Published by Mason Oldridge, 26 March 2024
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
“Nope, sorry, Kevin Bacon wasn’t in Footloose”. Set in the fictional New England town of Quahog, Rhode Island, the adult animated comedy from the twisted mind of Seth MacFarlane has spent much of its 25 year run creating laughs from its cutaways, from stubborn as a mule to Cookie Monster in rehab, though we may need to take a deeper look at the madcap characters of the show to further understand how Family Guy has been splitting sides for so long.
The centrepiece of the show is Peter Griffin, an overweight and lazy blue-collared worker and family man. Despite being a ‘family guy’, Peter often engages in dangerous acts and stunts or goofs around for his own entertainment, such as his purchase of a brain-damaged horse. These often come at the expense of his long-suffering wife Lois, who is often left to clean up after his outrageous antics. We learn in Petarded that the husband and father-of-three actually has learning difficulties following a games night in which Peter plays with cards from the children's edition of Trivial Pursuit, a scene which birthed the infamous National Geographic special on firetrucks cutaway, as he struggles to identify the colour of “those red firetrucks”. Peter originally works at a toy company on the assembly line but, following an incident in which his boss chokes to death while round at the Griffins for dinner, he then tries his hand at being a knight and works briefly as a fisherman before his long-running job at the Brewery. After all, Peter is a heavy drinker with Irish heritage and loves spending his free time with his pals at local watering hole The Drunken Clam. This was explored in Wasted Talent when he visits a beer factory in a hilarious Willy Wonka parody and discovers he can play piano when intoxicated, much to the joy of Lois, who is a part-time piano teacher. When not teaching piano, Lois is a housewife and tends to keep Peter grounded. However, in Lois Comes Out of Her Shell, we learn she has a wilder side, similar to how she becomes addicted to shoplifting and realises her childhood dream of becoming a model in Model Misbehavior.
Peter and Lois have three children together, who are often viewed as disappointments. Teenage son Chris is an unintelligible slob whose only hobby appears to be masturbation, whereas eldest daughter Meg is often the butt of many jokes. Bullied at school for being unpopular and ugly, she frequently feels the brunt of the family’s negativity at home too. Peter’s mistreatment of his daughter is often seen through his catchphrase towards her: “shut up Meg!” and his repeated farting on her. Somewhat of an abusive relationship, this still provides funny albeit dark moments such as Peter hitting Meg with a bat as a delayed reaction to intruders breaking in to the house in Untitled Griffin Family History and when Peter chastises Meg for vomiting in the kitchen after farting on her in The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Meanwhile, baby Stewie is an evil genius with plans to kill his mother and take over the world, while he also inhabits bisexual tendencies. He befriends Brian, the atheist liberal pothead anthropomorphic pet dog, who is an aspiring yet unsuccessful writer. Brian argues his religious beliefs in Not All Dogs Go To Heaven, expresses his political beliefs in Excellence in Broadcasting, attempts to legalise pot in 420 and sells out writing a self-help book in Brian Writes a Bestseller. The unusual friendship between these two was first explored in road trip episode Road to Rhode Island and found to be a working formula. Stewie owns and operates a time machine, allowing several time travelling episodes starring the twosome, and have travelled to the likes of Nazi Germany in Road to Germany, the setting sail of the Titanic in Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure and outside of the space time continuum in The Big Bang Theory.
However, it may be the eccentricity of the characters outside of the Griffin household that give further credit to the show, starting with Peter’s neighbouring pals. Hypersexual pilot Quagmire lives a sexually-liberating bachelor life, matched with his catchphrase “giggity”. The main source of sex jokes in the show, Quagmire never fails to deliver the laughs, particularly when a hoard of Asian women run out of his garage to which he reveals they are tagged in Airport ‘07, when he gains large muscles from masturbating after discovering internet porn in Family Goy and when he steals the body of his murdered date in And Then There Were Fewer. The neighbour on the other side of the Griffins is wheelchair-bound police officer Joe, who often provides comedy with his frequent angry outbursts, such as when the guys tease him for not finishing his steak in The Fat Guy Strangler and when Bonnie asks him to get all the tyre tracks out of the carpet when vacuuming in Cool Hand Peter. Across the road from the Griffins is softly-spoken African American Cleveland Brown. Cleveland is generally easy-going and mild-mannered, so much so that he even reacted passively and blamed himself when his first wife Loretta cheated on him with Quagmire in The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire. He later leaves town with his son to reunite with his childhood sweetheart and later second wife Donna and her kids as the blended family become the premise of spin-off The Cleveland Show. Cancelled after four seasons, the new extended Brown family move back to Quahog. Other crazy characters in the show that make it what it is include Lois’ rich businessman father Carter who takes an instant disliking to Peter, Jewish pharmacist Mort Goldman, narcissistic news anchorman Tom Tucker, wacky Mayor West, the effeminate Bruce, incompetent Dr Hartman, peg-legged (and armed) fisherman Seamus and Herbert the pervert, a creepy old man down the street who has a sexual interest in Chris which goes seemingly unnoticed or acknowledged. Throw in a giant chicken and an evil monkey and you’ve got one seriously unique cast!
The series may have demonstrated at times that the writers are capable of more complex storytelling, such as episodes like And Then There Were Fewer, Road to the North Pole, Brian and Stewie and The Big Bang Theory, but generally, if you want a half hour full of laughs, Family Guy has been doing so for a quarter of a century with no intention of stopping.