Peter Griffin

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Peter Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Peter is the head of the Griffin household and the central character in the show. He is married to Lois, and is the father of Meg, Chris, and Stewie. His voice, which has a thick New England accent, is performed by the show's creator and lead writer, Seth MacFarlane.

The character is Archie Bunker without the knowledge of what he’s doing. He has the mind of a child, basically, and a source of big laughs is when he doesn’t realize he’s doing something inappropriate.|||Producer Seth MacFarlane|interview in The Advocate

Backstory

Lois' father Carter objected to Peter because of his lower social class — this resentment remains a theme in Carter and Peter's relationship, as shown in some episodes, like the e-mail Mr. Pewterschmidt sends to Peter, which punches him in the face. After marrying, Peter and Lois settled in Quahog, where Peter got a job at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory.

Apparently he was born in Mexico.

Jobs

Peter has primarily worked as a safety inspector at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, as a fisherman owning his own boat, and at the Pawtucket Patriot brewery as an office worker and "that guy who fishes out the dead rats". Peter was temporarily promoted to the position of "Head of Toy Development" in the episode "Mr. Saturday Knight" before the company was demolished and replaced by a terminal illness research centre. He was also the President of the "Happy-Go-Lucky" Toy Factory in the episode "Mr Griffin Goes To Washington." Throughout the series, he regularly mentions that he has had many different odd jobs. He has also had a few periods of unemployment. He has also had a number of jobs that only lasted for one episode, such as becoming a jouster, before going back to his usual jobs.

Ernie the Giant Chicken

Peter's arch-nemesis is a giant chicken named Ernie. Ernie holds a grudge against Peter for accidentally hitting him at a dance, and years later attempts a strange form of revenge by giving Peter an expired coupon at the grocery store. Peter's outrage when the coupon is refused sparks the first of many random, unexpected fights in which Peter ends up the victor and leaves Ernie for dead, only for a sudden movement to show that the chicken is still alive. Their battles feature long strings of action film-style sequences, full of explosions, high-speed chases, and excessive damage to both property and innocent bystanders, becoming more outlandish and destructive with each occurrence. They have fought in the episodes "Da Boom", "Blind Ambition", and "No Chris Left Behind", the latest episode wherein his name is identified as Ernie. It is also revealed he has a wife in this episode named Nicole, also a giant chicken. In addition to these three episodes, Ernie makes a cameo appearance in "Meet the Quagmires" (where it shows why he holds a grudge against Peter), and appears in the video game as the final boss. He is also set to make an appearance in the upcoming Star Wars parody "Something, Something, Something Dark Side," in which he will portray the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett, archnemesis of Peter's Han Solo.

Personality

Peter appears to be unintelligent and consistently depicted as crude and lowbrow. He enjoys activities such as going to up-market tailors and farting inside the suits. His favorite pastime is watching TV. A running gag on the show is Peter's preference for Pauly Shore movies over classic films such as The Godfather and Citizen Kane. He is also a huge Kiss fan and followed them during the KissStock shows and even got a copy of Kiss Saves Santa for Christmas. Peter is also a huge fan of Barry Manilow, though this is a fact he has been known to deny in public (to a certain extent, anyway).

An I.Q. test confirms he is below mentally retarded . His mental shortcomings have resulted in various accidents and deaths to other people; most notably to his surrogate father Francis Griffin. His attention span is also incredibly short; when he discovers his mental retardation in "Petarded", he closes his eyes while driving, wishing "it would all be over". (hitting Tom Tucker with his car instead).

Peter also has a habit for proving his masculinity, not wanting Lois to fall for another man. He is incredibly jealous of other attractions Lois has in her life, an attitude that tends to get out of hand in most cases; in "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", he goes so far as to punch his reflection in the mirror after Lois comments on his reflection being handsome. In "Brian Sings and Swings", he tells Lois, "... remember, if I come home to find you sleeping with another man, I'll kill you both" (though when he catches her in bed with Bill Clinton in "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey", he takes no hostile actions whatsoever). However, he seems not to mind the fact that she, of course, slept with other men before they met, just so long as she doesn't do so again; he is particularly proud of the fact that she once slept with Gene Simmons of Kiss when he discovers this in "Road to Europe", but forbids any sexual actions between the two now as seen in "Don't Make Me Over".

Peter seems to find it frustrating when he is "wrong" while Lois is "right" about issues all the time, and apparently takes these issues competitively, just waiting for the day she slips up. This day finally comes in the episode "PTV" after settling a conflict with Lois about censorship on television that she appeared sure to win. In an ironic twist that forces Lois to concede defeat, Peter celebrates by opening a secret compartment within the ceiling containing balloons, streamers, confetti, and a banner reading "PETER'S RIGHT!"; Peter then claims that he set up the stall 15 years ago, suggesting that this was a pretty major issue for him for quite some time (there was also a clown in the stall, but he had since died after being in there for so long). Curiously, in the non-canon episode "Da Boom", after Lois admits he was right about the end of the world and she was wrong, Peter makes no reference to the compartment, though he had been bragging about his "victory" for two weeks straight.

Among the members of his family, he tends to treat Meg with the least amount of respect; in "Peter's Daughter", for example, he reminisces to various pranks he played on her, including tripping her, flicking her nose with his finger, and even shooting her at one point. He is known to embarrass her at times and with things that mean the most to Meg; the entire family once huddled together to read her diary and continues after Meg catches them. However, later episodes of the series show Peter developing greater respect and unity between himself and his daughter (such as in "Road to Rupert" and the aforementioned "Peter's Daughter"), though these moments tend not to last for very long.

Health

Despite being overweight at 298 pounds, a heavy drinker, and accident-prone, Peter appears to be in good health. Periodically, in typical cartoon fashion, Peter is shown recovering quickly from serious injuries, and in some episodes displays enormous strength, such as when singlehandedly challenging a professional football team in "Patriot Games".

He underwent a vasectomy in the episode "Sibling Rivalry."

Occasionally Peter soils himself, prominantly featured in Death Lives and When You Wish Upon a Weinstein. After he does these accidents, he never seems to notice that he did it due to his behavior.

Episodes like "Mr. Saturday Knight", "Model Misbehavior", "Deep Throats", and "Peter's Two Dads" show that Peter has used various drugs such as LSD, ecstasy, marijuana, steroids, cocaine and crack cocaine, but has managed to avoid incarceration and long-term effects from the use of these drugs.

In the series premiere, Peter mentions in a job interview that he didn't have gas until he was thirty.

In the episode "McStroke", Peter suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body after eating thirty hamburgers at once. For the next three months he walked with a limp as his arm and leg hung lifelessly from his body, and his eye and part of his mouth slid down his face, giving him a speech impediment. This damage was reversed completely after a 5 minute session at a stem cell research facility.

Musicianship

While the extent of Peter's musical training has never been made clear, Peter is given in several storylines various music skills, such as playing the piano only while intoxicated, and playing guitar while singing Family Guy also has frequent musical sequences which show Peter playing various instruments.

Ancestry

In the episode Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?, Peter discovers the Griffins had a pre-Civil War era African-American ancestor named Nate Griffin, a slave owned by his wife's ancestors. (This is the first of several episodes which have Peter related to Lois’ family in various ways.) Nate Griffin is later shown again in the Untitled Griffin Family History, where it was revealed that he had children with one of Lois' ancestors; this implies that Peter and Lois are distant relatives.

While not a major theme in the series, Peter self-identifies as black in subsequent episodes; in the episode Peter's Two Dads, however, Peter later discovers he is the biological son of an Irishman named Mickey McFinnigan .

Various stories, flashbacks and cutaway gags reveal Peter-like ancestors and relatives, for example, a philosopher named Thomas Griffin, who used existential pondering as an excuse to his wife for remaining unemployed. Many of these historical characters have wives or girlfriends bearing an obvious resemblance to Lois, family resembling the Griffins, and associates resembling Peter's neighbors.

In the episode "Peter's Two Dads", Peter discovers that his real father is not the late Francis Griffin, the stern Roman Catholic Irish-American patriarch of the first five seasons, but an Irishman named Mickey McFinnigan, a town drunk who resembles his son in every aspect, save red hair and an aged face.

Peter's middle name "Löwenbräu" is actually the name of a brand of German beer, which directly translates to "Lion's Brew." This would seem appropriate, since the creature of his surname's namesake is part-lion and Peter's favorite beverage happens to be beer. However, the phonetics of such a name appear to be the writers highbrow use of the term "Lowbrow", in association with Peter's comedy style.

Video game

In the Family Guy video game, Peter restarts his PTV television station and broadcasts a Mr. Belvedere marathon, which he watches for three days. His satellite eventually falls on him and he develops severe head trauma. When Peter awakes in the hospital, he believes Mr. Belvedere has kidnapped his family and goes on a rampage to find them. Once Peter discovers his family is safe, he goes to the Drunken Clam to get drunk. This is where Peter discovers his arch-nemesis, Ernie, the Giant Chicken, who is the final boss battle in the game. After another epic battle that takes them throughout the city, Peter defeats Ernie and escapes at the building he is in explodes, landing safely on top of Meg. He believes Ernie to be dead once again, not noticing that he was actually blown to safety on top of another building (where it is revealed Mayor West is making shadow puppets of Belvedere in a searchlight) and fully recovers, vowing revenge again.

Appearances in other media

Peter had several appearances outside Family Guy, most of them in the form of parodies. Perhaps the most notable example is the episode "Cartoon Wars" of South Park, in which he and with his family was parodied with intentionally poor voice impersonations. The Simpsons also had several appearances of Peter Griffin, most of them parodying the claims that Family Guy is a ripoff of the show. For example: he appears as one of Homer's clones in "Treehouse of Horror XIII," suggesting how similar the two characters are, and in a picture within an Italian book of criminals in "The Italian Bob," where he is listed under the alias "Plagarisimo." There were also a few cameo appearances of Peter in other shows such as Robot Chicken. He is currently being featured as an advertising icon for Subway Restaurants.

Footnotes

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 18:43:37 PDT (GMT -0700)
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