Family Guy/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

 * When I first saw the Family Guy episode "Barely Legal", I thought the ending where Quagmire "straightens Meg out"... by having a heart-to-heart talk with her about how she doesn't need a boyfriend to have fun as a teenager (he even gives her a copy of Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece) was pretty funny in that it subverted our expectations about what Quagmire would do, but it did seem like a subtle Meg bash, since it seemed like suddenly, even Quagmire didn't want to sleep with her anymore. But later, I realized that scene was Quagmire's one and only Pet the Dog moment: he, a heartless sex maniac saying genuinely kind words to her, the show's Butt Monkey. Now for me, it is a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and a much better episode ending than her just being used and thrown away by him! Now if only she were treated as kindly by all the characters all the time...
 * On that same note, Meg is the only girl that Quagmire seems to be actively waiting to hit 18. He has implied, and even said outright, that he has indeed had sex with girls younger than legal age (a sixteen-year-old cheerleader tied up in the bathroom, a twelve-year-old crossing-guard even though it was accidental, and when Connie D'Amico said she was 16, he pretended he heard "18".) Yet when Quagmire approached Meg in one episode, he asks if she's 18, she says no, and he just says "Alright," and walks away. Shocking as it is, he actually does respect her enough to wait until she's legal!
 * ...that, or he could not want to have sex with her until he "has" to when she turns legal. Or something like that...
 * Think about the book he gave her, though. Do I have a dirty mind, or does the plot and title of the book seem like a metaphor for something? That was the true fridge brilliance, in this troper's opinion.
 * The message he's passing on to Meg here is that just like the circle with the missing shape, she doesn't need a missing piece to 'fill her wedge', as it were. Her happiness is where she decides to find it and doesn't have to be inside some guy's pants.
 * But later in "Jerome is the New Black", we find out the true reason Quagmire is a heartless sex maniac is because the woman he truly loved (Cheryl Tiegs) left him before he could tell her he loved her and the void she left in him is the missing piece that Quagmire tries to fill by having meaningless sex with women. So that adds a deeper meaning as to why Quagmire has the book "The Missing Piece" and why, in the episode "Emission Impossible" from season three, he has a poster of Cheryl Tiegs on his refrigerator.
 * Something struck me about Quagmire's hatred of Brian. At first, it seems out of nowhere. But remember the "New Brian" episode? Quagmire let him stay at his house, but he asked him to be respectful to a woman he was hoping for a serious relationship with that had a messed up leg. When she shows up, Stewie comments on it, sending her running off crying and Quagmire following yelling "Dammit Brian!" Quagmire thinks Brian ruined what might have been a lifelong relationship, which is probably causing him to let his other flaws get to him more than they should. And obviously he thinks it was Brian, because he can't understand Stewie talk. - User:Michael JJ
 * Or Quagmire's the sort of guy who'd buy into the idea that people's legs have their own appeal to dogs. ~ User:Aaron Hong
 * I thought it was because Quagmire harbored a sort of resentment for Brian since the beginning, becuase he can be smitten with Lois and still be pals with Peter and live with them, and Lois still treats him good. Quagmire can't even get that much, but since he's friends with Peter AND Lois, he might as well try to be civil. This incident, with the girl with the bad leg, might've sent him over the edge, rationalizing that Brian just keeps getting in the way of people he cares about. User:Dibdobs
 * In the episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie goes back in time to the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" and steals Brian's banana suit and does Peanut Butter Jelly Time. This cheers Peter up despite the fact it didn't work in the original. Why? It's not because Stewie could do it better, but because Peter was upset that Stewie was angry with him. With Stewie doing it, Peter no longer has anything to be upset about.
 * Also counts as Heartwarming in Hindsight.
 * I have a theory why Peter acts like an asshole all the time: he believes that, being the main character, he has an Omniscient Morality License. - User:Metal Shadow X
 * I think I know why Stewie went from an Omnicidal Maniac to a metrosexual. It wasn't because of Character Derailment. He just moved from one phase to another.
 * Jillian is the only girlfriend Brian's had for more than one episode. I just noticed her necklace looks like Brian's collar, red with a little yellow tag in the middle.
 * In the episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", there's the cutaway with Ronald McDonald as a father. At first, the humor seems to come from the fact that Ronald acts more like a protective father than a clown, but the second layer of humor occurs after realizing that he reprimanded her daughter for wearing heavy make-up, while his face is covered in make-up himself.
 * Joe Swanson broke his legs on a Christmas Day. Several years later, his son was  killed in Iraq - on Thanksgiving.
 * Brian once mentioned that he didn't want any grey M&Ms but the bowl of them he got were all grey. But to us they're all brightly colored. Why did Brian think they were all grey? Because, being a dog, he's colorblind!
 * Dogs aren't colorblind
 * While it was horrific (to the point that I looked away for most of it) Brian's shroom trip showed a lot about how he views the family, for example:
 * Peter is a butterball turkey (fat idiotic guy with an eating habit; there's a "you are what you eat" joke to be made here...)
 * Meg is a cockroach (small, pesky, insignificant creature, often neglected or even threatened)
 * Lois is a serpentine, succubus-type creature (Brian is sexually attracted to her)
 * Stewie is a giant demon (this should be obvious)
 * Another one involving Quagmire and why he has such a Leisue Suit Larry circa 1960s-70s aura about him. It's revealed that he's actually in his mid 60's in an episode where Peter obtains his birthdate.
 * In one episode it was revealed that Brian had a son. The problem here is that Brian's half-human (although looking 100% Human) is 13 years old and Brian is 7, Stewie notices it and after Brian gave him a Bullshit anwser (dogyears), Stewie refuses to accept Brian's (il)logic. Time-travel can be the answer.
 * In a cutaway in the episode "Brothers & Sisters" a girl asks a guy if he's on his way to algebra class and he says he is and he'll see her there. Then she starts to cry and runs off for seemingly no reason, her friend tells the guy he's an awful person, and he's left standing there confused. She was actually subtly hinting that she wanted him to walk to class with her.
 * In the episode "Brian and Stewie" Brian gives Stewie liquor for what appears to be the first time, although he's been drunk in two previous episodes. This isn't Negative Continuity, the previous episodes where Stewie got drunk ended with someone time traveling back to the beginning of the episode, thus those episodes never happened. That being said, this is the first real time he's gotten drunk.
 * Lois' poisonous demeanor to Meg may not be random or out of the blue as one may think. Looking back, Lois' family wasn't exactly sunshine and roses either. It was revealed that Babs (Lois' mother) had an affair with Jackie Gleason (which traumatized Lois' brother and got him sent to a mental institution by his father) years ago and by season 9, Carter (Lois' father) had an affair with an Asian woman, to which Babs found out. Not only this, but Carter is a stereotype of the typical 1950s male of being racially and culturally insensitive and had suppressed Babs' Jewish identity. As Lois was growing up, she wanted to be a fashion model, which Carter forbid her to do and it most likely caused Lois to always rebel against her father's wishes. In the various flashbacks of Lois' teenage/young adult years before she met Peter, Lois led a very wild party life filled with sex, booze, and drugs. Lois in her younger years had also stated she had maxed out her credit cards several times, which caused her father to force her to work for her tuition instead of bailing her out. Then there was Lois' one night stands with the rock band, KISS, Jerome, and whoever else. Lois' past never quite left her as she is seen doing crazy stunts such as going on a shoplifting spree or trying out modeling again (which causes her to become dangerously thin) because her current life with the family is making her very bored. While Lois tries to prevent Meg from making the same mistakes, she goes about it the wrong way due to how she seems to be able to do anything she wants and expects to be forgiven for her actions. Of course, Meg slams Lois hard as she calls her out on all of this.
 * A lot of cutaways show that Peter didn't have the happiest childhood either. His mom's way of fixing a toothache was chucking a wine bottle at him and she was a pretty mean drunk too. His extremely devout catholic father was extremely harsh to him and all he ever did was try to seek his approval. No wonder Peter's so messed up!
 * The icing on the cake for Peter is Francis never was Peter's father in the first place and Peter had suppressed the memory of it when he discovered the truth as a child.
 * In alot of episodes it's shown that Brian is racist against black people but treats Cleveland like a friend. After last night's episode of The Cleveland Show it dawned on me since Cleveland is declared the whitest black man in the world, Brian views him as a white man. No wonder he never barked at him or made racial comments in his presence!
 * It however doesn't explain how Brian had no problem dating a black woman in one episode.
 * There's nothing to explain. First, Brian's philosophically anti-racist but instinctively/subconsciously racist. Secondly, plenty of racists date people of the race they're racist against.
 * The gay gene didn't make Peter a Camp Gay Depraved Homosexual. He's just acting like what he believes all gays act like. Doesn't excuse all the other gays in the episode, though.

Fridge Horror

 * In the episode "Petergeist": "Lois, we agreed, remember? If we could only save two, we leave Meg!" When Meg escapes on her own - "You bastard! How could you leave me in there?" - Peter's response is, "Oh, see, look, it resolved itself." Considering how she's treated by her family, this isn't all that shocking ... But, in an earlier episode, Peter and Lois claimed they wouldn't be able to choose between their children; Peter because he's not very good with tough decisions, Lois because she claims to love all her children equally. Which means that, some time in the last few months, they discussed and worked out which of their children they would allow to die. And this sort of thing is regularly presented on Family Guy as comedy.
 * From the same episode, Stewie meets "Jesus", who is "Chinese, and named Hong". Evidently, Word of God has confirmed that, indeed, it is a reference to this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan. So, where is the horror in this? Ultimately, "Chinese Jesus" was responsible for more deaths than any other war in history other than the World Wars. So...what part of the afterlife did Stewie end up in, exactly?
 * That and the fact they're open to having her aborted for some unexplored reason, they were perfectly fine with the brain damage Stewie had in "Brian Griffin's House of Pain" and have been abusive to Chris as well (though he has the least amount of physical/mental abuse out of the three), it's safe to say that Lois and Peter are pretty damn big monsters.
 * Also, look at how negatively Lois and Peter have influenced their children. Chris is a malicious Jerkass as of late, Stewie is a Butt Monkey, and Meg is depicted as being emotionally fragile and disturbed. How will their kids turn out if the three of them ever decide to have kids of their own one day?
 * Really? That's the worst you can think of for Stewie? Heck this was possibly even acknowledged in a dream of Lois', where she states she smoked marijuana while she was pregnant with him.
 * Peter is legally retarded. This meant he was legally incapable of taking care of his children, and was a plotpoint in the same episode where it came up, where Lois was incapacitated and the children were taken away from him until Lois was well again. That explains his half of the Jerkassery, but not Lois.
 * Plus remember all those seemingly one-off jokes about Peter and Lois having deceased other children. See how they act in recent seasons, they could all be true!
 * On the season 3 episode, "Screwed the Pooch," there is a cutaway showing what Brian's life will be like when he gets neutered -- he'll be fat, effeminate, and eating chocolate all the time. Chocolate is known to be very lethal to dogs, so if this show followed reality, Brian would be killing himself (and Brian did die when he accidentally ate a piece of chocolate from the trash, as seen in the movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story when Brian was shown in Heaven with Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Cobain, and Vincent van Gogh, the three of whom were Driven to Suicide for deeper reasons: Hemingway, because his genius was wreaking havoc on his sanity, Van Gogh, because he felt like an outcast in his own society, and Cobain, because he didn't want to see his music be usurped by bland, money-making corporations).
 * All of this becomes worse when you see such later episodes as "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" (which reveals that Brian is an atheist, meaning that, if Brian does die, there's no chance of him meeting Hemingway, Van Gogh, and Cobain, since he doesn't believe in God and, as any Christian Bible will tell you, Heaven is only for those who believe) and "Brian and Stewie" (which played the fact that Brian is suicidal for drama, when Stewie finds a gun in the locked vault and Brian tells him that he keeps it there for the day when Brian will actually go through with his suicide plan).
 * Except Brian hates God. He probably prefers Cessation of Existence to being in a reality where, to him, God Is Evil. The real Fridge Horror is that he may end up being stuck in Heaven, which is likely Hell to him.
 * You do realize that you're drawing fridge horror from the mind of a man who is legally retarded right? In that very same episode Peter admitted that he thought dogs laid eggs, meaning that the man has absolutely no idea HOW canine biology works, and thus most likely just assumed that dogs were able to eat chocolate without any ill effects.
 * Remember the episode where Brian and Stewie got their hands stuck together because of super-glue that boasts it "never gets unstuck!" (though there is a special solvent that dissolves the glue in case of accidental sticking)? Think what would have happened if Brian hadn't stopped Stewie from eating it in time...
 * In a recent episode, Quagmire stated that he has every single venereal disease known to man, and in another one, he thinks it's a joke to use condoms during sex. Suddenly, the jokes about Quagmire scoring with chicks don't seem so funny...
 * If it helps, Quagmire has likely become a walking vaccine against STDs. Hence why he isn't writhing in agony, and the women he scores haven't shown similar signs.
 * In "Tales of a Third-Grade Nothing", Quagmire meets several of his children in different classes, one being in a special-ed class. Now, in "Quagmire's Baby", he quipped that he'd have no problem with sleeping with his daughter (whom he gave up for adoption) when she turned 18. Put two and two together...
 * It also doesn't help that in an early episode, he almost tells the Griffins that he couldn't care for the kids in accordance to Megan's Law, but forgets about it and offers to care for the kids anyway.
 * Quagmire has shown to have no problem with incest. From what we've seen with his family, his mother reacts casually to this. And in another episode, they indulge in this. Put two and two together. It would also explain why Quagmire uses date-rape drugs.
 * When Susie was born, Quagmire says "wow, she's just been born and she's already 18". At first it just sounds like a funny Lampshade Hanging about Family Guy's Comic Book Time, but this is Quagmire talking here...
 * The episode where Brian goes back to the mill he was born at. Let's just say that if you know anything about taxidermy, you'd know that Brian's already a little too late towards giving his mother a burial (except symbolically). In fact, this applies to any comedic use of the practice, such as the cutaway in SpongeBob SquarePants of Mr. Krabs mounting Spongebob and Patrick's butts and the one-shot joke on the Christmas episode of American Dad (where Stan, Roger, and Francine are left behind when the Rapture finally happens) of Klaus being up on a plaque.
 * A somewhat minor one. When Stewie and Brian travelled The Multiverse, they arrived in a reality where Christianity never existed. And as a result, humanity is futuristic utopia (Strawman Christianity?). Yet, even in this perfect reality, Meg is still considered ugly by their standards (even though in the futuristic utopia, Meg was a smokin' hot model-type). This implies that Meg Griffin is a Butt Monkey in every corner of creation. There isn't a single version of Meg Griffin who isn't treated like crap.
 * Even worse, the way she might be treated in another universe might make her treatment in this universe look desirable.
 * Not necessarily, as Stewie points out every possibility exists so there is a world in The Multiverse where she is considered pretty.
 * Stewie, as pointed out on the character page, has a reverse Oedipus Complex, preferring Peter over Lois. The Oedipus complex states that sons secretly want to kill their fathers and marry their mothers. Stewie wants to kill his mother. You will never be able to unsee what I'm implying.
 * Lois's opponent in "Baby, You Knock Me Out", murdered three of her opponents in the ring, has gotten away from it, and planned to make Lois her fourth victim. Let that sink in for a minute; I'm pretty sure some boxers have murdered some of their opponents in the ring in real life, and somehow went on their lives knowing they can take a life with just a few, skilled punches.
 * In Back To The Pilot, when all of the Stewies and Brians from different timelines all show up, one pair show up stuck inside barber poles, revolving endlessly. They puke and it fills the tube and explain how that's how life is in their timeline. One would have to wonder why or even how everyone was given such a fate...
 * Brian's cousin Jasper said Rico doesn't speak or understand a word of English. There's a good chance he never consented to anything, and probably got married to Jasper against his will. Also overlaps with Unfortunate Implications.
 * This is alluded to in a deleted scene where Rico talks with Stewie at the wedding.
 * Brian's son's age is given a Lampshaded Hand Wave, but if you think about it, he's aging four times faster than everyone he knows, and he'll die long before they do...
 * In "Leggo my Meg-O", Peter is on the phone to Meg when sex slavers break in, and proceeds to give her a litany of bad advice, among which is "hide under the bed with your feet sticking out". We next see Meg go under the bed, and her feet are clearly under the bed as well. Looks like someone knows what an idiot their father is...


 * Rule of Funny aside, in the episode where Brian dates a blind girl and Peter falls down the stairs, why the hell would Peter make a nest UPSTAIRS? He could've made one downstairs and never have to worry about falling down them again.
 * Simple. He's Peter.
 * Another Rule of Funny aside, if Quagmire was born in 1948 why does his dad look like he's in his late 50s/ early 60s? It was also mentioned his father fought in Vietnam.
 * Brian: "10,000 signatures. I've been up for 24 hours, I paid off a few people and I did a few things in West Quahog I'm not proud of."
 * Remember, these are signatures for a petition to legalize same-sex marriage, and West Quahog is the gay neighborhood of Quahog. So, Brain had to do things *for gay people* in order to get them to sign a petition legalizing same-sex marriage? What? Granted, it turned out all he had to do was watch Sex and the City, but still.
 * Considering he paid off some people not all of those sigs could have come from the gay neighborhood.
 * No, but why did he have to do anything he's not proud of specifically there? Those should have been the gimme signatures. Come to think of it, people from there should've been helping him; why is a straight species-crossing dog doing all the work on this?
 * Granted, they have not had the best of lives, but given the current familial makeup of the Pewterschmidts, Meg, Chris and Stewie are in for major money. Also, with Carol Pewterschmidt's most recent marriage, Carter now has a son-in-law at least as old as he is.
 * What's fridge-logical about that?
 * What's fridge-logical about that?