* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Does Lois ''try'' to do the right thing for her children and husband or has {{Flanderization}} turned her into absolutely nothing short of a [[AbusiveParents monstrous]] shrew who shouldn't have children?
** Peter Griffin: a well-meaning idiot who doesn't know any better, or a dangerous sociopath (though given the episode where he's declared mentally retarded, it might be both)?
* {{Anvilicious}} - When the show gets ''REALLY SERIOUS''.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The Disney universe in "Road to the Multiverse". It's widely considered the best part of the episode.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Bag of Weed," the FCC song, Peter's rendition of "Shipoopi".
** Any of the "special" credits themes, and all of the themes to the "Road to..." episodes
** "Mr. Booze"
** From the show's early days: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2golE8oQsPQ Give Up the Toad]]''
* BadassDecay:
** 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 earlier seasons. He occasionally lapses back into his old characterization, but it's quickly dropped afterward each time.
** Joe has pretty much been reduced to a [[DudeNotFunny 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 (initially, it was from fighting The Grinch on Christmas Eve, but a later episode revealed that he was shot during a drug sting). That aspect of him returned in Season 9, however.
* BaseBreaker:
** Stewie (pre-BadassDecay). Meg to a lesser extent. The former is either the coolest and most badass character in the series, or a CreepyChild who's given too much screen time. The latter is either the biggest {{woobie}} ever, or a self-absorbed BrattyTeenageDaughter who some fans consider "ugly" and deserves her ButtMonkey status. Her {{yandere}} tendencies don't help.
** Peter is starting to become one of these as well.
** Fans also seem divisive as to whether turning Quagmire into a SelfDeprecation avatar counts as an AuthorsSavingThrow or the complete destruction of his character.
* BetterOnDVD: The DVD version (at least for the episodes made after the show was saved from 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 better than what the TV version has, but most are a little too disgusting or in bad taste. Case in point: In one episode, Brian's line to Lois in the TV version was, "Can I WHAM! my Oingo Boingo into your Velvet Underground?" which is funny because it's a delicious pun of sex and 1980s bands. The DVD version replaces the line with the coprophagic and downright sickening, "I would eat your poo."), and you get commentary and deleted scene reels on what was originally supposed to be in the episode.
* BrokenBase: As far as the fandom goes, you're in one of three camps: "''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Is The Best Show Ever," "''Family Guy'' Sucks Because It's A Rip-Off of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and/or ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''," or "''Family Guy'' Used to Be Good Until [insert SeasonalRot scenario here: "They Revived It In 2005," "The WGA Strike Happened," "Brian Became a Preachy Atheist," "The Writers Were Under The Delusion That They Were Invincible, So They Began Writing Crap Episodes To Piss Off The Fans Who Helped Them Get Back on Their Feet," or "I Found Out ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Was Funnier"]."
* CargoShip:
** Parodied in the episode "I Dream Of Jesus", where, after Peter loses his "Bird is the Word" record, he goes on a rant and lets slip the fact that [[TooMuchInformation he had sex with it.]]
** Also this, from the end of the "Li'l Rascals" parody:
-->'''Peter:''' I'm going to go microwave a bagel and have sex with it.
-->'''Quagmire:''' Butter's in the fridge!
** Peter and a cardboard standee of KathyIreland.
* ComplainingAboutPeopleNotLikingTheShow: Some of the FanDumb do this..., instead of respecting or simply disagreeing with the opinion.
** ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike: Goes both ways, such as some haters insulting the fans for finding the show funny.
*** One infamous Website/YouTube user named [=ProFan2011=] hates the show simply because ''the video games were rated M instead of T'' '''and nothing else'''.
* CompleteMonster: Jeff Fecalman, [[DomesticAbuser the Brenda's abusive boyfriend]] from the episode "Screams of Silence", frequently yells at and/or beats up Brenda, sometimes over things like which show to watch, [[FridgeHorror which here comes a question about how long being doing this]] before the events of the episode. Then he tried to kill Quagmire with sadistic glee. And unlike any of the show's other characters, he is not disqualified as he is NOT PlayedForLaughs.
%%Do NOT add any other entries without going to the cleanup thread first.
* CrazyAwesome: Mayor West, who ''punched the constellation of Orion'', among other things.
** Some of Peter's wacky antics.
** [[OverlyLongGag As long as they may be]], the Peter vs Ernie the Giant Chicken fights certainly qualify.
* CrossesTheLineTwice:
** Boy howdy. Start with Teri Schiavo, TheMusical.
** However, this is the point at which the show is a BlackComedy. PlayedForLaughs especially in Peter's actions.
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A logical occurrence given perceived {{Flanderization}} of the characters, namely with a great many of them becoming {{Jerkass}}es and weakening their ability to have an audience sympathize with them.
* DesignatedVillain: Joyce [=Kinney=] for outing Lois as a former porn star. It should be noted that it was done because of a cruel prank done to her in high school. It's played up as a big MoralEventHorizon and you're supposed to feel sorry for Lois, but in the end, Lois calls everyone out for ostracizing her about her shady past and embraces the fact that she did porn so no one would mock her for it.
* DudeNotFunny: In-Universe in "When you Wish Upon a Weinstein". (Which is ironic, since said episode was banned for awhile.)
-->'''Cleveland''': Peter, not every Jewish person is good with money.
-->'''Peter''': Well yeah, not the retarded ones I guess. But-but why would you say that? For shock value?! Geez Cleveland, there's 'edgy' and there's 'offensive'.
** The sheer amount of DoubleStandard that is apparent in the series. Being a woman or a man doesn't give one an excuse for their wrongdoings.
** Meg's ButtMonkey status in the later episodes, which really crossed the line from "cruel yet funny" to just plain cruel.
** Even some hardcore fans of ''Family Guy'' thought the joke about Quagmire raping [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]] then killing her entire family went too far. It almost ruined Creator/{{Matt|Groening}} and Seth's friendship and Seth admitted they went too far.
** The 9-11 jokes wouldn't be too bad if there weren't ''so many of them''. This makes it even more jarring when you couple that with the fact that Seth just barely avoided being one of the victims. [[note]]He ended up hungover the day of the attack and his travel agent gave him some bad flight information, causing him to miss his flight by 15 minutes.[[/note]] [[WildMassGuessing Maybe it's his way of coping]] or Seth has survivor's guilt, but [[StepfordSmiler hides it behind tasteless jokes]], who knows?
*** A brief moment from "Friends Without Benefits" where Meg mentions a Facebook page to encourage her to kill herself, the twist being that Meg herself started it.
*** From "Stew-Roids," Lois tries to cheer up a sobbing Meg, but when she becomes inconsolable, Lois gives Meg a bottle of Ambien and some Sylvia Plath books and says, "Whatever happens, happens" before leaving.
** "Patriot Games" pulled a subversion of this trope: after watching a ''Celebrity Boxing'' episode between Carol Channing and Mike Tyson, Peter remarks "You know, Mike Tyson beat his wife once. ({{Beat}}) But there's nothing funny about that" -- before giggling.
** One episode had a one off gag about school shootings. You don't see anything because Peter is listening over the phone, ''but you can hear a gun going off and people screaming''. It's now in bad taste because of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
** There was a joke about Elizabeth Smart — a real life victim of kidnapping and child molestation — getting raped during her nine-month captivity. The '''punchline''' of the joke is that Elizabeth is so deeply traumatized by the ordeal that she's constantly thinking about rape, even when she's playing the harp, and her parents don't seem concerned about it as they're too happy to have her back. Fortunately, the real Elizabeth seems to be handling it quite well.
** TheTeaser from "Fore Father", where the family watches a ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' episode where they play pranks on the blind daughter. It wasn't shown on FOX (for obvious reasons), but is on the Creator/CartoonNetwork cut and on the DVD version.
** Peter bashing an old man with cataracts with a baseball bat to steal his bingo board.
** The insane amount of [[BlackComedyRape rape jokes]], like Peter getting raped by a bull in "Dial Meg For Murder" and the ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} cutaway from "Baby Not On Board".
** Brian's overall behavior in "Be Careful What You Fish For" (until he realizes that the negligent preschool worker has a boyfriend), as well as the Griffins being forced to watch ''TheCove''.
** Some of the attacks on celebrities are unnecessarily harsh (though some celebrities do deserve what they get on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' either for being jerks or being such a SmallNameBigEgo, you wonder why he or she ever became famous in the first place), "Hannah Banana" in particular. One can only wonder if this episode is once again based on Seth's hatred of Disney.
*** Also, the graphic beating on a stereotypical Jewish Mort from the Disneyverse in "Road to the Multiverse"
** A CutawayGag from "Ratings Guy" where Peter mentions not being picked for anything, showing him not been chosen to get shot during a mass shooting.
** The joke about the Vietnam War Memorial, with a vaguely East-Asian person giving two veterans the finger and shouting "Scorecard, Vietnam!"
** Some HollywoodHomely jokes.
** "Since they cast Creator/MichaelJFox (a known Parkinson's sufferer) in that Franchise/{{Zorro}} remake" followed a nondescript symbol that was supposed to a Z.
** ''Creator/SethMacFarlane himself'' [[http://tv.yahoo.com/news/seth-mcfarlane-calls--family-guy--boston-marathon-bombing-clip--abhorrent--021258423.html spoke out against]] an edited clip from ''Family Guy'' being used to mock the 2013 Boston bombing
** Peter trying to kill his wife for being Jewish in "Family Goy", and the earlier joke about Lois's Jewish grandmother being named "Hebrewburg Moneygrubber".
** Any jokes about eating disorders.
** One cutaway showed two slaves building the Pyramids, and one says "Y'know, all races are going to have their tough times. We [the Jews] are getting ours early. From here on, it'll all be smooth sailing."
* EarWorm: Parodied and played for laughs on the "I Dream Of Jesus" episode with the Trashmen's "Surfing Bird". Peter's obsession for the song quickly degenerates into a nightmare for the rest of the family, with Stewie and Brian eventually stealing and destroying the record, ''Film/OfficeSpace'' style..
** ''A bag of weed, a bag of weed! Oh, everything is better with a bag of weed!''
** ''Friendship is the best thing ever!''
** ''Don't mess with Mr. Booze!''
** What about the theme song?
** ''Give it up! Give up the toad now! Its no joke!''
** ''Kentucky is a state. Kentucky is a state. All the people there are dicks, Kentucky is a state.''
** "Gonna gonna gonna buy me a rainbow..."
** ''Its a wonderful day for pie!''
** ''Can't touch me!''
** ''The fellas at the freakin' FCC!''
* EnsembleDarkHorse:
** There's a Website/{{Facebook}} group based around one-off character Sneakers O'Toole and Mayor Bee.
** 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.
* EvilIsSexy: See DracoInLeatherPants above.
* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop:
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E14PeterAssment Peter-assment]]": "Sexual harassment is forgivable and OK if the harasser hasn't had sex in a long time".
*** More like "Sexual harassment is okay if the abuser has a Freudian Excuse/[[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale is a female abusing a male]]".
*** Or if you've never had sex and you want to harm yourself, someone should just give you what you want instead of you getting professional help.
*** This was inverted with Meg sexually harassing robbers who were robbing the family home, [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe asking them if they were going to have their way with her]], and getting arrested for it.
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E2SeahorseSeashellParty Seahorse Seashell Party]]" has a ''disturbing'' one: "Victims of family abuse should stay in their abusive relationships/households because it helps their abusers"
*** Subverted in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E3ScreamsOFSilenceTheStoryOfBrendaQ Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.]]", in which DomesticAbuse is actually shown as a bad thing (yet lying to an abuse victim by forging a letter saying that her abuser left her is acceptable).
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E8FamilyGay Family Gay]]": "Being a CampGay DepravedHomosexual is genetic" or "If being gay, feminine, and insane is genetic...then maybe so is that?"
** "Turban Cowboy": "All Muslims are terrorists."
* FandomBerserkButton: Say that you like any of the post-cancellation episodes (Season 4 & up). Even worse, say that you liked any of what are considered the worst episodes, such as the infamous ''Not All Dogs Go to Heaven''.
** In "The Former Life of Brian", Meg is forced to watch all the ''Monty Python'' sketches that aren't considered funny or memorable. A lot of Monty Python's sketches ''are'' funny, but the show either relied on visual humor or tried to contextualize what little humor can be found in a long sequence. The few sketches that everyone remembers ("The Dead Parrot," "The Lumberjack Song," etc) are the short, quotable one-liner based bits that become MemeticMutation and are remembered -- much like the kind of humor ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' puts out on a near-weekly basis.
** Conway Twitty.
* FridgeHorror: The Battle of Endor from ''[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi It's A Trap!]]'' is a lot more disturbing than what's shown in the actual film, but all they did was avert the BloodlessCarnage trope from the original film. The Ewoks still behave the same as they did in the original film.
** Remember that episode where their stuck in the panic room? When Peter sets off the sprinklers, filling the room with water, he hands the rest of them parachutes, explaining "They're supposed to distract you while I put on the one scuba suit." Funny enough, but when you think about it, there was no reason to have parachutes there. In fact, there was no reason why Peter would include parachutes rather than more scuba suits. Unless it was deliberate. He plotted his own family's death.
** All the one-off jokes about Meg, Chris, and Stewie having deceased siblings. Knowing Lois's and Peter's flanderized bad parenting skills, ''they could all be true.''
** In "Big Man On Hippocampus", [[spoiler: when Lois is about to have sex with Quagmire, there's a lump in the bed that you think might be his knee, but then when Lois tells him that she trusts him, he gets scared and looks under the covers...and when he puts them back down the lump is gone...]]
** In "Back to the Pilot", when all the different Brian's and Stewie's show up from their respective timelines, one pair was trapped in barber poles, [[AndIMustScream revolving endlessly]]. Then they puke and it fills up their tube... Apparently, that's how life is in their timeline. One would have to wonder why or even how such a thing could happen.
* FridgeLogic: How can Brian not believe in Santa if he is the sole reason for Christmas presents? In "Road to the North Pole", the Griffins wake up to find they have no presents: ergo, Santa delivers them every year.
* FridgeBrilliance: At one point, Stewie is seen on video auditioning for ''The Real World''. He then shows off his dancing skills and ends up just saying "Look at my fanny, look at my fanny!" While an American audience would think that Stewie was a little boy who was talking about his butt, as many do, "fanny" is a vulgar British slang term for female genitals ("bum" or "arse" are usually used as slang for the buttocks in the UK), which gives the joke a new veneer of wrong (and might be yet another sign that Stewie is gay or doesn't know anything about genital difference).
** There's another example of FridgeBrilliance (mixed in with CerebusRetcon): in "Jerome is the New Black," Quagmire tells Brian that Cheryl Tiegs was the love of his life who left him and the subsequent break-up is the reason why Quagmire is a sex addict. Two past episodes had clues that pointed to this (but seemed like they were insignificant at first glance): in "Emission Impossible," during the scene where Chris shows Quagmire all the things he found on the scavenger hunt, there's a poster of Cheryl Tiegs on Quagmire's refrigerator (you can probably see it better if you have a widescreen TV or a DVD player that can zoom in on pictures and move them to the left or right to see a lot of background sight gags that you can't catch on TV), and in "Barely Legal" (the one where Meg becomes obsessed with Brian after Brian stands up for her at a school dance), Quagmire has the Shel Silverstein book, ''The Missing Piece'' and tells Meg that he reads it whenever he feels like he needs to find that piece he lost in his life (which would be Cheryl Tiegs).
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The gag from "Blind Ambition" where Peter tries to do good by dressing up as "Gary the No-Trash Cougar" and pointing a gun at a group of schoolkids to pick up their garbage becomes a lot less funny after the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012.
** The part on "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" where Brian shows Stewie that he didn't write down Stewie's last words and, instead, drew himself hanging from a noose. Thanks to "Brian and Stewie" (which reveals that Brian is suicidally depressed and has been planning on killing himself for a long time), that visual gag is less a sick joke and more a look at a broken, anthropomorphic dog.
* GrowingTheBeard: 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 [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Crowning Moments of Heartwarming]], the show still has its tasteless magic.
** Season 9 shows that the writers are now going out of their way to improve the show as much as possible, as the show is now in 720p high-definition, the stories are better written (though some weak episodes do crop up), there are now actually pretty emotional moments every now and then, and the humor has been stepping up in quality as less and less recycled gags are used, though most critics after season seven have blasted the show for not being as funny as it used to be and writing off seasons 8, 9, and 10 as SeasonalRot.
* HarsherInHindsight: The episode ''Turban Cowboy'' focused on Peter unwittingly joining a terrorist organization that planned on blowing up a bridge. That episode contained a cutaway gag about Peter winning the Boston Marathon by driving through the racers and killing them. That episode aired three weeks before the Boston Marathon Bombing.
** In an early episode, Lois takes up karate classes originally meant as a physical way to vent her anger and frustration, but is quickly corrupted by the power it gives her and becomes increasingly violent for it. She called it [[Film/ThePurge 'freeing the beast.]]
* HilariousInHindsight: In the banned episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," Peter expresses how badly he needs help from a Jewish person. Later in season 8, in the episode "Family Goy," it's revealed that [[spoiler: Lois is Jewish on her mom's side.]]
** One of the cutaways makes fun of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, with the narrator (voiced by the late, great trailer announcer DonLaFontaine) unsure just what ethnicity he was (in real life, Wrestling/DwayneJohnson is black and Canadian on his father's side and Samoan and Hawaiian on his mom's side). After that episode aired, he went on to voice a white guy in ''WesternAnimation/{{Planet 51}}'' and he sounded pretty ''white'' to the point where you likely wouldn't have guessed it was him.
** Music/MileyCyrus is revealed to be a robot in "Hannah Banana", her 2010 album ''Can't Be Tamed'' actually features a song called "Robot". The lyrics just make it even more funny.
** In the episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1", Peter tells Diane and Tom Tucker to "Make like a Siamese twin and split, and then one of you die." [[spoiler: Diane was KilledOffForReal in the ninth season premiere.]]
** Early episodes took a lot of potshots at Ted Turner, particularly "Screwed the Pooch", which paints him as TooDumbToLive and willing to have sex with a dog. Kinda awkward now, considering that Cartoon Network was instrumental in saving the show from cancellation (the DVD sales helped too, but the reruns on Cartoon Network showed that the show can get big ratings).
** In "Don't Make Me Over," The Griffins become musical guests on an episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' hosted by Creator/JimmyFallon. The episode first aired around the time that ''FG'' was returning from cancellation (around 2005-ish). Fallon wouldn't host an actual episode of ''SNL'' until six years later (in 2011), and unlike how the episode depicted him, Fallon never once ruined a sketch by cracking up (he almost did during the "Beethoven's Band" sketch, but he caught himself, and he even admits that his cracking up ruined a lot of good sketches in the actual episode's monologue), but he did make out with a girl who looked younger than he did (it was Rachel Dratch, who is middle-aged in real life but can pass for a teenager eerily well. Also, unlike the ''FG'' depiction, it was part of the sketch, as Fallon and Dratch were reprising their roles as the Boston Teens).
*** For all the jokes Creator/SethMacFarlane has made about ''SNL'' cast members and the show itself (not just on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', but ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' had a fictional ''SNL'' episode hosted by Tyne Daly and on the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Ricky Spanish," Steve said that facing your fears is like watching an episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': [[{{Metaphorgotten}} the cold opening may suck and the monologue may be terrible, but once Kenan Thompson does his "What Up With That?" sketch, it's actually worth it]]), it's funny (and a bit hypocritical) that he even would agree to host the first episode of the 38th season -- and do a good job of it.
** One cutaway gag features Katie Holmes escaping from Creator/TomCruise, In June 2012, Katie announced she was divorcing Tom because he was too controlling.
** In an early episode, Peter mentions that he hates the later seasons of ''M*A*S*H'' when Alan Alda made the show preachy and dramatic, which ''is'' what arguably happened to ''FamilyGuy'' (though ''FamilyGuy'' is making an effort to turn itself around, or -- at the very least -- be less preachy, but have a good point to make about certain prejudices or ways of thinking. In short, some of the later episodes are like what ''TheSimpsons'' used to be from seasons one to four).
** In "Screwed the Pooch" after finding out Brian didn't impregnate Seabreeze, he says he was looking forward to being a dad. Later in "The Former Life of Brian", it is revealed he has a son (and in "Jerome is the New Black," one of the reasons why Quagmire hates Brian is that he never cares for the human son he only saw and bonded with once).
** Remember Peter's dad Francis (not his biological father from Ireland, but his Bible-thumping father who hated Lois because she was Protestant, mistook Chris's pooping in the bathroom for masturbating, whacked Brian with a Bible when Brian criticized baptism, and criticized Meg for having a crush on Joe's son)? That strict religious guy who went to work with the Pope (back when the Pope was Pope John Paul II)? Well, nowadays, the new Pope is called Francis I.
* JerkassWoobie: You could make this case for almost every regular in the show. Lois is a good example, to start. Yes, she is self centered, snarky, abusive, and quite the sociopath, but she probably ended up like that because she has to put up with the insanity of the world (mostly caused by her legally retarded, PsychopathicManChild husband, Peter).
** Glenn Quagmire, himself. Described by Creator/SethMacFarlane as a "heartless sex maniac," this man also has a lot of problems that do make you feel sorry for him: the one woman he truly loved (Cheryl Tiegs) left him (which is what made him into a "heartless sex maniac"), his niece has cancer and is going through chemo, his sister dated a man who abused her, his father abandoned him years ago, then returned, got a sex change operation, and had sex with his most hated enemy (Brian), his pet cat was brutally murdered by Peter out of spite (and forgotten about in favor of Brian's story about trying to get marijuana legalized), and he had to give his daughter up for adoption because he felt that he wasn't a good father.
** Brian is (or, rather, has become, as the early episodes had him as Peter's sane half who liked to drink) a condescending weasel who a frequent amount of times shows a complete intolerance and apathy for anything under him. He provokes the endless abuse he gets each episode a lot less than most of the other borderline sociopaths in Quahog, however, and is frequently mocked and treated as sub human for being a dog.
* LoveToHate: Of course [[EvilIsCool old Stewie]], the ''original'' BreakoutCharacter.
* {{Magnificent B|astard}}itch: [[spoiler:Diane Simmons]] in the Season 9 opening.
* MisaimedFandom: Many fans still see Lois as a saint in later episodes, forgetting the fact that she has free-will when it comes to her jerkass behavior. Many fans blame it all on Peter.
* MemeticMutation: Mostly spawned by those mocking the show, most famously ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and its supposition that the show is written by manatees with words scrawled on balls; [[AscendedMeme the idea caught on enough that the Family Guy writers, in DVD commentaries, refer to weak jokes with comments such as "The manatees were kinda off that day".]]
** In the episode "Mother Tucker", Peter dies from watching a video from ''Film/{{Mannequin}}'', a parody of ''Film/TheRing''. This clip became popular on Website/YouTube, with the uploader replacing the ''Mannequin'' video with something considered so unwatchably bad that it would kill them the way Peter was killed on the show.
** "Stewie just said that" is quickly becoming this, though it may just be a ForcedMeme.
** IRAQ LOBSTER!
** An image macro of Peter with the caption "Oh my god, who the hell cares?!"
** Because you touch yourself at night.
** DAMN NATURE, YOU SCARY!
** [[ChewToy Shut up Meg!]]
** You know what really grinds my gears? {{Memetic Mutation}}s.
** [[http://instantostrich.com/ Laughing Ostrich]].
* MoralEventHorizon: Most fans declared that Peter finally went beyond redemption during "Brian Griffin's House of Payne", in which he threw an injured Stewie under his moving car while Lois was backing out of the driveway, and admits that he knocked out his other kids ("Sometimes by accident, sometimes because the Patriots lost").
** There's also a scene in which [[ButtMonkey Meg]] casually walks into the living room and greets her father. How does he reply? [[DudeNotFunny He shoots her in the face of course]]!
** While Jeff from "Screams of Silence" was already FAR beyond the horizon (as "Jerome is the New Black" established that he was an abusive asshole who was dating Quagmire's sister), you could argue that his attempts to [[spoiler: kill Peter, Joe, and Quagmire]] pretty much was THE moment when it was proven that there was not a good bone in his body.
** Lois in "Stew-Roids" when she gives up in trying to console Meg and leaves her a Creator/SylviaPlath book and a bottle of Ambien (compare to the episode, "Fish Out of Water," where Lois actually was nice enough to take Meg to the beach for spring break and encouraged her to be like the popular kids or "And The Wiener Is..." where she cooks up a revenge plan to get back at the popular kids who pelted Meg with meat during her flag squad performance).
-->'''Lois:''' I'm going to look away and whatever happens, happens.
** Brian in "Be Careful What You Fish For" when he leaves Stewie and other toddlers to the negligence of the teacher he's dating and tries to keep Stewie from telling Lois.
** Bertram [[spoiler: killing Leonardo Da Vinci]] in "The Big Bang Theory".
** Penelope crosses it when she tells Stewie to [[spoiler:kill Brian]] because she saw him as a threat in "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie".
** Carter after "The Old Man And The Big C" where it's revealed that his company developed a cure for cancer years ago, but he refuses to release it to the public just so he can increase corporate profit, after Lois lectures him about this, he acts like he's going to change his mind, but unsurprisingly he goes back on his word and doesn't announce the cure, dooming millions of people all so he can be even more rich!
*** He also tormented an orphan boy in "No Chris left behind" [[ForTheEvulz just for kicks]]. And he stated he does this every month.
** [[spoiler:Diane Simmons crossed it in "And Then There Were Fewer", when she murders James Woods and Priscilla, and then frames Tom Tucker for doing this.]]
* NauseaFuel: Stewie asking (and finally convincing) Brian to clean out Stewie's diaper when they are trapped together in the bank vault...by ''eating Stewie's shit''. Which causes Stewie to puke, and then he asks and convinces Brian to ''eat that, too''. It was ''the'' single grossest thing on ''Family Guy'' and pretty much the deal breaker scene for anyone who watches the 150th episode "Brian and Stewie."
** Peter and Quagmire vomited in each other's mouth while kissing on the episode where Quagmire tries to convince a hooker he drunkenly married that he's gay.
** Brian jamming Stewie's dislocated arm back into the socket in "Be Careful What You Fish For".
* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel.FamilyGuy Has its own page.]]
* NightmareRetardant: Said clones melting, then Brian wanting to eat their remains (this was on the TV version. The DVD version replaces this dialogue with Brian asking Stewie if he should search their remains because he left his bank card in one of the clones).
* ParodySue[=/=]PuritySue: In the episode "The Man With Two Brians", Peter buys a new dog under the name of New Brian after Lois says that Brian is getting old. New Brian is polite, perfect, multi-talented and instantly befriends everyone (sans Stewie, who sees him as a ReplacementScrappy), who rightly realizes that he's Brian's "replacement". New Brian goes on to improve everyone's lives and supplant Brian completely. However he makes his fatal mistake when he has sex with Rupert the teddy bear.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Later episodes have been trying to show to us that Brian isn't this perfect AuthorAvatar that everyone agrees with, but is actually the most flawed character on this show and not as smart or important as he believes.
** Peter too. During seasons 6-7, he was a {{jerkass}} of epic proportions, [[KarmaHoudini never got any punishment for his actions]], and [[AntiSue everybody forgave him instantly, and continued loving him]] like they weren't living with a PsychopathicManchild. However, it seems that, as for season 8, the writers realized of this, and although Peter is as jerkass as before, now people react more realistically towards his behavior, and he even apologizes for it.
* ScapegoatCreator: As can be seen on this very page, Creator/SethMacFarlane is often blamed for just about everything wrong with the later episodes. With a few exceptions, he really hasn't written written or directed an episode in a long time. Of course, he ''is'' executive producer--he may not come up with a certain script himself, but he has to approve all of them (and voice about half the characters himself), so he's still responsible for deciding what does and does not get into the show. However, there have been numerous jokes that Seth didn't care for that still managed to make it past the final cut. You'd think he'd be a bit more mindful of what he puts out...
* TheScrappy: Brian has become this to a portion of the fanbase after being derailed into becoming the AuthorAvatar.
** Jasper is '''loathed''' by LGBT fans (which would explain why he stopped appearing after the episode where Mayor West tries to ban gay marriage to get people's minds off the fact that he blew the city's money on a gold statue of the Sugar Smacks Frog) and even ones who aren't.
** Lois is hated intensely by fans for being [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] into a massive JerkAss who gets away whatever she does more easily than anyone, especially Peter.
** Quagmire for being reduced to a selfish, non-empathetic, annoying sex maniac who despises Brian over petty reasons. Killing his sister's abusive boyfriend is about his only remaining redeeming quality.
** Meg Griffin is an InUniverse example.
* SeasonalRot: Most fans tend to argue that season 7 was the worst season, due to the characters becoming Flanderized into essentially one note characters, the dropping of lessons with the subtlety of an atom bomb, most of those lessons being broken or delivered in a hypocritical manner, and poor plotlines, though season six after the "Stewie Kills Lois" two-parter was pretty bad, thanks to the Writer's Guild strike and FOX's decision to release three barely-done episodes behind [=MacFarlane=]'s back. It's going to take all of seasons 8 to 10 (plus the current [11th] season) for the show to return to form and for people to like the show again (if they ever abandoned it to start with).
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Stewie and Brian, for worse or for better.
* {{Squick}}: Peter breastfeeding Stewie on "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar"
** The morbid humor of keeping Stewie's severe head injury a secret on the episode where Brian pitches a TV show that gets co-opted by James Woods.
** Chris and Meg unknowingly making out with each other on the episode "Halloween on Spooner Street."
** The ipecac drinking contest on "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenaged Daughter."
*** Then "Yug Ylimaf" went and made that scene ''even worse''.
* TakeThatScrappy: Brian gets it with Quagmire's ReasonYouSuckSpeech and NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
** 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.
** Lois in "Seahorse Seashell Party" where she breaks into tears when Meg calls her out for being a horrible mother.
** 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 own daughter.
* TearJerker: Pearl Burton's final moments before she dies. Especially with the matching music, it's one of the few touching moments in the entire show.
** In "New Kidney In Town", Peter drinks makeshift Red Bull (a key ingredient being kerosene) and must have both of his kidneys taken out. Brian's kidneys are supposedly a match, but because they are dog kidneys, both of them have to be given to Peter. Brian agrees to it, and begins talking about how Peter is his best friend and how Peter always cared for him. [[spoiler:[[AssPull Of course, Brian doesn't die and in the end Dr Hartman gives up a kidney instead]].]]
** Brian revealing what the contents of his safe deposit box are for: [[spoiler: A gun and a bottle of expensive scotch, so he can have one last drink before he blows his brains out.]]
* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: "Road to the North Pole" (Be grateful with what you have and don't be selfish during the holiday season).
** Radio/RushLimbaugh telling Brian to actually give differing opinions a chance before passing judgment on them as heard in "Excellence in Broadcasting"
** "Friends of Peter G." Keep your addictions in moderation and don't let them control your life.
** As maligned as "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" is (and it ''is'' maligned -- at least on Wiki/TVTropes. [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]] pretty much brands this as SoOkayItsAverage), it actually does have a few good morals (even if it comes off as mean-spirited due to Brian's sudden atheism):
*** Irrationality and fundamentalism in religion can be a ''very'' dangerous thing (if you want proof of that, read up on the Westboro Baptist Church or any Islamic fundamentalist with a death wish).
*** Sometimes religion doesn't have all the answers on why we're here and why life is what it is (Had the writers countered this with, "...but it doesn't mean you should give it up just because an atheist points out that your life sucks so much that believing in God is a waste of time," then ''maybe'' the episode would have been more palatable).
*** Much like the moral on "The Juice is Loose," idol worship of your favorite celebrities is not worth it, as they're human and can be whiny assholes (cf. the "Stewie spends the day with the cast of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' after missing out on asking them questions at a sci-fi convention")
** "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar": Feminism is about choice. Choosing to be a wife and mother doesn't make a woman any less empowered. Also: men need to realize that women are people too and should be treated equally (or at least that was the moral they were aiming for).
** "[i]f you're watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that, you're an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn't be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves." (looks at the camera) [[LampshadeHanging "Yeah."]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: "Stew-Roids" wastes ''two'': Stewie growing large muscles and Connie getting HiddenDepths and/or CharacterDevelopment.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Diane Simmons' short movie ''Lint.''
** Stewies music video he made for Susie.
--> '''Brian''': I'm not following the storyline here.
--> '''Stewie''': Shut up!
* UnfortunateImplications:
** If there is a cutaway involving a woman the joke will either be about how "ugly" they look or something far worse. If it's a cutaway involving a man it'll be about ''everything else''.
** Or the fact that anyone shown to be gay or mentally handicapped is CampGay or an exaggerated Down Syndrome sufferer.
** Meg deciding to stay with her abusive family feels uncomfortably like StockholmSyndrome. That this is treated as a ''good'' and ''heroic'' thing makes it seem downright creepy. Not to mention "They abuse me because they can't cope without me" is almost ''exactly'' how someone with Stockholm's thinks (or someone in an abusive relationship).
** "Quagmire's Baby" has Lois state that it's Quagmire's responsibility to look after the baby, likewise the note in the basket says that it's now his problem because he didn't wear a condom. At no point does ''anyone'' call out the mother for deciding to callously abandon it the moment it was born, simply to spite Quagmire.
** The series' adherence to the AllGermansAreNazis trope. One cutaway gag implied ''they still practice eugenics''.
* TheWoobie:
** Some people feel sorry for Meg because of her extreme ButtMonkey status.
** Brian, to those who aren't annoyed by him.
----