History WesternAnimation / AmericanDad

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Stan pretty much becomes addicted to this in "A Smith in the Hand" after trying to discourage Steve from engaging in it.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Roger remembers, in "You Debt Your Life", three moments he's [[ComedicSociopathy especially proud of]]. They are: protesting at the University of Alabama when it was desegregated in 1963 and knocking the textbooks out of a black girl's hands, getting the captain of the ''Exxon Valdez'' drunk while at the helm and causing him to crash the ship, and drawing concept art of Jar Jar Binks for GeorgeLucas, who liked what he saw.

* UnusualEuphemism: In S2 Ep06, "Iced, Iced Babies" Stan says that when Francine goes through menopause her "uterus will [[TheVietnamWar fall like Saigon]], and Steve was the last chopper out."
** The phrase "handy J" has been thrown around in various episodes. Maybe they can't say "hand job" on network television.

** In "42-Year-Old Virgin", Stan claims to have never killed anyone. But "Stan of Arabia" he breaks Jay Leno's neck; he kills Jackson's double at the beginning of "It's Good to Be Queen"; he accidentally disintegrates one of his co-workers in "I Can't Stan You"; in "An Apocalypse to Remember", Stan shoots down someone who was hang gliding; in "Con Heir" he shoots a painter.

** In the initial sequence for this joke, the funny background events show that he has never personally killed people (ie pulled the trigger on a gun) however he has been responsible for the deaths of others through accidents or what have you.

* EpicFail: ''Hurricane!'' has Stan performing one after another of these. The house gets flooded and turned upside down, Hayley's attacked by a shark, Roger's electrocuted, Stan punches Jeff out for no reason, Steve is mauled by a bear Stan ''let into the house'' to kill the shark, and it ends with Stan harpooning Francine with his college javelin in an effort to kill the bear. Hell, the bear even stops and gives Stan a look that says "dude, really?" It isn't Buckle bursts into the house and shoots the shark, the bear, and Stan, with tranquilizer darts, that things get better. In Buckle's own words he didn't know who was doing the most damage.

* CompanionCube: Stan's beloved SIG P220 pistol. Stan loves his sidearm (at least as much as Jayne in {{Firefly}}), especially if he gets to use it irresponsibly. He even plays with it like it's some kind of pet in ''Roger Codger'', and isn't at all alarmed when it goes off.

* ThatDidntHappen: Stan and Roger have a one-sided version of this in ''Roger 'N' Me''; Roger wants to tell about how he and Stan "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean became best buddies]]", but Stan doesn't.

** We're still waiting on the third part of that. Apparently viewing figures go down after one, which might be why they've dropped it.

* EverythingsBetterwithChocolate: "These chocodiles, oh my god, these chocodiles Hayley, OH MY GOD."

* Everything'sBetterwithChocolate: "These chocodiles, oh my god, these chocodiles Hayley, OH MY GOD."

** In "Fartbreak Hotel" Steve falls in love with a painting of a girl by Patrick Nagel and travels back to 1981 using the same method Christopher Reeve used in ''SomewhereInTime'' to find her. He soon discovers to his horror [[spoiler: that Nagel drugged him and painted him nude and that ''he'' is the girl in the painting!]] Later in the episode Francine takes a new identity and becomes a successful businesswoman ten years in the future but she is unhappy and misses her family. She travels to the past like Steve and warns her younger self not to leave them.

* KickMePrank: During the opening, Hayley sticks a peace sign on Stan's back, while Francine takes it off before he even notices.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] beautifully by the man himself in ''Phantom of the Telethon'': "Lying is wrong! I'd know that if only I'd paid attention to anything that's ever happened to me before."
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] even earlier (and more directly) in ''Rough Trade'': "Roger, there's something you should know about me: I don't learn lessons."

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in an episode where it's revealed that all of Rodger's wigs are female except for one "Owen Wilson/Ellen DeGeneres" wig. Also in an episode where Roger goes to great lengths to win an ice skating competition. The prize? A set of female wigs.

* ThePowerOfRock: Stan becomes more in touch with emotions beyond anger and outrage when he is exposed to the music of MyMorningJacket during ''My Morning Straitjacket''. [[YourMileageMayVary Depending on how much you like the band]], the snippets from their songs which appear throughout the episode many [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome deserve the crown of awesome]] too.

** A recent episode involves Roger dressing up as a girl and tricking Snot into thinking they're having sex. He does this by substituting a stress ball with a hole in it. After the ball has been violated multiple times throughout the episode, we learn that it's a promotional item for {{Sons of Tuscon}}, a sitcom that replaced American Dad on the Fox schedule in 2010. The writers add insult to injury by having Roger remark that he doesn't remember Sons of Tuscon at all, a reference to the fact that the show was canceled after only a month. Don't mess with American Dad's timeslot.

* TheUntwist: [[invoked]] PlayedForLaughs. In the end of the episode "Roy Rogers MacFreely", the titular Roy Rogers turns out to be...Roger.

* WhyDontYouMarryIt: Stan snaps this about BestBuy when a guy talks about the the pay benefits they gave.