Christopher Cross Griffin is a fictional character from the animated series Family Guy. He is the middle child and eldest son of Peter and Lois Griffin, brother of Stewie and Meg Griffin. Chris is voiced by Seth Green.

Character personality

Chris - like his father - is obese, has a low IQ and no common sense; however in the episode Fast Times at Buddy Cianci, Jr. High Brian refers to Chris's class as intelligent before going to teach remedial English. Also, various storylines give him autistic savant talents, such as artistic ability, and detailed knowledge of film and TV actors. Occasionally he exhibits unexpected, uncharacteristic insights, such as when he gives Peter and Lois a detailed and articulate lecture on the effects and disadvantages of marijuana.

Chris is usually depicted as naive to the point of blamelessness. However, when Peter and Lois were having a fist fight, Chris cheered for Peter, telling him to "kick her ass!" Also, in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, when Lois and Peter are trying to make out, the children mistake it for a fight and Chris says "I don't know what they're fighting about, but I think Dad's winning. Go Dad!"

In a running gag, Chris is regularly tormented by an evil monkey who lives in his closet but has recently slowed down a bit.

In "Emission Impossible", it is revealed that Chris was born as an accident, due to a broken condom. As a result, Peter and Lois filed a lawsuit against the company and bought the house they currently live in. In "Peter's Daughter", Lois revealed that she smoked and drank a lot when she was pregnant with Chris to try and incite a miscarriage, but chickened out halfway through the pregnancy. This may be the explanation for Chris' stupidity and other anomalies. Also, it is known that Chris possesses an abnormally large penis.

While Chris is better treated than Meg, he is usually more subjected to Peter's thoughtlessness, since Peter frequently neglects Chris in favor of other children or himself, and often accuses Chris of being "needy." Unlike Peter, Chris also doesn't seem to dislike Meg as much, merely having a rather extreme sibling-rivalry relationship.

Chris is generally mild-mannered and friendly, but is often rude to others when angered, such as in "Long John Peter", when he both insulted Joe Swanson for his handicapped status, and hit Brian with a chair just to go back to the vet and see a girl who broke up with him. Another example was in "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)", when Brian just came back after being dumped by Jillian, and for no reason, Chris said, "Welcome home, asshole!" (in the Fox and syndicated airings, he says "Welcome back, douchebag!").

In the Season 3 episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", Chris almost converted to Judaism after Peter told him that Jews are smarter and more successful. Lois came to Chris's bar mitzvah to end the conversion, and a crowd of angry Jews chased after them.

Sexuality

While possessing incomplete-at-best sexual knowledge—in "Love Thy Trophy" Chris is convinced babies come from the Child Welfare Office—Chris in several episodes demonstrates a compelling interest in girls. In "To Love And Die In Dixie" Chris shows a romantic interest in a girl named Barbara. Later in the episode when he and his family are exiled to the South, he meets and befriends a person named Sam, who later kisses him despite being a boy. Confused about the kiss (and even saying it felt good), he confronts Sam, who's really revealed to be a girl dressed in guy clothes. After talking to Sam, Chris feels opened enough to express his feelings for her. Even though they kiss at the end of the episode, their relationship wasn't established afterwards when he and his family returned home. In "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives", he is attracted to a student named Alyssa, who is a young Republican; Chris becomes a Young Republican because Alyssa offers to let him touch her breasts (although he is not at first sure that's "something he wants"). He is often harassed by his pedophile neighbor Herbert. In "Jungle Love", Chris runs away to South America to escape the bullying at school and joins the Peace Corps. He gets the entire tribe, whom he's staying with, to dance. By doing this Chris married the Chief's daughter, Loka. Their marital status has not been mentioned in any subsequent episodes. In "Long John Peter" Chris falls in love with a vet intern named Anna, who he asks out. Their relationship goes well until Chris (with Peter's advice) puts her down on a date to make progress, but Anna breaks up with him instead. At the end of the episode, they kiss and get back together.

In "Running Mates", "E. Peterbus Unum", and "Model Misbehavior", Chris describes his mother Lois as sexually attractive. Chris also comments openly about masturbation in several gags in the episodes "Running Mates", "The Fat Guy Strangler" and "Barely Legal". Ironically, in "Holy Crap", grandfather Francis Griffin accuses Chris of masturbating when he was really just defecating by telling him that was he was doing in the bathroom was morally wrong and God can see it. He spends the rest of the episode holding in his waste (unaware that Francis thought he was masturbating) until Peter lets him "defy" his grandfather.

In the episode "And the Wiener Is..." it is discovered that Chris has a bigger penis than Peter. When Chris and Peter are in a sauna, Peter asks Chris whats wrong with his leg, only to figure out himself and say "Oh my God that's not your leg!" Chris is known to masturbate on Thursdays, according to the episode "Barely Legal."

Character origins

Chris' character resembles Milt, the son of the main character Larry Cummings in The Life of Larry, an animated short film created by Seth MacFarlane at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1995 that led to the development of Family Guy.

Chris was originally given a "punk" image, according to creator Seth McFarlane's DVD commentary tracks. He wore earrings, and his painful awkwardness was not as emphasized as it is later in the series.

Chris' voice was based on Ted Levine's performance as James/Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs. In the commentary for Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Green reveals that he based his voice for Chris on what "Buffalo Bill" would sound like if he were working at a drive-thru in a McDonalds (speaking through a PA system); the result being a pre-Chris Griffin voice.

Name

Chris' full name is "Christopher Cross Griffin." His seldom-used middle name is probably a homage to musician Christopher Cross. It is first used in the episode "Brian the Bachelor", shortly after the revelation that his mother Lois had been a late '70s MOR groupie.

References

External links