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1!!General examples:
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6* AccidentalAesop:
7** "White Rice" can be read as an example of how some ideas that work well in one form of media don't necessarily translate well to others. Francine's jokes about being the white adoptive daughter of a Chinese couple go over great in a standup routine because a live audience in the intimate setting of a theater doesn't take things at face value, and when they’re said aloud by an actual person, they are understood to be anecdotal. When those same jokes are filmed and edited into a sitcom, the personal angle is lost and they feel like they're making fun of people, which is why the show got canceled after its first episode.
8** Steve tries to hire Stelio to beat one of his bullies...only for Stelio to team up with Steve's bully to beat them up together. This seems to reconstruct Stan's message to Steve about "carrying your oranges up the stairs": having others do things for you means you'll be helpless to solve your own problems.
9* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: There are many based on the Smiths family:
10** Is Francine a sensible mom or is she an insane DumbBlonde?
11** Does Stan only care for himself, or is he trying to do what he thinks is best for his family, but [[WellIntentionedExtremist taking it too far]]?
12*** Speaking of Stan, he can be seen as insane due to his irrational way of thinking, which includes heavy cases of AesopAmnesia, InsaneTrollLogic, and just being TooDumbToLive, and even many characters in-universe believe he is a lunatic. Stan's insanity might be exposed when he suffers delusions that make him believe he's fat and see an imaginary trainer named Zack in "The American Dad After School Special".
13*** More of Stan, is it possible that he subconsciously hates his own family and masks this hate by "helping" them"? Stan's actions in "Hurricane" and "The Mural of the Story" where his attempts to help [[UnwantedAssistance do the exact opposite]] seem to point to this direction.
14*** In the episode, "Stan's Food Restaurant", Stan tells Francine that he was molested by a priest at Christian summer camp, only for him to later admit that ''he seduced the priest''. Is this the truth, or was Stan in denial and blaming himself? It doesn't help that many real life victims of sexual assault blame themselves for what happened, and the episode "Into the Woods" shows that whenever someone bullies or abuses Stan, he created a SelfServingMemory where he is the aggressor.
15*** Is Stan a DesignatedVillain? While he is often presented as being in the [[InformedWrongness wrong]], the show doesn’t hide the fact that Stan’s actions are usually the result of the abuse he’s suffered from. For example, due to the mind games and smothering Betty used to make Stan dependent on her, he ended up [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kidnapping every guy she dated out of fear they'd break her heart]]. There is also the fact that as much as his family complain about Stan’s actions, they are repeatedly shown to be unable to function without him. It isn’t that farfetched to assume that Stan is actually a form of LaserGuidedKarma. Keep in mind that the Smiths only devolve into their TooDumbToLive mentality when Stan leaves; they are fine when Francine does her own thing.
16** Roger:
17*** Is he a full-blown psychopath that does nasty and awful things because he enjoys it? Is it simply BlueAndOrangeMorality, as he says about his species? Or is it both?
18*** Does Roger have dissociative identity disorder, or is he just so committed to or obsessed with acting that [[LostInCharacter he sometimes forgets who he really is]]?
19** Steve Smith might have multiple personalities since he has a different type of behavior from episode to episode; some episodes he really wants a girlfriend, some episodes he looks up to his dad, some episodes he's a horndog, some episodes he's a teenager with such extreme mental problems, that no therapist could help him (Roger’s words not ours), and some episodes he acts like a immature spoiled brat.
20** Many have assumed that Hayley's [[UnstoppableRage violent temper]] (as seen in episodes such as "Pulling Double Booty" and "1600 Candles") is a side effect of the brainwashing she received as part of Project Daycare (as detailed in "Haylias").
21* AluminumChristmasTrees:
22** While it has a seemingly fantastical name, the colossal squid Francine devotes her newly-found free time to finding is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid a real-life cephalopod]].
23** Stan gets into an argument with Dick as to whether turkeys can fly. Wild turkeys actually can fly for brief periods.
24** Given the nature of the typical ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Christmas episode, it's understandable that a number of fans were surprised to learn that the Christmas demon Krampus [[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131217-krampus-christmas-santa-devil/ was not a creation of the show]].
25** Roger's Ortolan in "In Country...Club" is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_Bunting real bird]], and the means of preparing it is correct as well.
26** "Black Mystery Month" is correct in stating that George Washington Carver did not actually invent peanut butter.
27** "Shell Game" features an organization devoted to illegal egg collection - both poaching the eggs of endangered species and stealing pre-collected eggs from established collections. Which sounds absurd, but [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/egg-society-denies-aiding-nest-thefts-an-obscure-group-named-after-a-victorian-clergyman-is-accused-1440402.html was a fad in the UK from the '50s to the '90s.]]
28** "White Rice" has the titular ShowWithinAShow being cancelled and pulled off the air after just one joke. It sounds silly, but something similar (if not ''quite'' as quickly) happened in the '90s with the broadcast of ''Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos'', which was a one-off special on Creator/NineNetwork pulled off the air in the middle of its first broadcast (and replaced with a ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' re-run) after the owner of the network called and yelled at them to "Get that shit off the air!". (It's worth noting that it did get a full broadcast later on in 2008.)
29** From "The Bitchin' Race." In Tunisia, Steve wants to go to the Hard Rock to buy souvenir pins. There actually is a Hard Rock Cafe at Port El Kantaoui, which opened two years before the episode aired.
30* {{Anvilicious}}: Parodied in an episode where, after Francine is worried that her and Stan's new friends might get an abortion, he says...
31--> '''Stan''': They won't, ''[looks at camera]'' because they're awesome! ''[nods]''
32* ArcFatigue:
33** The Golden Turd plot was revisited sporadically since its introduction in the Season 1 episode "Homeland Insecurity". The plotline would be featured in Season 2's "Failure is Not a Factory-Installed Option" and be referenced in the non-canon Season 5 episode "Rapture's Delight", but the third part wouldn't happen until Season 10's "Blagnarst: A Love Story", which first aired over ''eight years'' after the second installment. The saga continued in the Season 13 premiere "Father's Daze", two years after the 3rd part, before finally concluding four years later, in the episode "300".
34** The Jeff's in space/part alien arc was dragged across several seasons, lasting over several years, and most of the episodes post-Jeff's ADayInTheLimelight in "Lost in Space" were dedicated to pushing the ResetButton on all of its plotpoints, making it feel rather tiresome and pointless to many.
35* ArchivePanic: The series entered this territory in 2013, at which point it had reached its 150th episode. When the FOX network chose not to pick it up for the 2014-15 season, the show moved to TBS, and it has been renewed for additional seasons, already reaching 300 episodes as of December 2020.
36* AssPull:
37** Francine wanting Stan to lose his wrestling record in "The Wrestler" because she hated the museum he kept over it. For the handful of times she shows up in the episode, she never hints that the museum bothered her; instead, she says she likes going there every few weeks.
38** The reveal that all the murders in "Death By Dinner Party" were staged as a way of getting back at Roger for usually acting like a childish jerk. Earlier in the episode, there are several scenes of the other characters acting scared of dying even when they have no reason to, since Roger isn't among them.
39* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
40** Krampus' two songs, [[https://youtu.be/CeNKuLjgVrI "You Get the Rod" and "We've Been Bad"]] in "Minstrel Krampus" are powerful soul songs performed by Music/CharlesBradley, although the latter is a duet with Steve.
41** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFV1uT-ihDo "Ollie North,"]] a song that Stan sings about Oliver North to Steve, who doesn't know who he is. It's a hilariously sarcastic ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock'' parody, in addition to being catchy as all hell.
42** ''[[https://youtu.be/RoUe1vlRb6Q?si=tsqHFd-Unx0ty7XB Good Morning, USA! I got a feeling that it's going to be a wonderful day!]]''
43** [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rPIt52BwTak&pp=ygUbZ2lybCB5b3UgbmVlZCBhIHNob3Qgb2YgYjEy Girl You Need a Shot (OF B12 [Boyz 12]) by Boyz 12]] is so damn catchy. It sounds like a legit boy band song.
44** [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlzgmr_9sPA&pp=ygUfZWwgcGVycm8gZWwgcGVycm8gZXMgbWkgY29yYXpvbg%3D%3D El perro, el perro, es mi corazĂłn, El gato, el gato, el gato no es bueno. Cilantro es cantante, Cilantro es muy famoso, Cilantro es el hombre con el queso del diablo.]]
45* BadassDecay: Season 1 Stan? Badass hyper-competent CIA Agent who can spy with the best of 'em and manages a daring parkour-esque escape from Steve in a shopping mall. Season 7 Stan? Attempts free-running, falls and breaks his leg open, gets beaten up on a regular basis and has proven completely incompetent at protecting his family.
46* BaseBreakingCharacter:
47** Steve. He's either an {{Adorkable}} nerd who idolizes his father or an unsympathetic pervert and inconsiderate brat ([[{{Flanderization}} in later seasons anyway]]). Despite garning a number of detractors in the later seasons, he does ''still'' have a number of fans who enjoy the character, much like with Stan.
48** While Stan does still have his fans, the number of detractors he has also seems to increase with each new season (mainly starting with the end of the FOX era/all of the TBS era). This being due to not only the continued increase of focus on his more unlikable qualities which is best highlighted in episodes like "Seizure Suit Stanny", "Father's Daze" and "The Mural of the Story", but also the complete Flanderization of his character devolving him from a slightly smarter Peter Griffin to just another clone of him who is just as (if not '''more''') stupid and dangerous to everyone around him.
49** Debbie Hyman. She was originally pretty popular for being a quirky goth and very different from all the love interests Steve has ever had. The problem was, every episode about her after her introduction was them repeatedly breaking up for whatever reason. Coupled with her miniscule development as well as being used primarily for the sake of jokes about her weight, she became a source of annoyance for some. Others however remember her for who she was and still find her one of the more enjoyable characters of the early seasons. Although no one seems to care for the one-off gag with her mentioning that she shoots the eyes out of squirrels for fun.
50** Rogu. He was clearly created as a parody of [[CousinOliver the usual "new kid joins the family" premise]], but didn't completely avoid the critiques associated with such a character. Some fans dislike him, considering to him to be unfunny and a pointless addition to the series. Then there are others who like him due to his UglyCute charm and for being the one character in the Smith clan who's treated well most of the time. What also stops Rogu from being a complete scrappy is that unlike most examples of a "Cousin Oliver", Rogu didn't join the main cast and quickly wear out his welcome, but remained a rarely-seen recurring character.
51* BetterOnDVD: Much like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', this show has a lot of [[http://www.movie-censorship.com/series.php?TID=7646 extended scenes, unbleeped-out language, and cruder lines of dialogue that only the DVD version can provide]]. Unlike ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', they don't come by the boatload.
52* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: One gag randomly depicts the cast as [[AnimatedActor Animated Actors]]. When Stan walks off the set because he thinks the B-Plot he and Francine are in doesn't make any sense, he storms off past a giant version of Klaus in front of a green screen. This is promptly forgotten in the following scene.
53%%** The "All art is gay" sequence from "Portrait of Francine's Genitals".
54%%** The 1,000th Vagina Joke and Mind Quad.
55* BrokenBase:
56** Phasing out the show's political angle aside from a few occasions [[note]]Such as Season 9's "Honey, I'm Homeland"[[/note]]. Was it a good decision to help further the series or did the show lose what made it special and turn it into a ''Family Guy'' clone?
57** Did "The Two Hundred" live up to its hype of being the milestone 200th episode or was it a boring letdown that shows that the series is running out of steam?
58** Is "No Weddings and a Funeral" the show's answer to WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy's "Seahorse Seashell Party" except done right, or is it just as terrible (if not moreso) because of how much of a carbon copy it is?
59* CrazyIsCool:
60** Principal Lewis. ''He gets into fistfights with dogs'', his life was the basis for the sitcom ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'', and he was a drug trafficker years before he became a high school principal. A lot of episodes ("Iced, Iced Babies," "You Debt Your Life," and "Naked to the Limit, One More Time") infer that Principal Lewis is still a drug trafficker while serving as principal.
61** Roger can sometimes be this, like gunning down a gang like some kind of action hero after getting a faceful of cocaine.
62** Stan had moments of this originally, though his BadassDecay of later episodes diluted it, usually punctuated with others such as Roger and Francine outdoing him at the trope.
63** Bob Tod from "For Whom the Sleigh Bells Toll", a crazy mountain man who makes the strongest whiskey known to man and makes love to slain reindeer, but is more than capable of killing murderous elves and giant evil snowmen.
64* CrossesTheLineTwice: As expected of a Seth [=MacFarlane=] work, though ''American Dad!'' is often admired for showing some restraint and using this trope sparingly like a fine, expensive spice, rather than slathering it on like ranch dressing on an otherwise healthy salad. One such example is the suicidal lemur of "Killer Vacation" TakingTheBullet for Francine and [[RefugeInAudacity then giving a thumbs up to the camera]].
65** Bad Larry describing how he killed someone by strangling him, [[EyeScream popping out one of his eyes without severing the optic nerve]], and turning it around so he could watch himself die.
66---> '''Roger''': My God, Larry!... [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Would it kill ya to give me ONE good hand?!]]
67** The video game Steve and his friends created, which pretty much involves aborting fetus Hitler by throwing stuff at his pregnant mother.
68** The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQdVVZMFTQw Leopard Chainsaw]]" scene. Stan breaking a bottle and being ready to attack Francine with it? Not funny. Giving up then coming back with a chainsaw? Exaggerated, but probably not that funny. [[RefugeInAudacity Giving up and coming back with a leopard?]] This is just getting silly. Giving up and coming back with the same [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs leopard holding the chainsaw?]] ''Hilarious!''
69** The dead-on parody of AwardBait films in "Tearjerker" with ''[[ShowWithinAShow Oscar Gold]]'', the gripping tale of a mentally retarded alcoholic Jew living during the Holocaust whose puppy dies of cancer. A real movie using literally every [[{{Glurge}} downright emotionally exploitative]] story beat to guarantee Oscar prestige would be considered laughably cynical, but the episode's villain revealing that his real intention is to make audiences literally cry themselves to death is a hilarious satire ''of'' these kinds of movies. And just for added authenticity, the trailer is even narrated by Creator/DonLaFontaine, aka "the Movie Trailer Voice Guy," just as dead serious as any real-live drama he'd be advertising.
70** The entire concept of Francine's attempt at a sitcom, ''White Rice''. A real sitcom about the white adoptive daughter of a Chinese family would undoubtedly be seen as tactless and offensive, but the knowledge that Francine is just writing what she knows, to the point that nobody (not even her Chinese co-stars) ever considers that it would be seen as offensive, makes for prime CringeComedy. The fact that the resulting ShowWithinAShow ''is'' [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome considered tactless and offensive]] by its InUniverse audience, enough to get canceled immediately after '''''the literal first joke of its premiere episode''''', makes for the perfect punchline.
71** On paper, the intersex joke that ends "The One That Got Away" (Roger tells his girlfriend that he has no genitals, to which she replies "That's okay. I have both.") would just be an offensive BottomOfTheBarrelJoke, but the [[TheComicallySerious reassuring, almost comforting tone]] with which she says it makes it yet another hilarious example of the character ComicallyMissingThePoint.
72** It is offhandedly mentioned in "Stan's Food Restaurant" that Stan was molested as a child by a priest at summer camp. Not funny and PedophilePriest is such an overused trope. Then it turns out that Stan actually molested the priest. It's so absurd that you can't not laugh. (This is assuming, of course, that Stan's not in denial and blaming himself.)
73--->'''Stan''': Thing is, I'm not sure it was entirely his fault. I may have deserved it. In fact, I may have instigated it. Actually, Francine, I seduced him. I don't know why I wanted him, but I ''wanted'' him. There was no actual inser--.\
74'''Francine''': Stan, No!!
75* DesignatedVillain:
76** Stan in multiple episodes. He borders a VillainProtagonist at times, but a lot of other cases those he opposes are enabled to act even worse. "Bullocks To Stan", "Stan Time" and "The Kidney Stays In The Picture" are perhaps the most ludicrous cases where he is "the bad guy" to his family's immoral actions, despite his approach, while still flawed, being at least somewhat justified. Even in some cases Stan ''is'' undisputedly being an immoral asshole, his adversary will be treated as the good guy by virtue of being a non-Stan {{Jerkass}}.
77** In cases such as "School Lies" and "Daddy Queerest", very little of what went wrong was actually down to Stan's actions; the events were down to circumstances that would have happened either way (Steve's school being fumigated in the former; Terry's dad being a homophobic {{Jerkass}} in the latter) or were actually planned by another character (in both cases, it was actually ''Francine'' who suggested the plan that set up the DisasterDominoes [[note]]sending Steve to a private school and revealing Terry is gay to his father respectively[[/note]]). Stan is still blamed when it goes wrong, ''[[NeverMyFault by her]]''.
78** The early episodes especially pull a BaitAndSwitch with making Stan a villain. In "American Dream Factory," Stan initially opposes illegal immigration, but then starts an illegal factory exploiting workers, with Francine using them for housework. At the end, Hayley calls immigration services, the Mexicans sing a song about America and Stan learns... something. Except the episode actually illustrates a legitimate reason people oppose illegal immigration in the first place: without legal status, migrants will mostly end up in jobs where they will be exploited anyway. If anything, Stan was in the moral right ''until'' he switched views. The closest the episode gets to pointing this out is admitting Hayley is a hypocrite for calling immigration, but because she was rejected by one of the Mexican boys and being petty, not because the workers were being exploited.
79** Done against Hayley in "Jack's Back", where Roger is giving her internship credit by working at his makeshift bar. While Roger's tasks are ridiculous, Hayley blatantly has no intention of doing any work to earn her credit. She actually outdoes Roger of all people with dress up acts and gets her way again.
80* DracoInLeatherPants: Stelio Kontos, Stan's [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp old bully]], has his [[KarmaHoudini unpunished bullying]] overlooked by fans who cheered him beating up Stan [[WellIntentionedExtremist who was trying to bully Steve into toughening up]] and proclaimed him a MemeticBadass with [[ThemeMusicPowerUp an awesome theme-tune]]. Let's face it, though; he was the reason Stan engaged in that maliciously idiotic if well-intentioned stunt in the first place, as well as [[FreudianExcuse part of his somewhat unfortunate childhood]]. There may be times to cheer [[BreakTheHaughty Stan getting taken a peg or two]], but this wasn't one of them. [[TheExtremistWasRight Stan only seemed to be proven right]] in Season 8 when Steve was faced with his own bully, and the strategy of pitting him off against Stelio, albeit with the circumstances slightly different due to [[UnwantedAssistance some unwanted help from Roger]], totally backfires, with Steve getting an off-screen beating from both this time.
81* EnsembleDarkhorse:
82** Stelio Kontos, Stan's childhood bully, has a massive fanbase due to being perceived as a badass with a memorable {{Leitmotif}}. His popularity eventually led to him making more appearances after his debut episode, though still strictly as a supporting character.
83** Avery Bullock and Principal Lewis are two of the most popular characters for similar reasons. They are both AxCrazy, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} authority figures who deliver some of the funniest lines in the show.
84** Many people love the Majestic due to its theme song.
85** Ricky Spanish is by far one of Roger's most beloved disguises, due to his deranged nature and horribly cruel actions (to the point of [[EvilerThanThou scaring Roger himself]]) being absolutely ''hilarious''. The disguise's sheer popularity eventually caused it to return in "Persona Assistant" where Stan and Rogu get to wear it, and he appeared as a playable character in ''VideoGame/AnimationThrowdownTheQuestForCards''.
86** Hayley's friends Danuta and Nerfer. The former especially after the episode "Shark?!" where she expressed romantic interest in Klaus (unfortunately, Klaus' poor social skills and desire to impress her screwed everything up) and subsequent episodes show that Klaus hasn't gotten over her. There are a decent number of fans who ship Klaus and Danuta, both ironically and uninronically, though most who unironically ship them will insist on Klaus finally receiving a new human body first.
87%%** Greg Corbin and Terry Bates, the gay local news anchors.
88%%** Michelle, the worst lawyer in the afterlife, enough to cameo in the SeriesFauxnale "Rapture's Delight".
89%%** Hiko & Akiko Yoshida.
90%%** Gwen Ling..
91[[/folder]]
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93[[folder:G-P]]
94* GeniusBonus: In "Red October Sky," one of the ways Stan's old Soviet enemy Sergei shows that he's embraced American culture is wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh t-shirt. If you know that the Soviet Union (now Russia) had a very popular adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh, ''Animation/VinniPukh'', you'll know this is the first hint that Sergei is lying.
95* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The show is very popular in France that the French channel NRJ 12 airs eight episodes each Sunday.
96* GrowingTheBeard: Midway through Season 1, after the "[[Recap/AmericanDadS2E5StanOfArabia Stan of Arabia]]" two-parter. When it first started, a lot of people thought the show was okay (while some wrote it off as a ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' knock off -- or a knock-off of a knock-off, if they were diehard ''Simpsons'' fans who thought shows like ''Family Guy'' were weakening ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''), but starting with the "Stan of Arabia" two-parter, the show got better in both animation and humor. On a broader level, the show is generally agreed to have really found its footing after it stopped focusing on being a critique of American conservatives in the George W Bush years and started leaning more and more towards bizarre and often absurdist humor.
97* HarsherInHindsight:
98** The 2005 episode "Stan Knows Best" makes fun of how inexpensive community college is (Hayley's teacher refusing to grade her paper because she doesn't have the $85.00 for tuition [after Stan announces that he's not giving Hayley any more money for school], so Hayley takes a job as a strip club waitress -- and later a stripper -- to pay for college). In later years, community colleges (and the regular four-year colleges and universities) have faced major cutbacks, and tuition has skyrocketed. Tuition has nearly doubled in California in just four years.
99** Music/WhitneyHouston being paid in crack to sing to Francine. Not so funny after 2012, since drugs were considered a contributing factor in her death.
100** Remember the two-part episode "Stan of Arabia" when Steve goes bonkers after seeing Creator/AngelinaJolie's boobs? Not so funny now that Jolie got a preemptive double mastectomy after finding out that her mother's side of the family has a history of contracting breast cancer.
101** Bullock expressing the desire in "Roger Codger" to 'track down the bastards that have been harboring (Roger) and punish them brutally. I mean, really brutally. Weird stuff. ''Butt'' stuff.' This became much darker after the Feinstein report on torture revealed that 'rectal feeding' and similar methods were part of the CIA interrogation arsenal at the time the episode was aired.
102** Stan's line about how Terry's dad being an ArmoredClosetGay, similar to Kevin Spacey...[[BaitAndSwitchComment 's character in]] ''Film/KPax''. Since 2017, the ''K-Pax'' reference to Kevin Spacey being unable to deal with his homosexuality wouldn't be needed (and not just because that movie is all but forgotten).
103** One of the characters killed in the "100 A.D." bus crash was Beauregard [=LaFontaine=]. His voice actor, Creator/LeslieJordan, died in a car crash in 2022.
104* HeartwarmingInHindsight: In "Joint Custody", Hayley says that one day, she and Jeff might get married. This eventually happened during Season 6's opener, "100 A.D.".
105* HilariousInHindsight:
106** In "Daddy Queerest," a drunken Stan mistakes UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela for Creator/MorganFreeman. It ''is'' somewhat funny due to Mandela's and Freeman's similarities in appearance, but it really becomes HilariousInHindsight when you realize that the episode came on seven months before the release of the movie ''Film/{{Invictus}}'', who -- surprise! -- had Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.
107** In "Homeland Insecurity", the Iranian couple Stan is paranoid of are named Bob and Linda. [[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Flash forward six years...]]
108** A minor plot point in Smooshed: A Love Story was Creator/ReeseWitherspoon testing if she could still pass as a teenager in order to sell a sequel to Film/{{Election}} to Warner Bros. Just a few months later, a sequel was announced, with Witherspoon reprising her role, although it's set to follow the character as a middle-aged woman rather than a teenager.
109** In 2019, someone made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzJVwEQyWy4 a version of the opening sequence]] in which Stan doesn't get out of bed. Four years later, there'd be a canon episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eLxIavYtQ8 where the same thing happens]].
110* HollywoodPudgy: Numerous gags throughout the series imply that Hayley is heavier than she looks.
111* IncestYayShipping: Many adult-rated fanfics have paired Steve up with Hayley or Francine. It doesn't help that Steve has canonically expressed incestuous attraction to both. Hayley also gets paired with Stan. After all, she did date his body-double Bill and according to "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", Stan might not be Hayley's biological father.
112* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Part of why some fans hated "Family Plan" was due to the episode abruptly throwing away its original plot of Francine reconnecting with her birth family the Dawsons for Nicholas (her birth father) ordering everyone in the family to fight each other to the death essentially turning the last act into a gorier rehash of "Familyland".
113* JerkassWoobie:
114** Roger. He is so evil because his species releases a bile that kills them if they don't "let their evilness out". Made worse when it is revealed the reason he is trapped on Earth is that the others of his species wanted to get rid of him. In addition, there are moments where he really seems to care about his adoptive family. It is implied that Roger only acts that way because he was made to be evil, and not by choice, and if you stop to think about it, it's terrible being him.
115** Stan. His father abandoned him as a child, his mother made him grow up too soon and he was even unluckier than Steve was as a teenager with girls. Since then, no matter how hard he tries, he's at a dead end in his career, he can never make a long term connection with his kids (it's a mix between his general disinterest in the stuff they say and their having an incredibly low opinion of him most of the time), his only friend is a sociopathic alien and anytime he has a chance of making his own life better, he has to give it up for Francine or his kids.
116** Klaus. He fucks with the Smiths (namely Steve and Roger) at every turn mostly because ItAmusedMe, but he WasOnceAMan who was put in a goldfish body just so Germany wouldn't win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, and it's not like the Smiths treat him much better than he treats them.
117* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Steve's been paired with a surprising number of characters. Along with all of his canon love interests (particularly Debbie and Akiko), he's also been paired with his best friends [[HoYay Snot and Roger]], Jeff, the other [[IncestYayShipping Smith family members]], and even characters from other Creator/SethMacFarlane shows like [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Meg Griffin]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow Roberta Tubbs]].
118* LoveToHate: Roger is a [[EvilIsPetty petty]], murderous [[TheSociopath sociopath]], and yet he remains one of '''the''' most [[LaughablyEvil hilarious]] characters in the series.
119* MemeticMutation:
120** A popular gif to find online is Stan screaming "DIE, CALORIES, DIE!" from ''The American Dad After School Special''.
121** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmnVvUR4Gtk "DAMN YOU, HASBRO!"]] is a much used clip among the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Brony fandom]].
122** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzJVwEQyWy4 An edit of the show's theme song with Stan sleeping throughout]] is used commonly as a reply to something that someone doesn't care about. This eventually evolved into other edits of the theme song, such as editing it to the tune of other Seth [=MacFarlane=] theme songs, or editing other characters to sing it.
123** Edits of the theme song created a joke {{speedrun}} community for it, with known "exploits" such as the floor skip and the newspaper skip to see who can get to the end of the song in the fastest time.
124** [[https://youtu.be/EhuoG3arFQQ?t=37 "Well, there you have it. That's our story. (Main Character) is dead. Good night!"]] is occasionally used in response to sudden main character deaths in other series.
125* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Furries tend to have a very good sense of humor about the "furry convention" gag from "One Little Word"[[note]]In which Bullock holds secret meetings with Stan in increasingly bizarre places, eventually winding up in a furry convention where one guy in a squirrel suit tries and fails to flirt with him. Immediately after, a guy in a car costume pantomimes hitting the squirrel, who proceeds to lie on the floor while the car costume guy [[RefugeInAudacity gyrates over him and suggestively whispers "Vroom vroom]]."[[/note]], as they recognize that it's meant to be exaggerated beyond any resemblance to actual furries and, if anything, [[CrossesTheLineTwice make them look normal by comparison]]. A few fursuiters went so far as to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzho-Gqj56o&ab_channel=KeksTheFurry recreate the scene at a con]].
126* {{Misblamed}}: While Stan is often accused of being just another Homer Simpson rip-off, since Creator/SethMacFarlane's previous show (''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'') has been branded a ''Simpsons'' knock-off. In reality, Stan has very little in common with Homer other than being a father who occasionally does stupid things and contends with his daughter, who is a bleeding-heart liberal. If anything, Stan has more in common with [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Zapp Brannigan]] or [[Series/AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] than he does Homer.
127* {{Moe}}: Francine's cheerful, perky attitude and sugary-sweet voice make her come off as utterly ''adorable''.
128* OvershadowedByControversy: "The Mural of the Story" is mostly remembered for its infamous {{Gorn}} scene, and to a lesser degree how the scene in question was first previewed seven months before the episode aired at SDCC 2017 in a room full of '''kids''' who reacted to the scene mostly through crying and horrified screams of terror.
129* ParanoiaFuel: The ChristmasEpisode's exact continuity and canonicity be damned, "Dreaming of a White Porsche Christmas" has the idea that sometimes, who you think might be your real family could actually be fakes.
130[[/folder]]
131
132[[folder:R-Z]]
133* RealismInducedHorror:
134** "The American Dad After School Special" displays a realistic portrayal of anorexia. When Stan becomes insecure about his weight, he skips meals for ''weeks'' until he is nothing but skin and bones, and even then, he still views himself as obese. Stan even goes so far as to invent an imaginary trainer in Zack, fueled purely by his insecurities and ego; many people have done similar things to tell themselves they're justified in the way they act.
135** "A.T. the Abusive Terrestrial" has Roger move in with a nine-year-old boy named Henry, who repeatedly beats and insults him, constantly makes fake apologies, uses CrocodileTears, and even resorts to threatening the lives of him and his loved ones if he tries to escape or they try to help him. The subject of DomesticAbuse is played completely straight here even if it's only a child because people like Henry do exist in real life and use the same tactics on their victims.
136* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
137** Klaus was not liked much by fans during the early episodes, due to him having little characterization beyond being a jerkass pervert who fawned over Francine and treated everyone like garbage. Later seasons rectified this by dropping his crush on Francine and having him face consequences for his jerkassery by turning him into the show's ButtMonkey, and when he does act like a jerk to the other Smiths, it usually in retaliation for something they did.
138** Hayley and Jeff due to the both of them being portrayed more sympathetically after Jeff was abducted as well as being the few still consistently likable characters in the main cast following the show's switch to TBS.
139* TheScrappy:
140** [[ObnoxiousInLaws Francine's parents]]. They often come over to the Smith household uninvited, and repay Stan by belittling him, using his property without permission, and enforcing [[AsianRudeness their rules]] despite being under his roof, with all of this meant to be swept aside and forgiven just because Francine's biological parents are worse.
141** Fung Wah from "American Fung", for whom the plot repeatedly stopped just to obnoxiously gush over, leaving a BizarroEpisode in his wake.
142** Billy has a notorious hatedom due to his grotesque character and annoying voice as well as adding little to the episodes (of which he has received many since his debut) outside of cheap shock value.
143* SeasonalRot: The TBS seasons tend to get this a fair bit, with frequent complaints including the ComedicSociopathy getting amped up too far from its already high levels (with the infamous "The Mural of the Story" getting the most flack), sloppier and overly wacky storytelling compared to the more focused and intricate plotlines of previous seasons, and a general sense that the show's ''Family Guy'' influence is creeping in more and more and affecting the show negatively. That said, the seasons do still have their fans and are home to some acclaimed, well-loved episodes like "Rabbit Ears", "Persona Assistant", "Gold Top Nuts", "The Unincludeds", and "The Two Hundred."
144* SoOkayItsAverage: While most people will agree that the show went through SeasonalRot after the ChannelHop to TBS, it's also generally agreed that the show did not go downhill to anywhere near the extent that ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' did.
145* ThemePairing: Meg Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Roberta Tubbs from ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', and Hayley Smith are all the unappreciated daughters on Creator/SethMacFarlane shows.
146* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
147** Debbie Hyman, for she was the first girlfriend Steve had for more than one episode. Unfortunately, she was never really given much development beyond that; most of her appearances ended with her and Steve breaking up and she was often used as a target for cheap jokes regarding her weight or monstrous appetite.
148** Akiko Yoshida, yet another romantic interest for Steve who appeared more than once. Like Debbie, she never received any significant development beyond being Toshi's translator (initially) and a girl that Steve happened to have a crush on. She finally gets more development in "Spelling Bee My Baby", which sees the two officially becoming a couple, only for her to abruptly disappear in the following episodes, leading Steve to become single once more.
149** Linda Memari, who was written to be Francine's friend. Additionally, she has a secret crush on Francine (although her husband Bob is aware of it), leading to an UnresolvedSexualTension. This was never brought up again, since she's pushed to the background through the rest of the series. And in one episode, Roger claims that she died.
150* UglyCute: Despite being Roger's tumor spawn, Rogu is surprisingly cute.
151* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Episodes from the first two seasons before the show shifted from politics to outlandish plots are very clearly a product of both the mid-to-late 2000s and the Bush administration, with the constant bashing on Bush, his administration's policies and events that occurred during the time like the War on Terror. Beside that, the earlier episodes also had contemporary references like jokes about the NBC sitcom ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' not being funny (as seen on "[[Recap/AmericanDadS2E14HelpingHandis Helping Handis]]").
152** "Kung Pao Turkey" has Stan spending most of the episode going through Native American allegories while wandering the city in a Washington Redskins outfit before settling down for Thanksgiving dinner [[CowboysAndIndians with a group of Dallas Cowboys fans]]. After years of controversy, the organization would drop the "Redskins" nickname in 2020.
153* UnintentionallySympathetic: Stan's status as the show's DesignatedVillain leads to a "Stan acts like a jerk and must learn a lesson" formula. However, most of Stan's flaws have been given very understandable [[FreudianExcuse Freudian Excuses]], something that in a lot of cases those he opposes don’t have.
154* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The Smiths in "Family Affair". The episode treats Roger hanging out with different families as if it's cheating but instead it makes the Smiths come off as possessive and clingy because Roger has other friends.
155* TheWoobie:
156** Sidney Huffman, one of Roger's personas that took a life of its own because Roger couldn't deal with the emotion of guilt. Due to this, his and Roger's credit cards are identical, so when Roger found out someone else was using his credit card, [[DisproportionateRetribution he destroys his life]], not knowing they are one and the same. Once he finds out, he and Sidney embrace in order to become one again. [[spoiler:Except Roger quickly stabs him in the back, saying Sidney's NiceGuy attitude is 'cramping his style'.]]
157** Hayley has become this as time has gone on with her becoming something of the ButtMonkey. It really wasn't helped by the events of "Naked to The Limit, One More Time" where Hayley basically lost the love of her life because of Roger's actions. Most of the time after that episode, she was seen mourning Jeff or trying to move on from him. Just as she was preparing to move from Jeff after he told her to, Roger again screws this up by killing her new love interest who would have most likely made her life better.
158** Jeff was a lazy stoner in the beginning of the show, but has become more of the woobie after he married Hayley. He is separated from Hayley and almost never gets to see her again. And just when he is reunited with her, everything goes wrong and he decides to let her get with her other love interest so he leaves and tells her to move on. All of these bad events that happen to him are Roger's fault.
159** Klaus Heisler used to be an Olympic skier whose life was going great. Then, on the night he planned to propose to his girlfriend Elsa, he caught her cheating on him with the entire East German bobsled team. Some time later, in 1986, the CIA switched his brain with the brain of a goldfish to prevent him from winning the gold medal for East Germany. Now, as a fish, he's confined to a small bowl nearly 24 hours a day, gets little respect from anyone in the Smith household, and is often depicted as lonely and depressed. Hayley possibly sums up his woobie status with this quote from the episode "Man in the Moonbounce":
160--->'''Klaus:''' You know what I miss most about being human?\
161'''Hayley:''' ... mattering?
162[[/folder]]
163
164!!YMMV tropes with their own pages:
165[[index]]
166* [[BizarroEpisode/AmericanDad Bizarro Episode]]
167* [[Squick/AmericanDad Squick]]
168* [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot/AmericanDad They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]
169[[/index]]

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