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1!!The following have their own pages
2[[index]]
3* [[FanonDiscontinuity/FamilyGuy Fanon Discontinuity]]
4* [[HarsherInHindsight/FamilyGuy Harsher in Hindsight]]
5* [[HilariousInHindsight/FamilyGuy Hilarious in Hindsight]]
6* [[Memes/FamilyGuy Memetic Mutation]]
7* [[NauseaFuel/FamilyGuy Nausea Fuel]]
8* [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot/FamilyGuy They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]
9* [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/FamilyGuy Unintentionally Unsympathetic]]
10[[/index]]
11----
12!!Other examples:
13
14[[foldercontrol]]
15
16[[folder:A-C]]
17* {{Adorkable}}:
18** Meg's social awkwardness and how warm-hearted she is comes off as very adorkable.
19** Patty, Esther, and Ruth all share Meg's social awkwardness.
20** Chris' spotlight usually depicts him as a kind-hearted, hyperactive KiddieKid who's insecure, doesn't have many friends, and shouts out random things at the most unexpected of times.
21* AlasPoorScrappy:
22** Brian's massive ego and selfish tendencies earned him a lot of hate in later seasons, but his death is utterly tragic and without doubt the single most tearjerking part of the whole show, despite being [[DeathIsCheap quickly undone]] with a {{retcon}}.
23** Vinny was a ReplacementScrappy for taking the place of Brian for a couple of episodes. Despite not actually dying, he [[spoiler:gets a touching send-off when Stewie realizes that saving Brian's life means that the Griffins will never adopt him]].
24** Quagmire is a polarizing character due to being a lecherous pervert, but even his detractors felt sorry for him in "Quagmire's Quagmire", where he finds himself in an abusive relationship with a woman who repeatedly humiliates and rapes him.
25* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
26** Does Lois genuinely ''try'' to do the right thing for her children and husband or is it just a façade to hide the fact she is a horrible woman who is just as bad a parent as Peter is?
27** Peter Griffin: a well-meaning idiot who doesn't know any better, or a dangerous sociopath (though given the episode where he's declared intellectually disabled, it might be both)
28** Meg Griffin: Is the family's mistreatment of her actually resentment that's been building over the years from back when she was whiny, mean and selfish in earlier seasons, or is that Meg merely lashing out of frustration for being in a family of {{Jerkass}}ses?
29*** Also, along with Peter's treatment of her. Is it truly because he does it for laughs? Or is there some deeper reason to it? In "Screwed the Pooch", it turns out Peter's not even her real father, as Brian revealed her true dad is someone named Stan Thompson. But she was wearing her headphones at the time so didn't hear. Depending on how one interprets this big revelation (whether it being true or just a one-off joke), it may (somewhat) explain why Peter treats his daughter so harshly. As Lois may have had an affair on him, and therefore he sees Meg as a big reminder of it.
30** Did Bertram think Stewie was bluffing before he [[spoiler: killed Leonardo Da Vinci]] or believe that Stewie was telling the truth? He said it was WorthIt but was it to take a risk on his bluff or was it a case of TakingYouWithMe?
31** Brian [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in jerkass]] after "Life Of Brian". Was it mere {{flanderization}} of the character's more selfish traits from earlier seasons, or did Brian's knowledge of the fact that he died in the old timeline cause his true colors to be revealed?
32** Was Dylan choosing to forgive Brian in "Brian's A Bad Father" out of love or pity for his father?
33** Does Brian really care about Peter? Nearly every time Peter puts himself in danger or nearly kills himself, all Brian does is give a warning but doesn't actually try to physically prevent the act. It's been long established that he has feelings for Lois and when Peter was assumed dead, Lois married Brian after he picked up the pieces. Does Brian want Peter to kill himself so he can remarry Lois?
34** Meg and Chris have had multiple BrotherSisterIncest jokes by now. Is Meg taking advantage of her brother's idiocy to deal with her own loneliness, or are they equal partners in the weirdness?
35** Quagmire's hatred of dogs. Did [[SitcomArchNemesis Brian]] shape his opinion of the whole species, or was it vice versa and getting talked down to by a "filthy mongrel" of all things is [[BerserkButton the line]] for him?
36** There's some fans theorizing that Susie Swanson may be a lesbian due to her immediate dislike of Stewie, her beating him up for taking her Barbie doll, her not responding to Stewie's (or any other boys') advances and Peter calling her a lesbian at one point. Considering that her inner voice is played by Patrick Stewart, she might also be either non-binary or transgender.
37* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Due to ParodyDisplacement, a lot of people outside the United States didn't realise that Pepperidge Farm is a real brand of bakery products, and not just a fictional company ''Family Guy'' invented for a joke.
38* AmericansHateTingle: The show is unpopular in France with some people blaming the poor European French dub where it was given. Despite this, Family Guy is still shown on MCM in France, and their dub is still going. It had a similar reputation in French Canada where the European French dub aired for a time, and was later replaced with a Canadian French dub with similarly lukewarm reception.
39** Combined with the complaints of the Moral Guardians who perceive cartoons as the entertainment for children and being too similar to "The Simpsons" (it doesn't help that in the dub the show is titled "The Griffins"), the show wasn't popular in Russia before the widespread Internet. Nowadays the show has a sizable fanbase in Russia, because people began understanding American pop-culture from 50s to 80s and because of memes that made Family Guy popular.
40* {{Anvilicious}}: The show at its most serious, which a lot of fans don't like about many episodes of the Post-Uncanceled seasons. This is exacerbated by the fact that it tends to preach about important and controversial topics such as politics and religion.
41* ArchivePanic: It hit this by about 2011, at which point it had reached its 150th episode. Despite a comment that year from [=MacFarlane=] about ending the series, it's still in production, reaching 400 episodes in January 2023. Doesn't help the fact that several episodes are hour-long.
42* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The Creator/{{Disney}} universe in "Road to the Multiverse" perfectly mimics the art style of classic Disney films and is gorgeously animated. It's widely considered the best part of the episode.
43* BadassDecay:
44** Stewie is considered to have undergone this by many during the show's later seasons. A quick example is "Halloween on Spooner Street," wherein Stewie not only ''cries'' after some bullies steal his Halloween candy, he also wonders if he's gone too far promptly after shooting a rocket at them. This is in complete contrast to his characterization in the season 3 episode "The Kiss Seen Around the World", in which he kidnaps and gleefully tries to torture his bully. He occasionally lapses back into his old characterization, but it's quickly dropped afterward each time. Another example is "Patriot Games" where Stewie goes from mercilessly beating Brian to get his money to whining lamentfully about Brian beating him up. Occasionally this gets lampshaded.
45--->'''Brian:''' All right, I think you're going soft. I mean, when was the last time you tried to blow something up, or take over the world, or even used the phrase, "Damn you"?\
46'''Stewie:''' Hey, I got a lot on my plate, man. I'm learning to use the toilet. I'm learning what shapes are. I spent half an hour laughing at my own feet yesterday.
47** Joe has pretty much been reduced to a joke about the handicapped with rage issues. Few people seem to remember he was a pretty efficient cop who just so happened to be in a wheelchair after getting paralyzed while on duty. In "Herpes, the Love Sore", he gave up after someone tripped him out of his wheelchair, something that old Joe would never do.
48* BaseBreakingCharacter:
49** Stewie, post-Villain Decay. One side hates him for being a pathetic shadow of his former self, while the other loves him for being the most likable member of the modern Griffin family and for providing a good chunk of the series' humor.
50** Brian. People either like him for being the OnlySaneMan and his friendship with Stewie, or hate him for being a self-absorbed AuthorAvatar.
51** Peter is either loved because his random and stupid antics keep the show entertaining or hated for being a PsychopathicManchild and abusing his daughter for his own amusement.
52** Fans seem divisive as to whether turning Quagmire into a SelfDeprecation avatar counts as an AuthorsSavingThrow or the complete destruction of his character.
53** Consuela: Half of the fandom thinks she's an utterly ''hysterical'' EnsembleDarkhorse and a FountainOfMemes ("No... no..."), while the other half looks at her as being the EthnicScrappy who's only there to be obnoxious and troll the Griffins.
54** Principal Shepherd. While some fans like the addition of another authority figure that isn't a ''complete'' idiot, others feel his increased appearances are unnecessary and that he's a poor man's substitute of Mayor West, even to the point of unfavorably comparing him to [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Gil Gunderson]] (who is also looked at as a ReplacementScrappy for a beloved retired character whose voice actor died in real life). Not helping matters is the fact that compared to other "school principal" characters on FOX animated shows, he seems somewhat boring and by-the-numbers- recall that [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Principal Skinner]] and [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Principal Lewis]] are [[EnsembleDarkhorse Ensemble Dark Horses]] in their respective shows.
55** Brian's cousin Jasper, is seen as either a rude conglomeration of nearly every offensive gay stereotype or a NiceGuy goofball who’s really not that offensive.
56* BetterOnDVD: The DVD version (at least for the episodes made after the show came back after being cancelled) is ''not'' like the version you see on TV (not even the Creator/AdultSwim version). Words like "fuck" and "shit" aren't bleeped, there are alternate scenes and lines (some of which are arguably better than what the TV version has), and you get commentary and deleted scene reels on what was originally supposed to be in the episode.
57* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: "Brian Sings and Swings" opens with Peter awakening and preparing to go to work. Halfway through the segment, the scene suddenly cuts to a mysterious machine placing Chris' hair on the boy's bald scalp, to the sound of ''Franchise/StarWars''' "Imperial March". This has no bearing on the main plot, is not lampshaded by any character, and is immediately forgotten once the episode goes back to Peter's storyline.
58* BizarroEpisode: "Da Boom", the episode with the nuclear explosion due to the MillenniumBug. The Griffins try to find a lost Twinkie factory, and decide to form a new town, with Stewie turning into an octopus. (It all [[ItMakesSenseInContext makes sense in context]].) At the end, a ''Dallas'' character wakes up from a dream and tells Bobby about this weird episode. Bobby doesn't understand what ''Family Guy'' is, which freaks her out even more. And it was the first episode to feature Ernie the Giant Chicken and his fights with Peter. Since its one of the most well loved episodes this is probably a case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]].
59* CargoShip:
60** Parodied in the episode "I Dream of Jesus", where, after Peter loses his "Surfin' Bird" record, he goes on a rant and lets slip the fact that [[TooMuchInformation he had sex with it.]]
61** Also, [[{{Squick}} this]], from the end of the "Li'l Rascals" parody:
62-->'''Peter:''' I'm going to go microwave a bagel and have sex with it.
63-->'''Quagmire:''' Butter's in the fridge!
64** Peter and a cardboard cutout of Kathy Ireland.
65%%Do NOT add any other entries for Complete Monster without going to the cleanup thread first.
66%%* Crazy Awesome: Mayor West, who ''[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hb6mWt3SqIM punched the constellation of Orion]]'' ([[spoiler: revealing it to be Creator/OrionPictures]]), among other things.
67* CatharsisFactor:
68** Meg [[TheDogBitesBack beating up Peter and her bullies]] in "Dial Meg for Murder".
69*** In general, any time [[AlphaBitch Connie Di'Amico]] recieves her comeuppance is met with cheers from the audience, who know full well [[AssholeVictim she deserves it.]]
70** Divisive as "Screams of Silence" might be, [[TheSociopath Jeff's]] gruesome death from the hands of Quagmire is still nothing short of satisfying.
71** To a lesser degree, for those who dislike [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Lucy Van Pelt]], Peter's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on her in "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag" is gratifying as it is amusing.
72--->'''Youtube Comment:''' I love how even those who are anti-violence or child abuse agree this was satisfying. And it was.
73** As seen in TakeThatScrappy below, plenty of viewers will be satisfied whenever [[{{Jerkass}} Quagmire]] gets his comeuppance, especially in "Bookie of the Year" and "The Unkindest Cut".
74* CriticalBacklash: The later seasons (particularly Season 7 onward) catch a lot of heat from fans and critics, but there is a surprising number of people willing to defend them, stating that even the later episodes have more than their share of SugarWiki/FunnyMoments. Notably, comments on [=YouTube=] regarding SeasonalRot are often met with disdain.
75* CriticalDissonance: Extraordinarily popular with casual viewers and some critics, but a decent amount of critics and fans feel it’s very lowbrow, formulaic and just [[ReferenceOverdosed rips off other franchises under the moniker ‘parody’ while much of it just feels more like ‘plagiarism’]], especially in the [[SeasonalRot middle seasons]].
76* CrossesTheLineTwice: Though the show has always been a source of controversy since its premiere, the early seasons were noticeably a lot tamer compared to the rest of the series. The seasons from 2005 onward have become infamous for going out of their way to make the most offensive, downright ''nasty'' jokes possible.
77** One episode has Stewie's class perform in Terri Schiavo: TheMusical, where the woman is referred to as "the most expensive plant you'll ever see". Schiavo's family openly expressed their disgust towards the episode, calling it cruel and bigoted.
78** In "Airport 07", the news report on the plane crash contains three simulations: what would have happened if the plane crashed into a school, if it crashed into a school for bunnies, and if it crashed into a school for bunnies and a surviving passenger took his anger out on his wife.
79** Peter's pitch for a 9/11-themed screwball comedy in "Back To The Woods" is intentionally as tasteless and offensive as possible. Until he says "[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking The voice of the plane is]] Creator/DavidSpade," at which point it becomes hysterical.
80** Pre-cancellation seasons had these as well. In "Love Thy Trophy", Stewie becomes adopted by a foster family while addicted to pancakes. He makes fun of his foster siblings' languages while demanding some, finishing with "[[DarkestAfrica Click, click, bloody, click pancakes]]!"
81[[/folder]]
82[[folder:D-I]]
83* DesignatedHero: Peter, Brian and Lois at their worst, and even Meg in some episodes when she grabs the JerkassBall (for example, making constant passes at Brian, who was dating Jillian at the time, and then attempting to rape him, blackmailing her brother (and continuing to blackmail him even after he completes the list that she gives him) and having Bonnie arrested just to be closer to Joe.
84* DesignatedLoveInterest: Brian and Lois. Before the series amplified their character traits, Brian only seemed to be interested in Lois because she's nice and caring, which isn't really going above and beyond a stereotypical housewife and matriarch. Outside their relationship as dog and owner, the two don't really have enough depth to show how they could work as a couple and the primary argument that Brian has when it comes to being in a relationship with Lois is that Peter doesn't appreciate her enough and she can do better with Brian. The series rarely shows her and Brian bonding over any shared interests or showing how Lois is still attracted to Peter despite Brian's efforts. In recent seasons, the crush has devolved into just sexual attraction as Brian openly lusts for Lois and admits that he just wants to have sex with her, not date her.
85* DontShootTheMessage: For a time, Brian's liberal atheist viewpoints and his need to constantly preach them to characters/the audience (most notoriously in "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven") were taken to such levels that it even began to [[StopBeingStereotypical annoy the show's Democratic viewer base]], many of whom agreed with the general message but thought the ''execution'' simply made him look bad.
86* EnsembleDarkHorse:
87** There are ''Website/{{Facebook}}'' groups based on one-off characters such as Sneakers O'Toole and Mayor Bee.
88** Ernie the Giant Chicken, Death, the Evil Monkey, Ollie Williams, Seamus, Herbert, Greased-up Deaf Guy, and Bruce (the Performance Artist that has "Oh no!" as a CatchPhrase) are all popular among fans. They were also one time characters before cancellation but due to their popularity they became {{Recurring Extra}}s soon after.
89** Matt Groening has said he's quite jealous of Ernie, and wishes he'd come up with the idea. You don't get much more dark horse-y than that.
90** Sam from "To Love and Die in Dixie", for her surprisingly warm romance with Chris.
91** Elle Hitler. Despite her last name and being a bonafide GlurgeAddict, many love her sweet, easygoing nature and for being one of the few recurring characters that isn't a jerk or an idiot.
92* EthnicScrappy:
93** Jerome, who has gone from a NiceGuy who simply dated Lois in the past to nothing but a bunch of black stereotypes rolled into one. Ultimately, with Cleveland back, he's just redundant.
94** Mr. Washee Washee literally has no character outside of being an Asian stereotype who owns a dry cleaners, speaks in an overdone Asian accent, has a very short temper, watches Star Trek (or as he calls it, "The Mr. Sulu Show", because Sulu is his favorite character), and he beats up Peter by way of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII''.
95** Mort, who gradually devolved into a walking Jewish caricature (which is rather ironic considering he started out as merely AmbiguouslyJewish). Over time, he became a nebbish, money-grubbing, easily-spooked whiner who writes angry letters demanding compensation for the most minor of inconveniences (on multiple occasions, he's written to Ritz over some broken crackers in boxes he's bought). Lampshaded in the episode "Road to Germany", when an anti-Semitic caricature in Nazi Germany looks exactly like him.
96%%* EvilIsCool: Stewie Griffin.
97* FandomRivalry: The show has many rivals but here are its biggest ones:
98** While the rivalry has died down a little bit in recent years, there's a big one with ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' due to both shows [[TheyCopiedItNowItSucks being extremely similar]].
99** There's a very intense one with ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. There's apparently a friendly feud between the two creators but naturally, the fans have taken it way too [[SeriousBusiness seriously]] and way too far.
100** ''Family Guy'' also has one with ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers''. This is due to ''Family Guy'' repeatedly going out of it's way to make fun of ''Bob's Burgers''. Even if it's all in good fun, a lot of the jokes come off as a bit ''too'' mean-spirited for fans of ''Bob's Burgers''.
101** Despite ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' being a Creator/SethMacFarlane show, there's a rivalry between the two shows. ''American Dad'' fans consider their show to be superior and generally wish ''Family Guy'' would just disappear while ''American Dad'' is seen as a rip-off by ''Family Guy'' fans and as "Family Guy 2" by ''Family Guy'''s detractors.
102* FansPreferTheNewHer: In the episode "Sibling Rivalry", Lois gains weight when Peter gets a vasectomy, up until she becomes as obese as Peter. The show treats this as one of the worst things ever, though some fans (and [[ChubbyChaser Peter himself]]) believe [[BigBeautifulWoman she looks sexy while she was pudgy]].
103* FranchiseOriginalSin:
104** The pre-[[UnCanceled uncancellation]] seasons already showed many of the traits that would fully manifest once it came back, including {{Cutaway Gag}}s, {{Overly Long Gag}}s, and the main characters bordering on {{Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist}}s. In the earlier seasons these were balanced out and broken up enough that it wasn't as much of a problem, and the formula was new enough that they were still genuinely surprising when they happened and not expected as they are now.
105** The criticism of religious people seen in the series can be spotted as early as Season 2, with "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E2HolyCrap Holy Crap]]" focusing on Peter's Catholic father Francis who comes and makes things worse for the Griffin family while living in the family's house. However, Francis is balanced out by the Pope who is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and grows impatient with Francis’s nastiness, implying the issues with Peter's father are more linked to zealotry and a general mean attitude rather than completely stemming from Catholicism. This is to contrast with the infamous Season 7 episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E11NotAllDogsGoToHeaven Not All Dogs Go To Heaven]]", which operates on the idea that BeliefMakesYouStupid altogether.
106** The cast’s horrific treatment of [[ButtMonkey Meg]] is now one of the most frequently criticized aspects of the show, provoking many appalled reactions from fans; despite the show’s attempts to play her treatment for BlackComedy, quite a few people have pointed out that it often crosses the line into outright ''emotional abuse''. But in some ways, this can be traced back to the earliest episodes, where Meg was [[CharacterizationMarchesOn a considerably different character]]. While her family certainly didn’t hate her in those episodes, one often got the sense that the ''writers'' didn’t particularly care for her: she was the [[FlatCharacter least developed]] of the Griffin children by a pretty wide margin, and didn’t really have her own comedic gimmick like her parents and siblings did. In later seasons, the writers never really gave her CharacterDevelopment, but they did give her the "gimmick" of being despised and/or ignored by her entire family -- which many fans liked even less. If you compare Meg’s appearances in Season 1 to her later appearances, you’ll notice that she isn’t exactly less of a FlatCharacter in those early episodes, but she at least wasn’t just the object of other people’s hatred.
107** One of the most frequent criticisms is despite the show's supposedly progressive slant, the show is reliant on offensive {{stereotype}}s to the point of outright bigotry. The show has always had stereotypical characters, of course, but in earlier seasons nearly all of these stereotypes mocked the stereotypes ''themselves'' far more than it did the minorities they represented. It was such a successful formula that many of these stereotypical characters were [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales widely praised by the same ethnicities they seemed to mock]]. However, over the years, the writers seem to have gotten the idea that this means people like having their ethnicity and sexuality mocked, and that they can indulge in racial humor and still come off as progressive. More and more, recurring characters are intended to be sympathetic despite being [[EthnicScrappy increasingly exaggerated stereotypes]]. This also hasn't gelled well with the show's [[WarOnStraw increased use of religious and political strawmen]], since the show depicts those stereotypes as being true and expects the audience to take them at face value, at least from an in-universe perspective. The resulting implications that the writers genuinely believe non-straight, non-white, non-cis people only ever behave a certain way have driven many fans away.
108** For people who hate Brian, a lot will be surprised to learn that a lot of his worst character traits were fully on display in the early seasons and were the reason the character was generally liked. However, they were either far more restrained, or the show acknowledged that they made him a bit of an asshole. For example, he still acted as a [[AuthorAvatar mouthpiece for the writers]], but this was normally limited to quips, and other characters commented about how it could get annoying. In later seasons these short quips turned into full-blown {{character filibuster}}s, and anyone not holding the StrawmanBall either agreed with Brian or got out of his way.
109* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
110** The show is more popular in the United Kingdom than in America. In America, the show is very firmly polarizing. In Britain, where GallowsHumor and the kind of "random" Creator/MontyPython-esque vignette is better appreciated, this show is loved no matter what (except for the occasional bad episode). Britain even aired an episode that America wouldn't ("[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E21PartialTermsOfEndearment Partial Terms of Endearment]]") because abortion isn't as hot-button an issue in the UK as it is in America. It's popularity there is to the point that Creator/SethMacFarlane was able to showcase his side gig as a jazz/swing singer on tours in the UK and got his own TV & radio specials.
111** It's huge in Hungary, where it's the top watched show on Netflix. The local dub is also held in very high regard. Hungarians love adult oriented animated comedies in general, the more vulgar and lowbrow the better -- with even ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' being hailed as a top ranking classic by many. In fact, this mentality even influenced their profanity-laden dub of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', though that one never caught on due to its cultural differences and more laid-back humor. ''Family Guy'' on the other hand is still a comedy juggernaut with a very vocal and protective fanbase.
112** In addition, it also has a surprisingly huge dedicated fandom in Japan as fansubs of the show on Website/YouTube regularly get hundreds of thousands of views, with some videos even getting over a million views.
113* GrowingTheBeard:
114** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E13RoadToRhodeIsland Road to Rhode Island]]" is considered one of these for the development of the comedy team of Brian and Stewie. At first, Brian was intended to be Peter's sidekick, while Stewie was a loner who aimed to kill his mother and take over the world. This episode established the Brian-Stewie relationship that has become one of the show's hallmarks.
115** Season 8, especially when compared with [[SeasonalRot Season 7]]. For example, "Dog Gone" which shows that the show can indeed have emotional depth (something that it hasn't had since "Brian Wallows and Peter Swallows"), and "Quagmire's Baby" showing that, while the show can bring in a few [[Heartwarming/FamilyGuy Crowning Moments of Heartwarming]], the show still has its tasteless magic.
116* HesJustHiding: A lot of people were saying this after Brian's death. Well, he wasn't hiding, but [[spoiler:Brian came back just two episodes after that thanks to Stewie going back in time to prevent his death ever happening]].
117* IKnewIt: People figured out that [[spoiler:Brian wouldn't stay dead]] minutes after the event in question happened. A number of fans were savvy enough to figure out that [[spoiler:Brian would be saved]] through the summary of the Christmas episode for that year. Some particularly clever fans figured out ''exactly'' how it would happen - it was theorized that [[spoiler:Stewie would encounter his past self ''(seen in a cutaway gag)'' and use time travel to save Brian's life, since he couldn't build another time machine.]]
118* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Fans of the show from when it was a short-lived cult show occasionally aired on late nights felt "betrayed" when its final {{un|Canceled}}cancelation turned it into the pop-culture behemoth that it is now. Creator/SethMacFarlane, by his own admittance, never understood the logic behind this mentality.
119* ItWasHisSled: It was hard to hide the events of "Life of Brian" when a video titled A Farewell To Brian Griffin was on the ''front page of Website/YouTube''.
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:J-P]]
123* JerkassWoobie:
124** Brian is commonly portrayed as a condescending weasel who shows complete intolerance and apathy for anything that he considers to be below him. However, he tends to suffer much more abuse than most of the show's other, much worse {{Jerkass}}es, and is frequently mocked and treated as subhuman [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman for being a dog]].
125** Peter is a self-centered sociopath, but this is because he has the mentality of a child and is trying to fit in with the rest of society the only way he can. It's also heavily implied that he grew up in an abusive household: his real father was never there for him, his mother was neglectful (as seen when she pitches a glass of wine at a young Peter after he complains about a sore tooth), his stepdad is a religious fanatic who constantly berated him for the smallest mistakes, and his sister is a vicious bully who frequently choked and humiliated him.
126** Stewie, particularly after season 6, where he TookALevelInKindness. He's still an unfiltered, wisecracking smartass, but there are some episodes, such as "Brian Writes a Bestseller", "Killer Queen" and "Be Careful What You Fish For", where he shows a more vulnerable side and goes through a ton of hell, usually at the hands of [[{{Jerkass}} Brian]]. He also has [[{{Abusive Parents}} abusive]], [[{{Comedic Sociopath}} sociopathic]] parents who put his life in danger on a regular basis (Lois mentions accidentally ''putting him in the oven'' several times in one episode).
127* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Stewie is introduced as a homicidal VillainProtagonist who wants to kill his mother and TakeOverTheWorld, and this made him the most popular character on the show since the beginning. In later seasons, Peter, Lois, and Brian all TookALevelInJerkass, with Peter and Lois becoming AbusiveParents and Brian being flanderized into a pretentious hypocrite. As a result, all three become controversial characters, with many fans complaining about their unlikable personalities, especially Lois and Brian, who are often accused of being examples of the BitchInSheepsClothing trope. Ironically, the fans who complain about the characters who TookALevelInJerkass are often the same fans who miss Stewie's evil CardCarryingVillain personality after he mellows out.
128* LauncherOfAThousandShips: It's hard to name a character on the show that Lois HASN'T been shipped with.
129* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: When it was announced that a member of the Griffin family would be KilledOffForReal, the audience felt that Brian, what with being Seth [=MacFarlane's=] AuthorAvatar, would be the last character to be killed off. And sure enough, one episode afterward, [[spoiler:yeah they were bluffing. "Christmas Guy" brought Brian]] back. [[https://twitter.com/SethMacFarlane/status/412407556942753792 MacFarlane himself lampshaded this.]] [[InterfaceSpoiler It didn't help]] that Vinny's voice actor wasn't stated to appear in the Simpsons crossover.
130* LoveToHate:
131** Carter Pewterschmidt. Despite being an extremely [[{{jerkass}} obnoxious]] man, [[LaughablyEvil he's very entertaining to watch]] at times.
132** Of course [[EvilIsCool old Stewie]], the ''original'' BreakoutCharacter.
133* MisaimedFandom: The line "We have a saying in radio: if you play that on the radio, people will listen to it!" from "Mother Tucker," was used as a soundbite on a handful of the kind of soundbite-heavy radio shows that episode is mocking.
134* {{Misblamed}}: In "Disney's The Reboot", Peter and Disney executives show a focus group a number of potential ''Family Guy'' reboots. One of these includes a ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' ripoff where a horse version of Peter briefly appears and says "Normal words, but a horse guy!" only to be quickly rejected for being terrible. This scene was taken out of context on social media and made it look like ''Family Guy'' was taking a shallow jab at the popular Netflix show, which wasn't the case.
135* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR8Nf00VPyk "public radio" gag]] can trigger [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response ASMR]] in some people.
136* NarmCharm: It may seem ridiculous to cry over a teddy bear, but the "Rupert's funeral" cutaway from "Road to Rupert" will leave a tear in your eye due to how perfectly the gag parodied [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Spock's Funeral]].
137* NeverLiveItDown:
138** In "Secondhand Spoke", Chris traps Stewie in his backpack for days, telling him that he would die in there and daring him to name one person who loves him. By the end of the episode, Chris is riddled with guilt and asks for his brother's forgiveness, and the siblings' friendship is restored. Though subsequent episodes show that the two remain on good terms with each other, fans were so disgusted by Chris' behavior that he came to be seen as a BigBrotherBully.
139** Neil Goldman is largely benign compared to the rest of the cast, but fans like to play up his jerkassery by pointing out his actions in "Follow the Money", where he shockingly tells his late mother that she can burn in Hell whilst apathetically dumping money on a park bench dedicated to her.
140* OlderThanTheyThink:
141** A cartoon using "Surfin' Bird"? ''Family Guy'' had to be the first, right? Nope. Try CBS's short-lived 1998 cartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdz}}'', which used it… as the opening theme, no less. Or even earlier, the very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' titled "The Bird! The Bird!" in 1989.
142** In "Hell Comes to Quahog", the "Do you remember [X]? Pepperidge Farm remembers." joke had also been done in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Fishful of Dollars" seven years earlier, which makes some say "TheyCopiedItSoItSucks."
143** In "Ratings Guy", Peter tells Homer Simpson "Looks like this is one we beat you to!" after the latter came in telling he broke television. Funnily enough, this episode isn't the only one Family Guy beat The Simpsons to. The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror XIV" segment "Reaper Madness", whose plotline has Homer taking over as the Grim Reaper, was beaten to the punch by the plotline of Family Guy's "Death Is A Bitch" three years earlier.
144*** Another overlooked example is in "Let's Go to The Hop" from 2000, where Peter tries to turn on a jukebox but ends up cutting his hand on the glass and bleeding. ''The Simpsons'' reused this gag a year later in "Homer the Moe", where Homer looks after the tavern and does the same thing (albeit when Homer does it, it's much bloodier).
145** In "Seahorse Seashell Party", pointing one's finger like a gun and going "bang" is a referred to as a fingerbang. This was the subject of the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode, "Something You Can Do with Your Finger", from 2000.
146** In "The 2000 Year Old Virgin", Peter tries to get Jesus laid. The thing is, the concept of Jesus starring in a ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'' parody was already done years earlier in a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch.
147* ParodyDisplacement: Quite a bit of older pop culture is only familiar to younger generations because it was referenced here. One odd example is that the a lot of viewers aren't even aware that "welcome to the world of feline AIDS" is a spoof of a lurid [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/aids-mary/ urban legend]] from TheEighties.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:Q-Z]]
151* ReplacementScrappy:
152** Vinny, the dog the Griffins adopted in the Deleted Timeline after Brian's death. This has since been changed, however, so that it has never happened.
153** Ironically enough, Brian has become this for Vinny ever since he was brought back, as he TookALevelInJerkass after his revival while Vinny was a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and one of the nicest characters on the show.
154** Joyce Kinney is this for fans of Diane Simmons. While fans were RootingForTheEmpire in her debut episode, her overall lack of appearances and bland personality made her pretty forgettable compared to the previous reporter.
155** Bert and Sheila, Peter's new brewery bosses who replaced Angela after Creator/CarrieFisher's passing, were never popular with the fans. With the one-note joke of them just being an average HappilyMarried couple making them bland and not very funny. They were eventually replaced shortly after by Preston.
156* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
157** Later episodes have Brian's status as an AuthorAvatar be more flawed and have everyone respond to it with annoyance as opposed to everyone admiring him as the OnlySaneMan, and his friendship with Stewie has won over some fans.
158** Vinny won a lot of people over when he helped Stewie [[spoiler:go back in time to save Brian. Even though he never knew Brian, he knew that Stewie really loved and missed him, and was willing to give up meeting the Griffin family so that Stewie could have Brian back]].
159* TheScrappy:
160** Conway - [[OverlyLongGag You Can Take A Bathroom Break Now]] Twitty. The fact that he hasn't appeared since the episode in which he had a nearly three-minute long scene (in a 23 minute long ep no less) and it was rated the worst episode in the series probably states that the writers got the hint. This was eventually acknowledged in "3 Acts of God" when God tells Peter, "Oh, by the way, Conway Twitty says, 'Cut it out! Just write a joke!'".
161** Vern and Johnny, two vaudeville actors placed in the show as a gag, were severely hated by fans for being very annoying and bland. They got so much hate that the creators of the show eventually decided to kill them both off and treated fans to [[TakeThatScrappy seeing them meet their demise]] at the hands of Stewie in "Saving Private Brian", only for them to appear one last time in "Back to the Woods" (Vern as a ghost and Johnny in Hell, [[PedoHunt because he was attracted to underaged boys]]). These two characters were also wearing out their welcome with the writers: on the DVD commentary for "Saving Private Brian", it's stated that one of the reasons they were killed off is because the writers felt they were becoming overly reliant on Vern and Johnny, cutting to them whenever the writers couldn't come up with anything better.
162** Loretta Brown, as some fans noticed that she [[SatelliteLoveInterest only existed on the show just to be Cleveland's wife]]. Her day in the limelight episode even involved her cheating on Cleveland with Quagmire just because her husband's laid back personality didn't provide her any passion. She is even considered to be a Scrappy by her own voice actress, Alex Bornstein, as she found the character to be too difficult for her to voice.
163** Jeffery Fecalman is extremely hated by fans. Although you're [[HateSink supposed to hate him]] because he's a {{Domestic Abuse}}r, he's hated rather because his domestic abuse of Brenda is taken seriously in a show that plays ''everything'' for CrossesTheLineTwice-type BlackComedy, making him feel extremely out of place. Also, the fact he openly abused Brenda in public is a clear indication that the show's creators didn't do much research on the subject, as real-life domestic abusers often abuse their spouses behind closed doors rather than out in the open, making him even more hated for how poorly he's written.
164** Doug, Stewie's SitcomArchNemesis introduced on season 17. He's another kid/baby with a deep voice, but his is deeper than Stewie's. His presence can be annoying, especially when combined with Stewie [[{{Flanderization}} acting even more like a baby/being less intelligent]].
165* SeasonalRot:
166** A decently large portion of fans tend to argue that Season 7 was the beginning of the show’s decay due to a lot of the characters being flanderized into one-note characters, episodes focusing on Brian's views (the most notable one being the infamous "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven") and poor plotlines.[[note]]Part of the reason the rot occurred being Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s apathy kicking in during Season 6 after the Writers' Strike of 2007-2008, during which [[ExecutiveMeddling FOX aired 3 barely finished episodes during the strike without MacFarlane's permission]], leading [=MacFarlane=] to call out the network for their "colossal dick move".[[/note]]
167** Season 10 is considered one of the weakest ones due to a string of controversial episodes: "Seahorse Seashell Party" is reviled for having Meg [[StatusQuoIsGod accept her family's abuse]]; "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q" portrays domestic violence in a disturbing, totally straight manner; "The Blind Side" pokes fun at blind people's vulnerabilities; "Be Careful What You Fish For" has Brian [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in jerkass]] as he pursues a relationship with Stewie's abusive teacher; and "Tea Peter" contains a joke about autism being an excuse for kids to act ill-mannered.
168** Season 12 is considered another low point for the series, due to Brian getting killed off in "Life of Brian" only to be brought back three weeks later in "Christmas Guy". Other episodes that play a big part in why the season is so reviled include “Peter's Problems” (for the one-minute long scene of Peter accidentally killing a whale while trying to push it back into the ocean with a forklift), “Brian’s a Bad Father” (the main plot being ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and the subplot ending with an overly-gory scene of Quagmire shooting Peter in the head), “Fresh Heir” (for being comprised almost entirely of incest jokes), and “Herpe, the Love Sore” (Brian intentionally gives Stewie and Chris herpes).
169** Season 13 has many characters acting [[TookALevelInJerkass at their most unlikable]], with Brian swindling Quagmire in "Brian the Closer", Jesus tricking Peter into letting him sleep with Lois in "The 2,000 Year Old Virgin", and multiple jokes about rape and obscene sex acts in "Quagmire's Mom". The negative reception was further exacerbated by episodes that had downright bizarre premises ("Stewie is Enceinte" has Stewie giving birth to human-dog hybrids) and by the notable increase in Peter-focused episodes, leaving almost every other major character OutOfFocus.
170* ShallowParody:
171** The Creator/QuentinTarantino portion of "Three Directors" doesn't really have much to say or offer other than "Tarantino movies are violent as shit!". As a result, the whole segment is very off-putting thanks to it being the most pointlessly violent and graphic the show has been since Season 13 [[note]]Examples including Peter stabbing Dr. Hartman in the eyes, the disturbing ways that some of the Tricia clones die (one gets a beer bottle impaled in her eye while another has her spine broken with her busted skeleton being exposed) and Angelia getting sliced in half.[[/note]].
172** "In Harmony's Way" has a scene of the Griffins watching an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'' where Kermit and Miss Piggy look over their son Kermie Jr., who is shown to be a horrific pig/frog hybrid loudly begging to be killed so as to end his agony. Anyone who's only seen the opening theme of ''Muppet Babies'' would know that the cartoon was about the Muppets ''as'' children rather than the children of the Muppets.
173* ShockFatigue: One of the primary issues that viewers had with the later seasons of this show is that the offensive jokes and moments were no longer as shocking or effective as in earlier seasons. This is likely because in later seasons, the story of each episode had taken a backseat to the offensive content, and as such, many viewers have seen through that transparency and became desensitized to the offensive material.
174* SongAssociation: Due to becoming [[{{Understatement}} something of]] a RunningGag, it’s hard to listen to ''Surfin Bird'' by The Trashmen without thinking of ''Family Guy''.
175* SoOkayItsAverage: The general response to those who don't outright hate the newer seasons. While the later seasons in question have received negative reviews from fans, some fans find them to be at least a little watchable.
176* {{Squick}}:
177** Peter breastfeeding Stewie on "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar".
178** The morbid humor of keeping Stewie's severe head injury a secret in "Brian Griffin's House of Payne".
179** Chris and Meg unknowingly making out with each other on the episode "Halloween on Spooner Street."
180** The ipecac drinking contest on "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenaged Daughter." Then "Yug Ylimaf" went and made that scene ''even worse''.
181** Brian [[spoiler:shaving all his fur off and going around bald to get back at Peter]].
182** Brian's [[spoiler: mangled appearance after being run over by a car.]]
183** Stewie's herpes.
184** Stewie's pregnancy and the birth of his and Brian's deformed hybrid babies.
185** The fact that the women in this show apparently see no problem with having sex with Brian despite him being a dog.
186* {{Starboarding}}: Though the two of them have never shared a scene together, Meg's friend Ruth [[FreudianSlip letting slip]] that she [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer has a crush on Lois]] was enough to get fans to ship them.
187* StrawmanHasAPoint:
188** When Brian is forced to move out in "The D in Apartment 23" due to the racist tweet he sent, he questions why it is that Peter is still allowed to stay in the Griffin household in spite of all the crap he's pulled over the years.
189** Also, when Brian goes on his rant in "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven". He's been demonized for half the episode and strung along by Meg and the rest after he gives in, right up to her trying to get him to join in burning books. Belief in a higher power is good, fundamentalism is not.
190** In earlier episodes of the show, Meg is portrayed as a selfish person who craves popularity. It seems shallow, until you realize that people who aren't popular are often mistreated and humiliated by their popular peers. It also helps that she was a victim of many cruel, humiliating pranks.
191* TakeThatScrappy:
192** Brian gets it with Quagmire's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
193*** Another notable instance is, of course, Brian's death, in the now Deleted Timeline it occurred in. Played seriously for the most part, but right after being hit by the car, a squirrel comes down, kicks and spits on him, then states that he sucked. This could also apply for the fans who hate him as much as Quagmire does.
194*** Pretty much any time he gets his ass handed to him in any episode where he acts as a major douche, such as the episode "Brian the Closer" where Quagmire knocks all his teeth out after smacking him in the face with a lamp, and "Peternormal Activity" where he gets smacked in the face by Stewie with a baseball bat, thus causing the broken glass in his glasses to cut his eyes.
195** Quagmire gets his own just desserts when a hardened Chris, a 13 year old boy, beats the crap out of him just so he can take his car.
196*** Brian has also started requiting Quagmire's hatred of him, appeasing those who thought the latter was a hypocrite, conning him out of his money in "Brian The Closer" and calling him out over his own self righteousness in "Tiegs For Two" and "Quagmire's Mom". Even fans who hate ''both'' of them can now get gratification from them both never giving the other a break.
197*** Come season 15's "Bookie of the Year", Quagmire gets [[LaserGuidedKarma a taste of his own medicine]] when he gets his arm broken badly from getting hit by a baseball accidentally thrown by Chris, who got his arm broken due to Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe (all dressed as teenagers in disguise) beating him up to keep him from playing in the finals to win a bet prior to that scene.
198*** Again happens in "The Unkindest Cut" when a shark bites off Quagmire's penis, breaking him to the point where he actually tries to kill himself in front of an audience.
199** Lois in "Seahorse Seashell Party" where she breaks into tears when Meg calls her out for being a horrible mother. Peter even more moments later when she calls him out for being a waste of a man.
200** Peter gets it in "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie". He gets framed for murdering his wife, Stewie beats him up so he can give out what he thinks of his macaroni art, and people start throwing apples at him. And in "Dial Meg For Murder", he gets raped by a bull and gets beaten to a pulp by his ceaselessly mistreated daughter.
201** Peter is on the end of giving one in "Peter's Daughter" where he absolutely '''obliterates''' Connie D'Amico after she bullies Meg in front of him, slamming her face into a fire extinguisher ''18'' times.
202** Doug's unceremonious offscreen death in "The Candidate".
203* ThemePairing: Hayley Smith from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Roberta Tubbs from ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', and Meg Griffin are all the unappreciated daughters on Creator/SethMacFarlane shows.
204* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: From day one, the show has been incessantly compared to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' for its vaguely similar family dynamic (father, mother, boy, girl, baby, dog) and humor. While Seth [=MacFarlane=] has said that ''The Simpsons'' was a huge influence on him, the show's peak period aired while he was in college; the two shows actually have very little in common with the most notable difference being that ''The Simpsons'' has always prided itself on deconstructing sitcom cliches during its peak of quality while ''Family Guy'' openly embraces them.
205** Acknowledged in-universe too with the crossover episode, in which [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Fred Flintstone]] points out that a cartoon about a family was hardly a unique concept even when ''The Simpsons'' did it, and comparisons are pretty pointless with such a common idea.
206* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
207** A lot of people felt that Vinny's potential as a character was severely underused, and felt bad that he was written out of the story after three episodes. Some of his former haters even opined that he wasn't that bad a character and wouldn't mind seeing more of him, [[spoiler:just as long as he was not used as a replacement for Brian]].
208** Mickey McFinnegan, Peter's biological father. He never shows up after his introduction episode or meets Peter's family or anything.
209** Fans felt that Esperanza, the Target cashier from one of the Cutaways in the episode ''[[Recap/FamilyGuyS20E16PrescriptionHeroine Prescription Heroine]]'', could have been the focus of an entire episode instead of just a cutaway, with Lois developing a crush on her (as in the original scene).
210* UnexpectedCharacter: Part of the early running gag after the revival is that Ernie the Giant Chicken would just ''show up'' out of nowhere, regardless of what else was going, and derail everything for a protracted fight.
211* UnintentionallySympathetic:
212** '''Meg.''' At first, the RunningGag of her being TheUnfavourite was more about how a character who [[FlatCharacter literally did nothing]] was [[InsaneTrollLogic somehow blamed for everything]], but it only worked because she shook off the pain in a typical cartoon fashion. Showing her gradually being affected by her AbusiveParents' increasing cruelty (deteriorating mental stability and suicidal tendencies) made the whole thing too sad to take in stride, despite still being played as a joke. Following the backlash against "Seahorse Seashell Party", however, the writers seemed to take the hint and eventually began to phase out the abuse.[[note]]''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' deconstructed this character by having [[{{Expy}} Diane be the Meg to her family's Griffins, the Nguyens]], and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome develop clinical depression]] and staunchly feminist beliefs as a direct result of her abusive upbringing.[[/note]]
213* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Early on, Meg wasn't a fan favorite due to being a rather bland, typical teenage girl character. However, she became popular with fans when the writers turned her character into an exaggerated ButtMonkey and the rest of the cast started treating her like crap for somehow being considered so ugly, people have committed suicide by setting themselves on fire. Due to her [[TheWoobie Woobie]] status, she has lots of fans, many pictures of her on Website/DeviantArt, and lots of stories of her in fanfiction.net, which tend to revolve around her [[TheDogBitesBack getting revenge on everyone who's ever wronged her]].
214* TheUntwist: Even before "Christmas Guy" aired, there were several people who had already guessed its plot of [[spoiler: Stewie finding a way to repair his time machine so he could head back to the past and save Brian's life]].
215* WheelchairWoobie: Starting somewhere around 2006, multiple episodes focus on Joe feeling sorry for himself because he feels like his disability is affecting his life in one way or another, only for him to accept his disability before the episode's end. It also got to the point where he's portrayed as much weaker than he used to be, not being able to fight if he gets tipped off his wheelchair or even being shown needing Quagmire and Bonnie to change his DIAPER.
216* TheWoobie:
217** Some people feel sorry for Meg because of her extreme ButtMonkey status.
218** There's also Death, is this and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. The poor guy is [[EverybodyHatesHades despised and treated like shit by everyone for doing his job]] and can't form a good human relationship. Even [[{{Jerkass}} Peter]] takes pity on him.
219** Stewie Griffin definitely entered Woobie territory in the episode "Life of Brian". He witnessed the death of his only best friend (Brian) and seems unable to overcome it. He can also dwell in this territory in episodes such as "Killer Queen" and "Be Careful What You Fish For".
220* WriterCopOut:
221** "Lois Kills Stewie" ends after the titular event happens... Only to reveal that it was all just a virtual reality simulation. Of course, this gets lampshaded to {{Hell}} and back as part of a TakeThat against [[NoEnding the ending]] to ''Series/TheSopranos''.
222** A more controversial example would be [[spoiler:Brian being resurrected two episodes after his death]]. A lot of people were expecting the writers to spend more time on the plot thread than they did.
223[[/folder]]

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