'her'. The laws are the way they are for a reason, but it's very easy to take advantage of how vague they are.

*** This is still truth in television. Unfortunately it's really hard to prove you didn't know as it's pretty much her word versus his or vice versa. There are plenty of cases where a (for example) seventeen year old boy has sex with a fifteen year old girl. And whether it was consensual or not is rarely important to the parents. Some people even end up ''lying'' about giving consent and sent innocent partners to jail because they didn't want daddy to be mad at 'her'.