One of the most successful cartoons in history, and beloved by people the world over, Family Guy, along with its creator Seth MacFarlane (who also created American Dad and The Cleveland Show) has become the face of this kind of animation. Now in its 16th season, Family Guy revels in all things we🐻ird, boundary-pushing, and funny.
What it also revels in, and what set it apart from contemporaries like The Simpsons and South Park, is abstract, random humour. With tropes like the signature cut-away gag being used multiple times per episode, Family Guy relies just as much on the bizarre and preposterous as it doe🧸s on storytellin✅g and conventional comedy.
This approa🦩ch creat🎃es a certain amount of creative laxity: storylines, strictly speaking, do not have to make complete sense; the same rules, or lack thereof, extend to the humor also, meaning that at times the more nonsensical the gag, the better.
This can lead to issues of continuity in storytelling, as well as contradictions and moments which just don’t make any sense whatsoever. In this list, we’re going to look at some of the silliest, confusing and downright nonsensical moments in the series. Perhaps the main difference between this list and others is the fact that, out of almost any other show of its type, Family Guy is the one that could not only get away with errors and gener🅰al absurdity 𒀰but could actually wear it as a badge of honor.
25 🔯 Hꦰow Does Brian Date Women?
Love is blind, or so they say. Well, that may be true, but even in the ultra progressivism of today’s world, this one aspect of Family Guy is just something that we can't get behind, no matter how you look at it. It just doesn't make sense! Brian is one of the main characters on Family Guy, a dog whose stock in trade is pseud⛄o-intellectualism and left-leaning political beliefs. His ability to articulate himself and, mostly, fight off his base dog instincts have allowed him to elevate above his canine status as a functioning, accepted member of the Griffin family and the community at large. But he’s still a dog.
That’s why when he dates women, whether it be hopelessly pursuing Brooke Roberts, whom he met on The Bachelorette on the episode along with other males, or engaging in a relationship with dim lightbulb Jillian, it’s just a little bit strange even for a cartoon. What makes it even weirder is the fact that Brian has had dated other dogs, most notably Carter Pewterschmi༺dt’s prized greyhound Seabreeze, which had an episode dedicated to it. It's jusꦅt a little weird, to say the least.
24 ♌ Trying To Injure Joe After He Learns To Walk Again
As the show wore on, Joe’s handicap evolved more and more into a running joke. In the first three seasons, Joe was pai📖nted as a hero who overcame his disability through bravery, positivity, and an unshakeable work ethic. After a few seasons, Family Guy showed its true colors as a very adult program by ridiculing it on a regular basis.
In the Season 6 episode “Believe It Or Not, Joe’s Walking On Air,” Joe’s character is given some redemption for the barbs he has had to endure. Unable to dance with Bonnie, he is determined to walk again and receives a leg transplant. Joe, determined to live life to the fullest, is irked by his slow, lazy frie𝓰nds who soon become tired of rock climbing and mountain biking with their recently able-bodied friend, so he finds new friends. He also tells Bonnie he’s leaving her, having outgrown her with his newfound mobility.
His frien🌃ds hatch a logical but terrible plan: they need to re-cripple Joe to get their old friend back. Joe is easily able to fight them oꩵff. Bonnie attacks him (even though she misses and Joe does it himself!). In the aftermath, Joe seeks his friends' forgiveness!
Sure, he may have been a jerk, and leaving his wife was not cool, but surely they should’ve just found a new friend and not attempted to paralyze an acℱtive police💛 officer!
23 The Former Life 𝕴Of Brian
We’ve already discussed Brian’s troubling relationships, and we also touched on the fact that Brian has had puppies in the past. In the Season 6 episode “The Former Life Of Brian,” Brian visits a former girlfriend, Tracy, only to discover that she had a son, Dylan, who was Brian’s child. Bri🍬an, stunned by the news, wants to be in Dylan’s life. Dylan proves to be a 13-year-old brat deep in the throes of his teenage years, while Brian proves to be the quintessential over-protective parent, unwilling to let him eat certain foods and worrying incessantly about him, wanting to make good for the lost years and to give his son the father that he never had himself.
The only problem is, Dylan is 13, and Brian is 8 in human years. What?
Also, Dylan is fully human, which is weird. Maybe Brian has a strain of super advanced genes that can discriminate between human and canine hosts. The same gene🥀s are also so strong that they speed up the aging process of the offspring. If I was Brian, I would request DNA test, as it's probably pretty likely that Tracy has had this child with someone else.
22 Comparཧing Dog Rights To Human Rights... 𓂃
The genesis of the aforementioned blurring of the lines between human behavior and the actuality of his species began here, in the finale of the very first season of the show. “Brian: Portrait Of A Dog” begins when Peter asks Brian to enter a dog show for him to raise $500 for a new air conditioner. Brian is init🧜ially complicit, taking part of the show until he is asked to balance a dog treat on his now. He refuses to do it, costing the Griffins the prize money.
A domestic civil war erupts between Brian and Peter: Brian wants his dignity, equal rights to his human contemporaries, and respect. Peter wan♌ts Brian to be submissive, and accept his secondary status as a dog because, well,꧑ he is a dog.
Aside from the fact that, again, he is a dog, the parallels between Brian and the civil rights movement in the States are pretty ridiculous: one of the cornerstones of the episode is Brian fighting for the right drink from the same water fountains as humans, a callback to when people had separate water fountains. Apparently, he also wanted the right to perform show tunes at nighꦜtclub🐻s sometimes. He’s a dog!
21 She Might Be A ꦕLittle Young for Peter
Like father, like son. Where do you think Stewie learned how to infiltrate high schools of unsuspecting teenagers? More realistic, but somewhat more creepy, all th൲e way back in Season 2’s “Let’s Go To The Hop” Peter disguises himself as Lando, a super cool 1950s Fonz throwback who successfully convinces the students at James Woods High School to stop licking toads, a fad which is getting the student population into a lot of hot water. Job done. Well, not exactly.
Peter go♎es all method actor on it and asks Connie D’Amico to the school dance, instead of his own daughter Meg, who, it should be noted, wants to go with Lando to increase her social status, and not due ཧto some serious unresolved issues. So, always falling for the Griffins' schemes, Connie agrees, helping Peter live out his dream of taking his old high school crush Phoebe to his high school dance years ago.
Eventually, Peter’s conscience gets the better of him and he t💙akes his daughter Meg inste🍌ad. But perhaps this could all have been avoided if Peter had just not done this thing in the first place. Poor Connie, duped by two generations of Griffin men.
20 The Offensive Way They Demonstrated Peter's Relationship Wi𝓀th𒈔 Scott
As well as being ridiculous, Family Guy is also extremely conspicuous. The Season 7 episode “Family Gay” is neither subtle in title or execution. When🐟 Peter needs to raise money to pay for damages he made to Mort Goldman’s Pharmacy by flinging a literal horse through the shop front window, as you do, he agrees to become a test subject for medical research. In the process, he’s injec🍬ted with several genes to test their effects. Along with the squirrel gene and the esoteric “Seth Rogan” gene, Peter was injected with the gay gene. Unfortunately for Lois, the gay gene didn’t wear off, and Peter ended up moving in with new man Scott.
The fact that there would be an injectable gay gene that could alter a man’s preference is silly enough, but why they would develop a Seth Rogan gene, of all things? Moreover, why is it tha𝐆t said Seth Rogan gene and the previously mentioned squirrel gene wore off almost 🔜instantly, but the gay gene didn’t? Surely a gene that alters your muscular-skeletal structure or one that changes what species you are would have longer and more long-lasting effects. I guess not, though.
19 ꦗ Insensitive Views On Stem Cell Research
Stem cell research is a controversia🌟l topic: some believe that the use of th🗹e cells violates the growth of a potential life, while others believe that the use of the therapy can have life-changing effects from the use of cells that have no living viability.
Family Guy has never shied away from political subject matter and humor, and with characters like Brian Griffin, it wears its biases firmly on the left side of its sleeve. In the episode “McStroke,” Peter suffers a (you guessed it) stroke fro𒁃m eating too many burgers from the Burger Town restaurant.
We are then treated to a litany of segments which show how difficult Peter’s life has become since suffering his stroke (you shouldn’t laugh at the R.E.M. scene… you did, didn’t you?). All this sets you up for the final scene, which sees Peter walking, or shuffling, into a stem cell research facility. Five minutes later he walks out completely cured. It’s played for laughs and socio-political commentary: the idea that all that hardship could be avoided if people would just be more progressive... But seriously though, five minutes? Though it almost seems insensitive, that's Family Guy for you.
18 🐠 Should Stewie Look Like He's On R♛oids?
When the Griffins go to the Swanson house for a party, Stewie gets into a bit of an altercation with Bonnie and Joe’s daughter Susie, with the latter getting beaten by the former. This does not sit well with Peter, who is keen to teach his young toddler son a lesson, which is great parenting 101. He takes Stewie to a 🎶boxing gy🤡m where, instead of learning how to defend himself, the infant child gets immediately buff and begins lifting weights: thus begins the aptly titled episode “Stew-Roids”.
Subsequently, little Stewie Griffin becomes absolutely jacked. Popping shoulders, massive pecs, and a set of guns that put Greg Valentino to shame. Like any respectable gym r🐻at, he also totally neglects training his legs, because you can’t see them in a tank top!
Other than the overwhelming bad nature of Peter’s parenting, there’s the simple question of how a baby becaওme so huge when he hasn't come of age yet and has little to no muscle. But even more puzzling is how Stewie, an evil genius who extorted Brian for money, engaged in ferocious hand-to-hand combat with his then unborn brother Bertram and made various attempts on his mother, wouꦗld take such a defeat from such a passive child? And without seeking revenge!
17 They Have No Idea How Math 🔴Works
The one that started it all, the pilot episode for the show, will go down in the annals of history as not only a landmark moment in television and the debut of what would become one of the most successful cartoons of all time, but one of the best episodes in the series and one which introduced the world to everything that would become quintessential Family Guy: the adult humour, the iconic theme music, t👍he vintage cutaw꧂ay gag and, of course, its ridiculous brand of storytelling.
The entire episode is based around the idea that Peter, who was recently fired for gross negligence after falling asleep at his assembly job at the toy factory, resulting in an abundance of dangerous toys being sold to children, has to go on welfare. However, a mix up at the welfare office results in Peter receiving a weekly allowance of $150,000. The reason? A misplaced decimal point. Now, how this works exactly is anybody's guess: where was the decimal point meant to be, exactly? There are only two nꦺumbers after any decimal point, so unless the check was meant to read $1,500.0000 or $150.00000, it doesn’t exactly make a whole lot of sense. Cartoon logic!
16 ꦰ 💧 No One Comes Looking For A Kidnapped Pope
൲In the second episode of the second season of Family Guy, Peter’s father Francis is forced to retire from his job at the Pawtucket Mill. A devout Catholic and workaholic who dedicates his life to his religious teachings and his work, Francis chooses to spend more time with his family, although with his aversion to Lois and her Protestantism and his gene🧔ral disliking of Peter, his whole family, and his way of life, it's hard to figure out why.
Peter spends the better part of the whole episode trying to get his father to like him: he attends church with him and even takes him to a baseball game (a pastime which has brought father and son together for “millions of years”).🍬 The only thing that Peter does that inspires his father's approval is when Peter gets him a job at the toy factory, only to see his father promoted and then be fired by him.
To win back his father's affections, even post-firing, Peter does the most logical thing: he steals the Pope from his convoy.
After his driver gets knocked out, Peter hijacks the Pope-mobile and redirects the Pope’s route to his home in Quahog. The Pope, seemingly cool with what has transpired, attempts to reunite father and son. Francis isn’t interested, the Pope nearly loses his temper, meanwhile, no one seem𒉰s to come looking for his holiness.