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Roger, Francine, Stan, Steve and Hayley.
Good morning USA:
I've got a feeling that it's gonna be a wonderful day!
The sun in the sky has a smile on his face
And he's shining a salute to the American race.
Oh boy it's swell to say:
Good morning USA!
- Stan Smith, singing the show's theme song.
Aaaaaaaaaaah! Ha? Ha? You like that? I'm amazingly focused right now!
You want some too? I GOT PLENTY FOR EVERYBODY!!!
The second cartoon Sit Com from the creator of Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane. A pillory of American Ultra-Conservatism played out on Rupert Murdoch's network.
Early in its run, American Dad was viewed as a clone of Family Guy, but it quickly outgrew this reputation and developed its own identity. It has accomplished this largely by emphasizing story and character development and conspicuously avoiding most of Family Guy's trademark shticks, including Flashback Twists, Big Lipped Alligator Moments, Overly Long Gags, and its excessive use of Take Thats (though the occasional one does occur). Initially, the show relied on caricatures of political personalities, as well as some of the more visible and controversial aspects of the right wing's policies and ideologies (although granted, usually the Strawman Political version of said policies). Over time, however, as the characters' personalities began to be fleshed out, the show became less and less political in nature, to the point where only a small portion of the episodes featured politics as an active theme. (Curiously, as this was taking place, Family Guy was steadily becoming more political.)
Arguably, the show began to grow its beard in the two-part episode "Stan of Arabia" midway through the first season. Since then the plots have become eclectically eccentric and arguably more entertaining as a result. The show has shown a willingness to experiment with unconventional storytelling techniques, such as "Star Trek", in which Steve's brief success as a children's author is told in the style of a 1940s Film Noir story, and "Of Ice and Men", which is related as a bedtime story told by a years older (and now human) Klaus to his young grandson. The quality varies wildly from episode to episode, but the risks the writers take often lead to excellent stories laced with snappy dialogue and strong performances from the voice actors.
This show provides one or more examples of:
- Aborted Arc: It hasn't been officially pronounced dead, but part three of the gold turd story has been a long time coming, and given the less than enthusiastic response to the first two parts, it's not certain if the writers intend to continue it.
- Word Of God says that they just can't come up with a third part as good as the first two.
- Anonther more recent Word Of God says that it might be revived for the fifth season.
- Acceptable Targets: Used with varying degrees of intensity: the more the writers hate it, the meaner they'll be. So far, everything has been ripe for parody.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Stan, whenever his boss is around, usually followed by a side-order of vanity. Francine will also put him up to it every so often.
- Actor Allusion: Any time the writers can get Avery Bullock to say something Picard-esque, they will. Best highlighted by his references to "Number One" in One Little Word.
- Aesop Amnesia: Stan has a inherent resistance to learning lessons, which has been lampshaded more than once.
- Sometimes he'll forget just part of the lesson as the plot requires; see Surro-Gate.
- Lampshaded beautifully by the man himself in Phantom of the Telethon: "Lying is wrong! I'd know that if I'd paid attention to anything that's ever happened to me before."
- Lampshaded even earlier (and more directly) in Rough Trade: "Roger, there's something you should know about me: I don't learn lessons."
- Averted regarding gays, as Stan has come to accept the gay lifestyle (though only by being convinced it's not a choice), gay Republicans, and gays adopting children.
- Alien Among Us: And he's really needy. And drunk.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Hayley momentarily succumbs to this trope in Stan of Arabia when she sleeps with a man whom she believes to be a terrorist. However, it's worth noting that her usual boyfriend is the extremely non-threatening Jeff.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: With the exception of his sometime girlfriend Debbie, Steve directs pretty much all of his attention to scoring dates with the acknowledged popular girls at his school.
- Played with in The American Dad After School Special. After Steve tells his family about his new girlfriend (the aforementioned Debbie), Stan immediately assumes Steve is dating a cheerleader, and refuses to believe the truth when he is told otherwise.
- All Just A Dream: Spoofed in Haylias. Wacky hijinks and various forms of Hilarity were involved, and in the end Hayley assumes it was AJAD, which the others happily allow her to believe.
- Played straight in Irregarding Steve. The beginning of the episode features most of the family being gunned down while Klaus leads Francine to safety in an over-the-top action sequence featuring Mexican vampires and a car chase underwater. It's all Klaus's dream, of course.
- Basically the driving force behind the plot of Vacation Goo.
- Alternate History: When Stan ruins Christmas, it starts a chain-reaction leading to Mondale handing over control of the United States to the communists.
- Ambiguous Gender: Despite his name, Roger's mannerisms, *ahem* bodily functions and sexual preferences veer between masculine and feminine. Sometimes within an episode.
- America Saves The Day: Stan believes this, even misquoting history to make America look better. In Tearjerker there is a subversion when he jumps in to save a British secret agent on a snowmobile shouting "Nobody needs America's help... until they ''need'' it!". Sadly, he causes an avalanche and kills the very person he was trying to save.
- Amusing Alien: Roger.
- Analogy Backfire: The show loves these. Most main characters have had one at this point.
- Animals Hate Him: Steve's luck with animals is horrible, even when he's trying to be nice to them.
- Applied Phlebotinum: devices that Stan procures from or uses at work to resolve plots that would be nearly impossible without.
- Area51: Roger was initially being detained by the government there, but came to live with the Smith family after saving Stan's life while trying to escape.
- The Artifact: Hayley, to an extent. The show was initially envisioned as a modern-day take on All In The Family, with ultra-conservative Stan constantly butting heads with ultra-liberal Hayley. As it's turned out, the Hayley-Stan conflict hasn't been nearly as big a factor in the show as was anticipated, and consequently, Hayley's character isn't as important to the show as she might have been.
- Artifact Of Death: The gold turd.
- Art Shift: The B-story of Dungeons and Wagons features Steve, Hayley, and Jeff playing an MMORPG. The in-game segments of this story are done in an elaborate (and very expensive) Animesque animation style.
- The season 5 opener In Country... Club featured two art shifts: one for Roger's Barbara Streisand-gasm (computer animation) and the other for Steve's flashback (this troper is not properly qualified to describe this type of animation — Wiki Magic help me out).
- Asian And Nerdy: Who do you think?
- Author Appeal: Some of Seth's come to light in the show. This is made more obvious when they've also turned up in different situations on his other show.
- Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other: A father/daughter version occurs with Stan and Hayley.
- Ax Crazy: Subversion with Klaus. He might not pose a major threat to the rest of the family, but he threatened Steve and Roger to the point where they hid in the attic for nine months going completely insane, all because they made a practical joke on him. Most of his craziness is however rather harmless.
- Back Alley Doctor: Francine in Helping Handis. Her assistant is Dr. Bearington, a teddy bear. His speciality is hugs.
- Bare Your Midriff: Hayley, as you can tell from the picture above.
- Becoming The Mask: Eventually, one of Roger's disguises takes on a life of its own...
- And roger then finds out he's been making withdrawals from his account, and sets out to ruin his life. And they're still the same guy, so that gets interesting.
- Big Eater: Debbie
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Roger's bad tortillas cause him to evacuate 'a turd of solid gold' which becomes the Mac Guffin in a very bad B-movie - causing two overly long scenes in unconnected episodes where characters we've never seen before kill each other for said golden turd. Fans generally have found them confusing rather than funny.
- Not to mention the beginning to Irregarding Steve. Without warning, terrorists kill everyone as Klaus and Francine escape through an underground tunnel. They're suddenly in a car driving off as Klaus is in a mech, explaining that "[he's] Max Hammer. And [he's] here to save the world!" After escaping Mexican vampires, they discover the lost city of Atlantis after driving the car off the cliff into the ocean. They begin to kiss as it's revealed to be a daydream by Klaus.
- Also, toward the end of Family Affair, a koala with the brain of a man suddenly appears in the pool of the Smith house. He hits on Hayley, then after she rejects him, we see a one minute segment that looks mostly like an intro sequence for a bad cop show during The Eighties.
- It makes (somewhat) more sense when you know Klaus' backstory. He's also a secret agent that was trapped (via CIA technology) into the body of a goldfish.
- Big No: Steve, usually. The voice-actor who plays him can get a laugh with one of these alone.
- Stan does the classic Khan bit in All About Steve.
- Bigot Vs Bigot: Hayley and Stan fit this trope to perfection, almost to the extent of being the very definition.
- Blatant Lies: Stan spies on the neighbors in a truck with "Surveillance Pizza" on the side.
- Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Francine, although mainly through her association with Stan.
- Bond Gun Barrel: One-off parody in Tearjerker. Stan actually gets shot by the barrel and confesses that he always thought that it was a camera.
- Boobs Of Steel: massive subversion with Carmen Selectra in Spring Break-up. Followed up with another excellent Big No from Steve.
- A Boy And His X: In this case, Barry and his pet calf Rosie. Later causes a massive dose of nightmare fuel for Barry when Stan makes him slaughter the poor animal to prove his manhood ("A man kills what he loves before it weakens him!") The examples where Steve has pets actually count as something of an inversion - not only are they spectacular failures but they actually serve to keep him away from manhood.
- Breaking The Fourth Wall: The occasional aside, usually. Except in one rare case when just over half a minute was spent pulling the animated walls away for the sake of a single gag. A mock celebration in Widowmaker for the show's 1000th vagina joke.
- Broken Aesop: Done deliberately and played for laughs. Often results in massive hilarity.
- Breast Expansion: In the episode Tearjerker, all the gadgets created by S (Steve) are just different vehicles for Breast Expansion technology. As befits a James Bond parody, the fate of the world eventually depends on Stan making a woman's breasts triple in size.
- Brother Sister Incest: Played for humor a couple of times with Steve and Hayley.
- More than hinted at in Stannie Get Your Gun. When Steve is led to believe he is adopted, one of the first things he does is deep kiss a very surprised and repulsed Hayley.
- And then there's Meter Made, in which Steve takes a nude painting of Hayley (not knowing it's her) and masturbates to it. Hayley is Squicked out right away, and Steve becomes so once he realizes who the figure in the painting is.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Stan's idiosyncrasies aside, he's frequently portrayed as fairly competent at his job (or at least no more incompetent than anyone else).
- Call Back: Lots of them. An especially clever one takes place in Rough Trade when Stan unconsciously duplicates much of Roger's behavior from the first episode.
- Catchphrase: Almost completely and utterly averted, being one of the few animated shows of its kind that don't rely on these.
- The early seasons have Avery exclaiming "Capital idea, Smith!" a few times - this is about as close as it gets.
- Klaus does say "wunderbar" a lot.
- Cattle Drive: Through city streets, no less. With Stan swatting at invisible owls. In his underwear.
- Caught With Your Pants Down: The trope around which A Smith in the Hand is based.
- Celebrity Paradox: An interesting example occurs in American Dream Factory with Steve's band "Steve and the Asstones". Since the songs they play ("Livin' On The Run" and "Sunset Blvd.") were minor hits written and performed by Scott Grimes who voices Steve, it is implied that in-universe, Steve wrote them and therefore they are not hits.
- Character Development: In the quest to devise better storylines, this has been a necessity. All of the characters with the possible exception of Klaus have become more complex and multi-faceted as the series has gone along.
- Characterization Marches On: Roger's people-shy ways in earlier episodes seem strange in light of the surprisingly full life he is later able to lead outside the Smith house thanks to his many disguises and alternate personas.
- To be fair, Roger was only people-shy when he was in public as himself.
- Chekhovs Skill: The beginning of With Friends Like Steve's features Stan showing a variety of CIA maneuvers to a thoroughly bored Steve. The main purpose of the scene being to show the growing disconnect between Stan and Steve, the viewer attaches no additional importance to it, making the episode's climax even more satisfying, when Steve is called upon to use practically every skill Stan demonstrated to him earlier in the episode.
- Clark Kenting: Roger and his various disguises; ties in with Wig Dress Accent.
- Conspiracy Placement: Black Mystery Month parodies The Da Vinci Code's use of these.
- Companion Cube: Stan's beloved Glock pistol. Stan loves his sidearm (at least as much as Jayne in Firefly), especially if he gets to use it irresponsibly. He even plays with it like it's some kind of pet in Roger Codger, and isn't at all alarmed when it goes off. Which ties in nicely with...
- Cool Guns: Very popular in the first season. There's even Stannie Get Your Gun which shows both sides of the American gun law debate, albeit ending with a "guns are good" stance.
- Couch Gag: A spoof topical newspaper headline.
- Replaced by Roger's alternating costumes from season four onwards.
- Crazy Prepared: Stan keeps a huge assortment of guns everywhere and has a panic room and an investigation room, among other things. Mainly a jab at Stan's paranoia (and therefore that of the perceived "average patriot") but it often comes in handy when resolving plots.
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Roger, once. And Barry when not medicated - taken to epic supervillain proportions.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Roger gets high off a face full of cocaine and takes on four thugs with their own weapons.
- This troper considers it to be a Crowning Moment Of Funny as well, along with that entire episode.
- This troper considers Stan getting into an epic battle with Bullock to be a C Mo A, made even better with Klaus's DVD commentary.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Used straight and then subverted in Rough Trade. Roger hits Francine and gives her a black eye; to cover, she uses the "walked into a door" excuse. Later, when the police are there investigating a domestic disturbance call (a series of coincidences having led the neighbors to believe Stan is beating Francine), Francine actually does walk into a door and gives herself another black eye, but the police do not believe her and arrest Stan.
- "I deserved it for leaving the mop out."
- A Date With Rosie Palms: The focus of one episode.
- A Day In The Limelight: Most episodes feature Stan as the main character, but occasionally someone like Roger or Steve will be given the lead role for variety. The best example is probably Escape from Pearl Bailey, in which the plot is driven entirely by Steve's actions while the rest of the family hardly appears at all. Klaus has by far the fewest of these episodes, with Hayley bringing up the rear (pun intended).
- Dead Baby Comedy: Used sparingly and jarringly, making it all the more effective.
- Deconstructor Fleet: Another animated show that enjoys messing with tropes and using them with shades on. Done very well most of the time, with several an episode if the writers are on form.
- Depending On The Writer: Is Stan a huge Jerk Ass whose main priority is himself, or is he merely a stubborn individual who nonetheless genuinely cares about his family? There are episodes supporting both viewpoints.
- Similarly, in some episodes, Hayley is portrayed as genuinely caring and sincere in her beliefs, while in others, she's a huge hypocrite. In both cases, it could be less a case of Depending On The Writer and more Depending On What Suits The Plot.
- The commentary for one episode said that the main rules for Stan is that "he tries to keep his country and his family safe" and "he can't be unlikable". How far the writers think "likable" goes does vary a lot.
- Deserted Island: Appears in Choosey Wives Choose Smith and turns from Castaway to Palm Tree type within seconds.
- Desperately Looking For A Purpose In Life: Roger, which would explain his penchant for role-playing.
- Did Not Get The Girl: poor old Steve. Even when he does succeed, something happens to sabotage it.
- Discriminate And Switch: Stan is upset when Greg and Terry move in next door. Turns out that Stan doesn't even know they're gay; he's upset because they're quote "members of the Liberal media".
- Francine gets one too: Steve and Hayley think she's racist for her aversion to Steve's (black) lab partner, only to find out her hatred is toward left-handed people.
- Disney Creatures Of The Farce: It's obvious that when Francine sings with the bird in "In Country... Club" that it's a sendup of classic Snow White and Sleeping Beauty moments. Then she drowns the bird, with a creepily apathetic look on her face.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In Stannie Get Your Gun, when Steve eats Roger's cookie and tells him "You snooze, you lose," Roger goes on an elaborate Zany Scheme to convince Steve that he's adopted, dress up in a sailor suit with a blond wig and introduce himself to his "real parents." At the end of the episode, Hayley steals Roger's seat, tells him "The early bird gets the worm," and Roger implies (through his dark reprise) that he's about to do something similar to her.
- Subverted in Surro-Gate. After Steve and Roger throw Klaus down a water slide, Klaus acts like he is going to unleash one of these, but it ends up being a Paranoia Gambit instead.
- Donut Mess With A Cop: In Rough Trade, Roger wonders if there's a donut shop nearby when a bunch of cops appear. Stan doesn't get it.
- Dork Age: Averted. Fleshing out the characters and changing the focus away from national security has widened the potential audience. And the original continuity has been respected, for the most part.
- Dungeons And Dragons: The preferred pastime of Steve and his friends. There was even a World of Warcraft-esque RPG in Dungeons And Wagons.
- Eagleland: The writers have no problem poking fun at their own country especially if it serves the plot.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Roger. Not Klaus as the writers might have been hoping.
- Your Mileage May Vary, I think. I always thought that his scenes were simply hilarious and a lot of people are somewhat, uh... 'nervous' 'cause he doesn't get enough screen-time. Not talking about those who think that the scenes with Roger and Klaus together are comedy gold...
- Indeed; this troper finds Klaus absolutely awesome. To an extent, this all may be intentional on the production's part as it's pretty a clear that a goldfish in a bowl probably can't take part in most plots without a lot of futz thus saving Klaus for what it really counts.
- Epiphany Therapy: Most commonly used when Stan needs to learn a lesson in tolerance - it will dawn on him in the closing moments, usually causing him to launch into a short Whoopi Epiphany Speech on behalf of the oppressed/misunderstood group he was once prejudiced against.
- An excellent one occurs in American Dream Factory when The Power Of Rock convinces Stan that immigrants from Mexico can be just as patriotic about America as he is.
- Evil Twin: Inverted with Stan's CIA body double. Technically, Stan would be the evil twin, although Bill begins to reveal an evil nature of his own during his second appearance on the show.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Francine invokes this trope in Iced Iced Babies.
- Exposition: Lampooned often.
Francine: (on the phone) Hi sis! (pause) What's weird? Calling you sis? (pause) Yeah, you're right, that does sound clunky and expository.
- Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong: An early Running Gag replaced by New Powers As The Plot Demands.
- Failed Attempt At Drama ("I'M LOOKING FOR PEACHES!")
- Fetish Fuel: Some blink-and-you'll-miss-it examples, but there's a classic one involving cushions in Surro-Gate, which becomes more amusing when it's referenced again later in the episode. Francine has a couple of good ones too.
- Five Five Five: The call-in number for the CIA's donation line in Phantom of the Telethon. Also, Roger's pretend psychiatrist number in Widowmaker.
- Flanderization: Roger's antics used to be quite varied, relating to his drinking, scheming with Steve, alien biology, television, etc. Now virtually everything he does is based on his role playing/dressup obsession.
- Flashback Cut: Used to embellish character backstories mostly.
- In the pilot episode, they were used to provide random gags in the same fashion as Family Guy; luckily, after that episode, the writers banned cutaways in an effort to both distinguish the series from its predecessor and to focus on more character-based humor. It worked.
- Foil: The relationship between Steve and Roger, with Steve usually being Roger's foil. They are similar in many ways but different enough to inevitably disagree, leading to the derailment of their schemes and usually some kind of fight.
- For Halloween I Am Going As Myself: In All About Steve, Roger is so desperate for human contact that the only place he can go outside the house is a sci-fi convention. Of course, this was before he became a master of disguise.
- Former Teen Rebel: Francine is shown as a completely out of control character until she meets the ultra-Conservative Stan, whereupon The Power Of Love makes her choose a button-down life instead.
- Furry Fandom: Provides the basis for a non-sequitur gag in One Little Word
- Future Imperfect: How Stan imagines life after his death in Stanny Slickers II: The Legend Of Ollie's Gold.
- Gag Boobs: In Helping Handis, some CIA-supplied steroids cause Steve, and later Stan, to sprout comically large breasts. And yes, it's both hilarious and extremely Squicky.
- Gay Conservative: Explored extensively in Lincoln Lover, where Greg is revealed to be a Log Cabin Republican... and Stan temporarily becomes one.
- Geek: Steve, Barry, Snot and Toshi are a Four Man Band comprised entirely of geeks who adore Dungeons And Dragons, Star Trek, and World Of Warcraft-esque computer games. Thankfully the show doesn't resort to making any one of them a full-time Butt Monkey.
- Geek Reference Pool: Pretty much every stereotypical geek interest that's out there, Steve has been shown as being into it at some point.
- Gender Incompetence: Averted for the most part. Stan is actually a pretty intelligent and efficient operative in many aspects, but is prone to making snap decisions and his judgement can often be clouded by his political views. Likewise, neither Hayley nor Steve seems especially more intelligent or competent than the other.
- Gene Hunting: In Big Trouble in Little Langley, Stan gets tired of dealing with Francine's adoptive Chinese parents and goes searching for her biological parents.
- Genre Savvy: And HOW.
- George Jetson Job Security: Stan has been suspended or lost his CIA job several times, yet he's always right back at work the very next episode.
- Getting Crap Past The Radar: In Threat Levels, Roger says that Francine is being a real "Catch U Next Tuesday".
- Also some of what Klaus says, especially in the pilot episode (where he looks up Francine's dress and refers to her "schmutzplätzchen" [which is an archaic German word for "vagina," but really means "dirty cookie" or "dirty place").
- The Ghost: Gwen, the biological daughter of Francine's adoptive parents. Conversations would seem to suggest that she is extremely attractive although not very intelligent.
- For a long time, Bullock's wife fit this trope, though she was eventually seen in One Little Word.
- Going Native: Stan often ends up going full throttle into any subculture he is thrust towards, such as illegal street racing or gay lifestyle. Francine lampshades this in Stan of Arabia.
- Good People Have Good Sex: Stan and Francine seem to have a healthy, active sex life.
- Granola Girl: Rarely will you find a better example than Hayley.
- The Greys: Roger is one of these.
- The Grim Reaper: Stan's publicity assistant in Deacon Stan, Jesus Man sports a red hooded robe and demonstrates many of the physical attributes usually assigned to the personification of Death, and some of his supernatural abilities (hovering instead of walking, clairvoyance, appearing mysteriously with no visible entry point).
- He wasn't the Grim Reaper. He was Karl Rove. (aroooooo...)
- And his design and voice were based more on Emperor Palpatine (especially as "Darth Sidious" with the cloak partially obscuring the face) than on the Grim Reaper.
- Guns Akimbo: Roger vs. the drug dealers. Stan has done the double once or twice too. Francine even dual wields machetes in the pilot. ("If I die you must protect the clan!")
- Hand Wave: Stan has an extreme fear of seagulls. The plot of Choosey Wives Choose Smith requires him to interact extensively with seagulls. How to solve the problem from a writer standpoint? By hastily inserting a line where Stan says he got over his fear of seagulls.
- Hey, if you are trapped on an island with only seagulls to eat, it ain't much of a handwave to suppose he forced himself to get past the fear.
- Happiness In Slavery: Paco and his entire family while working far below minimum wage in Stan's American Dream Factory. Notably, the relationship changes from Stan not caring to one of great appreciation when he sees how much they love his country, whereby he decides to do them a favour. Arguably Francine is treated poorly enough to be something of a slave to Stan too - she certainly acts like the housewife from any fifties stereotype.
- Healing Hands: Spoofed in the pilot when Roger reveals his race have no such ability. ("And don't expect me to bring him back with that E.T. finger thing because that's a giant load of crap!")
- Hey Its That Voice: Stan's boss is Captain Picard!
- In one Christmas Episode, Paget Brewster guest starred as a red-haired lawyer with (eventually) wings and a quirky personality. Coincidentally, Paget used to play a red-haired lawyer with wings and a quirky personality.
- Plus, Dee Bradley Baker as Klaus.
- It's a testament to Seth MacFarlane's vocal talents that his voice doesn't leap out at you as much in this series. Most viewers can figure out Stan, but a surprisingly large number of people aren't aware he voices Roger as well.
- And of course Lisa "Phoebe" Kudrow as the voice of a Christmas Spirit in one episode.
- An Apocalypse to Remember has Roger trying to get married to a Jewish woman; the father of the woman is the same voice actor as Ron's Jewish father in Kim Possible.
- That would be Elliott Gould, who also played Ross and Monica's Jewish father on Friends. And the mother in that episode was played by Liz Sheridan, best known for playing Jerry's mother on Seinfeld, yet another Jewish parent role.
- Historical In Joke: Ever wondered if George Washington Carver really invented peanut butter? See Black Mystery Month. There are other allusions throughout the show too, such as the truth behind Ollie North's gold, Reagan's assassination attempt and the disco revolution/collapse.
- Also played with in The Best Christmas Story Never. Stan goes back in time to stop Jane Fonda from ruining Christmas and inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events which leads to America being taken over by the Soviets. To put the timeline right, he must shoot President Reagan.
- In this universe, Francine, after having a one-night stand with apparently the entire band, inspired Dexys Midnight Runners to write the song "Come on Eileen" (they couldn't remember her name).
- Homage: Steve's plan in Bar Mitzvah Shuffle is presented in the exact same fashion as plans are presented in Oceans Eleven.
- The poison drinking scene in With Friends Like Steve's is pretty much ripped out of The Princess Bride.
- Hot Mom: Francine. Stan's mother Betty also qualifies.
- Ho Yay: Several times with Stan and Roger, always played for laughs.
- Humongous Mecha: In Rough Trade, complete with Billions Of Buttons. Which Stan has no hope of piloting - it was All There In The Manual, but that was destroyed by monkeys. Monkeys with amazing hairstyles. You heard me.
- Francine has also had an encounter with one of Stan's coworker's Humongous Mecha (a different one than above). She tries to persuade them to supply her with a serum that will induce rapid aging (Steve was going through puberty). She asked nicely; they said no. She undid a button; they said no. She reaches up under her skirt, peels off a lacy, pink thong and tosses it at one of them; again, they say no. She then offers a plate of brownies. The coworker in the mech suit rides over and takes it from her. "BROWNIES!"
- I Have No Son: Stan disowns Steve upon realizing that he is a total Geek.
- I Know Youre In There Somewhere Fight: Played with nicely in Haylias, in which a too well mind programed Hayley turns on Stan and chases him back to their house. Stan tries to reason with her as she hold him at gunpoint, making a last gambit with a heartfelt confession and apology on trying to control her happiness. It fails, she proceed to shoot him anyway mid-sentence. Lucky for Stan he manages to survive with just a concussion. The brief moments of death he had allowing the program in Hayley to be completed and bringing her back to normal with no memory of the true reason she was trying to kill him.
- Incurable Cough Of Death: Hayley coughs early in Tears of a Clooney; minutes later, she is suddenly stricken with cancer (though she ultimately beats it).
- Informed Flaw: Hayley is called a whore on multiple occasions. While she's hardly virginal, she doesn't really seem to be any more promiscuous than your average 18-year-old.
- Well, she slept with a guy for pot, had sex with an eskimo at a frat house, tried to get a guy to go out with her by saying that she's incredibly vulnerable when drunk...
- Ink Suit Actor: Avery Bullock looks more than a little like Patrick Stewart. And you'd never guess who voices him.
- There are also some cameos by some people that work on the show. Those scientists about five tropes up? The one in the mech is Mike Barker and the other is Matt Weitzman, the co-creators of the show.
- Inner Monologue: Crops up more than average, especially in episodes centering on Stan.
- Innocent Innuendo: Or not so innocent. When Stan's teammate, Jim, uses his Casanova skills to seduce his way out of the bad guys hideout and to safety. When Stan gets home, he hugs his wife.
Stan (still hugging): If I smell at all like sex it's because of Jim.
(Francine opens her eyes and gets an odd look on her face)
Stan: His hips never stopped moving as we porked our way through 200 miles of jungle. It was magnificent.
- Invoked Trope: When an awkward fight between Stan, Steve, and Stan's dad starts in the kitchen, Francine pointed out that this was when Klaus would usually come in and say something funny for comic relief. The joke being that he doesn't make it until the end of the scene, despite Francine's repeated invoking.
- Issue Drift: Inverted; the show has arguably become less political than originally intended, though it's still pretty heavy on it.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Stan even converts his backyard into a fully-fledged prison when he convinces himself the new neighbours are terrorists.
- And in the same episode he uses the technique on himself.
- Jerk Ass: Stan and Roger. And when they put aside their differences and get together...
- Kansas City Shuffle: Steve's plan in Bar Mitzvah Shuffle.
- Kent Brockman News: Greg and Terry are low on exposition but high on drama, usually doing their dirty laundry over the airwaves.
- Lantern Jaw Of Justice: Stan Smith, an unusual non-superhero iteration.
- Large Ham: Stan Smith, as early as the pilot. ("Did somebody order a brand new dog?!") Avery Bullock too.
- And not Roger?
- Roger does, but usually only when imitating something from a film or another show. He's whiny rather than hammy.
- Lawyer Friendly Cameo: Lampshaded in Spring Break-up.
Partier: Carmen Selectra? Doesn't he mean Carmen ELECTRA?
Second partier: No! No, he doesn't!
- Lemon Wacky Hello: During a daring escape from a burning barn full of dope in Joint Custody this happens to Stan and Roger, who ride out the episode with some hilarious stoner behaviour, and manage to resolve the plot by accident.
- This troper will never see Cat Food the same way again. Or Night Ranger.
- Like Father Like Son: Or rather like daughter. Despite her radically different political views, Hayley's actual personality is very similar to her father, right down to the patronizing way she treats her romantic partner.
- Subverted with Steve and Stan, and again with Stan's estranged father Jack.
- Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded by Hayley in one episode when Steve, locked in Hayley's closet, threatens, "Let me out, or I'll rip up all your clothes!" to which Hayley responds "Go ahead! If you haven't noticed, I only wear this one outfit."
- Lipstick Lesbian: The Smiths' neighbor, Linda Memari, who is also in love with Francine.
- Love Martyr: Hayley's long-suffering loser boyfriend Jeff. He even calls her on the phone when she's in the next room because he just wrote her a song about loneliness.
- Mail Order Bride: She's Russian, of course, and she comes with a fidelity contract. Toshi snags her, which is mentioned in a later episode.
- Mandatory Line: Lampshaded in Escape from Pearl Bailey: "Nice of Steve to acknowledge us this week, even if it was only this once."
- A Man Is Not A Virgin: Initially inverted- Stan tries to impart to Steve that sexual urges are something not to be acted upon. However, played straight with regard to Stan himself; Stan's lack of sexual experience outside his marriage to Francine is often used to make jokes at his expense, and it is actually what drives the plot of When A Stan Loves a Woman.
- Mars Needs Women: Klaus the goldfish is in lust with Francine Smith. True, he used to be human, but still...
- Mexican Standoff: Most notably Joanna vs. Stan in When A Stan Loves A Woman. Apparently "a little gunplay" is something that Stan finds arousing.
- Mighty Whitey: Referenced, when Stan escapes on a Predator Drone used as decoration for a float.
Old Chinese Guy: "The dragon awakens! The prophecy has been fulfilled!"
Chinese Girl: "With a white guy riding it... Awesome."
- Mind Screw: Usually interwoven with some audacious plotting. See Widowmaker for an example that would make Jonathan Creek and Columbo proud.
- Miss Conception: Subverted- due to some alien spawn, a girl does get pregnant from a kiss.
- Mister Seahorse: Roger and then Steve
- Montages: usually bizarre and accompanied by lively music.
- A good example is shaded in Pulling Double Booty. ("Haha - you thought they got top hats!")
- Sometimes they use Night Ranger. Yeah, frickin' Night Ranger.
- Ms Fanservice: Francine has been used to cater to a variety of fetishes over the course of the series.
- My Beloved Smother: Francine in Iced Iced Babies.
- Sublimely inverted by Stan in Oedipal Panties.
- Mysterious Past: Roger's past on Earth is referenced and rarely shown, with an exception in the Christmas special The Best Christmas Story Never Told. His history on his home planet (including which planet it actually was) is even more rarely referenced and never shown.
- Roger has been recently informed that his initial purpose for coming to Earth was to be a crash test dummy for a spaceship that his people were testing, not The Decider of the fate of planet as he was told. Stan was ''less'' than supportive.
- New Job Episode: Stan in Meter Made, Roger and Francine from time to time.
- New Powers As The Plot Demands: Roger is this trope. His notable achievements include being bouyant enough to be used as a raft (Choosy Wives Choose Smith), resistance to fire (Big Trouble In Little Langley) and becoming immune to gravity (Joint Custody).
- "How did you know I was fireproof? Even I didn't know! Wait, you did know right? I'm gonna go with yes to preserve the friendship"
- Roger can also probe people to gain all their memories (Roger 'N' Me).
- Well, he IS supposed to be a crash test dummy.
- Nightmare Fuel: In Iced Iced Babies:
Francine: You can stay right here. With mommy. Forever.
- No Bisexuals: Stan purchased a gaydar watch from Sky Mall, which is 45% straight, 45% gay, and 10% curious.
- Hayley has hinted a couple of times that she might be bisexual, most prominently in Pulling Double Booty, where she suggests having a three-way with a waitress and Bill the Double (actually Stan impersonating Bill)
- Not Even Bothering With The Accent: Patrick Stewart, as American CIA head Avery Bullock, makes no attempt to conceal his British accent. This is lampshaded in at least one episode.
- No Womans Land: Saudi Arabia turns out to be one in Stan of Arabia, much to Francine's frustration and Stan's delight.
- Off Model: In an episode where Steve and Roger go to New York, Francine, Stan, and Hayley yell a Big No in a broken manner, meaner that their lip-syncs are broken, that they made the Gene Deitch cartoons looking like a masterpiece.
- One Dialogue Two Conversations: A moment from Pulling Double Booty provides the page quote for that article.
- Also done in Stannie Get Your Gun. It's even somewhat lampshaded by Roger ("I just love it when crap lines up like that.")
- One Scene Wonder: Avery Bullock usually has very little screen time: he often utters the best lines of the episode and promptly disappears.
- One We Prepared Earlier: American Dad premiered with one of these. Subsequent episodes would show the origins of various character relationships in Flashback (such as the fifth episode, Roger Codger, which flashed back to how Roger came to live with the Smiths).
- Only Sane Man: Despite her leftist views, Hayley usually emerges as the only sane woman a lot of the time. Sometimes falls to Steve.
- Operator From India: In Four Little Words, Francine is teaching English to a village of Indian children. The phrase she is teaching them to say is "Thank you for calling Apple tech support".
- Or Is It: Spoofed in Tearjerker. The last shot is of a volcano, and as "THE END" is displayed, the title character's hand comes out of the crater and a question mark appears. A few seconds later, he falls back into the volcano and the question mark disappears.
- Oscar Bait: Mercilessly spoofed with Oscar Gold, the Show Within A Show in Tearjerker.
- Overly Long Gag: Mostly avoided, but one does occur in Finances With Wolves during a very long sequence where Stan tries to park at the mall.
- Also the "Golden Turd" sequences. Arguably not a gag, but still...
- Paper Thin Disguise: Roger seems to be recognizable as an alien only when he's stark naked. Putting on any kind of clothing seems to render him completely indistinguishable from humans, despite people occasionally mentioning he is not flesh coloured, doesn't have a nose, and is 'oddly proportioned'.
- Except for Toshi, who once referred to Roger as the "alien in a wig." Of course, since no one understands Toshi, it didn't make any real difference.
- Parental Incest: Subverted. Hayley falls for Stan's double. Later, Stan must impersonate the double for plot reasons.
- There's also Stan's relationship with his mother, which takes on some really Squicky overtones.
- Patriotic Fervour: Stan veers between honourable and despicable, but prides himself on being a true patriot.
- Perky Goth: Steve's girlfriend Debbie has an obsession with death and the dark side but is otherwise friendly and cheerful.
- Planet Of Hats: See The Vacation Goo for several, including an island of hunters and Steve's conversion of the house.
- Playing Against Type: Half the things Avery Bullock says are hilarious simply because they sound so bizarre coming out of Patrick Stewart's mouth.
- Plot Induced Stupidity: Francine often goes from The Ditz to at least as intelligent as Hayley, but with less emphasis on feminism.
- Steve's naivete and respect for his father change quite a bit too.
- Product Placement: Mr Pibb (now known as Pibb Xtra) is given centre stage as the B-plot of A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial and is mentioned in several other episodes as well. Other references to real life products or shows are also in abundance.
- Also parodied in Black Mystery Month when for no reason at all Stan and Steve discuss their plan in a Burger King and Steve asks why they had to go there. Stan procceeds to tell him that "The economics of television have changed" before giving a fake smile to the camera and saying in a pained voice "Have it...YOUR way".
- Properly Paranoid: Stan has been proven right enough times to continue being this way.
- Quietly Performing Sister Show: Fits this trope to a T. Not nearly as much publicity or as many viewers as Family Guy, but a respectable and satisfied audience nonetheless.
- Real Life Relative: Hayley is voiced by Seth MacFarlane's sister Rachael.
- Really Gets Around: Almost every reference to Francine's past indicates that she was the loosest loose woman in Langley Falls, revealing to Stan that she actually has North America's largest sex garden in When A Stan Loves A Woman.
- A Real Man Is A Killer: When it is revealed that Stan has never actually killed anyone before, everyone is either disgusted or severely disappointed in him. Everyone except Hayley, that is... and the newfound respect she gains for Stan because of this is treated in-show as a bad thing.
- Refuge In Audacity: Crops up all the time. Often used as an excuse for plot-related Fridge Logic. Usually hilarious.
- Religion Is Magic: Christianity is parodied in this fashion; nowhere is this more obvious than in Dope & Faith.
- Robot Girl: Steve's somewhat unnerving gradual conversion of a vacuum cleaner into an artificial mate during Stannie Slickers II to the point where it can perform... well, it's Steve so you can probably figure out the rest.
- Roswell That Ends Well: Roger claims that his arrival on Earth was responsible for the Roswell incident.
- Running Gag: The writers get their fill with the many vagina jokes that pop up. They try to go for the Once Per Episode approach.
- The Scrappy: many viewers regard Klaus the goldfish to be completely superfluous; perhaps a reason why he has been played down so much since the third season.
- Word Of God has it that if Seth could do the show again he'd have Klaus be a parrot instead. Considering that in Finances With Wolves Klaus was turned into a black man with some Applied Phlebotinum it makes you wonder why they don't write an episode where just that happens. After all, Seth's other show doesn't always Snap Back fully.
- The DVD commentary for that episode had the writers saying they were planning to have Klaus become a different animal in the end. This Troper believes they weren't too clear why they didn't.
- Secret Test Of Character: Parodied in Bullocks to Stan. Bullock dates Hayley and puts Stan through hell; when Stan finally snaps and nearly kills him, Bullock congratulates Stan and says that the whole ordeal was a test he was putting him through to see if Stan would stand up to him. However, it is clear from the context that the whole "test" explanation is a face-saving, and life saving, lie.
- Sexy Shirt Switch: Roger wakes up wearing Stan's shirt in Roger 'N' Me. Also happens with Bullock and Hayley in Bullocks to Stan.
- Shout Out: Lots of references, but possibly the only show to do a meta-Shout Out ("He's like America - the guy!")
- Show Within A Show: The gold turd. Enough said.
- We're still waiting on the third part of that. Apparently it goes some way to proving that Viewers Are Morons, given that viewing figures go down after one.
- Snowball Lie: Stan runs on these, best showcased with the appropriately winter-themed episode Of Ice And Men.
- Soap Box Sadie: Hayley
- and of course Stan LITERALLY gets up on his soap box in Camp Refoogee.
- Something Completely Different: The non-canon James Bond spoof Tearjerker.
- Split Personality: Roger develops one in The One That Got Away.
- Solid Gold Poop: Roger's solid-gold, diamond-encrusted turd.
- Status Quo Is God: Taken to such ridiculous extremes that the show is practically parodying this trope. To cite one example: In Stannie Get Your Gun, Hayley unintentionally shoots Stan and paralyzes him; later in the episode, Stan is shot again, and the second bullet fixes his condition by dislodging the first bullet.
- Stay In The Kitchen: The fate of Francine, which often leads to a breakout episode/moment for her character. This is also what Stan forces upon Hayley in Haylias.
- Stealth Pun: The secondary story of Widowmaker revolves around bees. Think about that one for a minute.
- Stock Scream: The one Seth recorded for Stan is so hilariously over-the-top, it should turn up in films next to the Wilhelm scream.
- Strawman Political: Anything vaguely political is usually guilty of this, but in a good way.
- Talking To Himself: Seth MacFarlane voices both Stan and Roger, who have many, MANY scenes together. In fact, there are several entire episodes that are mainly just the two of them.
- Tear Jerker: There are a few moments that verge on being crowning moments of heartwarming but there are even more that are invoked by one character to elicit sympathy from the others, which usually completely fail, especially if it's Roger because it's better that way.
- There's an episode called this too. The segment with Oscar Gold is such a simultaneously great parody and deliberately terrible imitation of "triumph over adversity" pictures like The Waterboy that it's definitely another awesomey McCrowny moment.
- Teens Are Monsters: The Flashback Cut portrayal of puberty for the Smith family children in 1600 Candles. Steve had done some questionable things before too - he completely loses it when he grows Gag Boobs in Helping Handis and pushes a bookcase onto his wheelchair-bound father in Stannie Get Your Gun.
- To be fair, he thought his dad had stolen him from his real family when he was a baby.
- That Didnt Happen: Stan and Roger have a one-sided version of this in Roger 'N' Me; Roger wants to tell about how he and Stan "became best buddies", but Stan doesn't.
- This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!: Used by Roger a lot.
- This Is SPARTA: Stan Smith deals in these from time to time.
- As does Steve in Dope & Faith. LAVATE. LAS. MANOS!!!
- Twin Switch: Stan's double Bill begins dating Hayley, but then poses as Stan in order to try to sleep with Francine. After removing Bill from the picture, Stan must then pose as Bill in order to keep Hayley's heart from being broken.
- Twist Ending: many of the better episodes use improbable plot resolutions that are much more amusing with repeated viewings.
- Two Lines No Waiting: Typically when this trope is used, the A story will focus on Stan and the B story will focus on either Steve or Roger.
- Five Lines No Waiting: The initial premise of Finances With Wolves, where Francine, Steve, Hayley, Roger, and Klaus each have their own plots that intersect at various points. Stan is prominent, but doesn't have his own actual plot.
- Two Timer Date: Stan attempts to pull off one of these in One Little Word. While he and Francine are trying to enjoy a romantic weekend in one lakeside cabin, Stan must keep his boss's mistress supplied with cigarettes in the cabin across the lake.
- The Unintelligible: Inverted with Toshi. He only speaks Japanese, but it's subtitled, so the audience can understand him but none of the characters can.
- Subverted in one episode where it is discovered both Toshi and Francine speak Spanish and can therefore communicate (though it is only over the phone, briefly).
- This Troper always thought the joke of that scene was that people are so out of touch with what Toshi is saying that Francine doesn't even realize he's speaking Japanese, she just assumes it's Spanish.
- And another with the Mail Order Bride.
- Subverted again when it is revealed that Toshi is followed by the dissembodied spirit of a samurai who tries to tell him that no one knows what he's saying and Toshi simply responds as if he can't understand what the samurai is saying.
- It should also be noted that people usually act as if they think they know what Toshi is saying, while actually being way off. 'Gross, there's no way she's agree to do that Toshi. Besides, where would we get a dozen ping pong balls'.
- Subverted in Home Adrone where Steve is seen talking to Toshi on the phone. After few seconds Steve admits that he has no idea what Toshi's saying and does not know why he bothered calling him.
- Unstoppable Rage: At least two separate episodes show Hayley as being capable of this. One happens when she gets dumped. The other takes place when she becomes hormonal as a result of going through puberty.
- Francine is also capable of this, two prominent examples being when she screams at Stan for ruining her plan to break George Clooney's heart, and when after discovering that Stan tricked her into believing she committed murder, her response to him is angry to the point of psychotic.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Stan "Staniel" Smith.
- This troper's starting to think Stan's shaping up to be a fairly sympathetic character, though. True, he retains *some* Jerkass qualities, but enough episodes end with *him* delivering the Aesop or at least on the moral high ground for him to go beyond just being an Expy of Peter Griffin.
- The Urkel: Steve.
- More recent episodes have him sidetracked in his quest for boob, though - even to the point where he'll ignore it altogether.
- Very Special Episode: Subverted. Some episodes give the appearance of this before descending into chaos.
- Vomit Shots: One of the most recurring events in the series is for one of the characters (usually Stan or Roger) to vomit violently due to various reasons. It can be discrete, indiscrete, or outright over the top.
- Wall Banger: Steve turning down sex from a a drunken spring break girl in Spring Break-up in favor of Carmen Selectra could be somewhat justified, but him turning her down and wanting to see her medicals and later asking her to remove her breast implants is just stretching it, especially given Steves otherwise irrational desire for the boob.
- We Want Our Jerk Back: In Frannie 911, Roger is forced to become nice, but when the family discovers that being nice is actually harming his health, they beg him to go back to being a jerk.
- Well Done Son Guy: Steve. He tries to get his dad to respect him multiple times... the results are mixed.
- Stan's relationship with his own father has elements of this as well.
- What The Hell Hero: Everyone calls everyone else out on a pretty regular basis. Especially when it's one character's turn to be more heroic than usual.
- Whole Plot Reference: Done very sparingly, and (usually) effectively; the show still manages to put its own unique twist on things even when it's largely basing its plot on an existing story. An excellent example is Irregarding Steve, which not only features Steve and Roger in a take-off on Midnight Cowboy, but has a running B-story which recreates What's Eating Gilbert Grape with squirrels.
- What Could Have Been: According to the commentaries, the original plan for Roger would've been that season 1 would've had him be stuck in the house all the time, but get fed up with it in season 2 and try the disguises. They would've worked until season 3, where Roger gets revealed in public and it becomes a giant media scandal. But by season 4, everyone would've gotten used to aliens and stopped caring, making Roger try to become the hot new story with schemes. Also, Klaus would've become a more mobile animal in Finances With Wolves, but didn't for some reason.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Early in The Magnificicent Steven, Steve expresses an irrational fear of moths. Sure enough, later in the episode, he has to face a swarm of moths as part of the story. (Lampshaded by him saying, "Why did it have to be moths?")
- Even better is Stan's bizarre, occasionally referenced aversion to seagulls. He even has nightmares about them ("Seagulls!? Francine - this time they could drive!")
- Wig Dress Accent: Roger makes extensive use of these and could arguably fit into Paper Thin Disguise territory from time to time. The show has even pointed it out by having him choose a disguise from an automatic rotating wardrobe full of outfits, and again in The One That Got Away when Roger changes into about a dozen of his characters in half a minute.
- A Wizard Did It: Roger has fooled Steve with these several times - once when Steve believed he was an actual Potter-esque wizard. Steve sometimes gets his revenge.
- A Worldwide Punomenon: They crop up semi-frequently, but Bullock pulls an epic one in Tearjerker.
- Xanatos Gambit: Parodied wonderfully in Failure Is Not a Factory-Installed Option when Stan drives his entire family into poverty just to save ten dollars a month on his car payment.
- Hayley: "I've....DONE things..."
- Yandere: Francine has shown these tendencies towards her son, not wanting any other woman to get closer to him
- Not to mention the rest of her family. Let's face it, she's not far away from snapping at any time.
- Year Inside Hour Outside: In The One That Got Away, Klaus is zapped into another dimension at one point. When he returns moments later, he claims to have been gone 60 years (and become the king of whatever place it was that he was visiting).
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