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Animated Series created by Seth MacFarlane about a Dysfunctional Family who...well, that's it really. It simply presents us with four completely standard characters — slow-witted blue-collar jerk Peter, who is basically an Al Bundy type except further retarded, crueler, and often more cheerful; smart and efficient (and constantly Closer to Earth) housewife Lois; teenage girl with self-esteem issues Meg; and good-hearted but moronic son Chris — and puts them through a series of adventures usually sparked by Peter's selfishness and/or idiocy. In stark contrast to these cookie-cutter characters are two additional ones, Brian the martini-sipping intellectual dog and Stewie the laser-toting megalomaniac baby.
Rambling and unstructured at all times, with episodes that, through Halfway Plot Switcheroos, have more plots than most television seasons, this show is only really concerned with throwing in as many gags per minute as possible. Liberally peppered with jokes stolen from the internet, pop-culture references (with an almost indecent interest in poking fun at small-time or has-been celebrities, and showing idealised personalities in unpleasant lights - e.g., Bing Crosby as a child abuser, Walt Disney as a pornographer, etc) and flashbacks, and a noted master of the Flashback Twist.
The show made history for American network television for being UnCancelled — twice. FOX announced the show's cancellation after its second season in 2002. The show was resurrected not long after, but ratings suffered as its time slot changed constantly and it competed against the ratings-behemoths of Survivor and Friends. After the third season, FOX called the show "cancelled for good". But in 2005, the show was resurrected yet again, due to popular request, impressive ratings for the reruns on Adult Swim, and unusually successful DVD-set sales. Family Guy is now one of the network's most successful franchises, promoted by the suits with the same fervor as 24, The Simpsons and American Idol.
As a final point, it's worth remembering Seth MacFarlane is not as heavily involved in the writing of more recent episodes as you might think. While he's still an executive producer, and thus can veto scripts, chances are he's not the one you should aim bile at when it comes to specific gags, aesops and messages in the plotlines.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Played for laughs, especially if it concerns Meg.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: This trope is done heavily. Peter getting plastic surgery, Meg getting a makeover, Joe getting new legs, and Chris becoming popular.
- Actor Allusion: After the Star Wars specials, Peter and Chris discuss the Robot Chicken Star Wars parodies; Peter dismisses Robot Chicken, while Chris defends it. Chris is voiced by Seth Green, creator of Robot Chicken.
- Adam Westing: The Cloudcuckoolander Adam West, Mayor of Quahog.
- Affectionate Parody: The Star Wars specials.
- Al Bundy: Peter, though many detractors of the show have compared Peter Griffin to Homer Simpson.
- All Jews Are Cheapskates
- All Just A Dream: Lampshaded, parodied hard, and combined with a massive/hilarious Take That at The Sopranos.
- Always Save The Girl: Often subverted with Meg.
- Arch Enemy: Peter Griffin and Ernie the Giant Chicken.
- Stewie has Bertram, his half-brother by Peter's donated sperm and a lesbian mother.
- Chris has the The Evil Monkey until recently.
- Aren't You Forgetting Someone?: In the episode when Peter coaches Joe. Joe keeps thanking people, but he never thanks Peter, and so pretty soon Peter is about to kill Joe over it.
- Art Shift: The 2009-10 season premiere had Brian and Stewie visiting various alternate universes, including one drawn in a Disney style, a Robot Chicken universe in Claymation, and another drawn in an extremely abstract style.
- Fans are already calling the Disney sequence to be one of the best in the show.
- Of course, there are other episodes that showcase different animation styles, such as Stewie dancing with Gene Kelly in place of Jerry the Mouse, and the whole family crudely animated to spoof The Simpsons' start on The Tracy Ullman Show.
- Don't forget the few moments Brian and Stewie are transported into the real world. I must admit, real baby Stewie was quite cute.
- Ass Shove: Peter's prostate exam, among other instances.
- At The Opera Tonight: Seen in "No Chris Left Behind".
- Auction
- Author Appeal: This show has a lot of Star Wars and 80's references.
- Seth MacFarlane loves 50's music and he's not afraid to to remind you of that whenever he gets the chance (Conway Twitty, Frank Sinatra Jr. and the New Rat Pack).
- In the Road to the Multiverse episode, there's a universe where earth became a hellhole (indirectly) because Frank Sinatra never existed.
- Can you tell he enjoys old movies and musicals? MacFarlane's a good Real Life example of "born in the wrong decade" and it shows in his work.
- He also seems to have a thing for showing or alluding to women on the toilet. This was even lampshaded in the DVD commentary.
- Also, Seth or somebody else on the staff really seems to like chubby girls.
- Author Avatar Brian. Stewie may also qualify in some cases as well.
- Peter was this in the beginning, as he mirrored some of the creator's interests in sci-fi films and series, like Star Wars and Star Trek.
- Authors Saving Throw: Though written and directed by different people, "Jerome Is The New Black" seems like an apology for the recent Mary Sue treatment of Brian.
- Be A Whore To Get Your Man: Parodied.
- Biggus Dickus: Chris.
- Big No
- Peter's reaction to being told his parrot has died.
- There's a Running Gag with this trope and Cleveland in the bathtub, which continued even after he got his own show.
- Bilingual Bonus: In one episode, the family hides out from the law in "Asian Town". Their apartment is above a Chinese restaurant that, judging from the sign, is actually Japanese-run...
- An earlier episode had two Cubans falling out of a crashing plane and speaking in Spanish with subtitles...in Korean.
- Bitch In Sheep's Clothing: Lois, originally the most compassionate and Closer To Earth member of the family, has gradually leaned into this trope. Was arguably more a case of Comedic Sociopathy humor in having a usually sweet character act callous in earlier cases (especially when Meg was involved) though as the show has progressed Lois seems to have evolved more into a genuine Jerkass.
- Bi The Way:
Peter: "We all know that no woman anywhere wants to have sex with anyone, and to titillate us with any thoughts otherwise is — is just bogus."
Lois: "Ah, he is so right on. Women are such teases. That's why I went back to men."
- Biting The Hand Humor: They do love their jabs at the FOX Network. Deservedly so, considering what happened to the original run. A much more subtle example in the way some of the writers treat Author Avatar Brian, though even MacFarlane himself seems to be getting in on the act now.
- It has now culminated with a cut-away gag where Seth basically says he prefers Adult Swim over Fox since A.S. doesn't censor truly tasteless and offensive jokes like Fox does.
- The Blank: Peter's "poker face" on "Screwed the Pooch".
- Boot Camp Episode: A continuation of the Brian/Stewie duo episode tradition features one in which both of them are placed in the army.
- The Brainless Beauty: Brian's ex-girlfriend Jillian and her friends.
- Breaking The Fourth Wall: In one episode, Peter is sexually attracted to Connie D'Amico, an underage high school girl. He keeps saying and doing increasingly disturbing things until he turns towards the camera and angrily shouts: "Oh shut up! It's a cartoon!"
- "The fourth wall! You're breakin' the fourth wall!"
- In the episode "Dial Meg for Murder", Peter uses the TV Guide to find out what will happen.
- They even manage to use those clips for the commercials for the episode. It works in both contexts.
- Breakout Character: Stewie.
- Breast Expansion: On the episode "I Dream of Jesus," Peter asks Jesus to give Lois huge breasts and in the next scene Lois' boobs grow to absolutely enormous size.
- Brick Joke: Frequently used. In "Dog Gone," Brian tells the father in Family Circus to "fuck your wife in the face." Later, Peter reads a very surprising issue of Family Circus.
- Broken Aesop: A lot, lets just leave it at that...
- Broken Bird: Meg.
- Brother Chuck: Joe and Cleveland's sons Kevin and Cleveland Jr. only appeared once post-3rd season.
- Kevin was later retconned out, claimed by Joe to have been killed in Iraq.
- And Cleveland, Jr. did come back (only now, he's fatter and is featured more on The Cleveland Show than he ever was on Family Guy).
- Jasper, Brian's gay cousin, vanished after Season 4 episode "You may kiss uh...the guy who receives". Same for Death, who made his last appearance in Season 5 finale "Meet the Quagmires".
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Quagmire, among his many methods to get women into bed.
- Butt Monkey: Meg (though she wasn't that much of a Butt Monkey in the early episodes; just a teenaged girl who wanted to be like the popular kids).
- It's getting less blatant in season 8.
- Brian is
starting to become one, too, with numerous failed relationships, a massively failed book, and getting called out by Quagmire.
- Lois was also a key Butt Monkey (and borderline Woobie at the start of the show's run, now however she probably gets away with the most abuse and Jerkass behaviour after Peter. The show seems to have a "Nice guys finish last" philosophy in its treatment of the cast.
- Peter and Stewie arguably go through as much torture and humiliation as the key Butt Monkeys in the series, it is merely balanced by them dishing out as much as they take.
- Calling The Old Man Out Chris got to pull this on Peter recently in "Hannah Banana".
Chris: [Monkey] even helped me with my geometry homework.
Peter: How did he know you were having trouble with geometry?
Chris: BECAUSE HE ASKED!
- Camp Gay: Brian's cousin Jasper, and sometimes Stewie; Peter when he became gay.
- Can't Get Away With Nuthin': Parodied. Some of Chris' friends convince him to drink some vodka and the principal bursts in as soon as he puts the bottle to his lips.
- Captain Morgan Pose: Peter strikes the pose three times in a campaign ad. First he's in a classroom, and he puts his foot on a desk. Then he's in a school hallway, and he puts his foot up on another desk. Then he's in the middle of a football field, and there just happens to be another desk for him to stick his foot on.
- Car Meets House: A drunken Stewie drives Brian's car into The Drunken Clam. Also, the Kool-aid Man gets his comeuppance when someone crashes into his living room for once.
- The Cast Showoff: Happens often. Mostly when a character voiced by MacFarlane sings — he has extensive vocal training and ability. Or when a character descends into Gratuitous German — MacFarlane is fluent and lived in Germany for a short time.
- Every german troper can tell he only lived there for a short time, as most of the german text on the show is not that good. "Unsere Unterseeboot sind stielen mit eine Baby, Hund und Art Garfunkel."
- Characterization Marches On: It is odd to watch the really early episodes where Meg was treated with respect and love by her family, like Peter trying his hardest to help her out at the school newspaper or Lois helping her to get revenge at Connie.
- Charlie And The Chocolate Parody: The first half of "Wasted Talent" and instead of candy it's beer.
- Complete with Oompa Loompa style midgets the "Chumba Wumba's" who sing a hilariously cruel song about the lack of wheelchair access.
- Chekhov's Gag: Spiderman saving people, the fire truck documentary from "Petarded," — Take your pick.
- Class Reunion: Peter's in "Patriot Games".
- Closer To Earth: Lois's relationship with Peter, usually.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Stewie practically owns this one, though some of the random comedic references do a bit too.
- Peter. Good lord, Peter. Actually, due to rampant Flanderization, pretty much everyone.
- Congruent Memory: Peter can only play the piano when he's drunk.
- Crapsack World: If you're a sane man in this show, don't expect to get any leeway.
- And if you're Meg, it's literally a Crapsack Multiverse.
- Creepy Child: Stewie.
- The Couch
- Crosses The Line Twice: There's a line?
- Crossover: A brief bit with American Dad (Seth's other animated show) in "Lois Kills Stewie". Though Seth has stated he toying with the idea to make a proper one.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Its own page.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: On "Jerome is the New Black," after Quagmire's tirade on why he hates Brian, the final scene of the episode shows Stewie offering Brian to sleep next to his crib. For all that Family Guy hurts recently, this one heals a lot.
- Stewie gets another, bigger one in "Dog Gone" when he makes the rest of the family think that Brian's dead so he'll see how much they appreciate him.
- In "Dial Meg for Murder," Brian stops Meg from robbing Neil Goldman's pharmacy by reading his kind Teen People article he wrote about her. This moment is then ruined by a lame joke, which in itself was a Take That at The Simpsons's tendency ruin heartwarming moments with dumb jokes.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome:
- In "Barely Legal," Brian defends Meg by going off on a rant about how Connie whored herself out at age 12 and looks down on girls like Meg to cover up the inevitable fact that Connie will be so used up and worn out by 19 that her stepdad will think she's unattractive.
- Almost as brutal as Peter's own revenge on Connie in "Peter's Daughter".
- When Peter pretends to be Jewish so he can avoid work on Saturday, he dresses up like a Hassidic Jew & makes anti-Semitic jokes at a Synagogue. A real Hassidic Jew quickly gives him a Groin Attack.
- When Stewie is about to drink from Peter's tobacco spit cup (in the episode "Airport 2007") Brian is about to warn him not to, but then has a flashback to an earlier episode when Stewie beat him and demanded money. Brian says, "never mind" and lets him drink it. Video.
- In the same episode, when Lois talks to him Peter actually acknowledges that he has been a jackass and tries to make amends. Another sign that the writing staff is getting their stuff together.
- In "Dial Meg for Murder", after some time in jail, Meg comes out a hardened psychopath that intimidates and envokes violent retribution on her abusive family and classmates.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Stewie vs Brian in "Patriot Games."
- The Danza: Mayor Adam West.
- Daydream Surprise: In parody of Scrubs's use of the trope.
- Dead Baby Comedy: Always happened throughout the show, though more common in newer episodes, especially in "Episode 420" where it showed a depressing, more realistic ending to the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler film "Baby Mama".
- Deadline News: Asian Reporter Tricia Takinawa reporting on a hurricane.
- Deadpan Snarker: Death, Brian, Stewie, and occasionally Peter.
- Quagmire has been becoming this more recently so has Chris. Lois slips into this on occasion. And after Taking center stage Cleveland has become somewhat snarkier.
- Deep South: At least one full episode devoted to this trope. Seth MacFarlane is reportedly not a fan of the South.
- Two, actually: season 3's "To Love and Die in Dixie" (where The Griffins are sent to Bumblescum, Alabama as part of Witness Protection) and season 5's "Boys Do Cry" (where The Griffins flee to Texas to escape religious nuts who think Stewie is possessed).
- Delicious Distraction
- Dethroning Moment Of Suck: It has its own section now.
- Depraved Bisexual: Meg, She is seen to have a crush on Connie. This is apparent when she tounge kisses her unconcoius body in "Dial Meg for Murder"
- Diabolical Mastermind: Stewie.
- Did Not Do The Research: One cut-away notes a "Half-elf mage" with a "+5 holy avenger". In 3.5 (the current edition at the time, and previous editions only allowed humans to be Paladins) a holy avenger is a +2 weapon when wielded by a non-paladin (+5 holy to a Paladin). Further, none of the special abilities function for a non-paladin and a mage should not be wielding a sword.
- Unless they were able to convinced the DM to allow it for some reason.
- Seconded. The rule books themselves advise the DM to ignore the rules for the betterment of the play experience. Hell, a DM could make up a whole module about the introduction of "Half-elf Mage Sword-Wielding Paladins." Also, why can't the Half-elf Mage just be carrying around the weapon looking for a good home to donate it to? Not to mention the whole POV that maybe the writers thought it is even funnier when you know they can't do those things and crafted the joke as a bit of a easter-egg for D&D fans.
- You CAN multiclass as a Wizard/Paladin in 3.5!
- The "Dial Meg for Murder" episode had Brian writing an article for Teen People. That magazine hasn't been published since at least 2005. And this is an episode from 2010.
- Directionless Driver: From the episode "The Son Also Draws":
Lois: "Peter, we're lost. Would you please ask for directions?"
Peter: "We are not lost. And even if we were I can't ask a human being for directions."
Lois: "Why not?"
Peter: "Because I'm a man. Haven't you ever seen a stand-up comedian, Lois?"
- Dis Continuity: "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven"? Never heard of it!
- The phrase itself was used for nothing more than a basic cutaway joke in "Dial Meg For Murder"
- Distracted By The Luxury: A DeBears ad parody.
- Dork Horse Candidate: Peter runs against Lois for a seat on the school board.
- Duck Season Rabbit Season: In "Padre de Familia".
- Dude Not Funny: Even if you do like the show, chances are pretty good that some joke or other caused you to say this. For most people, it was the gag about Stewie bombing the Town of Happy. Even McFarlane himself admitted that one wasn't funny.
Amnesiac Peter: And if sex with the rest of you is half as good as it is with her, we'll all get along just fine.
Lois: No, Peter, you're not supposed to have sex with the kids.
Meg: I wish you'd told him that before he lost his memory!
(everyone gasps)
Meg: It was a joke!
(everyone else yells at her, then Chris kicks her out)
- Dumbass DJ: "Dingo and the Baby", who were much less dumbass & annoying than "Weenie and the Butt."
- Dysfunctional Family: And how.
- Ear Worm: Parodied and played for laughs on the "I Dream Of Jesus" episode with the Trashmen's "Surfing Bird". Peter's obsession for the song quickly degenerates into a nightmare for the rest of the family, with Stewie and Brian eventually stealing and destroying the record.
- Egopolis: Petoria — originally, "Peterland" but it was also the name of a gay bar near the airport, according to Peter.
- Emo Teen: Meg, who claims that her boyfriend is Prince Harry before laughing maniacally and breaking down sobbing, engages in necrophilia (even when the body is ripped apart by wild animals), cuts herself (which Meg admitted to on the episode where Lois gains weight after Peter gets a vasectomy), and ties up her dog so she can rape him.
- Enfant Terrible: Stewie.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Glenn Quagmire.
- Meg's fanbase grew quite a few in the past two years.
- Equivalent Exchange
- Even Evil Has Standards: There was a somewhat debatable example, when Quagmire clearly had a chance to take advantage of Meg, and didn't. Debatable because he's not evil, just a pervert.
- In "Chick Cancer", Stewie is shocked by Brian's thoughtless racism:
Stewie: I mean, what kind of man would I be if I ran off now?
Brian: Well, you would be a black man.
Stewie: Whoa, whoa, whoa, what was that?
Brian: Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. That was my father talking.
Stewie: You, uh, gotta work on that man. Bad dog.
- Everything's Better With Chickens: Self-explanatory.
- Expy: Peter and Brian are expies of characters from Seth MacFarlane's old prototype "Larry and Steve".
- Eye Open: The giant chicken, once beaten.
- Failed Attempt At Drama: Brian, thanks to the many, many locks on Pearl's door.
- Fake Brit: Stewie.
- Fan Disservice: Are so many shots of Peter and Chris naked really necessary?
- Fan Vid: Parodied. In one episode, Stewie makes a video with the Bryan Adams song (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. It's full of random effects and Shout Outs to various famous works of art. Of course, when Brian (the dog, not the singer) points out that he doesn't get the storyline of the video, Stewie promptly tells him to "Shut up!"
- Fashion Show: A cutaway gag.
- Fetish: Quagmire is loaded with them.
- Fetus Terrible: Stewie was quite the bastard even before he was born. Ditto for his half-brother Bertram.
- Five Token Band: Peter's circle of friends. Arguably down to four tokens now that Cleveland's moved away.
- It looks like Jerome will fill the vacant spot though.
- Flanderization: A lot of it since the revival, particularly Brian's politics, Lois's sex drive, Meg being the show's punching bag [though Brian is slowly becoming this thanks to the episodes "Jerome is the New Black" and "Dog Gone"], and Stewie's
gay undertones being gay instead of being an evil baby bent on killing his mom and ruling the world. Abut this, Seth MacFarlane said that doing the take over the world thing every week was "getting played out".
- Joe. At one point he was a decent cop, and a great athlete, who just happened to be in a wheelchair. Now, being in a wheelchair just seems to be his thing, and he does not really appear to do as much or any police work anymore.
- Cleveland too. Nothing more than just the black guy who has a few lines. Severe downgrade from former best friend status. Though it doesn't really matter, considering that Cleveland left Quahog and got his own spin-off.
- Peter and Lois too. Peter used to just be a moron who tried to do what's best for his family in spite of his shortcomings but is now just the idiot Jerk Ass. Lois has gone from loving, sensible, and slightly sex crazed mother to nymphomaniac who really doesn't give a damn about her family. Well actually, she might care about her family but she explicitly hates Meg, she's never seen anywhere near Chris, and Stewie is off on his own almost all the time so it's up to you to decide.
- She baited Chris to Freshman-hunting high schoolers and used brutal shock therapy on him, while she once joined Peter in mocking and spiting on Stewie's drawing (as the latter watched in tears), she also seems to have gained a somewhat belittling treatment towards Brian, be it his love life, his dog-like foibles or other strange lifestyle choices. Let's not go through the multiple beatings and rapes she has dished to Peter throughout the show's run. Lois is basically a female version of Peter as of now (made worse in that she gets away with it a lot more than the other Jerkasses in the show).
- Chris has been the least Flanderized, but his role in the series is gradually shrinking.
- Actually, it seems that Chris has gained an unexplainable baseline of intelligence, specifically in reference to movies, actors, and the like. Also something of a Deadpan Snarker.
- Flashback Twist: Makes up a lot of the show's humor.
- Subverted once in the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air" — we never see the result of giving a monkey the keys to an amusement park.
- Also in the episode where Stewie and Brian join the army and Stewie makes a reference to one of Peter's antics and sets up for a cutaway that never manifests. He simply says "What? No clip?" and the scene continues.
- And again in the Spies Like Us parody where he (Along with Brain, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd) get beaten up by a mind-conditioned Adam West. Stewie tries to mutter a line that'll trigger a cutaway but it come out unintelligible. We then cut to said cutaway where Stewie standing in a blank space and admitting the joke didn't come out right.
- Flat Earth Atheist: Brian a professed atheist despite the fact that God and Jesus are frequently seen in Quahog and he's actually met both of them on several occasions.
- Floating Timeline: Played straight, subverted, and lampshaded. Played straight: Show's been on for 7+ seasons, but the children are still in school; Stewie is still a baby. Subverted: Chris goes to high school. Lampshaded: Peter bemoans Bonnie's pregnancy: Peter: "You've been pregnant for like 5 years. Either have the baby or don't." Then she does. At which point Quagmire comments: "I can't believe she's already 18."
- Free Range Children: Stewie generally wanders about the world with little concern from Lois and Peter. Hell, in one episode he even joined the army. The only concern we see is from Lois is for Chris, who is more of age (although competence could be argued).
- Full House Music: Parodied.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: "at least Family Guy doesn't get all preachy and up its own ass with messages..."
- Funny Animal: Brian, who also acts as a living Deconstruction on occasion.
- Cleveland and Quagmire in the Disney universe.
- Fur And Loathing: When Lois wanted a fur coat, she sold out her environmental views, rather than just saving up.
- Furry Confusion: Anthropomorphic dogs like Brian and Jasper are shown alongside regular, non-anthroporphic ones such as Brian's mother, Biscuit and the Pewterschmidts' dog, Seabreeze.
- Future Loser: Stewie, and to a lesser extent Chris and Meg, in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story".
- They might be saved from that sad future at the end of the same episode, anyway.
- Game Show Appearance: Mayor Adam West on Jeopardy; Peter Griffin on Wheel of Fortune, The Dating Game, Survivor, and something called Bobcat or Bjork; Peter also hosted Family Feud and disrupted a taping of The Price Is Right.
- Gannon Banned: "Brian Goes Back to College" reveals that the proper spelling of Quagmire's first name is Glenn, not Glen. "Glen" is so rampant among the Fan Dumb that Wikipedia even had it listed as "Glen" until that Episode.
- Some people think the show is called The Family Guy.
- Giftedly Bad: Brian is this when it comes to being a writer.
- Gilligan Cut: Had them in the earlier episodes, not so much now.
- Good Angel Bad Angel: Parodied on the first episode "Death Has a Shadow" where the Devil appears on Peter's shoulder and convinces him to go out drinking, but the angel who tells him not to do it never comes because he's stuck in traffic, and again in "A Hero Sits Next Door" where the Angel shoots the Devil, then holds Peter at gunpoint and forces him to go over and comfort Joe.
- Good People Have Good Sex: Peter and Lois still get it on at regular intervals. However, they're into BDSM and bizarre roleplaying.
- The Grim Reaper: Death is a recurring character.
- Gorn: Frequently used, but it gets so bad in "Dog Gone" that Peter breaks the Fourth Wall at the end of the Episode to tell us that No Animals Were Harmed, even though it's an Animated Series. Watch it to see why he needed to do that.
- Growing The Beard: Season 8, especially when compared with Season 7.
- For example, "Dog Gone" which shows that the show can indeed have emotional depth, and "Quagmire's Baby" showing that, while the show can bring in a few Crowning Moments of Heartwarming, the show still has its tasteless magic.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Massively.
- Happy Dance: When Peter finds out his father has died, Lois and Brian calmly walk outside and break into a quick victory dance [which stops when Brian grabs Lois's boob and Lois smacks Brian into the trash] before coming back inside to console him.
- Heroes Want Redheads: Peter married to Lois.
- Heroic Sociopath: Stewie starts out as this.
- Hero Insurance: Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken's fights cause rampant property damage through Quahog and the surrounding area, but never have to compensate anyone for it.
- Hollywood Homely / Hollywood Pudgy: Meg, who to the viewers doesn't look much different from Lois, but to other characters looks unspeakably ugly.
- One episode has the family in a boat race and they need to lighten the load to go faster. Despite Peter and Chris appearing clearly heavier, when they throw Meg overboard the boat suddenly starts going a lot faster.
- Ho Yay: Has its own page.
- Identical Grandson: Peter's many "ancestors".
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Played with, then dropped. The original idea was to name every episode with an ominous title, having to do with death or murder — many of them named after radio programs of the 30's and 40's. This was dropped eventually when the writers realized it was difficult to identify episodes without resorting to the Friends convention of "you know, the one where..."
- If I Were A Rich Man: One of the few shows where this tends to be acted on. Repeatedly.
- I Love Nuclear Power
- Indestructible Edible: Twinkies will survive After The End (or so everyone hopes that second).
- Informed Attribute: Stewie's homosexuality seems to be there just to provide gay jokes.
- Informed Attractiveness: Lois is considered to be one of the hottest women on earth. Although she's indeed attractive, there are other female characters hotter than her.
- Informed Flaw: Played straight with Meg's supposed ugliness, the writers acknowledge that she isn't as ugly as many characters point out, but tend to exaggerate this for laughs.
- Internet Backdraft: Family Guy is a very polarizing series and it tends to invoke this trope most of the time it's mentioned.
- Interspecies Romance: Brian had many human girlfriends, and it's implied that he had sex with almost all of them. The most prominent examples are Jillian (his only girlfriend for more than one chapter) and Lois (Brian's love for Lois is a recurring gag, and they were married for over a year in the episode "The Perfect Castaway").
- Iron Buttmonkey: The entire family. Ironically, Meg, the series' regular Buttmonkey, gets the least physical abuse.
- I Want My Jet Pack
- I Was Quite A Fashion Victim: Many characters, but Death really can't believe he wore a tie-dyed cloak and had an Afro in The Seventies.
- I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Stewie is aware that the perks of marriage is this wonderful, pleasurable thing called sex, it's just that he thinks that sex is some sort of cake.
- Imagine Spot
- In The Blood: Stewie gets has his maternal grandfather's limitless cruelty & his father's complete lack of common sense. The perfect recipe for a Diabolical Mastermind.
- Jaw Drop: shown with Meg, Lois, and Chris after he got raped by a "breedin' bull" at a rodeo.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Peter started out as this but went straight into Jerk Ass territory due to Flanderization. Recently, it looks like Quagmrie is stepping up to fit this trope.
- Kangaroo Pouch Ride: Peter climbs into the pouch of a kangaroo, but the poor kangaroo can barely move.
- Karma Houdini: Ironically, in "Barely Legal," the one time Meg deserved punishment she didn't get it.
- Peter and Stewie get away with rather callous and sometimes outright murderous acts at times. Lois seems to be shifting towards this region too.
- Kavorka Man: Quagmire, and occasionally Peter.
- Killed Off For Real: Francis Griffin and Mr. Weed.
- Knock Knock Joke
- Lampshade Hanging: In "Dog Gone," Peter and Lois get into a pronunciation argument, just like Brian and Stewie often do. Stewie asks "Are we really doing this?"
- Lead In: Almost every episode.
- The Libby: Connie.
- Living Motion Detector: Parodied in an episode where Peter and Lois encounter a prostitute like this.
- The Long List: most famously, after the series is brought back, Peter recites a long list of Fox programs that bombed while Family Guy was off the air, such as Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80's Show, Wonder Falls, Fast Lane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girl's Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunman, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddy, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, and Greg the Bunny (which is funny when you realize that Chris Griffin's voice actor (Seth Green) was on Greg the Bunny).
- Also on "Episode 420," Peter gets so high that, instead of setting up one of his flashback moments, he shows the viewers a list of celebrities he hates, including Stephen Dorff, Justin Timberlake, Dane Cook, Chris O'Donnell, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kathy Griffin, Andy Samberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Andrew McCarthy, Rita Coolidge, David Arquette, Carlos Mencia, Amy Winehouse, every rapper, Ethan Hawke, Dax Sheppard, Toby Keith, Joe Francis, Princess Diana, Chris Martin, Chris Martin again, Chris Martin's parents, Eve Plumb, Bonnie Franklin, Kate Bekinsale, Freddie Prinze Jr., Suri Cruise, The forehead guy from The Office, Garry Marshal, Paul Tsongas, and Chris Martin's ancestors.
- In "Ocean's Three and a Half" Brian recites a list of songs named after a girl, when Stewie dares him to do so
- Made Of Iron: During their fights, Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken suffer horrific injuries that should by all rights kill them, but Peter is never more than just breathless after the battle ends.
- The Makeover: Meg.
- Malignant Tumor: Stewie, in that episode where he was an octopus.
- Man Of A Thousand Voices: Seth MacFarlane, and to a lesser extent Mike Henry.
- Manatee Gag
- Mass Hypnosis: Stewie tries to do this on Kids Say The Darndest Things, but gets hypnotized himself.
- Medium Blending
- Me Love You Long Time: Lampshaded when Trisha Takanawa, upon meeting David Bowie, blurts out "Me love to meet Ziggy Stardust! I take you home! I make you fish ball soup!"
- An earlier episode (the one where Joe is introduced) had Peter saying, "Me love you long time" to a prospective Asian softball player (as that's the only thing "Asian" Peter knows how to say).
- Memetic Mutation: Mostly spawned by those mocking the show, most famously South Park and its supposition that the show is written by manatees with words scrawled on balls; the idea caught on enough that the Family Guy writers, in DVD commentaries, refer to weak jokes with comments such as "The manatees were kinda off that day".
- Midlife Crisis Car: Peter gets one in "And the Wiener Is..."
- Mondegreen: "...all the things that make us
effin' cry laugh and cry!"
- Moral Event Horizon: Peter's constant mistreatment of Meg and recurring inconsideration for others is making him slide closer and closer to crossing the MEH. Stewie murdering others might also count. And Brian, Lois, Chris and even Meg on occasions have had moments in which they commit some less then heroic actions
- Again, after "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" nigh everyone thought that Brian crossed the line. Makes sense seeing as how hating people purely based on their religion is generally frowned upon.
- Most Common Superpower: Mrs. Lockhart. Just take a look at her.◊
- The Multiverse: The season 8 premiere, aptly titled "Road to the Multiverse".
- Never Live It Down: "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" according to this wiki.
- Never Trust A Trailer: Done a lot recently, especially with episodes featuring an A-Plot with Meg or Chris and a B-Plot with Brian and Stewie. The promotional image for "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" was Stewie with the ST:TNG cast, as well as the summary. six minutes onto the episode, Peter announces that it's going to be a Meg Episode (although in the end it was more about Brian). The Star Trek cast got like one or two lines each. Another similar example is Stew-roids. All the promotional images and summary were about Stewie muscling up, and implied that the story involving Chris, Meg and Connie was a minor subplot.
- Nice Character Mean Actor: Mother Maggie.
- Nightmare Fuel: Some of the Dead Baby Comedy can do this. The final fate of Stewie and Brian's clones pretty much is a visual example of it, exponentially.
- Nightmare Retardant: Said clones melting, then Brian eating their remains.
- Nixon Mask
- No Accounting For Taste: Peter and Lois, which is quite frequently lampshaded in the show.
- No Indoor Voice: Blac-u Weather Reporter Ollie Williams.
- Not Quite Dead: Meg, Ernie the Giant Chicken, Connie D'Amico, and the Monkey have all been killed onscreen and somehow survived it.
- Not So Imaginary Friend: The Evil Monkey in Chris' bedroom closet.
- Except now he lives in Jake Tucker's bedroom.
- Obnoxious In Laws: Peter's stepdad.
- Oh Kitty
- Officer O'Hara: Subverted: the Irish cop on the police force is actually a guy who's good with impressions.
- Older Than They Look: One one-off joke shows Quagmire is actually in his 60's, despite looking younger than that.
- Old Shame: "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", an episode so awful that it was basically apologized for in "Jerome is the New Black".
- Overly Long Gag: A self-admitted favourite of series creator Seth MacFarlane. Opinion is constantly divided over whether such gags make the show better or worse.
- Out Of Focus: Since the show returned, Lois, Meg and Chris only get one (sometimes two) episodes per season focused on them, while the rest of the season being focused on Brian and Stewie, and to a lesser extent Peter.
- Pale Skinned Brunette
- Paranoia Gambit: Done successfully by Brian in "Patriot's Game" when Stewie, as payback for the brutal beating he gave Brian over the money that Brian owed him, offers Brian a free revenge shot. Brian agrees on the terms that he can use it at any time and that Stewie won't know when he will be hit. Brian does not use it, and Stewie goes crazy to the point of harming himself to even the deal. At the end of the episode, Brian evens it out by pushing Stewie in front of a moving bus. Also doubles as a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for Brian.
- Parody Sue / Purity Sue: In the episode "The Man With Two Brians", Peter buys a new dog under the name of New Brian after Lois says that Brian is getting old. New Brian is polite, perfect, multi-talented and instantly befriends everyone (sans Stewie, who sees hm as a Replacement Scrappy), who rightly realizes that he's Brian's "replacement". New Brian goes on to improve everyone's lives and supplant Brian completely. However makes his fatal mistake when he... gets a little intimate with Rupbert the teddy bear.
- Plot Relevant Age Up: Cleveland Jr was quickly aged to his mid-teens for the Cleveland Show.
- Police Lineup
- Poor Man's Porn: When Stewie finally succeeds in derailing Peter and Lois' plans to conceive a fourth child (about twenty seconds after he stops trying), Peter takes a lingerie catalogue into the bathroom.
- Power Trio: Brian, Stewie, and Peter have stolen the screentime in more recent episodes. There used to be a 4 man group amongst Peter and his friends. However, with Cleaveland's departure from the show, we are left with the power trio of Peter, Quagmire, and Joe.
- Protection From Editors: Arguably the reason "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" wasn't rejected outright.
- Rape As Comedy: "Prick Up Your Ears," where Lois pounces on Peter after Peter declares that he's abstinent.
- Lois also rapes Peter in the episode where she's taking martial arts classes, with him reacting as such and whimpering "Last night...Lois, was, THE MAN!"
- Also the theme of numerous cutaway gags. Really, this is one of the writers' favorites.
- Rapid Fire Comedy
- Really Gets Around: Quagmire, Brian, Lois before she married Peter.
- Recycled Script: The Life of Larry pilot (first one) had many gags that would later be used in Family Guy.
- Red Shirt: Spoofed with "Ensign Ricky".
- Refuge In Audacity
- Refuge In Vulgarity: So much of the humor.
- Replacement Scrappy: In Universe, New Brian is this to Stewie.
- Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Recent episodes have been trying to show to us that Brian isn't this perfect Author Avatar that everyone agrees with, but is actually the most flawed character on this show and not as smart or important as he believes. This has won back a LOT of Family Guy fans who hated Brian.
- Retroactive Wish: "Imagine Lindsay Lohan naked and doing a backwards crab walk".
- Rich In Dollars Poor In Sense: Carter Pewterschmidt.
- Road Sign Reversal: Peter does this in "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" in order to get the circus parade to come to Stewie's birthday party.
- Subverted. He looks as though he's going to do this, then he uses the sign to knock out the parade leader and take his place.
- Room Full Of Crazy: Patrick, Lois's traumatized brother, came to live with the Griffins. His room is decorated with photos of himself strangling fat people.
- Rule Of Funny
- Running Gag
- Ollie, with the Blac-u-weather forecast. Originally a one-off (e.g. the Weather Mime), but used more and more since then.
- Play me off, Johnny!
- Cleveland: "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO~~" *bathtub breaks*
- Peter's once-per-season Giant Chicken Fistfights.
- Sadist Show: Cheerful bullying of mentally ill, disabled, or terminally ill constitutes an awful amount of the jokes in the series. If someone is in intense pain to the point of suicidal it will almost invariably be mocked and worsened to the extreme.
- Sammy's Glass Eye: "This whole situation has just turned his life upside-down face."
- Sassy Black Woman: Cleveland's ex-wife.
- Scapegoat Creator: As can be seen on this very page, Seth MacFarlane is often blamed for just about everything wrong with the episodes recently. With a few exceptions, he really hasn't written written or directed an episode in a long time.
- In particular, the most reviled episode: "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven". Seth MacFarlane neither wrote nor directed that episode. It was written by Danny Smith and directed by Greg Colton and Young Baek.
- Well, neither did the Fox executives, and nobody is criticizing them.
- Scratch Damage: This is all Meg is capable of in "Viewer Mail."
- Seasonal Rot: Though some people will say that Family Guy should have stayed cancelled since the first couple episodes after its permanent return in season four weren't as good as the pre-cancellation episodes, there is a general consensus that seasons six and seven have some of the worst episodes in the show's history, partially due to the Writers' Guild strike that happened between 2007 and 2008 (Seth MacFarlane refused to work on them because he wanted to support the striking writers), and partially due to the Family Guy writers either coming up with crummy episode premises or executing them in ways that leave some fans wondering why they even bother watching the show in the first place. Season eight doesn't seem to be that bad, but that's for the fans to decide.
- Self Deprecation: A recent episode of centered around Brian's attempts to befriend Quagmire. When he asks why he dislikes him so much, Quagmire goes off on an incredible tangent, obviously voicing the reaction some fans had toward Brian's Author Avatar status, including his religious and political biases.
- Combining this with when Quagmire thought he was getting the spinoff and when he was trying to make an improv show, it seems that Seth MacFarlane is using Quagmire as a Self Deprecation avatar as much as he uses Brian as an Author Avatar.
- Self Serving Memory: When Peter recalls his prostate exam, it is incredibly sinister, and totally wrong.
- Shoot The Dog: Literally done by the Board of Directors of the El Dorado Cigarette Company in the episode "Mr. Griffin Goes To Washington".
- Shota Con: Herbert is a pedophile/ephebophile who lusts after little boys and male teenagers, especially Chris.
- Shout Out: Aside from all the pop culture Shout Outs, there are several made specifically for viewers who live in Rhode Island, although these have gotten rarer since the show was UnCancelled.
- So Bad It's Good: In Universe, any movie, play, or book that Peter produces.
- So Bad It's Horrible: In Universe, Brian's novel, "Faster Than the speed of Love." In one episode, his book wins an award by a special organization. Emphasis on special, much to Brian's dismay.
- Sorry I Left The BGM On
- Spin Off: The Cleveland Show.
- Spotlight Stealing Squad: Family Guy may as well just be "The Brian and Stewie Show" in its more recent seasons.
- Status Quo Is God: A few minor changes have stuck, such as Cleveland moving away (to get his own show) and Brian's relationship status. But for the most part, this is strictly enforced.
- Spoofed on one episode, where things are set back to normal by recreating the infamous all just a dream ending from Dallas, complete with the original actors.
- Another ep has Chris being chased by poachers in Africa. It's never resolved, but during the end credits Stewie says to Brain that "the Chris thing was just a gag, he'll be back next week like always."
- Straight Man: Brian originally existed simply as a foil to Peter's antics.
- Suck E Cheeses: Cheesie Charlie's in "Chitty Chitty Death Bang".
- Talking To Himself: Seth MacFarlane voices Peter, Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, Carter, Tom Tucker, and Dr Hartman. This trope is pulled off in every episode.
- Lampshaded in one episode where Dr. Hartman and Carter are put in a conversation together, and notice that they have the same voice. One of them quips that "there are just so many voices in the world."
- Teach Him Anger
- The Chew Toy: Meg. Brian when it comes to his inhability to hold a relationship.
- The Reason You Suck Speech: Quagmire delivers one of these to Brian, of all people.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In one episode, Peter leaves a tape that tries to hold a conversation with Lois to convince her he's actually there. In a subversion, she figures it out when he starts to drift off topic. Double subversion when she calls the tape out on it, and it admits it and asks her to flip to side two.
- They Plotted A Perfectly Good Waste: If you don't take the anvilicious animal-friendly message from "Dog Gone" at face value, you see a whole other anvil.
- Title Drop: Spoofed in one episode where Peter is shown being amused by various title drops in films ("The only way I can stop this crisis is by being Superman IV: The Quest For Peace!") Then later, a walk-on character says "I'm a family guy!" and Peter is thrilled.
- This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!
- Token Minority: Two in the main cast, Cleveland and Joe; Lampshaded by Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa and "Black-u-weather forecaster" Ollie Williams.
- As well as "Hispanic Reporter Maria Hee-Ji-Jiminez?"
- Took A Level In Jerkass: Peter, of course.
- Lois may be an even more prominant example, if only because she wasn't a Jerkass to begin with.
- Train Job: Subverted. Peter and his father-in-law, Carter, try to do this, but the ticket taker tells them that no one rides the trains as much as they used to.
- Trash Of The Titans: When Lois went to jail for stealing, the house became a wreck.
- TV Never Lies
- UnCanceled: Twice.
- Uncle Herbie
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Peter of course.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Inverted. How the beautiful Lois could give birth to a hideous abomination like Meg defies all rational explanation.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Meg has much more fans than many people think. The most prominent example is Fanfiction.net. Just dare to say anything bad about Meg there.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Mrs. Lockhart.
- Video Wills: Mr. Weed's.
- Peter's father-in-law Carter keeps quite a few of these, for any situation that might come up.
- Weird Al Effect
- The Wesley: Herbert. There are also some people who started to dislike Brian.
- We Want Our Jerk Back: Peter in "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater", among others.
- Whos Laughing Now: "Dial Meg For Murder" has Meg Take A Level In Badass and deliver a rather violent retribution on her abusive family and classmates.
- "Stewie Kills Lois/Lois Kills Stewie" may also count, at least in Stewie's perspective even if it was all a simulation.
- Whole Plot Reference: Back to the Future, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Poltergeist, Star Wars: A New Hope)
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs: Peter after his boss died, though as of "Jungle Love," Peter is now employed at the Pawtucket Brewery. I'm not counting the myriad of odd jobs that Peter had (like Christina Aguilera's image consultant, a basement rat farmer, Lara Flynn Boyle's means of retaining warmth while sleeping, erotic writer, etc.) as seen through the Imagine Spots, flashbacks, Aborted Arcs, and Big Lipped Alligator Moments because they're just put there for laughs.
- The Woobie: Some people feel sorry for Meg because of her extreme Butt Monkey status.
- Arguably Lois and Brian began as such due to being Closer To Earth characters that put up with the rest of the family's obnoxious antics, whether they've retained the role today however is debateable (though the fact they are partially responsible for some of the above Woobie's abuse kinda skews it a bit).
- Well Done Son Guy: Chris in earlier episodes.
- Word Of Gay: In a playboy interview Seth Macfarlane says that Stewie will ultimately be "gay or a very unhappy repressed heterosexual" Make of it what you will.
- Stewie himself tipped the audience off after learning exactly what the term "gay" meant, saying he could "totally get into that."
- This was the same episode where he believed sex to be a kind of cake, remember? He was pretty much describing Heterosexual Life Partners in that scene.
- "Well, it sounds like in that situation, I'd rather be the parking space than the car."
- Earlier episodes showed him flirting with women (adult and his own age) and hinted at rich people orgies, though.
- Writer On Board
- Yandere: Meg in the fifth season episode "Barely Legal".
- Meg in general for the last couple of seasons, really.
- You Monster: Said to Peter after he tricks Dr. Hartman into giving him a flu shot that was in short supply and needed for the elderly. He responds with a reference to "Frampton Comes Alive."
- You Will Be Spared: Sort of. Stewie tells Peter that his death will be quick and painless when he changes the channel after Stewie got distracted by The Teletubbies.
- Flappy the pancake man. "Flappy, good news! I've decided not to kill you!"
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