Comedy Series Review: Family Guy

Five time Emmy Award-winning show Family Guy is an international hit. With over 200 episodes already aired and the twelfth season currently airing, the show is going strong. Focusing on the Griffin family this series follows the antics of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Brian and Stewie, with several recurring characters such as Glenn Quagmire, Joe Swanson and Cleveland Brown. Cleveland moved away from the neighbourhood and got his own spin-off show in 2009. When The Cleveland Show was axed by Fox in 2013 Cleveland moved back to Quahog, Rhode Island and resumed his old spot in the show.

Much of the humour is derived from pop-cultural references. Some films such as the Star Wars series and the Ghostbusters films are often referenced. Also there are a lot of cutaway gags, often caused by a character reminding a scene from their past and the episode then cutting to that memory. These cutaways are often absurd and portray unlikely situations. These sometimes include celebrities or mythological and religious characters. The parodying and referencing of other material has led to lawsuits, although in most cases the court ruled the use of copyrighted material justified as fair use, and/or protected by the First Amendment. One case was however settled out of court with undisclosed terms.

In early seasons a recurring joke came in the form of the family's baby (Stewie) having super-villain aspirations, often devising plans and weapons of mass destruction with the goal to get rid of things he doesn't like and in particular to kill Lois (his mother). His plans fail without exception but he does manage to build an entire room and fill it with weapons and evil machinery without his parents noticing. Over the course of the series Stewie's character developed and lost much of it's evil side. Although it is sometimes still referenced, he is now a more stable character, with strong sexual (sometimes gay) tendencies and he has formed a strong bond with Brian, sometimes showing a romantic or sexual interest in him.

Brian is the family dog. He is able to talk, walks on his rear paws, drives a hybrid and is an often pretentious left-wing wannabe intellectual. He has been 'working on his book' for years without result, drinks humongous amounts of booze and is a real ladies man. Besides alcohol he has used cocaine and marijuana and he smokes. He is also an Iraq veteran. Despite these definite human characteristics Brian still has clear dog perks as well: He sometimes barks at people or dogs, wags his tail when he's happy or aroused, he likes to ride up against people's legs and his parents were normal dogs. Brian has a human son called Dylan although it is questionable if this is really his son, given the fact that Dylan is older than Brian. Brian has accepted Dylan as a son though and managed to change him from a marijuana smoking, violent teenager into a well-mannered young adult.

Another recurring form of humour used is self-reference. Often these jokes are about FOX, the company the series is made for, or break the fourth wall. An example of a joke about FOX is Peter telling the family FOX has cancelled them to make room for a list of other shows. Lois asks if there is any hope, to which Peter replies they might stand a chance if all these shows were cancelled. The joke works even better because all the shows named, were actually cancelled by FOX during Family Guy's hiatus. Other recurring jokes include the ridicule of FOX News and the use of catchphrases such as Quagmire's “Giggity giggity goo” and Peter's “Freakin' sweet!”

Family Guy manages to keep a consistently high level of funny and it survives because it isn't afraid to adapt and evolve to keep it fresh and interesting. If you haven't seen it, go check it out!