Fridge examples for ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.

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[[folder:FridgeBrilliance]]
* In Season 4, Episode 6, "Petarded", Peter Griffin's gradual Flanderization into a mentally challenged sociopath in future seasons arguably can be explained from that very key moment in this episode when Peter realized he can use DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery for all his antics.
* "Petarded" features [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bdncv12p-o a small gag]] where Peter corrects a doctor's reading of a chart, only for the director to get briefly defensive over a mentally ill person correcting him. The subtly reflects that being legally retarded doesn't make you dumb or incapable. Peter's bad behavior comes from him being an immature {{Jerkass}} but he can work hard to better himself if he puts his mind to it.
* Why doesn’t Peter just watch movies on video in “I Never Get the Dead Man?” He doesn’t have a VCR, hence why he gets one for Christmas many episodes later.
* In Season 8, Episode 11, "Dial Meg for Murder", Peter tries to become a rodeo star, and practices techniques on Meg and Chris. The first thing he does is lasso and hogtie Meg. He then attempts to brand her, but finds that Adam West has already done so. West comments "That there's my steer, Griffin," which is a very subtle case of ([[ButtMonkey yet again]]) poking fun at Meg for [[LadyLooksLikeADude not being conventionally pretty and feminine]]; a steer is defined as a castrated ''male'' cow.
** Speaking of Adam's rodeo skills, it also foreshadows his cousin and successor Wild West, who came from a rural background.
* In Season 5, Episode 9, "Road to Rupert", to get back to Quahog from Colorado, Brian and Stewie carjack a random civilian and drive off with his car. This works out on Brian and Stewie's part because no one will believe that a baby and a dog carjacked someone.
** This also explains how they continue to get away with their crimes in the future.
* Why does Chris think the lawyer is gonna propose to him in “Once Bitten?” Herbert has been hitting on him for years, he probably thinks anytime an adult who talks to him is interested in him.
* Two of Quagmire's most consistent character traits are that he's a [[ReallyGetsAround sex maniac]] and that [[KindheartedCatLover he adores cats]]. Glenn Quagmire [[{{Pun}} loves pussy]].
* It appears that the main reason Brian puts up with Jillian's [[BrainlessBeauty not]]-[[DumbBlonde so]]-[[TheDitz intellectual]] personality is because of how attractive she is. What's never outright stated, however, but is possible, is the fact that being with someone as unintelligent as Jillian has to make Brian, a {{narcissist}}ic KnowNothingKnowItAll, feel extremely bright by comparison.
** This was explored in "We Love You, Conrad", in which Brian dates Lauren Conrad (from ''The Hills'') who ends up being much, much smarter than him. She ends up pointing out that he loved Jillian and him not wanting to be the dumb one in the relationship is what led her to that conclusion.
* In "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" when Max Weinstein says, "Hey!" when Peter finished his song by singing "Now my troubles are all through/I have a Jew". But it actually makes sense- the Jews had been subjugated throughout history - of course the topic of "having" a Jew would be sensitive to Max!
** Speaking of Max, it's worth noting that when Lois wants to speak to a Jew about Judaism in "Family Goy" (having recently discovered that her mother Babs was Jewish), they bring Max out of mothballs instead of using [[ButtMonkey Mort Goldman]]. There seems to be a subtle, almost unconscious message from the creators of FG here, one that goes ''some'' distance (not all) to reconciling their political liberalism and their constant straddling of the line of bigotry: Mort is meant for jokes and stereotypes, but when it's time to actually have a serious discussion of the Jewish faith, they bring out the Jewish character who is normal-looking and competent.
* In "Bigfat", after the plane crash, Peter guesses correctly that a Predator is stalking them, but it doesn't attack. Why? 1. They're obviously nonthreatening, 2. The Canadian climate calms it down.
* Why is Peter attracted to Lois' mother? Because she looks like her.
** Furthermore, why does Quagmire hit on Meg so much? Well, Quagmire [[StalkerWithACrush has an obsessive crush on Lois]], so since Meg is Lois's daughter, it's possible that he's attracted to Meg because she reminds him of Lois.
* When I first saw the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Barely Legal", I thought the ending where Quagmire "straightens Meg out"... by having a heart-to-heart talk with her about how she doesn't need a boyfriend to have fun as a teenager (he even gives her a copy of Creator/ShelSilverstein's ''The Missing Piece'') was pretty funny in that it subverted our expectations about what Quagmire would do, but it did seem like a subtle Meg bash, since it seemed like suddenly, even Quagmire didn't want to sleep with her anymore. But later, I realized that scene was Quagmire's one and only PetTheDog moment: he, a heartless sex maniac saying genuinely kind words to her, the show's ButtMonkey. Now for me, it is a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} and a much better episode ending than her just being used and thrown away by him! Now if only she were treated as kindly by all the characters all the time...
** On that same note, Meg is the ''only'' girl that Quagmire seems to be actively waiting to hit 18. He has implied, and even said outright, that he has indeed had sex with girls younger than legal age (a sixteen-year-old cheerleader tied up in the bathroom, [[{{Squick}} a twelve-year-old crossing-guard]] even though it was accidental, and when Connie D'Amico said she was 16, he ''pretended'' he heard "18" [though that was part of Lois' plan to get back at the popular kids who bullied Meg].) Yet when Quagmire approached Meg in one episode, he asks if she's 18, she says no, and he just says "Alright," and ''walks away''. Shocking as it is, he actually ''does'' respect her enough to wait until she's legal!
*** [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation ...that, or he could]] [[InformedDeformity not want to have sex with her]] [[TheChewToy until he "has" to when she turns legal.]] Or something like that...
*** Though technically Meg's been legal since the pilot; the age of consent in Rhode Island is 16 (though they probably have to write it in as 18 for censorship reasons). Oh, and Quagmire did molest Meg by sticking his foot in her mouth while she was sleeping in that episode he moved in with the Griffins.
** Think about the book he gave her, though. Do I have a dirty mind, or does the plot and title of the book seem like a metaphor for something? That was the true fridge brilliance, in this troper's opinion.
*** The message he's passing on to Meg here is that just like the circle with the missing shape, she doesn't need a missing piece to 'fill her wedge', as it were. Her happiness is where she decides to find it and doesn't have to be inside some guy's pants.
*** But later in "Jerome is the New Black", we find out the true reason Quagmire is a heartless sex maniac is because the woman he truly loved (Cheryl Tiegs) left him before he could tell her he loved her and the void she left in him is the missing piece that Quagmire tries to fill by having meaningless sex with women. So that adds a deeper meaning as to why Quagmire has the book "The Missing Piece" and why, in the episode "Emission Impossible" from season three, he has a poster of Cheryl Tiegs on his refrigerator.
** Something struck me about Quagmire's hatred of Brian. At first, it seems out of nowhere. But remember the "New Brian" episode? Quagmire let him stay at his house, but he asked him to be respectful to a woman he was hoping for a serious relationship with that had a messed up leg. When she shows up, Stewie comments on it, sending her running off crying and Quagmire following yelling "Dammit Brian!" Quagmire thinks Brian ruined what might have been a lifelong relationship, which is probably causing him to let his other flaws get to him more than they should. And obviously he thinks it was Brian, because he can't understand Stewie talk.
*** Or Quagmire's the sort of guy who'd buy into the idea that people's legs have their own appeal to dogs.
*** I thought it was because Quagmire harbored a sort of resentment for Brian since the beginning, because he can be smitten with Lois and still be pals with Peter and live with them, and Lois still treats him good. Quagmire can't even get that much, but since he's friends with Peter AND Lois, he might as well try to be civil. This incident, with the girl with the bad leg, might've sent him over the edge, rationalizing that Brian just keeps getting in the way of people he cares about.
*** Looking back at the earlier episodes, I felt that Quagmire didn't hate Brian, as most of their very few early conversations were rather civil. Course, as time went by in the series, Quagmire could have heard or seen Brian's various flaws and grew to hate him as they build up, which finally blows up on Brian once he demanded to know why Quagmire hates him once he found out and it's been stuck ever since.
*** Note that in "Forget Me Not", when suffering amnesia and convinced they live together, Quagmire's treatment of Brian is still somewhat rocky, showing an annoyance for his dog like instincts and implied to treat him like a second class citizen. In contrast, the short time he adopted a cat, [[KindheartedCatLover he pampered and dotted over it endlessly, treating it like his best friend]]. Quagmire's dislike for Brian makes more sense under the implication he's a "cat person".
*** Add to that Quagmire's hatred fades significantly after "Tiegs For Two". In that episode Brian gave up trying to play nice with Quagmire and was openly hateful and obnoxious back to him. After letting off steam due to pressing a ''huge'' BerserkButton, Quagmire's qualms with Brian may have been calmed slightly due to him finally ditching his 'good guy' front and [[AtLeastIAdmitIt at least being an honest jerk]] (not to mention his former sweetheart [[NotSoDifferentRemark pointing out he could be equally pretentious]]).
* In the episode Forget-Me-Not, Peter, Joe, and Quagmire are all willing to listen to each other and try to help each other even without their memories before everything goes to hell, but when Lois, Bonnie, and Meg go through the same thing they are outright fighting each other from the moment they awake. This is because for all they put each other through, the guys are genuinely friends who hang out with each other all the time because they want to and care about each other. The women though? They're repeatedly shown to be passive aggressive and even openly hostile to each other a lot of the times they interact. Were it not for Meg being Lois' daughter and Peter being friends with Joe the three would never associate with each other at all much less put up with each other. How they interact with each other in the virtual world shows how each group really is at their core.
* In the episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie goes back in time to the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" and steals Brian's banana suit and does Peanut Butter Jelly Time. This cheers Peter up despite the fact it didn't work in the original. Why? It's not because Stewie could do it better, but because Peter was upset that Stewie was angry with him. With Stewie doing it, Peter no longer has anything to be upset about.
** Also counts as HeartwarmingInHindsight.
** It was implied to work with Brian, just "not doing it today", further implying it was specifically Stewie's upset mood that brought him down, and actually more exceptionally than other times Brian had to cheer him up.
* Why Peter acts like [[{{Jerkass}} an asshole]] all the time: he believes that, being the main character, he has an OmniscientMoralityLicense.
** There's also the fact that StatusQuoIsGod usually negates his actions. Or, y'know, the fact that he's legally classified as intellectually disabled, and as such, really doesn't know any better.
* Stewie went from an OmnicidalManiac to a metrosexual, because of CharacterDerailment, but because he just moved from one phase to another.
** Added bonus if you realize that the last phases of the [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian]] model of child development involve the ''anal and phallic'' phases...if you know what I mean...
*** And look back to the episode with his first birthday. Peter got him an erotic cake with a naked ''man'' on it. It explains so much!
** Also: when Stewie started out the series, he was stuck with the only family in the world whose members didn't understand him, so he always got treated like an infant. Since then he's joined a preschool, bonded with his father, became pals with Brian, and got his time machine. He used to be so bored it made him angry, but now he's not.
* Jillian is the only girlfriend Brian's had for more than one episode. Her necklace looks like Brian's collar, red with a little yellow tag in the middle, so Brian must've bought it for her.
* While it was [[NightmareFuel horrific]], Brian's [[MushroomSamba shroom trip]] showed a lot about how he views the family, for example:
** [[FatIdiot Peter]] is a butterball turkey (fat idiotic guy with an eating habit)
** [[TheChewToy Meg]] is a cockroach (small, pesky, insignificant creature, often neglected, stepped on, and constantly running from its tormentors)
** Lois is a serpentine, succubus-type creature (Brian is sexually attracted to her, and she is considered very sexy, yet very evil)
** [[EnfanteTerrible Stewie]] is a giant demon (this should be obvious)
** Similarly, Quagmire is depicted as a sort of bird-gargoyle monster. The FridgeBrilliance comes in when you see all those people impaled on the tree he's perched on, which is a double brilliance: The impaled people may be a reference to a bird called a shrike which kills its prey by impaling them on thorns and branches and then eating bits of them later, and may well be intended to symbolize Quagmire's past sexual partners.
* Another one involving Quagmire and why he has such a ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' circa 1960s-70s aura about him. It's revealed that he's actually in his mid 60's in an episode where Peter obtains his birthdate.
** I think that might be retconned on the account of one episode showing him high school during the 1980s (I think that episode was ''Fistful of Meg'' and the year stated was 1986), thus that would make him close to the same age as the other three or four, unless Quagmire ages slower in comparison.
* In one episode it was revealed that Brian had a son. The problem here is that Brian's son is 13 years old and human while Brian is a dog (albeit one who doesn't act like one) and seven (which is 49 in dog years), Stewie notices it and after Brian gave him a bullshit answer (dog years), Stewie refuses to accept Brian's (il)logic. Time-travel can be the answer.
** That actually makes a whole lotta sense in that several times him and Stewie had gone into the past.
* Lois' poisonous demeanor to Meg may not be random or out of the blue as one may think. Looking back, Lois' family wasn't exactly sunshine and roses either. It was revealed that Babs (Lois' mother) had an affair with [[Series/TheHoneymooners Jackie Gleason]] (which traumatized Lois' brother and got him sent to a mental institution) years ago and by season 9, Carter (Lois' father) had an affair with an Asian woman, to which Babs found out. Not only this, but Carter is a stereotype of the typical 1950s male of being racially, sexually, and culturally insensitive and had suppressed Babs' Jewish identity. As Lois was growing up, she wanted to be a fashion model, which Carter forbid her to do and it most likely caused Lois to always rebel against her father's wishes. In the various flashbacks of Lois' teenage/young adult years before she met Peter, Lois led a very wild party life filled with sex, booze, and drugs. Lois in her younger years had also stated she had maxed out her credit cards several times, which caused her father to force her to work for her tuition instead of bailing her out. Then there was Lois' one night stands with the rock band, KISS, Jerome, and whoever else. Lois' past never quite left her as she is seen doing crazy stunts such as going on a shoplifting spree or trying out modeling again (which causes her to become dangerously thin) because her current life with the family is making her very bored. While Lois tries to prevent Meg from making the same mistakes, she goes about it the wrong way due to how she seems to think she can do anything she wants and expects to be forgiven for her actions.
** Don't forget getting pregnant with Meg cost her her chance to be on the Olympic diving team and made her pro-abortion.
** A lot of cutaways show that Peter didn't have the happiest childhood either. His mom's way of fixing a toothache was ''chucking a wine bottle at him'' and she was a pretty mean drunk too. His [[TheFundamentalist extremely devout Catholic]] father (who was later revealed to not be his father at all) was extremely harsh to him and all he ever did was try to seek his approval. No wonder Peter's so messed up!
** Meg's conception also affected Peter in a very similar way that it happened to Lois. "One if by Clam, Two if by Sea" establishes that Peter was stuck in his job at the toy factory since the 1980's, but he keeps saying that "I want to go places." "Meg Stinks!" later reveals that Meg's birth screwed over Peter's chances at becoming a podiatrist. The fact that Meg's existence denied Peter of reaching his dream job and trapping him in his run-down job at the toy factory for another 15+ years is sure to raise some salt levels.
* In a lot of episodes it's shown that Brian is racist against black people but treats Cleveland like a friend. Since Cleveland is declared the whitest black man in the world, Brian views him as a white man. No wonder he never barked at him or made racial comments in his presence!
** Cleveland is actually a black character voiced by a white actor (Mike Henry).
** It however doesn't explain how Brian had no problem dating a black woman in one episode.
*** There's nothing to explain. First, Brian's philosophically anti-racist but instinctively/subconsciously racist. Secondly, plenty of racists date people of the race they're racist against.
*** It's also worth pointing out that Brian is consistently depicted as being subconsciously prejudiced against black ''men'' specifically, with Cleveland being the exception. Well, Cleveland and O.J. Simpson (though he hated O.J. because he was one of many people in Quahog who believed that O.J. murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and that he should have been found guilty for it).
*** Could it be possible that since Brian claimed he got his racism from his father Coco... Could it be really possible if Coco was one of those dogs who attacked black people during those Civil Rights marches? If so then that could explain everything!
*** A police dog who attacked Civil Rights protesters would be Brian's grandfather or great-grandfather.
*** Or it could be that Brian may be a KnowNothingKnowItAll, but he still knows not to make fun of black people.
* In one episode, Quagmire points out he's a fan of ''Wings''. One could think it's just another FG pop culture joke making fun of a forgotten sitcom, but it makes perfect sense as Quagmire is a pilot, so it's natural that he would enjoy a show about an airline.
* In "Stewie Griffin The Untold Story" there's a cutaway of Gandhi doing stand up and he makes some jokes about black people. In real life, Gandhi was a little racist against black people.
* In "Space Cadet", when Peter watches ''Series/BreakingBad'', the TV hypnotizes him into telling people how great it is. And we aren't affected because ''Peter's TV screen is facing away from ours!''
* In "E Peterbus Unum" when Peter is at the IRS, he screams because of ''Series/PartyOfFive'' being canceled. He eventually screams because of his tax audit and asks "What the hell's ''Party of Five''? In a later unrelated episode, "Stuck Together, Torn Apart" he meets Jennifer Love Hewitt, and when she names off projects she's been in, she mentions ''Party of Five'' and Peter mentions he never heard of it. Seems like one of the few times the show had continuity.
** In a similar instance, in "There's Something About Paulie", when Peter doesn't understand the importance of it being the don's daughter's wedding day, Lois asks "haven't you seen ''Film/TheGodfather''?" Then, in "The Griffin Family History", Peter says he hadn't watched the whole thing because he wasn't enjoying it.
* Why would Peter make a church dedicated to [[Series/HappyDays The Fonz]]? This may seem like Peter being obsessed with pop culture and old TV shows, but remember a few seasons earlier [[ItMakesSenseInContext he had a vision quest and the Fonz was his spiritual guide.]] He sees the Fonz as some sort of deity, thus making it less random.
* In "Love Blacktually" Lois congratulates Cleveland for going from a black woman to a white woman without taking a Hispanic woman in between. It'd been a few years since he and Loretta divorced, but I remembered his girlfriend Bernice from the episode "Believe it or Not Joe's Walking on Air" who was [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Brother Chucked.]]
* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' where Lester gets a pass at NWordPrivileges because he has a black friend. This could be why Peter gets away with it in "April in Quahog" when he says it in their neighborhood, in addition to it being the end of the world.
* In "Turban Cowboy" Peter mentions every culture has its quirks, and he mentions Italians, Irish, and black guys. Meg, Stewie, and Chris have Irish ancestry, and according to the episodes "The Big Bang Theory" and "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father, Brother?" there's Italian ancestry on Lois' side of the family, and Peter had an ancestor who was a slave. Peter was simply describing his kids.
* In "If I'm Dyin' I'm Lyin'", there's a scene where a TV executive says they're [[ItsBeenDone just doing "the same old thing"]] and suggests they try something different...and the chairman brutally beats him with a poster. In other words, it's their way of saying: THEY ''DIDN'T'' RIP OFF "THE SIMPSONS". TELEVISION WAS ALWAYS THIS UNORIGINAL, YOU'VE JUST NEVER NOTICED IT UNTIL NOW.
** Additionally, check out the poster that the exec is beaten with: It's a poster for ''Series/JustShootMe'', which doesn't exactly have the most original concept for a sitcom.
* Cleveland's girlfriend from "Believe it or Not Joe's Walking on Air" has an EarlyBirdCameo in "You May Now Kiss...the Guy Who Receives." She can be seen at Jasper's wedding.
* "The Griffin Family History". Figures the one time DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale is averted is when it's at Meg's expense.
* In an early episode there's a cutaway gag where Peter's cousin Kathy Griffin visits and she's annoying to the point where they want her sedated. In a later episode, Peter shows a list of celebrities he hates, and she's on it. Despite being family, he can't stand her.
* Herbert the Pervert is an elderly pedophile. His chin look like balls, and his nose a penis.
* There's a cutaway gag where Peter gets kicked out of Coldplay. It could be why he hates Chris Martin so much in the list of celebrities from "420"
* The reason Francis was probably so cold to Peter was because he's not Peter's real father, and that hurt. The same can be said about [[spoiler: Peter's treatment of Meg (in "Screwed the Pooch", Brian said her real father was a man named Stan Thompson).]] In both cases, the fathers are constantly reminded that their wives cheated on them, and they subconsciously take it out on their children. ([[spoiler: Peter]] is just so TooDumbToLive, he takes it up to eleven)
* Another reason Meg is abused could be that it's DisproportionateRetribution for how she was such a "whiny runt" (as Brian put it) in earlier seasons.
* A StealthPun appears at the beginning of "Mr. Saturday Knight" when Mort Goldman tells the kids about being a pharmacist at career day. He starts off with the phrase "On the whole" and ends his presentation with telling a student how his dad had hemorrhoids.
** Note that Seth Green (voice of Chris) also featured prominently in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'' and made this exact same joke, so this is phenomenally likely to be intentional.
* In "Jerome is the New Black", it's revealed that Peter's black friend is an ex boyfriend of Lois. We also see that Lois's dad is racist again black people, so it appears Lois went out with him to get back at her dad.
* The episode "''Padre de Familia''" had a joke about a movie called ''[[Film/SupermanFilmSeries Superman V: the Broken Condom]]''. The events of that made-up film involved Lois Lane being pregnant and Superman leaving for Krypton, despite it being destroyed, and saying they should see other people. Pretty much everything that happened between ''Film/SupermanII'' and ''Film/SupermanReturns''.
* The reason why ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' did not air new episodes the same day as ''Yug Ylimaf''. It's already been established that they're all in the same universe, so time would be going backwards for all of them. This also leads to Cleveland moving back at some point before we see his bathtub falls up.
** Additionally, ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' aired a new episode on the same day as ''Back to the Pilot'', but ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' didn't. It probably already got cancelled after it started in this alternate timeline where [=9/11=] was prevented.
* The reason why Stewie said that "black guys usually don't promote themselves" in ''The Big Bang Theory''. Cleveland couldn't promote himself in the space-time continuum, so he had to go outside the space-time continuum (most likely inherent powers from the large, brightly-colored "Cleveland Show" promo) so that no one could see him promote himself. Too bad he went back during the commercial without Brian and Stewie.
* In ''Ready, Willing, and Disabled'', it seems like Joe might have been overreacting to failing to catch the criminal. But, in ''Joe's Revenge'', we find out the last time a crook got away was because the crook was the one to cripple him in the first place. HarsherInHindsight indeed.
* In "Christmas Guy", Christmas is shown to impact Carter's life, and he hates it, enough to make the executive decision to cancel the Christmas carnival at Quahog Mall, which he happens to own. If Babs is Jewish, as stated in "Family Goy", and Carter was married to her for this long, he wouldn't take the time to lash out at Christmas as he did, because it doesn't impact his life as directly as that of the majority of people around him Peter tells Carter that people think Carter's Jewish, and the latter becomes mortally offended. He calls for the carnival to be put back on, complete with a banner featuring Carter getting chummy with Jesus. Because Stewie used his time machine to save Brian's life, none of the above events ever happened. Stewie's actions were a kind of built-in retcon, so it at least clears the way for what we're told about Lois' family in "Family Goy" to make more sense. [[note]] Carter and Babs were also shown to have had Peter and Lois over for Christmas in an early cutaway, but never mind. [[/note]]
* In "Former Life of Brian," Brian's son calls Peter a bastard, and Peter tells him he's technically the bastard. Dylan was right as well since [[spoiler: Peter's real dad lives in Ireland and Francis was his stepdad.]]
* It's revealed in "FOX-y Lady" Quagmire is in his mid 60s. It makes more sense he'd pretend to be Peter's dad in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" when he tries to get Peter out of school and the teacher doesn't question his age. (Instead she notices one of the kids in the class looks like him.)
* Seamus the Sea Captain, when he was at the spa told Peter and company that his father was tree when they saw his head was literally on a log. Later, we find out his real "father" so to speak is James Woods, not a bad joke.
** But didn't he also say he was kidding and he and James just did acid together and James thought he was a steak and tried to eat him?
* After a couple viewings, I just noticed Stewie's mixtape at the end of "Whistle While Your Wife Works" is the one the babysitter gave him a season earlier at the end of "Eight Simple Rules For Buying My Teenage Daughter."
* Of course Stewie isn't trying to kill Lois anymore. That time bomb he mentioned in "Lethal Weapons" is going to go off in a little under 7 years anyway.
** How come she's alive and well in the future in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story?"
*** Best guess, the bomb malfunctioned.
* In "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" there are some continuity errors such as [[spoiler: Diane Simmons being alive in the future, as well as Francis Griffin]] and Cleveland lives in Quahog in thirty years. This was written years before those episodes and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' aired. It can be assumed that Stewie altering the past changed the future so those could happen.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' got cancelled and it's confirmed that the Browns are moving back to Quahog, so one of those things in the future did happen after all.
*** They established a Multiverse, so all outcomes are canon to respective universes.
* In "Finder's Keepers", Peter's excuse for not going to Meg's play is "I like to spend the weekend with my kids". He said [[ExactWords "MY kids"]]. Remember what we found out about Meg in "Screwed the Pooch"?
* Also counts as HeartwarmingInHindsight: "New Kidney in Town" involved Chris plagiarizing a speech about hope from Meg so he could meet President UsefulNotes/BarackObama. Chris says, rather plainly during his interview on the news, that he got the essay from an angel. He was speaking more in a religious sense, but think for a second about from where, or rather who, it actually came.
* The episode "Don't Make Me Over" has the family going on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and features a few ''Series/MadTV1995'' references such as featuring Miss Swan. Another subtle ''[=MadTV=]'' reference is in a ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' cutaway gag where the Tinman finds out he's gay because there was a sketch on [=MadTV=] where it was AllJustADream, and the Tinman wakes up next to his boyfriend.
* While Brian's liberal views may be an AuthorAvatar, they make more sense since New England is politically liberal.
* The end of the episode "Road To the Multiverse" had Brian's alternate universe self die by getting hit by a car. Foreshadowing much?
* Stewie trying to get Matthew [=McConaughey=]'s plane to crash in the gay marriage episode makes more sense after you've seen "Former Life of Brian" where there's a cutaway where he tells him he sucks.
* The opening crawls for the Star Wars episodes make a lot more sense when you remember Peter is telling the story. So that's all him talking.
* In "Valentines Day in Quahog" all of Brian's ex girlfriends point out his flaws, which he pointed right back at them, including telling a [[Film/{{Gremlins}} Mogwai]] it couldn't get wet. This is a joke about lubrication.
* In one cutaway, Brian convinces Stewie to watch 2 Girls 1 Cup. For those who know what happens there, it pays to remember that Stewie would later force Brian to [[spoiler: eat his own poo]].
* In "We Love You Conrad" when Stewie calls Brian the odd man out for not getting an invitation to Jillian's wedding, he calls him a nonpraying mantis. Since Brian's the atheist of the family, that adds another layer to the joke and makes sense why Stewie would make the comparison.
* In "Friends of Peter G" we see Bruce at the AA meeting. This could be why he orders a Ginger Ale as opposed to an alcoholic beverage in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" when he's sitting at the bar. He wants to go out and have a good time, but not relapse.
* Stewie's sexuality changing between episodes is him just being a baby and being unable to make up his mind.
* Chris was right in "German Guy" when he said that Franz Gutentag was his favorite person who was gonna die soon, which was meant as an old person joke. Franz dies fighting Herbert at the end of the episode.
* In "April In Quahog" [[ItMakesSenseInContext]] Tommy Lee shows up and tells Peter that if Lois gives him a hard time, punch her in her Hepatitis. It's a joke about how he was with Pamela Anderson who had it, but keep in mind Lois was promiscuous before she married Peter.
* The reason for Brian sucking up to Jerome in "Baby Got Black" was that some people find him racist against black people due to his father's side of the family and trying to prove he isn't racist.
* A possible reason why the Griffins are the exception to the "dead characters die for real" rule to NegativeContinuity-Peter once filled in for the Grim Reaper. This might be Death's way of repaying the favor.
* In earlier episodes, Brian isn't shown to be an atheist. One reason that could contribute to his change of heart is in "Wasted Talent." [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory The Chumba-Wumbas throw Joe out of the factory due to it not being wheelchair-accessible, and even mention that God might've forgotten him.]] Brian's liberal, and could see a lack of a higher being for why the handicapped and less fortunate get treated like crap.
* Peter's HealingFactor in "Meg Stinks" actually explains a ''LOT'' of his AmusingInjuries.
* In "I Take Thee Quagmire". Why was the ridiculously contrived video their Plan A for faking Quagmire's death and a simple fake heart attack Plan B? Because, as Peter himself said, Plan A didn't leave a body.
* More brilliance on Brian's racism: In "Jerome is the New Black" Quagmire doesn't want Brian to be their fourth friend because he doesn't like him. Since Brian is subconsciously racist, letting a black guy be the fourth friend is a subtle way of getting back at him.
* In "Chick Cancer" Stewie thinks sex is some kind of cake. When he's eating pancakes in "Love Thy Trophy" he says it's better than sex. He probably thought that sex was a cake (such as the erotic cake in "Chitty Chitty Death Bang) and was saying pancakes were much better than regular cakes.
* "Brian & Stewie" is widely despised for its lack of humor or taste. While locked in the bank vault, it's revealed that Brian has a gun in case he wants to kill himself, Stewie's vomit and poo are both eaten by Brian, they have a serious argument in which Brian hits Stewie, and the bloody attempt to pierce Stewie's ear causes panic. None of these things are treated humorously, but the brilliance is that in a normal episode they would be. "Brian & Stewie" takes all the violence, black comedy, shock value and grossness of a normal FG episode and shows the audience how unfunny it really is.
* In "Brian the Closer", Brian decides to con Quagmire into buying a rundown building in spite of the fact that Quagmire paid the dentist to fix his teeth. This could be seen as the show doing as it usually does and making Brian unlikable, but there is an actual reason for Brian to do this. The undeserved beating that Brian received in "Quagmire's Dad". This is the one thing that Brian has received no karmic balance for and it has been shown that he is willing to wait for seasons to get payback for undeserved suffering.
* In "No Meals On Wheels" Peter compares Mort to the [[{{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}} Mexican Super Friends]] when he's calling him a mooch. While it is a random gag, we do see in "Padre De Familia" that Peter really doesn't like illegal immigrants. He was comparing Mort to one of his biggest pet peeves.
* The show does make a lot of jokes about how Peter's chin looks like testicles, but a more subtle joke is how Lois's hair is shaped [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything like a penis head.]] Considering her {{Flanderization}} into being a nymphomaniac, this makes perfect sense.
* Brian's overestimated sense of his own intelligence has been a running gag in recent years, but it is somewhat justified when one considers that he was raised from a puppy by Peter, a man who technically qualifies as intellectually disabled. Before Stewie was born, Brian was unquestionably the smartest person in the household and even gained admission into Brown University, which implies that he does have some actual smarts.
* In the Simpsons crossover episode, Meg has a ''massive'' natural aptitude for playing the saxophone. Of ''course'' Meg is a gifted blues player, there's absolutely NOBODY who knows more about the blues than Meg Griffin.
* Why does Lois get mad that Peter was shaking Stewie in "The Giggity Wife?" It's revealed that Peter killed their other son Peter Jr. in "The Juice is Loose," she was worried about deja vu.
** A normal human being would also be mad that someone shook their baby (which can kill them) and even more-so that it caused the baby to walk weird after it. The brilliance is there, but the wording is wrong in implying she's mad because of Peter Jr. and not because Peter possibly giving Stewie some sort of brain damage.
* In the Griffin Family History, Peter's silent film actor ancestor manages to make an absurdly large amount of lip movements just to say "That's pie!" This seems like a throwaway gag until it's revealed later in the episode that he also had a speech impediment that caused him to stutter and struggle to actually say stuff.
* Why does Quagmire think of Creator/ReneeZellweger in "Blind Ambition" during his [[ThinkUnsexyThoughts sexual aversion therapy?]] In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' universe, she's been shown to look like an anteater.
* Quagmire (C-3PO) and Cleveland (R2-D2) smoking a joint in "Blue Harvest" could be a TakeThat to the Anti-Smoking PSA with the two ''Franchise/StarWars'' droids from the late 70s.
* Peter's ex-co-worker Opie spoke in [[IntelligibleUnintelligible loud rambling gibberish but Peter responds as if he's talking coherently.]] This doesn't make sense until "Underage Peter" when it's revealed that [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy his behavior is a result of constantly being drunk, not mental disability.]] In "Peter's Two Dads" Peter had a long in depth conversation with his father while both were completely drunk that had to be translated with subtitles. Peter understands Opie because he is fluent in drunk talk.
* Quagmire was able to speak GratuitousJapanese in "Halloween on Spooner Street" but doesn't seem to know anything about Japan, even believing Tricia Takanowa was Spanish, but we later learned he used to live in Korea so it's possible he was actually speaking Korean.
** Alternatively, with him being a pilot, along with sleeping with lots of women, it's very possible he just learned Japanese at one point. After all, he knows French and notes how useful it is during layovers in Montreal ([[DoubleEntendre giggity giggity]]). Then again, to some who have first heard Korean would probably have assumed it's Japanese, considering that the two languages in some regards do sound alike.
* In Back to the Pilot, Stewie tells Brian it might hurt when they get erased from existence. This is because Stewie just shot Past!Brian in the knee to stop their past selves from doing anything else and the Future pair merged with their past pair.
* In "Hot Pocket Dial" Meg cheered for Peter when he was fighting with Quagmire. This seems unfair considering [[OnlyFriend he's the only one who's usually nice to her]] since she'd just heard him declare his love for Lois who she hates for [[AbusiveParents obvious reasons]] and considering her {{Yandere}} nature, it would make sense that she'd be just as mad at him as Peter was.
* Quagmire being able to hypnotize someone, as we've seen in "Peter's Sister", must be why he gets so many girls.
* In "A House Full of Peters" it is revealed that Peter had secretly donated sperm in the past. This makes sense since in "Sibling Rivalry" when Stewie asks how Bertram is alive, he says Peter donated sperm.
** It also makes additional sense why Peter would have so many children so suddenly. In the same aforementioned episode ("Sibling Rivalry") Peter's attempt to donate sperm goes haywire resulting in him accidentally [[{{Squick}} knocking over every other sperm donor's submission]], and needing to replace every jar with his own sperm. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir86G4GF8b4 He even lampshades this]]. Now it makes perfect sense why Peter's sperm donation would lead to so many children. They weren't all meant to be Peter's kids! This also adds an additional layer of FridgeBrilliance when you consider how difficult it was for these children to track Peter down! He refilled other donor's jars, leading to a lost paper trail until the day he allowed his name to be viewable in the system.
* In "Roasted Guy", [[ButtMonkey Mort Goldman]] brings down the house at Peter's roast, getting the biggest laugh out of anyone. This may seem odd, until you remember that Mort is an embodiment of ''every'' Jewish stereotype - including the stereotype of Jews being good at comedy.
* In the future depicted in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", it's revealed that Meg gets a sex-change, and goes by the name Ron. While the new name choice is only explained by the ending scene (Meg commenting to a man named Ron that she always liked that name) the later episode "A Fistful of Meg" shows that Peter changed the name on Meg's birth certificate from Megan to Megat'''ron''', which adds another meaning to the new name.
* Lieutenant Dan Quagmire: [[Film/ForrestGump a man who encounters a major life crisis and overcomes it to find his joie de vivre again]].
* Quagmire claims his ancestor was a Kamikaze pilot during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII The Battle of Midway]] when taking the gang out for a plane ride. He later admits he lied about his ancestry after pranking them. A more historically savvy person could [[{{Foreshadowing}} see it from a mile away though]], because [[AnachronismStew Kamikaze attacks didn't start happening until 1944,]] two years ''after'' Midway.
* The song from the musical Stewie sees in “Friends Without Benefits” in a cutaway [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong sounds like the song he sings when he tunes his guitar]] in “Oceans Three and a Half.” Either the song from the musical was made up in Stewie’s head for the cutaway and he used the tune from the guitar tuning song, or he liked the song enough to sing a similar version for when he was tuning his guitar.
* In the Season 15 episode "Cop and a Half-Wit", Brian and Chris have to help Stewie recover from his football-incurred concussion. When first treating the injury, Brian educates Chris on the science of a concussion when Chris foolishly suggests hitting Stewie on the head again to get him back to normal, "[[WrongGenreSavvy like on TV]]."\\\
In the following episode, "Saturated Fat Guy", Chris becomes concerned with Meg's new roller derby career after she takes a hard hit during play. This could be partially because of Chris' newfound knowledge (that he got from Brian in the previous episode) about the severity of concussions and other brain-related injuries.
* In the episode "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.", an offhand argument between Quagmire's sister and her boyfriend Jeff reveals that she works at a prison. Considering how much of an {{extreme doormat}} she is to his abusive behavior, one could infer that she's used to men being violently aggressive towards her due to her job. It's also possible Jeff was an inmate in her prison, and that's how they met.
* Meg, despite being a grown woman, is much shorter not only than her parents, but her brother who just started puberty. This might not be because of [[ShortTeensTallAdults cartoon proportions]]. If you were abused that badly by your family, you too would suffer from stunted growth.
* In "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.", when Quagmire is in a coma, Brenda sings a song from his childhood to help him wake up. What catches Brian's attention however, is the fact that the song makes reference to auto-erotic asphyxiation (the reason Quagmire is in the coma in the first place), [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids an obviously not-child-appropriate topic]]. However, in "Quagmire's Mom", it was revealed that [[TitleDrop Quagmire's mom]] was very [[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]], ever since Quagmire was born. And guess who sang the song to Brenda & Glenn in the first place...
* "Killer Queen": Brian psychologically torments Stewie with "News of the World". Stewie is DrivenToSuicide and only interrupted at the last second when Brian realizes what he's set off. ''It shows someone confused over "breaking" a human.''
* It's not clear why Opie works in the shipping department. Given his desk job involves paperwork and verbal communication, neither of which are his skills, one would expect he'd be given a job involving simple repeititive manual labour (which one would expect would exist in a brewery environment). However, in "Jungle Love", Peter was only demoted to the shipping department because he could not be trusted to be responsible around the alcohol in the brewery. Since, "Underage Peter" showed Opie was really just drunk, it's quite possible Opie only ended up in the shipping department because he couldn't be trusted around the alcohol in the brewery, just like Peter.
* In an interview, Seth [=MacFarlane=] stated that the rest of the Griffins ''can'' understand Stewie but simply ignore him. Which explains a lot about Stewie's personality and the outrageous things he says and does: he's frustrated about being ignored and is acting out because he wants his intelligence to be acknowledged!
* Chris is established as being a talented artist in several episodes. Knowing this, it's very fitting that according to the episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS9E16TheBigPangTheory The Big Pang Theory]]", Lois and her children are [[FamousAncestor descendants of]] Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, one of the most famous artists of all time. It seems artistic talent must run in the family!
* Lois's DreamSequence in "Prescription Heroine" has some meaning, aside from looking trippy, and reflects her character and daily struggles.
** Dreaming about her everyday routine (going to the market) is her subconscious telling her that it's ok to take risks and shake things up.
** Lois freaking out about not checking if her coupons were still valid is probably a nod to how she's trying to be this perfect straight-A mom when there's no need.
** Lois falling naked while losing teeth are all common dreams about losing control, embarrassment, and lies; she feels like she has no control over her life (the falling part) and is embarrassed by it (the naked part), so she lies to herself through whatever fad there is to make up for it or to trick herself into being happy (the teeth coming out).
** The part where she's a young girl again is a way of trying to get you to reconcile with something you're not over. Carter yelling at her while trying to show him her playing the piano represents how much of a terrible father Carter is and a rotten husband to Babs, something Lois is and has been trying to push down for years.
** Getting chased by a giant version of Peter is obvious. It reflects how she married a fat and idiotic {{Manchild}} and wants out of it, but she can't bring herself to do it because of how others will see her.
** Her being on trial for "mom-related boredom" is probably her mind feeling guilty for trying Brian's medication to escape her boredom and almost drowning Stewie in the toilet.
* In "Run Chris Run," Chris' Homecoming Queen is a dead girl who was given a posthumous award out of pity. While this might come across as a [[CondescendingCompassion sanctimonious act of compassion]] toward the deceased, there is a far more sinister reason that Chris is being given a deceased person as his queen: none of the [[AlphaBitch living popular girls at school]] wanted to be Chris' companion, seeing him as a dumb embarrassment. It helps underscore just how phony and shallow the school's "love" for Chris was. If any of those girls actually liked Chris or wanted to get to know him, one of them would be his prom queen. Using a dead person as an emotional shield is also messed up.
* Brian driving a Toyota Prius was an example of this early on. Not only did he fit the stereotype of early Prius buyers in the mid-2000s, but it meant that prior to the switch to digitally rendered props and backgrounds the only car that was a recognizable make and model belonged to the *talking dog*.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:FridgeHorror]]
* In Season 12, Peter asks Lois' advice on how to kill himself with a knife. Without missing a beat, Meg yells from off screen "Sideways for attention, long way for results!" We've seen that she does cut herself, obviously going "sideways for attention" since she's still alive. But how would she know about "long way for results"? Her friend Beth did mysteriously stop appearing after Season 6...
** The series is set in the modern day, and Meg in particular is shown to own a laptop. It's sadly not at all difficult to find information regarding the most effective ways to kill oneself - even if she didn't enter a query along the lines of "common suicide methods," there's a very good chance she encountered someone else discussing the "up the road" method either as a joke or while discussing their own experience with self harm and suicidal ideation, completely accidentally.
** Hell, she wouldn't even need to go online for it - after all, ''Family Guy has an episode where a character explicitly describes an effective means of killing oneself with a knife.'' And we've seen plenty of shows and commercials play in-universe that are even more sociopathic. For all we know, Meg got her information from TV, too.
*** This is also another bit of FridgeBrilliance, as well FridgeHorror. From what we already know about Meg, by this point in the show, is that she's suicidal, has self-harmed, was shown to attempt suicide (at least once), and had one of her friends (Esther) casually mention a suicide pact, so, she's sharing what she knows from ''experience''.
*** And, speaking of Esther, as of this writing, we haven't seen her since the episode where she mentions the suicide pact ("Meg's Wedding"), so [[UncertainDoom who knows if she actually went through with it]]?
* In "Screwed the Pooch" when Brian has sex with Seabreeze, the Griffins and Carter are outright horrified, and they are in the top row. Just how many people, got to see that from the lowest deck of the race track, especially children? Also, given this presumably is some sort of professional event, just how many kids saw that on LIVE TV?!
** While we are at, Carter specifically says that Brian is violating Seabreeze. You read that right: Brian technically commited rape. The fact that Seabreeze is not bothered at all and later elopes with him indicates that she may have enjoyed it, which is not family friendly. Of course Seabreeze is a canine so WhatMeasureIsANonHuman may be in play here.
*** He just said that because he didn’t approve of their relationship. Many parents who don’t approve of their children’s partner will falsely accuse them of rape as well, and it’s probably a similar situation here.
*** As Brian [[spoiler: turned out not to be the father, she was likely raped by the actual father as well.]]
** Also in addition to likely losing money from bets, just how many people would sue Carter for psychological damages to kids, and did the League, presuming that this is run by an official organization, fine Carter or did they ban Seabreeze from competing? Either way, the reason Carter is so angered is not just because Brian had sex with Seabreeze that caused her to lose the race, Carter likely had to pay millions in fines and damages from civil lawsuits. Can you hardly blame him?
* In Season 14, in "An App A Day" Chris sends a girl an unsolicited picture of his penis. Her over-protective father presses charges and it is implied that he went all the way, since Chris has been sent to sexual rehab. Chris is now on the Sex Offender's Register and he's a young felon. Lois has told him that he can be a normal boy now that his rehab is over but she's very wrong - while young offenders can apply to have non-violent felonies expunged with good behaviour, sex offences don't go away because you've completed your classes or you're a nice guy or you were naive, and forevermore it's going to be on his record that he had to go through a rehab course for child sex offences. It'll be on his visa, his life-record, and almost every job application and he'll always have to explain himself. He may even have his internet use monitored indefinitely. Yes, it's incredibly unfair. It's not a happy thought.
* Peter and Lois attacking Quagmire in "Meg and Quagmire" would seem like a YankTheDogsChain moment to some, but consider this... When Peter and Joe were pranking Quagmire, it turned out Glenn has '''every disease known to mankind''', did he care the slightest that he would end up infecting Meg? How would the already emotionally frail and love depraved Meg react when she realizes that her closest friend was willing to infect her just to appease his own sexual desire?
* In the episode "Petergeist", Stewie meets "Jesus", who is "Chinese, and named Hong". Evidently, WordOfGod has confirmed that, indeed, it is a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan Hong Xiuquan]]. So, where is the FridgeHorror in this? Ultimately, "Chinese Jesus" was responsible for more deaths than '''any other war in history other than the World Wars'''. So...what part of the afterlife did [[EnfantTerrible Stewie]] end up in, exactly?
* In the season 3 episode, "Screwed the Pooch," there is a cutaway showing what Brian's life will be like when he gets neutered -- he'll be fat, effeminate, and eating chocolate all the time. Chocolate is known to be ''very'' lethal to dogs, so if this show followed reality, Brian would be ''killing himself'' (and Brian ''did'' die when he accidentally ate a piece of chocolate from the trash, as seen in the movie ''Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'' when Brian was shown in Heaven with Creator/ErnestHemingway, Music/KurtCobain, and Creator/VincentVanGogh, the three of whom were DrivenToSuicide for deeper reasons: Hemingway, because his genius was wreaking havoc on his sanity, Van Gogh, because he felt like an outcast in his own society, and Cobain, because he didn't want to see his music be usurped by bland, money-making corporations). All of this becomes worse when you see such later episodes as "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" (which reveals that Brian is an atheist, meaning that, if Brian does die, there's no chance of him meeting Hemingway, Van Gogh, and Cobain, since he doesn't believe in God and, as any Bible will tell you, Heaven is only for those who believe) and "Brian and Stewie" (which played the fact that Brian is suicidal for drama, when Stewie finds a gun in the locked vault and Brian tells him that he keeps it there for the day when Brian will actually go through with his suicide plan).
** While still on the topic of Brian committing suicide, the ending of "Dog Gone" is much HarsherInHindsight upon realizing that if Stewie hadn't shown Brian that his life had meaning, Brian might have killed himself. And after seeing "Brian and Stewie", it's clear that Brian was ''still considering killing himself, even after seeing how much it would affect his family''. There are times when AesopAmnesia is somewhat understandable, but this is ''not'' one of them.
*** The fact that Brian is still considering suicide even now that he knows precisely how much his death would hurt the family isn't a case of Aesop Amnesia. Suicidal ideation is not a conscious choice; it's a symptom of deep, often lifelong psychological disorders, and even those who attempt suicide often later express relief during their happier moments that they were saved. Brian isn't consciously planning to hurt the family. He's consciously fighting to stay alive for them.
*** Reading bewtwixt the lines, Brian has clinical depression and is in the camp of individuals where they have the ideations but don't act on them. The FridgeHorror is that, because of his human-like intelligence, he's smart enough to have depression.
** There's no reason to necessarily think that heaven in Family Guy and heaven in the Bible are the same thing, so Brian being kept out of heaven through his atheism isn't a certainty.
*** "Family Guy God" is divorced from Jesus's mother and sleeping with a woman named Susan. He's probably a little more lax on sinning than Old Testament God.
** [[https://drjohnsanders.com/christian-approaches-to-the-salvation-of-non-christians/ That's not even how every interpretation of the Bible goes in real life, either.]] Various interpretations hold that Jesus came to save ''all'' people, that there is no Hell in the first place, or that you're allowed to convert or be baptised after death.
* In "Halloween on Spooner Street", Quagmire stated that he has every single venereal disease known to man (and some that aren't), and in another one, he thinks it's a joke to use condoms during sex. Suddenly, the jokes about Quagmire scoring with chicks don't seem so funny...
** If it helps, Quagmire has likely become a walking vaccine against [=STDs=]. Hence why he isn't writhing in agony, and the women he scores with haven't shown similar signs.
*** Then again, that is what we see, which doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't suffering offscreen.
*** Quagmire has been with a few recurring characters and they seem fine also he and Brian have been with a few of the same women so aside from explaining how he got [[spoiler: herpes]] he seems fine. [[FridgeBrilliance Though Brian does have access to a parallel universe where AIDS is curable in pill form.]]
* In "Quagmire's Baby", Quagmire made a joke that he might end up sleeping with his daughter (whom he gave up for adoption) when she turned 18. However, this becomes much less funny when you realize that this isn't strictly something he wouldn't do - he's clearly fine with the idea of having a threeway involving ''[[ParentalIncest his mother.]]'' [[FreudianExcuse Where do you think he got a lack of an incest taboo?]]
** It also doesn't help that in an early episode, he almost tells the Griffins that he couldn't care for the kids in accordance to Megan's Law, but forgets about it and offers to care for the kids anyway.
* The episode where Brian goes back to the mill he was born at. Let's just say that if you know anything about [[TaxidermyIsCreepy taxidermy]], you'd know that Brian's already a little too late towards giving his mother a burial (except symbolically).
* In "Fox-y Lady", the Fox exec states that his grandparents died in the Holocaust, before laughing it off and stating they actually didn't die, but they ''were'' there. Given how evil Fox is implied to be in this episode, you have to seriously question what ''[[ThoseWackyNazis side]]'' they were on?!
** In [[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E12Episode420 "Episode 420"]] Peter and Carter make an anti-cannabis video by making UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler a pot smoker, but Fox News told them to not air it because they own Hitler's likeness and don't want him slandered. Make of that what you will.
** Actually, that could be case of BitingTheHandHumor if you take into account that Fox cancelled Family Guy twice (along with the fact that Fox has a record of doing that with shows, the cancelling part that is) and Seth does have some dislike towards Fox for that and other reasons.
* According to Meg in "Seahorse Seashell Party", Meg mentions that "If people in the outside ever saw how Peter treats me, he would've been put in jail along time ago." Does that means that Joe (a police officer) is OKAY with how Peter treats his daughter? This is messed up, even for Family Guy!
** It's possible that Joe just doesn't know.
*** He is aware that they don't like her (The "Not Meg, not Meg!" from one episode) but he has never seen them abuse her.
* Stewie has SurvivorGuilt [[spoiler: over destroying the time machine. It's not just that he'd be able to save Brian if he still had it; if he hadn't destroyed the time machine, he and Brian never would have found that hockey net, so they wouldn't have been in the street that day. Destroying the time machine directly led to Brian's death, and he knows it and blames himself for it.]]
** Another dose of FridgeHorror from that episode: [[spoiler: Since Brian was a NayTheist in the show despite it being established that, not only do God and Jesus exist in the show, but also the concepts of ''Heaven'' and ''Hell'', does this mean he went to Hell when he died for his Atheism, or enter into [[NothingIsScarier complete oblivion]]?]]
** At the end of the episode ''Death is a Bitch,'' Death tells the Griffins that he'll be seeing them very soon. Death's last words in the episode become more disturbing when it turns out that Brian dies.
* [[spoiler:Brian's life is saved]] by Stewie in "Christmas Guy", which means that [[spoiler:the Griffins won't adopt Vinny]]. Given [[TearJerker the circumstances of how he got there,]] and what usually happens to [[spoiler:dogs when they're not adopted from the pound]], the question remains: ''What's going to happen to [[spoiler:Vinny]] now?''
** It's revealed in "The Boys In The Band" that [[spoiler:Vinny]] is still alive, as he's seen at the end of the episode with [[spoiler:Olivia]].
* In "3 Acts of God" when they discuss finding God, Joe thinks it means suicide and even texts Bonnie who blows up their house. Were Kevin and Susie killed? We never hear about it again for the rest of the episode.
** Bonnie didn't stay in the house, so presumably she didn't listen and had the kids out of the house.
*** There is also the fact that Bonnie seemed to have really expressed desire in killing Joe.
* In the episode "He's Bla-ack!": How ''did'' Peter come into possession of ''hundreds'' of pictures of baby wieners, and how did he hide this from Lois? Worse yet, are any of the pictures of his own children?
** Oh that's nothing, two episodes have hinted that according to Stewie...babies are capable have sex in this world... Let that sink in now...
** He could have obtained them specifically for the plan but, still...
* In the end of "And There Were Fewer" Lois never did find Diane Simmons' body when she fell off the cliff... she might still be out there and might plan to kill Lois at anytime and anywhere!
** WordOfGod stated that she's dead, since the events of "And There Were Fewer" were canon. However, that would explain why she was a tad neurotic about befriending Joyce.
* Here's a certain bit of FridgeHorror in the ''Screams of Silence: Story of Brenda Q''. It was revealed that Brenda was pregnant, which begs the question, given the fact that Fecalman was already abusing her, did she miscarry? Along that line, it's also implied that the sex may not have been consensual.
** There's also the act that when Brenda was first mentioned in "Jerome is the New Black", Quagmire said that her name was Harriet. Did Brenda legally her change her name while hiding out from Jeff?
** Mentioned on the WMG; There's also the fact that it was briefly mentioned that Jeff had a brother. Brenda, who is still very likely scarred by Jeff's murder, will end up going to him and making him her ReplacementGoldfish. But what if he turns out to be even worse than Jeff?
** Also, Brenda never once shows any form of suppressed fear or unhappiness with Jeff, despite that fact that he abuses her over trivial matters, and in ''broad daylight''. Either Brenda doesn't understand that she's being abused or that the abuse has been going on for so long that she's become [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror desensitized to it and simply doesn't care]].
** Worse still, "Coma Guy" shows Brenda in the afterlife. After what happened to her during said episode (along with the faked note about her boyfriend leaving her for good), [[DrivenToSuicide the likely cause of her death]] is both believable and ''heartwrenching''.
* For the episode "And I'm Joyce Kinney," Joyce gets a few criticisms for holding a long grudge against Lois, but think about it. Joyce was able to list ''every single detail'' of that awful prank she fell victim to. She was '''TRAUMATIZED'''. This may be why she didn't care about the fact that Lois was sorry for what she did. The memories still haunt her and it's hard to forgive someone who has left you traumatized. Plus, you can't just apologize and expect to be forgiven.
* There is a lot of criticism towards "Brian & Stewie" due to Brian's mention of committing suicide which feels like it comes out of nowhere for some. But let's take a good look at Brian's history since the first episode: All of his attempts at a meaningful relationship have failed[[note]] Pearl was run over by a car after he managed to make her see life is worth living. Things didn't work out with Jillian in the end because of the falling out when they moved in together. Rita started acting like a stereotypical old woman and it blew because of it combined with Brian having a one-night stand with a bimbo. Brooke was only acting in TV and things with Lauren didn't work out because Brian wasn't fully over Jillian.[[/note]], His attempts to make one of his novels into a TV series fell flat because of ExecutiveMeddling sucking it up to James Woods' wacky sitcom-esque ideas, Faster Than The Speed Of Love was a flop, his self-centeredness doomed himself and his "Wish It, Want It, Do It" best-seller, he failed College twice, is second only to Meg in the ButtMonkey category and he can never accomplish anything politically. Taking all of that into account, suddenly Brian's suicidal tendencies don't seem that farfetched anymore...
* Sure it's played for laughs and one might actually think some of it's payback for his sociopathic JerkAss behavior, but over the course of the series Peter has been a rape victim multiple times, is a frequent ButtMonkey to the point of BodyHorror and has been brutally mauled by various animals and his family at various points. It can make you sick when you think about all the crap [[JerkassWoobie he's gone through]]. There's also that episode where Lois is revealed to beat Peter up while verbally abusing him due to his habit of making stupid and reckless decisions. Then Meg and Chris are revealed to listen to this a lot and wear caps because they tear their hair out in despair at the whole messed up situation and possibly as a result of Peter and Lois's abuse towards them. It makes you wonder, how long has this been going on?
** It also shows [[SarcasmMode Lois's stable side when she responds to Peter and his friends annoying her by locking them in the attic]]. She tells them they can rot in there. They get her to let them go by threatening to soil her wedding gown. Now imagine what wouldn't happened if her wedding dress hadn't been up there. Also, has this happened before too?
** The amount of grief Peter has put Lois through. Peter is an annoying guy and a {{Jerkass}} but Lois frequently takes her abuse of him too far if he should become too annoying. This also includes rape...
* "Dial Meg For Murder" implied Meg had been on both ends of multiple PrisonRape situations, in a women's correctional institution. She came back home as a cold-hearted convict who terrorized everyone who ever made fun of her, including her dad to the point of beating him up and raping him with a loofa and tongue kissing an unconscious Connie after beating her and her friends up. This implies she's taking revenge on Connie and Peter by traumatizing them the same way she was traumatized-being beaten up and sexually molested. Not to mention she cracked two kids skulls open according to Lois. Did any more bad stuff happen to her in prison as well besides the implied rape and beat downs?
* One has to wonder how Carol Pewterschmidt will react to the death of her tenth husband after the death of Adam West.
** That's assuming Adam will be a case of TheCharacterDiedWithHim.
* Brian and his herpes. One, how long has he had it? And two, how many people has he infected besides Stewie and Chris?
** Given the number of past girlfriends he was shown to have, it begs the question as to which one had the virus and spread it.
* I just noticed that Herbert the Pervert's dog is crippled from the waist down. I at first thought this was meant as a minor visual gag about the dog resembling its owner (they're both old and decrepit), but then the show's use of VulgarHumor and RefugeInAudacity caused me to consider why the dog's hind legs don't work: [[BestialityIsDepraved what would a known sexual predator be doing when he's alone with a defenseless victim?]] [[NightmareFuel Goodness]] [[MoralEventHorizon gracious]] '''[[{{Squick}} FUCK]]'''.
* On the subject of Herbert, his lust for young boys is PlayedForLaughs since he's too old and feeble to actually do anything to them. But what about when he was younger? [[OffscreenVillainy How many kids has he molested over the years before retiring to Spooner Street?]]
* In "Road to the North Pole" Quagmire has a LittlestCancerPatient niece (whom Brian mistook for a boy, and further cemented Quagmire's resentment for Brian). She was hospitalized somewhere around the start of the third act and that was the last we heard of her. Knowing [[SadistShow this show]], it's [[DeathOfAChild obvious what happened]].
* Chris and Meg never appear again after the Thanos mind Stone scene in "Island Adventure" where Joe and Cleveland turn turn to dust as with the real snap in Infinty War. The former two were possible victims of the snap as well. In fact, several chracters are oddly missing such as Mort, Jerome, Carter, Babs, Tom Tucker, Dr. Hartman, Principal Shepard etc. It's also weird that nobody ever draws attention to it. Bonnie and Donna are also absent from the Quagmire sub-plot. Of, course, this is all forgotten about by the next episode, but it's still a very specific reference to throw in.
* In "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", Quagmire takes Lois to the same Italian restaurant that Peter takes Jennifer Love Hewitt to, where he is promptly asked if he wants his usual drink order to start the date. Said order? A martini for Quagmire and a "Roofie Colada" for his date. Which means that the staff there have been willingly accessory to ''multiple'' {{Date Rape}}s by Quagmire.
* In "He's Bla-ack!", when [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow Roberta Tubbs]] first moves to Quahog, Quagmire offers to have her stay with him while her family's house is getting fixed (with the obvious implication that he wanted her to stay with him so he could have sex with her), and Roberta agrees without hesitation. At first this may seem to be just an exaggeration of her SmittenTeenageGirl status in ''The Cleveland Show'' (turning her from a typical boy-crazy teen into a full-on whore), but when you think about it, Roberta and Quagmire never interacted with each other prior to the Brown family’s return to Quahog, and considering Roberta has a pretty rocky relationship with her stepdad Cleveland, it isn’t likely that he’d have informed her of the particulars of his friends’ personalities. Thus, she may have genuinely had no knowledge of Quagmire’s status as a sex-crazed man whore, and she may have just assumed Quagmire wanted to let her stay at his house out of the goodness of his heart. And considering Quagmire is a SerialRapist and an {{Ephebophile}}, it’s possible that he raped her (or otherwise convinced her into having sex with him) while she was staying at his house.
** This is further supported by the spin-off mobile game ''Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'', in which Roberta is an unlockable character. In the game, each of the characters have tasks that one can complete for EXP and in-game currency (for example, some of Stewie’s tasks are “travel through time”, “do jaunty dance”, and “finger-paint battle plans”). Most of Roberta’s tasks are typical teenage-girl activities ([[SelfieFiend “have selfie-off”]], [[TeensLoveShopping “shop for trendy clothing”]], [[WildTeenParty “go to a party”]]…), but one of these tasks is “avoid Quagmire”. The fact that one of Roberta’s tasks is specifically ''avoiding Quagmire'' implies that [[NoodleIncident something terrible must have happened between the two]].
* This might be FridgeBrilliance in that Quagmire's job as a pilot means he travels a lot but some of the countries he travels to have waa~y different laws than the US. Those girls from his Thailand escapades might not have been "OlderThanTheyLook".
* Brian drives a car, but several episodes have pointed out that he is, like a real-life dog, colorblind. If he can't tell red from green, how does he read traffic signals? How many traffic incidents/accidents/injuries/fatalities has he had/caused by not being able to clearly see what color the lights are?

[[/folder]]
!!Both
* Both Brilliance and Horror, the reason Meg feels so at home in Russia is because the real Meg was killed in the sperm donor episode, and replaced by a Russian agent. The reason 'Meg' still acts like Meg? She's lost herself in character; whoever she used to be is gone.