Characters / American Dad! - Smith Family

American Dad! Main Character Index
Smith Family (Stan Smith, Roger Smith) | CIA | Pearl Bailey High School and Other Teens | Smith Extended Family | Neighbors | One-time Characters

---

From Left to Right:
Roger, Hayley, Jeff, Steve, Francine, Stan.
Not Pictured:
Klaus, Rogu.

General

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Stan and Francine often display this; Steve even cites them as the main reason he didn't want to bring his new girlfriend to his house in "Dr. Klaustus":
  Steve: I feel like I can't bring anyone around here 'cause Dad's a lunatic! And if he doesn't drive them away, Mom's food will probably kill them!
• Ax-Crazy: All of them to a certain degree (minus Jeff) are supposed to be the heroes, but it's shown they are very harmful towards others. Flanderization certainly doesn't help this case.
• Badass Family: Though their combined competence level varies, each of the family members have done extremely badass things either on their own or as a team.
• Butt-Monkey: The family tends to suffer a lot every episode. Luckily, even in the moments where a family member dies or loses a limb, the damage is never permanent.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Francine is a bubbly housewife who wears a pink dress, while her daughter Hayley is a confrontational, rebellious Tank-Top Tomboy who always wears jeans.
• Flanderization: Just like with the Griffins, everyone has had their traits greatly exaggerated overtime. They've either became stupider (Stan), jerkier (Steve and Roger), crazier (Klaus) or all the above (Francine)!
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Each member of the Smith family (except Jeff) often displays dangerously sociopathic behavior when given the opportunity, having destroyed private property or beaten, killed, tortured, raped, or tormented enemies or just bystanders for the most arbitrary of reasons without remorse afterwards.
• Jerkass: On their worst days. The Smiths are all perfectly capable of being utterly repulsive, self-centered jerks for their own personal gain.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On their better days. Deep down, the Smiths do still love each other despite their flaws and will have each other's backs in the end.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Stan's the jock dad, Steve's the nerd son. Stan constantly tries to help his son with various "masculine" activities to avoid letting Steve repeat the same poor experience Stan had in high school.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Stan, Francine, Steve and Roger have all become significantly crueler and prone to harming others in later seasons.

Stan Smith

See here for more information about him.

Francine Smith (née Ling, Dawson)

"I may be blonde with great cans but I'm pretty smart when I've had my eight hours!"

Voiced by: Wendy Schaal

Debut: "Pilot"

The matriarch, wife of Stan and mother of Hayley and Steve. A fairly happy housewife, if not a little loopy at times, although she does wish she could do stuff outside the house other than grocery shopping. During her years growing up, she was the adopted daughter of the Chinese Lings after her birth parents, the Dawsons, abandoned her as a baby at an airport since bringing babies to first class wasn't allowed. Prior to hooking up with Stan, she was very promiscuous (currently has the largest rose garden dedicated to the men she had sex with prior to meeting Stan — one with guided tours and a native tribe who has never seen a white man) and wild.

---

• Abusive Mom: Downplayed. She isn't often abusive like Stan is, but she does have her moments. She constantly shows a need for Steve's approval for her rather than acceptance, and Francine goes out of her way to sabotage Steve's relationships with other girls so he can stay a Momma's Boy. She even flat out tells him that his ex, Debbie, never loved him, and that no woman - not even any future wives or daughters - will love him as much as his mother. In "Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls," when Stan scares Steve so bad that he jumps out the window and dislocates his shoulder, Francine is actually impressed (though she does push it back in). It's even part of the plot of "Morning Mimosa," where after Steve drops an F-bomb at her, she flat-out refuses to take care of him on the grounds that since one doesn't say "F*** you" to their mother, Steve must not consider her his mother; to further drive the point home, Steve even tried to apologize by way of a card, but Francine refused to accept it. And in "Businessly Brunette", she not only laughs at Hayley's desire to become a businesswoman, but when she actually succeeds, Francine joins the same company just so she can show her up.
• Action Girl: Occasionally, but it's clear she's the second badass character next to Stan. She dishes out quite the beating on Thundercat in "Stan of Arabia", and fought alongside her family against Santa's elves, actually killing a few.
  • In "Bully for Steve", she leaps out of a window while chasing down Stan, and catches him by ramming him into a tree during a car chase.
  • She's also an Instant Expert on Le Parkour in "Stanny Boy and Frantastic", and has displayed a hefty amount of physical strength in "Hurricane!" where she carries a wounded Hayley rather easily, who's just about the same size as she is.
  • She also goes toe-to-toe with Toshi's mother Hiko in "Spelling Bee My Baby".
• Aesop Amnesia: While not nearly as bad as Stan, she does have her moments. For example, in "Iced, Iced Babies," she spends the episode having empty nest syndrome and trying to have another baby, but at the end, she's talked down when Stan points out she'll always be a mom and that the kids are supposed to leave because it means the mother has done a good job. When they get home and find that Steve has been dumped by Debbie, as soon as Stan is out of the room, she blows off everything she just learned and eagerly seizes the opportunity to coddle Steve.
• Anachronistic Orphanage: Francine used to live in an orphanage as a child.
• Angrish: In "American Fung", she suffers Sanity Slippage upon learning that Stan put her in a mental ward for three days just to buy time for a half-assed anniversary present of a bucket of fried chicken. She is promptly dragged back into the ward that she was about to check out of, screaming incoherently all the way.
• Ax-Crazy: Often shows shades of this. In the episode "Francine's Flashback," it was shown that the last time Stan forgot their anniversary, she flew into a rage and attacked him, resulting in them appearing on an episode of COPS.
• Badass Adorable: As noted above, she's able to defend herself and is better than her spy husband at Le Parkour, yet she's no less cute bubbly because of it.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Trophy Wife, Trophy Life", Francine, feeling neglected by Stan, wishing she could be more important to him. She gets her wish when he is badly hurt by a falling satellite, and she takes the opportunity to nurse him back to health herself... only for Stan to become so utterly dependent on her that he can't bear to be away from her for even a few moments.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • She's very sweet and friendly person, but take care not to cross her, as she can as vengeful as Stan. Even Stan (who usually has a very low sense of self-preservation) is smart enough to be scared of her when she gets angry. Example? Season 1, Episode 4.
  • She nonchalantly admitted to stabbing her college roommate to death while the Smiths were having dinner at a restaurant.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sometimes in later seasons. She is usually a very nice and caring mother figure, but she is sometimes as bad as her husband.
• Big Eater: Which forces her to work out until she pukes, power lift the couch, and take a ton of laxatives to stay attractive.
• Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Sort of. Compared to Stan, Francine is much more apolitical (she likely doesn't understand politics in general.)
• Brainless Beauty: Francine's intelligence has declined in later seasons; either believing that fictional characters exist in the real world, being literal-minded, or making ill-advised decisions. Such as sending naked pictures of herself to a stranger on the internet to see if she's pregnant. In terms of beauty, every character in the show has been attracted to her and the show itself does not shy away from having her be scantily clad.
• Breast Expansion: Her character in "Tearjerker", Miss Sexpun T'Come, was the same as regular Francine until she put on the engagement ring Stan gave her. That ring was given to Stan by S, who is Steve's character and is a perverted inventor that only seems to make hidden gadgets that causes women's breasts to become fantastically large. As such, she very rapidly grows several Cup-sizes, and ends up with a chest Stan has trouble looking away from.
• Bring My Brown Pants: "Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls" establishes that Stan builds a haunted house each year, with success equating to Francine wetting herself. When she returns from Buckle's even scarier haunted house, we hear a sloshing sound from her shoes, followed by Stan noticing the scent of urine.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: One of the bustiest characters on the show, rivalling the many other attractive women in the series and only beaten by the most endowed female characters^note Except in "Tearjerker"; then she is the most endowed. Several characters have remarked about her breasts staying nice at her age, especially Bullock. She self-descrbies her breasts in "Flight and Fight" as being DD-Cup and gravity defying.
• The Chew Toy: Francine seems to be getting this treatment more frequently as the show goes on, starting with "Flirting With Disaster" where she gets her face melted off with acid.
• Cleavage Window: Her ice dance dress in the episode "Of Ice and Men" has a heart-shaped opening in the chest area.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • The brief times her head comes back to earth, she can be very intelligent and sound. The rest of the time... well... remember the box she thought was a TV? Nuff said.
  • In the episode Live And Let Fry, Francine comes off as borderline insane, mostly because she's used to cooking with trans fats and the ban has limited her cooking abilities.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: It's not that she's a bad chef, it's just that she's uninspired. Since she follows the recipe exactly people find her cooking bland and soulless. A cooking class with Roger in "The Eight Fires" has her admit that she follows the recipe exactly because if people don't like it she could say it was a bad recipe, but if she tried cooking without one and people didn't like it, then she'd have nobody to blame but herself.
• Covert Pervert: Despite living a very sex-positive life before she and Stan got married, her occasional mention of her pre-marital sex squicks Stan out.
• Cute and Psycho: At her worst, she can go on rampages or ramble about messed-up events at the drop of a hat.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Subverted. Her birth parents said they had to give her away... because first class doesn't allow babies and they're too vain and haughty to accept coach. Even Stan found this unappealing.
• Depending on the Artist: Whether Francine has a Cleavage Window varies depending on the episode, with various episodes adding or removing the line representing her cleavage on each shot.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Francine can either be a woman of average intelligence (if she sleeps at least eight hours, according to herself), or a full-blown Dumb Blonde. She also shifts between a genuinely loving family woman who can scare Stan himself if she's pushed beyond ethical limits, or a psychotic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. In the episode "Live and Let It Fry", she comes off as completely insane.
  • Her attitude towards her children (especially Steve) also varies from loving to downright resentful, sometimes bordering on hateful.
  • Writers make her either a Supreme Chef or Lethal Chef per plot and/or gags. Later on they split the difference by saying her good dishes are already good recipes she's just following while also being dumb enough to mistake a formula for a paste to patch bike tires for a food recipe. An even later episode about her clarifies her cooking isn't awful tasting, just unbearably bland because she follows recipes strictly to the letter and others can taste her lack of passion. She manages to cook an amazing meal (out of Roger at his request) when she's forced to improvise.
  • Her desire to have her own career. Early episodes focused on her wanting to get a job outside the home. Later episodes make it clear she not only wants Stan to take care of her, she'd also leave him if he was unemployed.
  • Based on the episode, she can either feel confined and resentful of her responsibilities to her family, or be intent on keeping them as close and dependant on her as possible.
• Dude Magnet: Many men find her attractive.
• Dumbass Has a Point: While she's not the smartest person in her family, she does often makes reasonable arguments against Stan and/or Roger's antics and schemes.
• Dumb Blonde: While she's isn't as stupid or as impulsive as her husband, well just barely, she's still isn't the brightest bulb of the family. She does has the occasional grasp of intelligence every once in a while.
• Ethical Slut: She really got around when she was younger, but all in the name of partying, having fun, and free love, admitting the sex she had was meaningless without actually loving her partners.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • The Smiths' neighbor, Linda Memari, is in love with her.
  • "My Morning Straitjacket" has a female bouncer attracted to her, with Francine not minding and even initiating a kiss with her.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Everyone has found her attractive or admitted to Francine being hot. However she is not a natural blonde but a brunette, which most likely explains why her son Steve is a light brunette, and daughter Hayley is a darker brunette who seems to have more of Stan's hair color. Before she got a new hairdresser in "Star Trek", her dark roots were visible. There is some Negative Continuity to her natural hair color, however, as she was blonde as a baby and a toddler, and blonde hair tends to run in her family. One episode featuring Francine as an older woman also shows her to have blonde hair with gray streaks, implying it's undyed. There have also been plenty of episodes where her hair's stayed blonde during long periods where she couldn't possibly have colored it (like being lost at sea or locked in a mental asylum.)
• Expansion Pack Past: Her Chinese-American parents, her half-sister, her stand-up comedy...
• Fatal Flaw: Francine gets herself in trouble because of her need to have a more exciting life.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Feminine Mother to Hayley's Tomboyish Daughter. Francine is a bubbly housewife who wears a pink dress, while her daughter Hayley is a confrontational, rebellious Tank-Top Tomboy who always wears jeans.
• Fetish: Kinky Spanking, just to name a few of many other perverted kinks...
• Flanderization: Her bitchy side has become much more played up in later episodes (especially the TBS episodes).
• Former Teen Rebel: And a former young-adult rebel, for that matter. Whenever we get peeks of Francine's past, it usually involved copious amounts of sex, drugs, partying, and fighting: a lifestyle that she accredits Stan as saving her from. Being raised in a strict Catholic boarding school as a child following her WASP parents ditching her at the airport because their flight didn't allow children in First Class and then adopted by lenient Chinese parents probably had something to do with it.
• Gasshole: Has been seen belching loudly as a throwaway gag on occasion, usually after drinking or eating something. She even admits it!
  Francine: I'm gross...
• Genius Ditz: For the brief periods of time when she tried to pursue something outside of being a housewife, she is ridiculously good at what she does. To the point where she once became an oceanologist, and published a paper on how she found a thought-to-be-extinct species! Stan always brings things back to a screaming halt (to the point where he deliberately sabotaged the American economy because that was the only way to stop her career as a real estate agent). However, these moments of genius are mainly Played for Laughs, leaving her an unintelligent bimbo for most of her appearances. Other characters for the most part comment on how idiotic she generally is.
• Genki Girl: She can be high-energy and somewhat crazy.
• Godiva Hair: In "Daesong Heavy Industries II: Return to Innocence".
• Gone Horribly Right: When Stan lost his memory in "The Boring Identity", Francine, in an attempt to turn him into the "perfect man" made him think he was an supremely-caring, deeply sensitive individual. It never crossed her mind that such a man wouldn't want to be with a woman with as many flaws as she possesses; In fact, it doesn't take long for the new Stan to decide that they're too different to be together, and he openly denounces Francine for her own insensitivity.
• Gonk: Apparently, she's hideous when she didn't bother to do her beauty regimen for two weeks. She stopped taking care of her appearance out of spite when Stan said he only appreciated her for her looks. Stan had to turn himself blind (and jobless) so he can tolerate living with her, which ultimately invoked an aesop proving both of them are just as shallow.
  Roger ("Jeannie Gold"): Alex, Ronnie, cut! Momma's not making a monster movie!
• Happily Adopted: She was raised by a Chinese couple called the Lings and is so happy about it she does not even want to know who her biological parents are.
• Happily Married: To Stan, but they have an equal amount of neglect and unfaithfulness with love.
• Head-Turning Beauty: In "Rubberneckers " Stan calls in Francine as a witness and she arrives in a racy dress. As she walks towards the front with a Supermodel Strut, she catches the eye of every man present and Stan calls them on it.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: In "Spelling Bee My Baby", her plan to kidnap Akiko and eliminate her from the competition for Steve to win would've succeeded had she not given her captive a Nintendo Wii - this led to Nintendo alerting Akiko's mother when she sent the Yakuza and Toshi on a manhunt to find her, and giving her the Smith address to rescue Akiko and get her to the competition just in time before she's eliminated.
• Housewife: Francine is an extreme parody of this. In the Thanksgiving episode, she was obsessed with having the most number of burners on her stove, and upon entering an enormous magnificent mansion, all she can think about are the burners.
• Hypocrite:
  • She claims to be an animal lover but drowns a rare species of bird in one episode and takes Steve's pet rabbit so she can fry it.
  • Then there's the fact that, in one episode, she refuses to be a provider after Stan goes blind because he values good looks above all else. Even stating she married him so Stan could financially take care of her despite bashing Stan on his superficial reasons for marriage. They then decide not to fix what isn't broken.
  • Despite bashing Stan for his bad parenting habits, she sees nothing wrong with excessively spoiling her kids until Stan decided to spend time for himself forcing her to have to deal with its consequences.
  • In "Whole Slotta Love", she is outraged when she thinks Stan is cheating on her, but later in the same episode, she admits that she likes the idea of other women being attracted to him.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Francine is a practiced expert at this having used sex appeal to get by in life. In the episode "My Morning Straitjacket", to help Stan get backstage to meet the lead singer of My Morning Jacket, she pulls this against several security staff, including flashing her breasts and making out with another woman.
  • She attempts it (and fails) in "1600 Candles", trying to get something out of some CIA agents. Lowering the straps of her dress doesn't work, giving him her panties (taken off right in front of him) doesn't work, but the second she mentions her brownies his partner charges over in a Humongous Mecha and takes them. "He makes it hard to negotiate," the first scientist remarks.
• Karma Houdini:
  • She has gotten away with excessive stealing in "Crotchwalkers."
  • The entirety of the events of "Poltergasm" are blamed on Stan's inability to sexually satisfy Francine, to the point her unsatisfied urges manifested as a bloodthirsty, psychotic entity that threatened to kill the family. At no point does anyone ever call Francine out on how her repeated lying to Stan over the years is what led to the Poltergasm's creation. It takes everyone being literal seconds from being crushed to death for her to finally tell Stan what she actually wants from him, and Stan's still the one to apologize.
• Kick the Dog: Got her son suspended from school by stashing drugs in his locker.
• The Lad-ette: In her younger years, she was a Hard-Drinking Party Girl who loved to drink, party, and have tons of sex.
• Lethal Chef: Stated to be one in "Dr. Klaustus." Stan can't stand her cooking and has been secretly feeding it to wolves for ten years, and Steve even cites it as one of the reasons he didn't want to introduce his girlfriend to the family, outright stating that Francine's food would probably kill her if Stan's lunacy didn't drive her away first.
• Male Gaze: Francine is often subject to this with major focus during her Supermodel Strut scene in "My Morning Straitjacket" and "Rubberneckers". Also, Bullock (Stan's superior) like to focus on her breasts.
• Mama Bear: Messing with Steve and Hayley is a sure way to get you killed by Francine, whether you're her husband or not. When Jeff seemingly decided to break off his engagement with Hayley for 50,000 dollars, Francine was so disgusted she tried to kill Jeff by unloading Stan's gun into his face. If it wasn't for the fact that Stan removed the bullets, Jeff would be dead right now. And when she discovered Stan had been bullying Steve in order to toughen him up, Francine chased him through the school, jumped out a window, and ran after him with glass in her hair until he drove off. She then rammed his car off the road with hers.
  Stan: What the hell, Francine! You t-boned me bro!
• Morality Pet: Zigzagged. Francine is a victim of Roger's selfishness, but she's also one of the very few individuals who can curb his said selfishness. When Roger thought he was going to signal Earth's destruction, the only person he planned to mourn was Francine:
  Roger: You know Stan, it's too bad. I actually liked Francine. The rest of them can go suck it but Francine I'm sorry to see die.
• Moral Myopia: She sees nothing wrong with manipulating and making her kids (especially Steve) dependent on her. Even in "Tapped Out", when the whole town makes her an outcast, she still refuses to admit she's done anything wrong.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a very attractive woman and there are many fanservice tropes relate to her. Special mention goes to "My Morning Straitjacket", in which she got Stan backstage by showing off her body to appease all of the guards, and "Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls" where she spend half of the episode in underwear.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: She's in her 40's, and has had two canon kids (three counting Greg and Terry's daughter, Libby). And she can pass for a girl in her 20's. Brought up during "My Morning Straightjacket".
  Jim James: Hey, is this your daughter?
  Stan: Wife.
  Jim: Damn...
• My Beloved Smother: Towards Steve. She wants to be able to dote on him forever and is terrified of him growing up and leaving her, and as such, she deliberately tries to sabotage his romantic relationships. And the less said about the events of "Tapped Out", the better...
• Nice Girl: Aside from her occasional Bitch in Sheep's Clothing tendencies, she can be sweet and caring most of the time.
• Not So Above It All: While she is much more sane than Stan, she still engages in zany schemes, like trying to assassinate George Clooney because she felt he upstaged her (Season 1 finale).
• Official Couple: With Stan; they've been married since the start of the series.
• Older Than They Look: Francine's able to unintentionally pass herself off as a teenager when she's up to it. In the first season, after Stan accidentally erased the last twenty years of her life from her memory, Francine noticed no significant change in her physical appearance (except for pubic hair).
• Parental Abandonment: Her real parents left her at an airport after being told they couldn't bring any children with them in first class.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: On one occasion she's empathetically expressed a desire for Stan to roleplay the Monopoly Guy as a part of foreplay.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Her classic outfit is pink while Stan wears a blue suit.
• Pink Is Erotic: Francine wears pink all the time, and not only is she stated to have had sex with numerous men, but she's also considered very attractive by many characters in-universe. In My Morning Straight Jacket, Francine decides to help Stan by becoming a groupie to get him through security. She wears a hot pink tube top with pink lipstick and she gets through security by; posing provocatively to the doorman, showing her boobs, and making out with the lady security guard. The ending implies they either have a threesome with the lady security guard or Stan gets to watch them making out again.
• Pink Means Feminine: Pink is her favorite color and has many outfit with this color. Her normal attire consists of a pink gown with straps and pink high heels to match.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Much like her husband, Francine is sometimes a very impulsive and naive Womanchild as well as very insane, obsessive and unpredictable.
• Really Gets Around:
  • Shown at the beginning of "When a Stan Loves a Woman" where Francine revealed she has a sex garden where she planted a rose bush for every man she slept with that was later revealed to be the largest sex garden in North America and made cover of Sex Garden Magazine.
  • Played for Drama in "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", as she had sex with a man who may or may not be Hayley's real father on the day before her wedding because she was nervous about settling down to be a wife after being a party girl for so long and getting married and Stan is upset over being lied to about being Hayley's father (though he does accept the fact that he still loves Hayley, whether or not he's biologically related to her).
• Retired Badass: She was once in a fight club and in prison, and if you really anger her, she becomes a Combat Pragmatist who will do anything short of killing her family members if they cross her (she rammed Stan with a four-wheel-drive!).
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: The Right Way to Stan's Wrong Way (on more than a few occasions she proves to be just as bad).
• Sexual Karma
  • Compared to Stan, Francine's sex life is portrayed as innocent, satisfying and mutually pleasurable despite her darker moments because she's usually depicted as naive but well-meaning. However, in Poltergasm, Francine reveals that after they married she started faking her orgasms because Stan stopped taking his time or addressed her need for pleasure. Once they start doing it more affectionately, Francine's "poltergasm" disappeared under a thunderous cry of orgasmic pleasure.
  • The episode "Hot Water" had a moment where a post-Hot Tub Stan lead to an incredibly pleasurable sex session. Though mind-blowing, it wasn't Francine's best.
  Francine: That. Was. The. Best. Sex. I. Ever. Had. With You.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Francine really likes it when Stan acts sweet and sensitive. However it ends up averted in "The Boring Identity" where she turns an amnesiac Stan into her ideal sweet and caring man, but ends up bored with him and realizes she loves the old Stan who she acknowledges deep down is "an insensitive son of a bitch" but is the "only man she ever wanted." Meaning she wants a bad boy who's good in small doses.
• A Sinister Clue: She is left-handed, but suppressed it after having this trope (literally) beaten into her. Steve and Hayley help her overcome her past, and she resolves to start using her left hand again, which proves catastrophic because she had simply trained herself to be right-handed.
• Stacy's Mom:
  • Steve's friends have mentioned being attracted to her. Jeff finds her attractive too (despite the marriage with Hayley making Francine his mother-in-law.) Even her son Steve has expressed how attractive he finds her.
  • Steve himself in "Rubberneckers" literally sings twice about how he would to have sex with her if Francine wasn't his own mother.
• Stalker with a Crush: When she was younger she had a crush on her algebra teacher, Mr. Feeny. He didn't take her seriously, and then his wife found her in their closet smelling his clothes and cutting herself. Francine lied to the police about them being lovers, so he was arrested and eventually killed himself in prison.
• Stripperiffic: Her dance dress in the episode "Old Stan in the Mountain" that is very revealing. Indeed she is visibly embarrassed when Roger takes her to a funeral instead of a dance competition while wearing her ridiculous costume.
  [Roger and Francine walk into the funeral, and receive glares from all those in attendance]
  Francine: Why is everybody staring at us?
  Roger: Maybe 'cause we're at a funeral and you got your 'taters out.
• Supermodel Strut:
  • In "My Morning Straitjacket", she manages to get past a bouncer guarding the backstage (and bring Stan with her) by walking up to him in an intentionally seductive manner while swaying her hips and chest. The bouncer lets her in and the onlookers are too briefly distracted to complain about it.
  • In "Rubberneckers", when called as a witness, she enters the court while strutting and purposefully swinging her hips to get the men at court to look at her, proving that they're all 'Rubberneckers'.
• Taught to Hate: Francine Smith is left handed and hates left handed people and forces herself to use her right hand instead. This is because she grew up in an Catholic orphanage till the age of 7 where her left hand was beaten with a side of beef (or a fish on Fridays) if she used it whilst the nuns who taught her would scream about left handedness being the sign of the devil.
• Temporary Bulk Change: She becomes quite buff after she becomes a body builder in "One Woman Swole".
• Too Dumb to Live: For the most part she is this. In "Standard Deviation" she makes paste that's used for bicycle tires and serves it as dinner for her family believing it to be a recipe for soup! She also got said "Recipe" from a bicycling magazine.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the early seasons, she was a perfectly nice person. But over time, she has become more callous and detached in regards to others.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Starting at around Season 14 or 15, she became less callous and neglectful to her family.
• The Unfair Sex: Though she has flawed moments, any confrontation she has with Stan (regardless as to whether Stan has a legitimate point or not) ends with her winning 99% of the time. Played straight as possible in an episode she revealed to have cheated on Stan just before their wedding. She's still the good guy.
• The Unfavorite: Subverted. Her Chinese in-laws parents seem to favor their birth daughter Gwen to her. And Stan finds her parents' will, in which they leave everything to Gwen. But after Francine's father saves Stan from a burning building, he explains that they help Gwen because she is an idiot, but Francine is intelligent and can take care of herself and she has a good husband, so they know she'll be fine.
• Vocal Evolution: By the TBS seasons, her voice has gotten a bit lower and more shaky, likely due to Wendy Schaal aging.
• What Does She See in Him?: Stan is a Jerkass who's incapable of learning any lessons and does such things as lie to and use his own family for his own benefit, and has forgotten his and Francine's wedding anniversary more than once. In at least one episode, Francine has actually thought about leaving him.
• Womanchild: She often behaves like she is 7-years-old despite being a 40-year-old woman.
• Women Are Wiser: It varies, but the female Smith members tend to be better people. It sometimes happens when Stan is portrayed as the smart, rational one in comedic situations where her flaws don't bring any serious consequences. During the actual plot, where stupidity does push the conflict, however, you won't see Stan having the high ground. One example of this is "Daddy Queerest", which starts with showing Francine as embarrassingly stupid at a party, while the actual plot concerning Terry hiding in the closet from his homophobic father shows Francine as reasonable for helping him uphold a charade of heterosexuality while Stan is portrayed as an insensitive idiot for outing him after he pushed Greg onto Stan as a scapegoat.
• Would Hurt a Child: Well, teenager actually; She kidnaps Akiko in "Spelling Bee My Baby" so that Steve could focus on the competition.
• Yandere:
  • To her son, Steve (non-romantic example). Francine has moved away from this aspect in the later seasons, and when Stan starts having issues with Steve growing up Francine's the one who has to set him straight.
  • She's even one for her husband. When he tells her that he "killed" one of their friends' husband, she becomes jealous and overprotective of him. When she accidentally reveals that Stan "killed" her husband, she goes to extreme measures to keep Stan from getting arrested.
• You Are What You Hate: In one episode, she is revealed to have animosity toward left-handed people though shortly reveals herself to be is naturally left-handed. This is due to during her childhood being struck in the orphanage for using her left hand subsequently growing up believing lefties to be spawns of the "Devil".

Hayley Fischer (née Smith)

"Ugh, I gotta stop smoking salvia before I go to the body paint shop."

Voiced by: Rachael MacFarlane (Seth's sister)

Debut: "Pilot"

Daughter and the oldest of the two Smith siblings. As a kid, she and her father were close due to sharing the same beliefs, but as she became a young adult, her views became the complete opposite of her dad's, causing the two to butt heads often; for instance, she's in favor of gun control, while he isn't. That's not to say that she doesn't get Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments with Stan, and shares more than a few personality traits from her father, both negative and positive.

---

• A-Cup Angst: According to some episodes, such as "1600 Candles", she's not very satisfied with her bust size, angrily yelling "This is as big as they're gonna get?!"
• Aesop Amnesia: Like Stan, Hayley has trouble learning lessons. In "Faking Bad", she uses Steve to make fake I.D.'s for her friends, while mocking him behind his back. This eventually results in Hayley going to jail. The two reconcile, but immediately after, Hayley goes back to insulting Steve.
• Aloof Big Sister: She only rarely connects with Steve; otherwise, she is distant and standoffish towards him.
• Attention Whore: She most likely flaunts her left-wing beliefs around to irritate her father and to get attention. She quickly abandons them whenever she wants to.
• The Artifact: Arguably even more than Klaus, who one can argue has never really been a major character. Hayley was the second character created for the show after Stan, when the premise was supposed to be a modern "All in the Family". When politics was phased out in the first two seasons, Hayley's screen time and storylines were dramatically reduced.
• Ax-Crazy: She was a holy terror during the various stages of puberty, doing such things as setting the couch on fire and throwing Roger out a window. Furthermore, though she dumps boyfriends regularly and nonchalantly, the minute she's the one who gets dumped, she flies into a destructive rampage that has led the police to threaten her with prison should it happen again. Potentially justified due to the background of Project Daycare.
• Big Sister Bully: To Steve. She often puts him down and mocks him for being a "loser". Any moments of genuine affection between the two are few and far between.
• Big Sister Instinct: In "Meter Made" she beats up Roger after traumatizing Steve.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Special mention goes to the episode "Dungeons & Wagons" when Hayley breaks up with Jeff yet again because she feels he's smothering her. Later, after deciding she wants him paying attention to her again, she finds that Jeff would rather play an online RPG game with Steve and his friends so she herself enters the game and kills Steve's character. What makes this example stand out among others is the usually passive Jeff openly calls her out on her selfish and Jerkass behavior when she tries to make him pay attention to her again and even suggests that he wants nothing more to do with her.
• Body Paint: In "Roy Rogers McFreely", she paints over her chest to protest changes being made to the neighborhood.
• Book Dumb: She keeps dropping out of college due to her laziness, but she is quite abstract at other things that she sets her mind to.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: In addition to being a hippy/hipster, she lives with her upper middle-class parents.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Stan enrolled her in a program to become a CIA sleeper agent when she was 5. If you say the right combination of words, she becomes a trained killer.
• Brainy Brunette: Despite her brattiness and occasional self-righteousness, Hayley is quite intelligent and insightful.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Sort of, in the early seasons. She has beliefs that directly oppose her father's, but at times, it appears that she simply rebels against her parents for the sake of it.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: She exhibits strong critical thinking abilities and an abstract sense of direction, but she prefers to lounge around on the sofa instead of doing anything useful.
• Burger Fool: Hayley has kept a steady job at Sub Hub. It was the sole factor in her quitting vegetarianism.
• Butt-Monkey: Not to the extent of Klaus or Steve, but she is often dismissed by Stan and subject to Amusing Injuries.
• The Chew Toy: Hayley is frequently used for physical comedy, such as in "Max Jets" where she's knocked into a bathtub with a toaster, electrocuting her. When she emerges, she's almost immediately stung by a poisonous scorpion.
• Competition Freak: "The Bitchin' Race" shows that she shares this trait with Stan; While teamed up with Steve in a race around the world, she treated Steve like he was useless (claiming that she had been "carrying" the team the whole way), and would go to any lengths to get ahead, from teaming up with Stan to having the leads taken out of the race.
• The Cynic: She frequently sees life as unfair, which started when she saw a news report of a man clubbing a baby seal.
• Daddy's Girl: When she was younger she used to absolutely adore her father.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Originally the main reason Hayley even bothered with Jeff. However, Stan eventually warmed up to him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually to her father.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Particularly from Season 3 on. Compare her screen time with Francine's, Steve's, or Roger's. Arguably because the show switched from politics driven to character/story emphasis, and her personality wasn't much developed other than as the strawman liberal.
  • Since Hayley married Jeff Fischer, however, the writers seem to be making an effort to include her more along with Jeff, but even then the subplots don't rely on Hayley's leftist views as much as they focus on problems with their marriage. There have been at least a few sub-plots on Hayley and Jeff's lack of a satisfying sex life.
  • Then, starting from Season 9 and continuing into the TBS episodes, she received more focus compared to her screen time from the last few seasons. At one point, Hayley had more episodes focused on her than Stan or even Roger!
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Hayley's Soapbox Sadie tendencies can switch between being genuinely passionate and well-intentioned, or completely hypocritical and implied to be nothing more than a facade to irritate her father. Similar to Francine, she can switch between the most level headed of the family or as much a self-righteous Jerkass as Stan.
  • Her intelligence level seems to fluctuate wildly between episodes. Some episodes she is clever and competent, others she is so stupid she thinks she can taste food by licking an image of it on her computer.
• Dude Magnet: Like her mother, many men have been attracted to Hayley. Notable examples include Jeff, Bullock, Snot, and Reginald.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Dreamsmasher.
• Entitled Bitch:
  • In the episode "LGBSteve," she's genuinely shocked and driven to tears when the lesbian roller derby team she and Steve joined kicks her off the team, despite the fact that mere minutes before they do so, she exposed Steve as a boy to the others by pulling his pants down to expose his genitals right in front of them; as it turns out, the other girls had known all along that Steve was a boy and didn't care.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Invokes this trope by dyeing her hair blonde to get people to pay attention to her (in the episode "Blonde Ambition").
• Fake American: In-Universe. At the end of "She Swill Survive", there is a scene with Stan and Hayley being their Animated Actors. Hayley's actress has a thick Australian accent.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Tomboyish Daughter to Francine's Feminine Mother. Hayley is a confrontational, rebellious Tank-Top Tomboy who always wears jeans, while her mother Francine is a bubbly housewife who wears a pink dress.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Her hypocritical and psychotic tendencies can be somewhat explained as an inherited tendency from her parents, but also as a likely side effect of the brainwashing Stan put her through when she was little.
  • See Used to Be a Sweet Kid for more traumatizing details.
• Granola Girl: In deep contrast to Stan, albeit a more cynical version of this trope. In the "Stan of Arabia" two-parter, when she's being chased by police for going out in public without a man, she yells at them "I respect your right to chase me!" (even though someone who is liberal and pro-women's rights like her should be objecting to how women are treated in Muslim countries). Later in the episode she agrees with a terrorist about how evil America is, though she insisted there were ways besides terrorism to fight the system.
• Happily Married: Most of the time, anyways. She does get irritated with Jeff's Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, but the two tend to have a much more stable marriage than Stan and Francine.
  "I'm married. Sometimes happily."
• The Hedonist: She ditches her left-wing, hippie vegetarian views several times in order to endorse superficial lifestyles. It usually doesn't end too well for her.
• Hidden Depths: The episode "Love, A.D. Style" shows that she's a very good singer (as is her voice actress) — to the point where Roger becomes dangerously obsessed with her.
• Hypocrite: A lot of humor tends to revolve around this.
  • In some cases she is incredibly shallow about her own ethics and views, albeit Depending on the Writer.
  • She dumps boyfriends, frequently Jeff, coldly and nonchalantly on numerous occasions (perhaps most notably dumping Avery Bullock over phone, midway through a presentation, on live TV, right before he was going to promote Stan) and is occasionally outright termed as a "slut." When a boy dumps her, however, she goes out and out Ax-Crazy (to the point that the police have threatened her to have her put in jail for life if she gets dumped again).
  • To hammer this point in, at the beginning of "Pulling Double Booty" (which introduces her violent responses to being dumped), a panicked Francine tells Stan that Hayley and Jeff broke up. Stan casually points out that this happens "at least every other week" before being told that Jeff caused it. Stan freaks out upon hearing that particular detail of the story.
  • In "Meter Made", she has no problem posing nude for an art class — until she learns Roger is in the class. When he brings the painting he made back home and puts it on display, she openly protests, prompting Roger to point out her earlier claim that posing nude "empowers" her.
  • The episode "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six" reveals that she became a Soapbox Sadie at her 7th birthday party, where she witnessed a baby seal getting clubbed to death on the news and realized how unfair life was, yet she sees nothing wrong with taking advantage of her family.
• Inconsistent Spelling: "Hayley" is the official spelling of her name, but some source material, along with a few episodes, misspell it as either "Haley" or "Hailey". For example, "Pulling Double Booty" uses the former misspelling twice.
• Informed Deformity: She apparently has a very masculine face, to the point where she's sometimes mistaken for a man, despite her face being nearly identical to that of Francine's.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Hayley is essentially a caricature of Rachael MacFarlane, albeit younger and shorter.
• Interspecies Romance: She's a human who briefly dated, and willing to have sex with, Reginald, a koala.
• It's All About Me: Yet another negative trait she inherited from Stan. In "Fleabiscuit", she sabotaged Jeff's racing dog, ruining its winning streak, all so she could remain the successful "alpha" in their relationship.
• Karma Houdini: A lot of Hayley's role revolves around being a hypocritical foil to Stan and showing similar overzealous or callous tendencies as her father, especially in early seasons. However, similar to Francine, due to being mostly in supporting roles or minor comic relief, her actions are rarely called out or met with repercussions to the same level as Stan or even Steve.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: As a result of undergoing "Project Daycare" as a child, Hayley was brainwashed to become a nigh-unstoppable killing machine when Stan utters a specific codephrase (a phrase that "no one in the world would ever utter"). Unfortunately, after seven days she'll go crazy and try to murder Stan.
  Stan: I'm getting fed up with this orgasm!
• Lazy Bum: Hayley only seems to work her hardest when attempting to screw over her family. For example, in "Helping Handis", she makes a video about how worthless Francine's life as a homemaker is for class, despite the fact that she keeps dropping out of college; the show openly acknowledges that she will never move out of the house. In "Less Money, Mo' Problems", it's revealed that Jeff is the only one working full time; Hayley would rather remain a community college student and blame the low minimum wage for them mooching off Stan and Francine instead of getting a job herself to bring in more income so they can move out.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Hayley once entered a relationship with Stan's C.I.A. double, Bill, who looked like her dad (and nearly drove Francine to kill Stan because she thought he was sexually molesting her).
• Made of Iron:
  • Survived being bitten in the abdomen by a shark in the "Hurricane!" episode. Though she doesn't exactly shrug it off either, spending the rest of the episode pale and weak with blood loss.
  • In "Love, A.D. Style", she survives a point-blank gunshot wound to the chest from Roger, and while in the hospital also gets a vase smashed onto her head again by Roger. She also doesn't seem any worse for wear even after Roger kidnaps her out of the hospital and holds her captive in a dingy warehouse.
• Mama Bear: In "Season's Beatings", despite denying any maternal instincts, the minute she sees the baby Jeff adopted she starts sobbing uncontrollably with joy over "her baby." To the point that she was willing to kill Stan to protect Nemo, even if he is the Anti-Christ (from Rapture's Delight, to boot).
• Manchurian Agent: The trigger words: "I'm getting fed up with this orgasm." It was supposed to be "rhubarb," but that ended up triggering Steve into being a killer.
• Meaningful Name: Her middle name, "Dreamsmasher". Stan wanted to use his youth on something productive and extravagant, but Hayley's birth put an end to his plans.
• Mirror Character: To Stan. In spite of their clashes with each other, they are both quite similar, being self-centered, self-righteous individuals who don't always practice what they preach.
• Ms. Fanservice: Not at the level of her mother, but again present. One of early episodes has her work as a stripper and another models nude, making a big deal on how it's totally not scandalous... until she sees that Roger is in the class.
• No-Respect Guy: Gender-inverted. She often receives no respect from her family (especially Stan), who sees her as a preachy downer and a disappointment to the household. The only one who consistently supports her is her husband, Jeff.
• Not Good with Rejection: Things can get really ugly if she is the on the receiving end of a breakup.
• Official Couple: With Jeff; they've dated since the start of the series and eventually marry.
• Only Friend: She's the one member of the Smith family who gets along with Klaus on a consistent basis (though even she can be mean to him at times). And since Hayley is seldom shown hanging out with anyone outside the Smith household (Danuta and Nerfer are her only recurring friends and their appearances are scarce), the same could be said about Klaus being her only friend. They even possess the ability to communicate with each other telepathically.
• Only Sane Woman: Compared to jerkass Stan and Roger, energetic Francine, sex-crazed Steve, somewhat insane and perverted Klaus, and her stoner husband, she comes across as the closest to normalcy within her family.
• Out of Focus:
  • Since about Season 3 onward, compare her screen time and plot/subplot focus to Stan, Francine, Steve and Roger. In some episodes, she's lucky to have comparable screen time and lines to Klaus. See Artifact above. A big part of it is that as the show moved away from political satire, Hayley ended up losing most of her purpose to the show.
    Francine: It's been so quiet around here. Roger, Klaus and Hayley are still on that 100,000-mile road trip.
    Hayley: I didn't go on that trip.
    Francine: Hmm... you've really been flying under the radar this year...
  • As of Season 9, this has become subverted as she's been given much more plot/subplot focus than in the years prior. Season 11 for example had her playing some sort of essential role in 7 of its 15 episodes.
• Parenting the Husband: She often acts more like Jeff's mother than his wife. She is said to give him baths, needs others to watch him when she isn't around and once made him sit in a corner for 10 minutes (later upped to 20 when he talked back) because he insulted Francine.
• Perpetual Frowner: She is frequently shown frowning, which is lampshaded in "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six" where the family gets sick of her sour demeanor.
• The Pig-Pen: Implied. It's been pointed out several times that she reeks of body odor, which isn't unlikely given her rather lethargic demeanor. It's also revealed she eats out of the garbage; she is even shown picking her nose on several occasions.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's absolutely tiny for an adult woman (she's barely five feet tall according to this cover art◊ for volume 6), but is much stronger and better at fighting than you'd think, capable of curb-stomping Stan, who is a trained killer.
• Rightly Self-Righteous: Her hypocrisy and ego is Lampshaded in excess, but having a father like Stan (and Seth's usual depiction of Republicans), she usually still proves the saner man.
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Her left-wing ethics are always the right way to Stan's right-wing extremism.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: She has been shown to be pretty attractive when she wears a more flattering outfit and hairstyle, even developing a much curvier figure than her thin top and loose jeans would indicate. On few episodes, Roger even tells her that if she cleaned herself up and abandoned her hippy look, men would find her more attractive.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: She's much shorter than her mother and most other teenage and adult women on the show.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her husband, Jeff, and many of Hayley's ex-boyfriends are nice guys.
• Soapbox Sadie: To provide contrast to Stan's over-the-top right-wing attitude. Became this way after seeing news footage of a baby seal getting clubbed on her seventh birthday. From then on, she became very political and dour. For instance, when Stan came to her school on Career Day to tell the class what he does for a living, she introduced him as being responsible for introducing crack cocaine and AIDS into poor, inner-city neighborhoods (even though, according to Stan, the FBI was responsible for infecting inner-city neighborhoods with AIDS).
• Straw Feminist: She falls into the category of espousing women who choose to be mothers and housewives are wasting their lives instead of doing more important things. Hayley once created a presentation for one of her courses juxtaposing Francine doing household tasks against famous women of history, cruelly humiliating her own mother by making it look like Francine's an idiot.
• Straw Hypocrite: At her very worst. While she does show genuine devotion to her beliefs at times, a lot of her actions seem to be solely to outrage her Control Freak father, and has attempted to bail out a few good times she is made to go through with the consequences of her actions. Stan's status as an unofficial villain makes her this a lot of time such as in the episode "Less Money Mo’ Problems" where Hayley only brought up how hard it is to make a living on just minimum wage after Stan got tired of their antics which involve Jeff waking him up in the middle of the night to watch Bones, going to the bathroom while Stan was still in the shower, and pouring out an entire bottle of syrup onto his pancakes after Stan asked him to pass it. Making it come across as an excuse to allow them to keep freeloading off of Stan than something she actually believed in.
• Strawman Political: She's as much a stereotypical liberal as her father is a stereotypical conservative.
• Straw Vegetarian: Claims to be vegetarian, but eats a lot of ham in "Camp Refoogee" and had lobster with her family in "Family Affair". On "N.S.A: No Snoops Allowed", Roger convinces her to spend one day eating meat after eating Klaus' hazelnut and veal omelette, which escalates her into eating the brain of a gorilla (or so she thinks), which disgusts her enough to return to her vegetarian diet. In "(You Gotta) Strike For Your Right", she mentions skimming ham off the sandwich deliveries at her new job, showing that she has completely abandoned her former beliefs. Subsequent episodes show her eating meat with no issue, confirming that it stuck.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With her hair dyed blonde and without her headband, she looks practically identical to Francine.
• Tank-Top Tomboy: She sports a black tank top to display her rebellious nature.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Averted. In "Roy Rogers McFreely", Hayley points out to Stan that, since Roger's in charge and his views are counter to his, Stan is now part of the counterculture, and therefore on the same side with Hayley. Rather than argue, Stan realizes she's right and the two form a group to undermine Roger's control on the neighborhood. The episode showed that, if not for their clashing points of view, Stan and Hayley would get along great.
• Tomboyish Voice: Hayley has the deepest voice of the female characters, which befits her dominant, no-nonsense personality.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Hayley is headstrong, dominant, and hedonistic, with a Limited Wardrobe of a black tank top and jeans. She also dresses up on formal occasions, wears panties, likes the color pink, and fawns over animals.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Hayley contends with Stan far less in later seasons, with more focus being put on her stoner nature for the sake of comedy.
• The Unfavorite: Her middle name ("Dreamsmasher") says most of it, as well as Stan's disdain for her and Francine's blatant favoritism for Steve. Plus, with her extreme liberalism, her rebellious attitude, her dating and marrying Jeff, etc., she tends to get Stan's dislike often.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • If the guy is the one who ends a relationship with her, she'll go on a destructive rampage. Averted in the episode "American Dream Factory", however. Illegal Mexican immigrant Paco breaks off a relationship with her, with no adverse effects (though she does go to desperate lengths to have him prosecuted by the INS). This is likely because this episode is almost two years older than "Pulling Double Booty", the episode where this trait made its debut. Though the reactions are different throughout the show, Hayley at least consistently handles being dumped in an extremely callous manner, especially considering the number of times she has coldly dumped Jeff.
  • She also was a holy terror during various stages of puberty: when told that she had to wear tampons now that she was on her period, Hayley (who was wearing a skirt) threw the tampon box away and sat on the Smiths' new white couch, she yelled at her parents for not getting bigger boobs, and when Roger cracked a joke about a pimple on her face, she threw Roger through a window and set the living room on fire.
  • One could speculate that her talent for destruction might be due to Project Daycare.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She was very happy and energetic as a child (her nickname even being Happy Hayley). The episode "Hayley Smith - Seal Team Six" reveals that this aspect of her personality vanished at her 7th birthday party, where she witnessed a baby seal getting clubbed to death on the news, turning her into the preachy downer that she is now.
• Vocal Evolution: Hayley's voice sounded higher-pitched in earlier seasons, before settling into a much deeper contralto.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Compared to her borderline Ax-Crazy father and scatter-brained mother, she is more level-headed.
• Weirdness Magnet: She always seems to attract questionable men, and being sucked into an environmental cult with a man who planned to be turned into a tree, as well as having dinner with a psychopathic serial killer who just killed his father.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: It's occasionally implied that some of her political beliefs and actions are simply ways to get her parents (mostly Stan) to notice her. Likewise, she once admitted that she felt as though Stan didn't love her since he's never openly said it.
• Woman Scorned: To its most extreme when she gets dumped.

Steven "Steve" Smith

"I'm Steve. I have five friends on MySpace and I'm waiting on approval from a sixth."

Voiced by: Scott Grimes

Debut: "Pilot"

The younger of the Smith siblings. A nerdy and awkward teenager who has his own circle of nerd buddies and quests for tail. While otherwise unsuccessful at the game of love, he does have an on-again/off-again relationship with heavyset goth Debbie Hyman, which seems to have resumed as of 'Escape From Pearl Bailey' but ended for good as of "Bar Mitzvah Hustle".

---

• Allegedly Dateless: Has had 18 prominent romances over the series (16, if you count that one of them was his dad in a cyborg's body trying to "seduce" him and another was an Artificial Human girl he made out of a vacuum cleaner), and 5 of them gave him a very realistic chance of losing his virginity ^note  Becky Arangino was a hebephile who wanted to take his virginity before being crushed to death by falling rocks, "Carmen Selectra" was willing to take it before being crushed to death by a collapsing stage, Stan was going to have sex with him in his avatar's body before calling it off, Jeanine Winthrop's father refused to let Steve have sex with her due to Stan's crack addiction at the time, and Steve was going to have sex with a girl named Ashley before deciding she was too "crazy" (to put a long story short). despite supposedly being incredibly incompetent with girls.
• Alliterative Name: Steve Smith.
• Always Someone Better: Invoked. His relationship with Snot turns out to be this, as Steve always found himself the best of the two because Snot lacks so many things Steve has and often comes to him for support. So when Snot's life starts to get better and he doesn't have to rely on Steve anymore, Steve goes out of his way to make his life miserable again so he goes back to being the loser of the two.
• Ambiguously Bi: Despite his endless Quest for Sex with girls, Steve has shown several instances of an open attraction to men. He has been visibly seduced and kissed by Roger several times, and has even openly kissed Snot as an "oath of friendship". In 'Railroaded', Roger gets new friends for Steve to improve Stan's image; Steve scoffs at the idea until he sees his new "friends" are all hunky, handsome young men upon which he enthusiastically takes off his shirt and jumps into the arms of one of them to carry him off. However, when Stan just asked him if he were gay with Snot, he denied it... with a quick "ugh" and a limp wrist. In a possible future, he and Snot are married.
• Animals Hate Him: If an animal appears in a subplot involving Steve, it's a sure bet it will attack him at some point.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Hayley sometimes becomes annoyed with his geeky behavior.
• The Baby of the Bunch: He's the only main character who isn't adult, being only 14. He's frequently being pushed around, mocked and babied by the other Smiths and can be extremely childish on occasion.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Generally a nice and pleasant kid, but it's been proven time and time again that when pushed, he will fight back. Case in point: in "Irregarding Steve," he puts up with Beauregard's relentless taunts and insults up until the point where Beauregard begins to insult Stan, at which point Steve snaps and beats him unconscious.
  Steve: Don't talk about my dad that way! Just because he doesn't know everything doesn't... mean... he's... stupid!
• Big "NO!": Periodically belts out a rather humorous one.
• Brainy Brunette: Brown hair and going along with being a nerd, Steve is fairly intelligent for someone his age.
• Book Smart: He is generally shown getting As and and Bs in his report cards.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Steve is constantly bratty and whiny, much to the annoyance of Stan and Hayley. Especially in the later seasons were his bratty behavior has progressively gotten worse.
• Break the Cutie: A victim of this in "Ricky Spanish." ...(Ricky Spanish)... He tries to prove to Roger that everyone can change for the better by trying to redeem Roger's Ax-Crazy persona of the same name... only for "Ricky" to use him as an Unwitting Pawn to set up a robbery and leave him to take the fall with the cops. Steve's final scene in the episode is of him exercising in prison while swearing revenge on Ricky Spanish, now hating him just like everyone else in Langley Falls. To twist the knife even further, there's even a Hope Spot that makes it look like Roger is going to help Steve escape... only to steal his wallet and throw him to the cops, who promptly beat him senseless.
• Butt-Monkey: The biggest in the show. He's been beat up, humiliated and/or tormented by nearly every other character in the show, like jocks at school, Roger, his friends, and even his dad in one episode. Plus, the writers have fun giving him the possibility to get a girlfriend just to lose her at the end of the episode. There have been times where he does manage to successfully keep a girl at the end of an episode, only for said girl to never appear again in later episodes.
• Casanova Wannabe: Although to be fair, while he does have the classic bad pick-up lines and often misplaced charisma, this borders on Informed Flaw due to how often he actually does have girls interested in him.
• The Cast Show Off: Similar to Seth Macfarlane, Scott Grimes has an incredible singing voice, and so this is exploited whenever possible in the show, with Steve singing R&B numbers in a flawless falsetto. Nearly always Played for Laughs, given that Steve is a suburban white kid who can sing like R. Kelly.
• Character Catchphrase: Scott Grimes once joked that he actually got an umbilical hernia from screaming "AWESOME!" so often during early series.
• Characterization Marches On: There's a six minute precursory test pilot where Steve's character, both in personality and cosmetics, is drastically different than how it looks now.
• The Chew Toy: Poor guy can't seem to catch a break. The guy's been attacked by bees, beaten up by cheerleaders and jocks with baseball bats, pantsed and given a swirlie at the prom, and had a beautiful woman willing to have sex with him killed, twice.
• Chick Magnet: While he may be a Casanova Wannabe and depending on the plot, Steve has managed to successfully flirt with and date many young ladies who genuinely find him cute.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • He's either a sweet nerdy kid who looks up to his dad, a kid with serious issues, or hormonal and perverted.
  • His competency with girls varies wildly. Sometimes, he comes off as awkward, but funny and cute to girls. Sometimes he's a stuttering, nervous wreck when talking to one, but endearing to them anyway. Sometimes, he's an ultra charismatic smooth operator who comes just this close to losing his virginity, while in other cases he's a tactless pervert who earns the disgust of the object of his affection. And in "I Am The Walrus" (at a Wild Teen Party, no less) he couldn't even talk to a girl without curling up into a fetal position on the floor and hyperventilating.
  • His level of strength and fighting skills also varies; generally, he's a wuss, but in "Irregarding Steve," he beat Beauregard unconscious in a fit of rage. In "Bully for Steve," he's so pathetically weak that, according to Francine, he can't even make a fist.
  • Just like with his mother, the extent of how much of a bratty jackass he's become thanks to his Flanderization also varies from episode to episode. Unlike with Francine however where she's more of a bitch in episodes where she isn't a main character, this example applies to any episode with Steve, main character or not.
  • Either he really is proud of his father (which then makes Stan treat him with pure disdain and embarrassment because of Steve's geekiness getting in the way) or he is absolutely embarrassed of him (when Stan usually feels proud of him and wants him to succeed at an activity Steve isn't interested in at all).
  • His intelligence sometimes varies wildly, from being very intelligent and logical to a Ditzy Genius to being a complete moron despite his nerdy looks. A good example of the latter is in "Dope & Faith", Roger somehow was able to trick him into thinking he was studying potions in Hogwarts when it was obvious that he was actually fabricating drugs in a crack den.
• Determinator: No matter how many girlfriends he's lost, Steve never gives up on trying to get laid; after a moment of heartbreak, he simply picks himself back up and moves on to the next Girl of the Week.
• Deuteragonist: Gets as much focus on the show as his father.
• Did Not Get the Girl: The episodes where he tries to get the girl always ends like this because Status Quo Is God. His longest relationship was with Debbie Hyman, who dumps him in "Bar Mitzvah Hustle" (twice). And later on when he dates Akiko Yoshida (even hooking up with her at the end of "Spelling Bee My Baby"), she disappears from the show without mention afterwards, and Steve has gone back to being single.
• Ditzy Genius: At times. For example, in "Irregarding Steve," he's shown to know more about the New York Stock Exchange than about prostitution.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the original six minute test pilot, Steve's appearance was wildly different. In the pilot, he wore a red t-shirt with a lightning bolt on it, blue shorts, round glasses and was much skinnier. In the show, he wears an open red shirt over an orange shirt, blue jeans, square glasses and is noticeably less skinny.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Not that it comes up very much, but it's apparently Anita.
• Endearingly Dorky: A nerdy kid who geeks out and frequently becomes giddy, and is desperately trying to get the girl of his dreams. Despite failing miserably for the most part in the romance department, some girls throughout the series find Steve's nerdy/dorky nature to be charming.
• Fiction 500: In "No Weddings and a Funeral" it's mentioned that Steve was able to buy Australia.
• Flanderization: As of the latest seasons, his obsession with losing his virginity and bratty nature have become his defining traits. In the case of the former, by "News Glance with Genevieve Vavance", he'll willingly sell out his own sister for something that she didn't even do (Roger's bogus news story that Hayley kidnapped him) if it means that he has a chance at getting laid. And in the case of the latter, by the time of "Morning Mimosa," Steve has absolutely zero qualms against saying "fuck you" to his own mother.
• Free-Range Children: He and his friends are generally shown on their own with no adult supervision, even once having travelled to Los Angeles without his parents. The only adult who is shown accompanying him most of the time is Roger, who constantly endangers his life for whatever scheme he comes up with.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His friends seem to only hang around him because there's no one else to hang out with and tend to ditch him or start drama with him at the drop of a pin. He's prone to the same treatment when one of them is under the limelight.
• Geek Physique: He's a scrawny little dork who wears glasses.
• Girls Like Musicians: Steve mentions taking up the cello just so he can hook up with girls.
• Goal in Life: Steve's main goal throughout the series is losing his virginity.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Particularly in later seasons where his anger issues have become more prominent, to the point of frequent lashing out over very trivial matters.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Snot. The two are repeatedly shown to be extremely close (even beyond Steve's friendships with Barry and Toshi) and are usually there for each other.
• Hollywood Atheist: Is depicted as such in "Daesong Heavy Industries," openly criticizing religion in church and eventually driving Stan to a Crisis of Faith.
• Hollywood Genetics: It has been explicitly said that Steve has red hair (though on television, it appears brown). His mom is a brunette, that dyes her hair blonde, and his dad has black hair with blond recessive genes and seen as a blond when she was a child and baby.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Many episodes that deal with Steve's sexuality portray him as a naughty young man with his perverted tricks up his sleeves to gain attention from girls.
• Incest Subtext: In later seasons Francine has become an object of his confusing Oedipal emotions. In "Rubberneckers", Steve literally sings twice about how he would have sex with Francine if she wasn't his own mother.
• Informed Flaw: One common joke about him is him supposedly being extremely feminine, despite not being noticeably girlier than most 14-year-old boys. One episode even has him join a lesbian gang because the members thought he was more girl than boy and in "LGBSteve," he joined a women's roller derby team because Hayley introduced him to the team as her sister and the other team members believe that he's a lesbian in a boy's body.
• Jerkass Ball: Post-Flanderization has given him plenty of moments where he'll act selfish and bratty when the plot demands it ("Minstrel Krampus", "I Ain't No Holodeck Boy", "News Glance with Genevieve Vavance", "Morning Mimosa", "The Life Aquatic of Steve Smith", "The Unincludeds", and "Julia Rogerts"). Even in episodes where he's mostly nice like "Garbage Stan", he'll still have at least one moment of being a complete asshole to someone (in the aforementioned's case, Klaus who he essentially dehumanizes by forcing him to take down a poster that he hung up in the alcove between the kitchen and garage which he considers to be his room).
• Jerkass to One: Even on his better days, he is still crueler to Klaus than anyone else, often insulting him and flipping his bowl for no reason.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be an annoying and conceited brat who tends to take friends and family for granted, but at heart he's a decent kid. Granted, his moments of kindness diminish more and more with each new post-Flanderization season.
• The Jinx: In both the case of animals and romance. The few he successfully gains the affection of tend to meet a terrible fate. Simon the cat seemed to make the connection.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: A constant source of contention between he and Stan. His father constantly tries to help him with various "masculine" activities to avoid letting Steve repeat the same poor experience Stan had in high school.
• Karma Houdini:
  • In "News Glance with Genevieve Vavance", he got no punishment for going along with Roger's lie that he was kidnapped by Hayley which required him to sell out his own sister for something she didn't even do... unless you count him not being able to have sex with the very girls that motivated him to sell out Hayley for.
  • He was also an accomplice in Roger's orphan enslavement ring in "Tears of a Clooney", and neither he nor the aforementioned were really punished or called out for their actions there either.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: On some occasions, his Amusing Injuries and humiliations happen as a result of his selfish and obnoxious behavior, particularly in "Big Trouble in Little Langley", "Merlot Down Dirty Shame", "There Will Be Bad Blood", and "A Ward Show".
• Keet: He's rather excitable and energetic, which only becomes more prominent as the series goes on.
• Kiddie Kid: While he does act like a teenager at times, he also has a lot of moments where he acts like he's 4 years old (especially after his Flanderization around the 8th/9th seasons). Just look at "Toy Whorey", "Minstrel Krampus", and "Familyland". He also still has a babysitter in "Adventures in Hayleysitting".
• Large Ham: Seems to inherit his father's melodramatic tendencies.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Much like his sister, though his password is apparently "rhubarb."
• Locked Out of the Loop: In the episode "Chimdale", he learns that his father is bald and has been wearing a wig over his head. He tries to expose it to his family but at the end, when Stan reveals it, they admit they knew all along and they only kept it from Steve because they believed he would overreact.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: His desire to lose his virginity was always a part of his character, but as of the latest seasons, it's become one of his two sole defining characteristics to the point of losing the "lovable" part.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to Hayley's Masculine Girl. Also, when with on-and-off (mostly off) girlfriend Debbie, the Feminine Boy to her Masculine Girl.
• Momma's Boy: This gets addressed a few times where Stan is concerned that Francine nurtures Steve too much, making him less of a man.
• Morality Pet: Zigzagged. Steve is a victim of Roger's selfishness, but he's also one of the very few individuals who Roger always wants to make happy.
• More than Meets the Eye: Regarding his surprisingly good singing voice when he sings for real, instead of being Played for Laughs by singing in his normally shrill voice. You can hear him here. He also isn't shy about it, taking several opportunities to sing in front of people, and even once landing him and his friends a spot on a boyband. Fun fact about this; his voice actor, Scott Grimes, is actually a professional vocalist.
• Mr. Vice Guy: He's usually a nice guy, but his obsessions with getting laid and becoming popular sometimes lead him to do questionable things. Later seasons also give him a noticeably bratty, childish streak.
• Naked People Are Funny: Has been seen fully nude a few times. One instance has him try to become unpopular even by outcast standards to ensure that Snot and him will remain friends. The two dance wearing nothing but tighty-whiteys when they're hosting a party and later decide to go the distance and dance in the buff.
• Nerds Are Pervs: Steve is a glasses-wearing dweeb who's often a disappointment to his CIA agent dad Stan and the biggest loser in school. Depending on the Writer, he's either a harmless, socially awkward kid who is seen by some girls as Endearingly Dorky, or a Hormone-Addled Teenager and Casanova Wannabe, who is always trying to hit on some of his female classmates, much to their displeasure.
• Nerd Glasses: He's a nerd with glasses.
• Nerdy Nasalness: Befitting his nerdy appearance and personality, Steve has a high-pitched, nasally voice.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In "Bazooka Steve," he convinces star quarterback Johnny Concussion to retire from football for the sake of his health, costing the Langley Falls Bazooka Sharks the season. In response, everyone in Langley Falls turns on Steve, including his own family, and chases him out of town; in fact, Francine was the one who sold Steve out to the town in the first place.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Has remained 14 for virtually most of the show's run. "Virtual In-Stanity" had him turn 15, only for every subsequent episode since then that mentions his age keep him at 14.
• Older Than They Look: Due to his short stature and scrawniness, he looks closer to ten than fourteen.
• Otaku: Downplayed. Some of his several nerdy obsessions include manga and anime based things, but for the most part, he enjoys nerdy American things (mostly Star Trek, video games, computers, and Dungeons and Dragons). But, he does have a particular thing for Japanese cosplay, being very "interested" in Akiko's Chun-Li costume.
• Papa Wolf: After raising a clone of a random girl to be his date to the prom, Steve comes to legitimately see her as his daughter, to the point that, after Stan makes a comment about how hot she is, Steve slaps him in the face on instinct alone.
• Pathetically Weak: In contrast to his physically active father, Steve Smith is so wimpy that when Francine tried to teach him how to fight she gave up in violent frustration when he couldn't even ball a fist.
• Quest for Sex: Majority of his storylines amount to this. He usually never succeeds getting laid though.
• Ridiculously Successful Future Self: Both "The Unincludeds" and "No Weddings and a Funeral" show that Steve will one day become rich and successful, with his own tech company. While in "Mural Of The Story" he has become a professor at Berkeley.
• Robosexuals Are Creeps: Steve builds a robotic girlfriend by decorating a vacuum cleaner. Stan doesn't like this and tells Steve to disassemble it before he gets home from work. In an alternate future where Stan dies retrieving gold, Steve still has the sexbot and is viewed by everyone as a freak for it. In the future seen during "No Weddings and a Funeral", Steve has a "pleasure" robot - that he pleasures (something the rest of the family is repulsed to learn).
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Fitting with his stereotypically nerdy and wimpy personality, Steve constantly screams in a high-pitched tone.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Stan's Manly Man. Stan even tries (and fails) to get Steve to toughen up in one episode by being his aggressive and threatening bully.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: He and his friends are dwarfed by practically every other teen on the show (except his sister Hayley, who's also short). Especially jarring since both his parents actually appear to be fairly tall (Stan is listed at 6 feet. Francine's height is unknown, but she isn't terribly shorter than Stan).
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Has this in one episode with an underage Indian girl.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • He wrote a Saturday Night Live sketch called "Quantum Rape", about a guy in jail for raping Scott Bakula who tries to explain to his cellmate what Quantum Leap is and failing. Steve finds this hilarious, but Jon Stewart didn't. Steve comes to the logical conclusion that Stewart was raped as a child which is why he thinks it's so awful.
  • Like his father, Steve generally tends to think he's a bigger deal than he actually is.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: The only of his immediate family to wear glasses and is quite the smart guy.
• Spoiled Brat: Can come off as this sometimes (especially post-Flanderization), but it became much more apparent when one episode had him raised by Francine only, turning him into the stereotypical spoiled and lazy teenager.
• Stereotypical Nerd: Wears Nerd Glasses, has Nerdy Nasalness, is a Pathetically Weak wimp because of Geek Physique, is not cool and a bit of a social outcast, and harbors a strong academic interest in science, especially chemistry. More typically geeky traits of Steve's include his interests in Dungeons & Dragons, Harry Potter and Star Wars. His luck with the ladies varies Depending on the Writer between him being a sex-obsessed Casanova Wannabe and him actually being considered Endearingly Dorky.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Just how much of a wimp he is, Depending on the Writer. In "Irregarding Steve", he actually beats Beauregard unconscious in a rage after Beauregard insults his family, whereas in "Bully for Steve," he's so wimpy that, according to Francine, he can't even make a fist.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In "My Purity Ball and Chain." After thirteen seasons of his Quest for Sex failing, Steve finally manages to lose his virginity.
• Too Dumb to Live: "Stan Smith as Keanu Reeves as Stanny Utah in 'Point Breakers'" had him make friends with a drifter he met on the edge of town who won't tell him his name, stays with the Smiths, uses Steve to commit crimes, and heavily implies that he's going to kill Steve. Near the end of the episode, Stan calls Steve out on this egregious lapse in judgment and throws the drifter out.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While he could be bratty, selfish and insensitive at times, Steve was generally a good-hearted, sensitive person. Around Season 9, he became an obnoxious, childish brat through Flanderization and his nicer moments became few and far between.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice was much higher in the unaired pilot. In the aired pilot, his voice was rather deep and nasally. But as the series goes on, his voice slowly gets higher before going deeper in the later TBS seasons, likely due to Scott Grimes aging.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Tries to impress Stan, who is repulsed by his nerdiness and lack of athleticism.
• With Friends Like These...: Steve's friends ditch him the first chance they get when something out of the norm happens to him. He also frequently fights with them, and can be perfectly willing to ditch them in order to save his own skin.

Roger Smith

See here for more information about him.

Klaus Heisler

"There's an old German saying: "Don't blame the fish." There are other sayings, but they, um, mostly involve genocide."

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Debut: "Pilot"

An East German athlete trapped in the body of a goldfish thanks to a scheme by the CIA to prevent him from winning the gold at the 1986 Winter Olympics because he was from the "communist East." Stan was assigned to looking over Klaus, and as such the talking fish has become an honorary member of the Smith family.

---

• Accent Adaptation: In the German dub, he has a Saxon accent.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Whenever he manages to get the upper hand on someone or becomes center of attention, he tends to let it go to his head and starts becoming narcissistic. Prime example is "Plot Heavy", where Stan starts doubting his confidence in decision making after the rest of the family decides to turn their backyard into a cemetery, Klaus browbeats Stan into following his idea for a beach club, begins bossing him around while calling him his "employee" and berating him, and letting him take the blame from the others when they get pissed off.
• All Germans Are Nazis: Zigzagged. Klaus was horrified when the others thought his grandfather worked at the Auschwitz concentration camps (he actually drove the kiddy train at the Auschwitz zoo); and outright admits that what the Nazi did was monstrous in the episode when he and Stan met Francine's birth parents. However, another episode has him pay his respects to the Nazi soldiers who perished during D-Day, and when labled as an anti-semite he just says "So that's how you spell it!" Since the move to TBS, Klaus has stopped making references to the Nazis.
• Bathtub Mermaid: Klaus is usually seen floating in a fishbowl or lounging in a filled cup. In "1600 Candles", he becomes mobile by having a hamster ball filled with water.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While usually nobody takes him seriously, on one occasion, Klaus is enraged by a prank and furiously swears revenge on Steve and Roger, instilling paranoia by claiming his retribution could come at any time! This terrified them so much, they spent over 9 months hiding in the attic.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In-universe, when Klaus disappeared in a puff of smoke, then later reappeared whilst cutting himself out of a squid, armed with a sword and wearing a crown.
  Klaus: I was gone sixty years! How long was it here?!
  Roger: What, where'd you go?
  Klaus: I don't know, but wherever it was, I am their king now!
• Brain Theft: His backstory is that of an Eastern German Olympic skiier who's brain was stolen and transplanted into a goldfish. He pulls this on Steve one time but things are resolved at the end.
• Butt-Monkey: As a man trapped in the body of a helpless goldfish, Klaus is the victim of several misfortunes and is often ignored or mocked by the other characters.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In the first season, Klaus was far more unpleasant, openly lusting after Francine, and delighting in tormenting Roger. In later seasons, he's usually the lowest member on the Smith family totem pole, frequently being insulted or demeaned by the others, has dropped his crush on Francine (and is even irritated by her on occasion), and is generally more sympathetic.
  • In the early seasons, Klaus frequently dropped hints that he held Nazi sympathies. These have been discontinued since the move to TBS.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Spent most of the early seasons trying to woo Francine. Less prominent later on where he seems to have gained a respect for Stan and lost interest in Francine for the most part.
• Dirty Communists: In the German dub, he's a Communist instead of a Nazi, largely due to how extremely strict the country is in portrayals of Nazi's in fiction.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Occasionally implied that he had a trouble past, but because of how Out of Focus he is, isn't really truly revealed.
• Depending on the Writer: While he's shown to hate being a fish most of the time, there are other times where he seems to enjoy it or at least not hate it.
• The Dog Bites Back: Later episodes have him finally standing up and having his revenge against the Smiths.
  • In "Da Flippity Flop", he abuses Stan's brainswitched body as revenge for his constant poor treatment.
  • "Scents and Sensei-bility" After being coldy thrown out of the house by the Smiths due to his smell, he outsmarts them and kicks them out of the house. By the end of the episode, he still has the Smiths kicked out of their house, with their attempt to bring in wild animals to kill Klaus ending with him slaughtering them all off-screen.
  • "Father Daze" He intentionally ruins Stan's plans for a perfect Father's Day when the latter had insulted him prior.
  • "A Nice Night for a Drive" He lashes out on Stan when his mind is swapped with the family car.
  • "The Life and Times of Stan Smith" He hazes the shit out of Steve with his old fraternity.
  • "Live and Let Fry" Klaus convinces Roger to impersonate him after reading a newspaper notice that Klaus needed to sign papers to receive an inheritance. Klaus knew all along that it was a ruse by former members of the East German Mafia to whom he owes money, resulting in Roger getting the crap kicked out of him.
  • "A New Era for the Smith House" has Klaus (along with Dick) kicking the Smiths out of their home after they were ungrateful for his house sitting service, deeming him unfit to be left alone in the house. Despite that, he proves the Smiths right when he accidentally burns the house down.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In "Big Trouble in Little Langley," he's absolutely disgusted to find out that Francine's birth parents abandoned her simply because they couldn't bring a baby into a first-class flight.
  Klaus: Stan, these people are monsters. You know what my country has done, and I'm disgusted.
• Faking the Dead: In "No Weddings and a Funeral", he fakes his death in hopes that the Smiths will finally realize how poorly they've treated him over the years (it doesn't work, though).
• Forced Transformation: A human trapped in the body of a fish. He has repeatedly shown disdain in being a fish but other times he seems to be content with it.
• For the Evulz: In "Deacon Stan, Jesus Man," he not only tricks Roger into eating Francine's potato salad for the Deacon's wake, but also deliberately tells Stan that Roger produces more breast milk when he eats, leading to Roger being hooked up to a milking machine. Both times, he states it's simply because "I'm German. It's what we do."
• The Hedonist: When he forcibly swaps bodies with Stan in "Da Flippity Flop," he embarks on several pleasures, such as smoking, having unprotected sex with diseased hookers, and doing drugs. Though it's mostly to get revenge on Stan for letting Klaus' old body rot.
• Hidden Depths: Klaus before being transformed into a fish was highly accomplished; he studied at Viardina European University and may have a doctorate in therapy. He owned a Ferrari and was an Olympic class skier. However, as none of that is relevant to being a goldfish it's frequently overlooked or ignored.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Sometimes, Klaus ends up ruining a chance to improve his rather abysmal lot in life through his own intensity and paranoia. Hayley's hot friend Danuta expresses romantic interest in him at least twice; he goes overboard trying to impress her even though she doesn't really care if he does so or so, driving her into the arms of his friend Jurgen. Thinks everyone who enters his store is a scheming thief; he shoots a health inspector, wounds himself to set up a shoot-out, and then gets robbed for real by a delivery man when he falls unconscious. Gets himself a committed girlfriend and becomes a loving father-figure to her young son; when Roger makes a sculpture of him which he says doesn't reflect his inner beauty, his anger drives them both away.
• Humanity Ensues: He gets his brain put in the body of a cryogenically-frozen black man, which he intends to use to have sex with Francine. It expires after getting impaled by debris from a mall statue and is put in a goldfish body once again. Sometime in the future, however, he has a human body for good to the point where he has a grandson.
• I Love the Dead: In "Shallow Vows", Stan brings home a fish the CIA experimented on and removed its retina that died shortly after it was put in Klaus's bowl, this was over two weeks before Stan and Francine's anniversary and wedding vow renewal. With the fish's body still floating in his bowl after the renewal, Stan still wouldn't take it out of the bowl despite Klaus asking him to. After a sigh of resignation, Klaus remarks that he'll have sex with the fish's body again before the smell makes him throw up.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He occasionally takes on a villain role in his few A Day in the Limelight episodes, usually involving him trying to steal somebody's body and/or get revenge on Stan. However, it's hard to root against him when you realize he's a human being who's been trapped in the body of a fish for about 30 years.
• Irony: In the early days of the series, Klaus would delight in tormenting Roger (most notably in "Deacon Stan, Jesus Man"). After the second season, Roger is the one doing the tormenting, regularly tearing down Klaus's self-esteem without a care.
• I Reject Your Reality: This, along with The Mad Hatter, and Cloudcuckoolander. His mental health has obviously deteriorated due to being stuck in the body of a fish, and he's fully aware of it. He has conversations with himself, and has narrated his life and those around him as a DVD commentary, among other instances of insanity. Later episodes occasionally subvert this by having his delusions be Real After All, most notably his boys in Florida, who have since become recurring characters.
• The Load: Even Francine is blunt about this:
  Klaus: Oh, can I help?
  Francine: How can you help? You're a fish!
• Manipulative Bastard: One of the most cunning, manipulative characters on the show. He can frequently get revenge on others for his mistreatment, despite bring confined to a bowl. Most notably in "Stanny-Boy and Frantastic" where he gets back at Roger and Steve for insulting him, by tricking them into wasting days to get a refund on a credit card that wasn't even theirs.
• Mars Needs Women: Lusted after Francine in early episodes.
• Mobile Fishbowl: Being a fish, he gets around by crawling around in a small glass filled with water, rolling around in a hamster ball filled with water, or just appearing where he needs to be, bowl and all.
• Mysterious Past: Much about his human life is unknown. He studied psychology when he was in college, was an accomplished Olympic skier and apparently owed money to the German Mafia at some point.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently he really pissed off the East German Mafia in the past.
• One-Man Army: Klaus spends the majority of "Scents and Sensei-bility" being mercilessly harassed by a mob of cats and birds who want to eat him. At the end of the episode, all of his enemies gang up on him, but the fish somehow quickly kills them off-screen.
• Only Friend: Aside from Danuta and Nerfer, who only appear very infrequently, he's pretty much Hayley's only friend and vice-versa. Rudely lampshaded by Steve in "Merlot Down Dirty Shame".
• Out of Focus: Some seasons often see him only having one line per episode.
• Retcon: His backstory since the very first episode was that he was a skater in the 1986 Winter Olympics. However, fast forward to many years later where the Season 13 episode "The Life and Times of Stan Smith" inexplicably changes it to where now he was a college student post-1994 when the Foo Fighters were formed.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In "Da Flippity Flop", Klaus' original human body is finally found, but Stan repeatedly refuses to take Klaus to the CIA to swap him back when asked. When Francine finally convinces Stan to do so, it turns out that lab technicians unfroze Klaus' body and used the ice to cool their beer, causing the body to severely decay and rot. Outraged, Klaus knocks Stan out and swaps bodies with him, and then goes on a bunch of insanitary revenge-fuelled adventures, during which he repeatedly abuses and defiles Stan's human body by, among other things, smoking, getting multiple tattoos, having sex with diseased prostitutes, playing with dead animals, and doing drugs while sharing the syringe with a hobo. Through it all, he brings Stan, now trapped in the body of a fish, along in a fishbowl and forces him to watch.
• The Scapegoat: In "No Weddings and a Funeral", the family realizes they need Klaus to be their Butt-Monkey, as mistreating him is the only thing they have to bond over.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • "Of Ice and Men" shows that he eventually did obtain a human body again, and also started a family (as evidenced by his grandson).
  • In "The Two Hundred", Klaus mutates into a draconic monster and finally earns the family's respect by using his powers to save them from certain death. He can be seen happily playing with the Smiths' descendants before the episode's end.
  • Typically any Day in the Limelight episode that focus on him tend to end well - or at least have an affirmation that he is a part of the family.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Along with Hayley, he's the only one who mellows out and becomes a lot nicer later on (whilst the rest of the Smiths Took a Level in Jerkass). Granted, he will occasionally fuck with the Smiths on rare occasions but does show a more considerate and caring side when necessary (e.g. "Seizure Suits Stanny" and "Father's Daze").
• Twofer Token Minority: When he briefly inhabited the body of an African American man, he retained his German accent.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • In "Man in the Moonbounce", Klaus whines that he misses having hair, and Hayley gets him a doll wig out of sympathy. He then requests her to trim it so it resembles Ryan Phillippe's haircut, but when she botches the job, he angrily calls her a failure and tries to drown her in the toilet.
  • In "Cheek to Cheek", Steve lets him stay in his room after Francine takes Klaus' alcove. Klaus proceeds to take over the place completely, inviting first his girlfriend, then his girlfriend's entire family to live there.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Very few people seem to be all that surprised by a talking goldfish, in contrast to Roger, who has to disguise himself. Then again, considering it shares a universe with Seth McFarlane's other shows, this is less surprising when you remember that talking animals are rare, but not unusal (see: Brian and various other animals on Family Guy and Tim the Bear on The Cleveland Show.)
• Vocal Evolution: In the early seasons, his voice was a bit lower and his German accent was a lot heavier.
• Voices Are Mental: He's able to speak even though his consciousness is inside a goldfish's body. He also maintains his own speaking voice whenever he transfers his consciousness into different human bodies.
• Your Size May Vary: He tends to be drawn larger when in his fishbowl than when he's in his cup. And even then, his exact size varies, especially in the earlier episodes.

Jeff Fischer

"I'm intrigued. Although that could just be the Intriguenol I took this morning."

Voiced by: Jeff Fischer

Debut: "Pilot"

Hayley's on-again, off-again stoner boyfriend. They get married in the premiere of Season 6.

---

• Amusing Injuries: Jeff has been ripped in half. Twice. And he's none the worse for wear, aside from a nasty scar.
• Ascended Extra: Jeff was originally a secondary character, but after he and Hayley officially got married in Season 6, he appeared significantly more often and is now just as important as the main Smith family. While he did get temporarily Demoted to Extra after Roger sent him to space, once he came back, he regained prominence and regularly joins the rest of the Smiths in adventures.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's typically a laid back, friendly guy — but if he's pushed enough, he can give an absolutely blistering "The Reason You Suck" Speech. At one point he even calls out Stan for his neglectful treatment of Hayley.
• The Bus Came Back: After being abducted by aliens, he later escapes with help from other prisoners on the ship (including Sinbad). He makes it back home but decides to undo his return because it will mean that Hayley will live a full life doing something rather than spend it doing nothing but waiting for him. He finally comes back for real in Season 11.
• Butt-Monkey: By absolutely everybody except Steve and Klaus. Most often by Hayley and Stan, as well as Francine in later seasons. Stan summed it up nicely in "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six", when Jeff is on trial for clubbing a baby seal to death, which he did to save Klaus' life:
  Hayley: [having regressed to the mental state of a six-year-old] I like seals. I don't like that man.
  Stan: [deadpan] No one does.
• Calling the Old Man Out: He can be this with Stan on occasion.
  • In "The Devil Wears a Lapel Pin", he calls Stan out for treating Hayley like dirt when all she wants is to help him.
  • In "Game Night", he not only calls Stan a Sore Loser to his face, but points out that everyone has been pretending to lose to him for years. Even him, whom Stan often considers an idiot.
  Jeff: My "dumb" ass has been tricking you for years!
• Cannot Keep a Secret: "Naked To The Limit, One More Time" proves he can't whether it be a surprise birthday party, a birthday present, a movie's summary/ending or the fact that Roger's an alien.
• Commuting on a Bus: While largely missing for the next few years after being abducted by aliens, "Lost in Space" and "The Longest Distance Relationship" show what he's been up to.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In "Less Money, Mo Problems," Jeff was pretty quick to take on intruders with only a knife.
• A Day in the Limelight: He's the star of the Season 9 episode Lost In Space, which details what happened to him after Roger tossed him onto his "rescue" ship.
• The Ditz: He’s not very smart, and his gullible nature often lets other people take advantage of him.
• Dumbass Has a Point: In "Game Night", he is correct in pointing out that letting Stan win all the time is hardly better than suffering through him being a Sore Loser, due to his unbearable Unsportsmanlike Gloating.
• Extreme Doormat: Usually to Hayley and Stan's abuse (albeit largely due to being The Pollyanna).
• The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the Smiths other than Hayley are very fond of him. And even Hayley only barely puts up with him sometimes.
• Genius Ditz: So musically talented and intelligent, but so blindingly stupid at the same time, that he gives Francine a run for her money.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: He's actually been torn in half at the waist twice, though both instances were in throwaway gags.
• Happily Married: With Hayley - despite their issues, it's clear that they care deeply for one another.
• Henpecked Husband: It's fairly clear that Hayley wears the pants in their relationship due to inheriting Stan's ego. Despite this, the two have a relatively stable marriage.
• Hero-Worshipper: Has shades of this towards "Agathor", Steve's alter-ego in the online game Dragon Scuffle, to the point where after Agathor's death in the game, Jeff's character held a candlelight vigil for days.
• Hidden Depths:
  • "Fleabiscuit" reveals that Jeff is a skilled racing dog trainer, having raised a champion who is on the verge of making history.
  • "The Life Aquatic With Steve Smith" shows that he is quite skilled at sailing a boat.
  • In "Lumberjerks" he proves himself to be a highly skilled lumberjack.
  • "Henderson" shows that he's a highly talented glass smith. Making several fishbowls for Klaus with highly detailed glass statues attached to them.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Jeff is a Nice Guy for the most part, but despite that, Stan finds him annoying and doesn't even bother trying to hide the fact that he hates him. In "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls," Jeff reveals that he in fact hates Stan right back, considers him an ass, and only tolerates him for Hayley's sake.
• Made of Iron: Survives having his skin removed and then worn by Roger. Also survives being dissected into multiple pieces by aliens. Sort of, as only his brain survives, and must be uploaded into the body of an alien clone that offers to sacrifice itself to do so. He later gets a human body back thanks to Roger's "help."
• Manchild: In "For Whom The Sleigh Bell Tolls", Stan is incensed that Jeff still believes in Santa Claus. He turns out to be real later in the episode.
• The Millstone: He rivals Stan in his ability to make situations go from bad to worse.
• Missing Mom: He confirms in the Season 2 episode "Joint Custody" that his mom ran away before he was born.
  Stan: How.. how could she do that?
• Nice Guy: Jeff is an easy-going, friendly individual. He does have his limits though, particularly if Stan is involved.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In one episode Hayley is pissed and fed up with him trying to win her back, but Jeff tells her something offscreen that apparently causes her to fall in love with him and elope. What he said is never revealed, probably because there's no believable way they could write something that emotional.
  • According to "Game Night", he's legally not allowed to use scissors for some reason.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: He frequently annoys Stan with his various quirks and habits. "For Whom The Sleigh Bell Tolls" reveals that Jeff actually feels the same way about him and only tolerates him for Hayley's sake.
• Official Couple: With Hayley; they've dated since the start of the series and eventually marry.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • He's usually a very laid back Nice Guy with hardly a mean bone in his body. So it says something when he snaps at Stan in "Game Night" for being such an insufferable douche about games.
  • He's usually very attached to his hat, but in "Lost in Space" during his Heroic BSoD, he barely reacts when the summoner flicks it off.
• Parental Abandonment: His father framed him for possession of cannabis and frequently expresses embarrassment for him in a highly unfiltered Sarcasm Mode. His mother abandoned him before he was born (the impossibility of this is lampshaded, however).
• The Pollyanna: Is quite possibly the most cheerful, upbeat guy in the entire show.
• Put on a Bus: He's abruptly abducted by aliens and is gone for quite a while thereafter.
• Riches to Rags: He used to be a multimillionaire. Back when he was a cook for Blues Traveler, he ended up acquiring the rights to their debut album, which gave him an income of about two million dollars a year. He no longer has the rights, as when he was really into cougars, he ended up marrying a very elderly woman and gave the rights to her daughter for a fiftieth birthday present.
• Sarcasm-Blind: His father highlights the many disappointments he has with Jeff with sarcasm. Stan picks up on it after a couple minutes; Jeff not so much.
• Secret-Keeper: He's the only character outside of the Smith family to know Roger is an alien. He's terrible at keeping secrets, which leads to his eventual exile into space. It takes several seasons for him to make it back to Earth.
• The Stoner: Justified, as it's revealed that if he doesn't smoke weed, he starts to masturbate constantly.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Most likely due to a continuity error, Jeff is shown to physically resemble his father and mother.
• Teeny Weenie: The episode in which he runs away with Hayley reveals he has a flying car, which he feels more than makes up for his "small weiner".
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Stan despises Jeff so many times even after he's come to like him at the end of an episode focusing on them both. When Jeff is sent to space and comes back except as an alien that took his place that becomes increasingly rattled with guilt for taking Jeff's spot, Stan takes everything in stride without a single hint of sympathy because this change was the best thing that ever happened to him. He only continues to show his contempt to Jeff as the episode goes on.
• Token Good Teammate: By far the nicest member of the Smith household; he's generally non-malicious and friendly, and some of his meaner moments are generally done out of stupidity rather than malice.
• Tomato in the Mirror:
  • His body gets dissected into multiple pieces by a group of alien Collectors that find his space ship. The same group sends an alien clone of him to Earth to replace him, but he reveals what's going on to Hayley, Roger, and Stan, who board the Collector ship to recover the real Jeff. As Jeff's original body is now effectively dead, the clone offers to sacrifice itself so that Jeff's still living brain can be placed into his body, and as everyone except Roger has their memories of this erased on the ride back to Earth, Jeff effectively becomes this trope.
  • Later in the series, Roger reveals this to the Smiths (having forgotten about it all that time), and offers to help Jeff get a human body back: by swallowing his brain and then "gestating" him a new body as though he were pregnant.
• Tuckerization: Jeff is based on Seth MacFarlane's friend, also named Jeff Fischer, who voices the character.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • "Seasons Beatings".
  Stan: Jeff? I thought you drowned!
  Jeff: Nope.
  • He's also somehow recovered from being ripped apart at the waist on two separate occasions.
• The Unfavorite: He once off-handedly mentioned having a brother whom his father loves far, far more than him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Constantly seeks the approval of his father who hates him.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: For a fair bit of the episode "Beyond The Alcove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Klaus", he is dressed as a French maid. No one bats an eye at this.

Rogu

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Debut: "Persona Assistant"

Roger's homunculus/son, who becomes a family member in the 250th episode.

---

• Beware the Nice Ones: He's far nicer than Roger, but still shares his father's vengeful streak. When Klaus left Rogu at the bottom of a well in "Thank God for Loose Rocks", he escaped and went back to the dude ranch to kill Klaus, shooting innocent men in the groin for no reason. And when the Smiths refused to let Rogu kill Klaus, Rogu decides to kill all of them, including Roger. Even after Klaus saves Rogu's life, Rogu still wants to kill Klaus, only sparing him because his dick is too small to shoot (though it's implied Rogu was just joking and was trying to mess with Klaus).
• Bizarre Alien Biology: First of all, he started off as a tumor, which Roger claims grew into a homunculus because of his difficulty maintaining all of his personas. He coughs up clones whenever he eats candy, they can merge together when listening to music and the giant can be shrunken down to original size when he falls asleep. He can also survive being cooked, chopped up and eaten, but incredible survivability and healing are traits he shares with his father.
• Cousin Oliver: Definitely appears to play this trope straight despite only making a small handful of appearances. "An Irish Goodbye" for example has him being treated like a beloved member of the family for no real reason whatsoever.
• Morality Pet: Of the Smith family, he's the only member who everyone else consistently treats with care and affection.
• Power-Up Food: Candy causes him to multiply and clams turn him into a giant red Kaiju as shown in "The Hand That Rocks the Rogu".
• Third-Person Person: Speaks like this repeatedly.

---