Characters / Family Guy - Brian Griffin

Family Guy Main Character Index
The Griffin Family (Peter Griffin | Stewie Griffin | Brian Griffin) | The Neighbors (Glenn Quagmire) | Recurring Characters (Pawtucket Brewery | Adam West High School | Quahog 5 News) | Antagonists

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Brian H. Griffin

"Whose leg do you have to hump to get a dry martini around here?!"

Voiced by: Seth MacFarlane, using something very close to his natural speaking voice.

Voiced by (Latin Spanish): Carlos Segundo (understudied by Juan Carlos Tinoco)

Voiced by (EU Spanish): Luis Bajo

Voiced by (EU French): Michel Dodane

Voiced by (Canadian French): Tristan Harvey

Debut: Death Has a Shadow

The Griffin Family's talking pet dog. He is a sophisticated and cultured, but cynical and world-weary Labrador, who serves as the voice of reason to the family, ironically managing to be the most "human" of all of them. In later seasons, Brian developed into a more pretentious and self-absorbed narcissist.

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Tropes A to E

• Accidental Hero: In "Short Cuts". Angered over being thrown out of Mort's pharmacy, Brian throws a rock at the window, which knocks out someone who had just robbed the place.
• Aesop Amnesia: Season 2's "Brian in Love" resolves his feelings for Lois with their deciding to stay friends in a fashion that one reviewer called "a perfectly believable and somewhat heartfelt earnest manner". Compare this to Season 6's "Play It Again, Brian", where he tries to force himself on Lois and, when confronted by a rightfully angry Peter, defends his actions and says Peter doesn't deserve her.
• The Alcoholic: Less so than Peter, but he has a penchant towards alcohol and tends to get really drunk whenever he's depressed.
• A God Am I: There are times where it's implied that Brian has a god complex or believes that he's above God. When Stewie explains to him that he created the big bang that created the universe, Brian tried to take credit for it by saying he also created the universe. In "Bri, Robot", he wanted the title of his book to be "Are you there, dog?. It's me, Brian", parodying the title Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and implying that he sees himself as a god among canines (and even people). Also, his Twitter handle is "@d0gbackwards".
• Ambiguously Bi: Season 17 alludes to this several times, but it is finally confirmed in Bri, Robot. When the robot duplicate of Brian that Stewie built to be exactly like Brian ends up having oral and anal sex with multiple men down at the marina.
  Stewie: Remember, Brian, it wouldn't do anything you wouldn't do!
• Animals Hate Him: Despite being an animal himself, he's had plenty of beef with other, usually non-sapient animals, especially squirrels. He's also been mauled by larger animals such as a tiger, a shark, a wolf and a troop of gorillas (the latter two in the same episode). He once admitted to taunting animals at the zoo, which doesn't help his case.
• Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: Brian normally behaves like a human, yet there are several moments in the series where he acts like a real dog, such as barking at firetruck sirens and expressing enthusiasm for walks in the park.
• Anyone Can Die: Subverted. Is hit by a car and Killed Off for Real... before being brought back to life 2 episodes later, in a publicity stunt.
• Appeal to Inherent Nature: At least once he excused his constant need for vindication and praise as being a basic dog trait. He just wants to be called a "good boy".
  Brian: All I care about is external validation! I'm a dog! "Good boy" is literally the best thing you can say to me!
• At Least I Admit It:
  • Season 7's "Fox-y Lady" has Lois become a reporter for Fox News and discover what she believes to be a gay relationship between Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh, only for Fox to refuse to let her slander Limbaugh. Brian, having previously insisted she not do the story so as not to humiliate Michael Moore, suggests she report the story anyway because it'll humiliate Rush Limbaugh. When Lois points this out to him, he falls back on this trope.
  • In "Quagmire's Mom", he calls out Quagmire for blaming his problems on his mom. Quagmire tries to label him as a hypocrite because he’s an Atheist defending a Christian, but Brian doesn’t even deny it. Doubly so when one recalls that Quagmire's one moral high ground against Brian is this trope and now Brian manages to take the moral high ground from him the moment he throws it away. Even more impressive when one of the reasons Quagmire hates Brian is his preachiness concerning his atheism and now he's expecting him to not defend his mother.
• Attempted Homewrecker: Brian has made several attempts to woo Lois, despite knowing full well that she's Happily Married to Peter.
• Author Avatar: Seth MacFarlane himself admitted that Brian reflects most of his political views. This was extremely prominent in season 7. He's also the only character for whom McFarlane uses his actual speaking voice.
• Bad Review Threat: In "Our Idiot Brian", Stewie takes Brian to a fancy restaurant, hoping to restore Brian's sophisticated side. Instead, Brian immediately threatens to leave a bad review on Yelp unless he's given free food.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: When Brian wears clothes, his outfits typically don't include shoes.
• Been There, Shaped History: During a Season-5 time-travel episode, Brian plays Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" at a dance Peter attended when he was 18. Marvin Astley, who is attending the dance, calls Rick to let him hear the "new" song that Brian is playing. This means, paradoxically, Brian inspired Rick Astley to create the song after Brian had first heard it from Astley in the present.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: He firmly believes that religion is a waste of time and that it overcomplicates things. In "Family Goy" he outright states that there are too many religions.
• Berserk Button: Stewie mispronouncing words.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: He may be a sentient member of the family, but he's still a dog. Who he dates or sleeps with and how it's treated (whether or not it's goes into Interspecies Romance) zigzags Depending on the Writer. When visiting a dimension where humans are pets, he gets called out on this when enjoying a human woman licking him.
• Blatant Lies: He will lie at the drop of a hat to hit on women he finds extremely attractive, and often will lie to himself by saying they have a connection.
• Body Horror: After shaving himself in "A Fistful of Meg". It is heavily implied in "Herpe, the Love Sore" that Brian's skin is one giant herpes outbreak.
• Book Smart: A college-educated Intellectual Animal. He's the most well-read member of the family, despite Stewie being the smartest.
• The Bore: In "Jerome is the New Black," Quagmire ends his "The Reason You Suck" Speech by stating he could look past all of Brian's faults... if he wasn't such a "big, sad, alcoholic bore."
• Bourgeois Bohemian: Brian exhibits most of the stereotypes, including watching PBS and driving a Prius. For a time that worked on two levels - the only recognizable specific make and model of car is driven by the talking dog - but in later seasons they make Peter's station wagon more and more recognizably a Ford LTD.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: While Brian often brags about being a cultured intellectual, he's pretty much nothing but a commitment-phobic and pretentious slacker who often avoids taken responsibility for anything in his life unless it benefits him.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Beyond the fourth season, the writers started shackling him with a lot more bad luck and bodily harm.
  • In "High School English", the characters Brian plays in each segment all end up getting killed in increasingly painful ways (i.e. shot, disemboweled, crushed).
• Casanova Wannabe: What he becomes in later seasons. Most of his attempts to pick up women fall flat, due to him being unable to connect with them, seeing them only as objects, or simply using outdated slang terms to try and seem "cool".
• Characterization Marches On:
  • He was extremely deadpan in early episodes, to the point of bordering The Stoic. By the end of the pre-cancellation run, he is a fully emotional character and more prone to neuroses.
  • In seasons 2 and 3, he had aspirations of becoming an actor. From season 4 onwards, this has given way to his desire to become an author.
  • In the very first episode, he states that he doesn't vote and in "The Thin White Line", he thanks God for his nose. This was way before he was established as both a liberal and an atheist.
• Characterizing Sitting Pose: He always sits in a human-like pose, which indicates that his personality is similar to a human one (in fact, he is frequently portrayed as the only sane person in the family).
• Character Tics: When Brian is happy, excited, or aroused, he wags his tail.
• The Chew Toy: Yes, plenty of fans enjoy Brian's Butt-Monkey status thanks to the heat he gained in the past seasons.
• Civilized Animal: In earlier seasons. Newer ones make him a Funny Animal with occasional Furry Reminders.
• Color Blind Confusion: Once complains about receiving a bowl of gray M&Ms since, as a dog, he can't see colors.
• The Comically Serious: Especially in the earlier seasons.
• Commander Contrarian: Lois calls him out on this behavior and how he will often side with the topic everyone else doesn't just to make himself the smartest person in the room.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Dishes an effortless one in "Guy, Robot." He shorts out Stewie's A.I. Is a Crapshoot robot friends with a garden hose before Stewie can do anything to help.
• Deadpan Snarker: The writers even describe Brian's humor to be as dry as the martinis he drinks. He's by far the most consistently snarky character on the show, which is a product of his cynicism and Holier Than Thou/Know-Nothing Know-It-All personality. Perhaps best exemplified when not even being kidnapped, tied up, and held hostage in a dark hotel room with dozens of candles (by Meg) can stifle his snark:
  Meg: I'm really having a great time tonight, Brian. I can't believe you went to all this trouble.
  Brian: [tied to a chair; completely deadpan] Well... you know me.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • While all of the characters' personalities are based on Rule of Funny, Brian is perhaps the most erratic in later seasons, switching between his original slightly flawed Only Sane Man Nice Guy role in one episode and a completely odious self-absorbed weasel in the other.
  • This also applies to his writing skills. Most episodes depict him as a hack with more ego than talent, but a few depict him winning awards or getting his scripts picked up by production companies.
• Deuteragonist: He is second only to Peter.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Tries and fails numerous times to get back with Jillian. Happens all the time with every woman of the episode he falls for.
• Dirty Coward: When Brian was at gunpoint in one episode, he once got Stewie shot just because he was a baby. Brian in general just runs away just to avoid taking responsibility for his actions like knocking Lois unconscious after waking up to him caressing her breasts and hiding from Quagmire after selling him a crappy apartment.
• Dirty Old Man: He's 56 years old in dog years (7 or 8), and he repeatedly tries to get with women who would be young enough to be his daughter if he were a human, including one of Meg's friends. More generally, he pretends to be everything from a tennis champion to an award-winning author to get women interested in him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In "Pawtucket Pete," the brewery bosses fire him after his mascot float is blown by a jealous Peter, causing helium, panic, and disaster in the city. Brian wasn't even to blame for all this but he was fired as a cheap way to return things back to normal.
• The Dog Bites Back: He slowly grows a mutual hatred for Quagmire after putting up with his hatred for so long and eventually starts making efforts to make his life a living hell. Taken literally when Quagmire takes the dispute to physical levels in "Tiegs For Two" and "Cat Fight".
• Dogs Are Dumb: Zigzagged. Brian is often the most sensible and reasonably intelligent character of the main cast (at least when he isn't Feigning Intelligence), but like everyone else, he's made plenty of mistakes, especially in later episodes.
• Dogs Hate Squirrels: A regular staple of his character, he has gone as far as deliberately running one over with his car and tearing apart a baby squirrel that Stewie and Chris raised together.
• The Dragon: To Stewie, in several episodes.
• Drink-Based Characterization: He's often seen drinking martinis. Martinis are known to be dry, which is reflective of Brian's dry wit and cynical personality.
• Easy Evangelism: Particularly during Season 7, he could easily manipulate others toward his views. Brian himself went through this in "Excellence in Broadcasting", switching from far-left to far-right overnight after reading Rush Limbaugh's book, though he's ultimately called out by Lois and later Limbaugh himself for just siding with the current minority opinion to sound smart.
• Entitled Bastard: Despite his long-running feud with the man, Brian is often quick to expect Quagmire to make concessions for him.
  • In "Tiegs For Two", when his dating Cheryl Tiegs to spite Quagmire results in both Cheryl and Jillian wanting nothing more to do with either of them, Brian actually suggests that he and Quagmire may have become friends afterward, and asks for Quagmire to give him a lift home.
  • In "Road to the North Pole", he expects Quagmire to let him and Stewie cut in the line for Santa.
  • In "Adam West High", he gives Quagmire a half-hearted compliment regarding his piloting skills, then urges Quagmire to give him a compliment in return (and let him attend his pool parties), claiming that he "has to". Quagmire bluntly refuses.
  Quagmire: I'm not going to say something I don't mean just because your ego needs to hear it.
• Ephebophile: Brian is pretty consistently seen creeping on teenagers. He's been seen pining after Patty, Malia Obama, and in one egregious case would be trying to sneak into a girl's bathroom at a high school, and then getting promptly thrown out by security.
• Even the Guys Want Him: It's implied that Stewie is attracted to him.
• The Exile:
  • As of "The D in Apartment 23", Brian was forced into exile as a result of a joke that offended most of Quahog's population. Even after giving them a scathing diatribe to everyone of the townspeople he tried to apologize to because they wouldn't even let Brian apologize, that wasn't enough to deter them. They continued to harass the Griffins to the point that Brian had to be kicked out.
  • Two episodes later, it becomes subverted during the events of Crimes and Meg's Demeanor, Brian is finally welcomed back home by the family, but not because everyone forgave him for that offensive tweet. It's because he managed to recover $200 worth of stolen food from the school, which the principal had embezzled due to his spying on his neighbors at his new apartment.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even though he hits on Lois when Peter's not around, he doesn’t stoop as low as to try and do so when Peter has amnesia. In fact, he even goes off to warn Peter that Quagmire will do so in "Big Man on Hippocampus".
  • He does not approve of Quagmire's plan to sleep with Meg in "Meg and Quagmire'' and tells of Peter for not doing anything about it. Thankfully, Peter came to his senses and intervened afterwards.
  • When Chris introduces his new girlfriend Lindsey to his family, he and Stewie are both disturbed at how Chris is dating someone who heavily resembles Lois. He's also put off by how awful Lindsey is to Chris and as a person and how Lois deliberately ignores that because of their resemblance.
  • He's genuinely disgusted by Peter and Lois exploiting and overexerting Stewie to earn money off his fame as a child star in "The Peanut Butter Kid" and immediately goes to get Stewie off his career as a child star to prevent any further damage.

Tropes F to J

• Fair-Weather Foe: While being Quagmire's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, Brian is the more liable of the two to untuously play nice if it conveniences him, and in fact spends the early points of the rivalry trying to soothe things out simply because he can't stand someone hating him. This does him no favours however since one of the things Quagmire abhors about Brian is his tendency to kiss up to people just to get his ego stroked. After this earned him a few vicious rebuttals, Brian lost patience and started aggressing Quagmire back, though still has moments of skulking up to him as a last ditch effort.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. When he thinks he's right, he refuses to back down. This has often led to painful consequences for Brian.
  • Whenever someone doubts his romantic choices, he tends to "double down" on them; When Lois voiced her suspicions that he was merely stringing Jillian along, he chose to move in with her, leading to their relationship falling apart soon after. And after the whole family drove Rita to tears with comments about her age, Brian proposed to her on the spot - only to quickly have second thoughts about the whole thing.
  • When he tries a new hobby, he quickly becomes obsessed with it, and convinced he's the best at it, to the point where he talks down about those who have actually been doing it longer than he has (such as in "The Book of Joe" and "The Woof of Wall Street"). All too soon, he takes things too far, resulting in pain and/or humiliation.
  • He tends to act like he's the protagonist of a romantic movie, believing that 'love conquers all' and that he can bypass any barrier in a relationship if he just loves the girl enough...only for the reality of the situation to smack him in the face when it reminds him that life isn't a movie.
• Feigning Intelligence: A downplayed example. Brian isn't stupid by any means, but starting with mid season 4 he's definitely not as intelligent as he'd like you to believe. For example: he uses words he doesn't know, often claims to read things like classic literature (but is almost never shown reading any kind of books), and is just a general, all around hypocrite.
  • In "Peternormal Activity", he stoops to wearing a fake pair of glasses to make himself look smarter.
• The Finicky One: He increasingly becomes this, albeit to an often hypocritical level (it is frequently lampshaded for all his uptight rants, he is as much of a self serving sleaze as the rest of the family).
• Flanderization:
  • Brian originally only drank from time to time and had trouble getting women to go out with him because most of the women he dated were airheads with hot bodies. By Season 5, he has become a full-blown alcoholic who actively seeks dates with dumb, but attractive human women.
  • Brian was originally an average cliche left wing caricature (i.e. condescending and self-righteous but still well meaning and earnest in his beliefs), but slowly devolved into a sleazy Straw Hypocrite, flip-flopping views to give himself moral superiority, and often babbling pretentious rants in a desperate ploy for attention and dignity.
  • His tendency to date stupid women with hot bodies was originally played as something that frustrated him because he was really in love with Lois. Over time it became that he dated dumb women so he could feel smarter than them, and he has no reservations seeking romance with underage teens. On the other hand, his love for Lois almost became an obsession, to the point he harasses her in "Play It Again, Brian" and "Joe's Revenge".
  • After his revival in "Christmas Guy", he became more and more of a Jerkass, doing things like giving Stewie and Chris herpes and taking advantage of his son Dylan's career.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Despite the appearances of God and Jesus on earth in the show, Brian is a staunch atheist. Stewie lampshades this in "3 Acts of God" and "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!".

  "Jesus lived with us for, like, a week. What else do you need?"

• Forgot I Couldn't Swim: Brian sometimes forgets that he's a dog and that he carries their limitations. For example, he eats a box of Valentines day chocolates and ends up at the vets because (as a dog) chocolate is toxic to him and he can't eat them. In another episode, Brian tries to donate one of his kidneys to Peter when the latter develops kidney failure. The operation will kill him because they need both of Brian's kidneys in order to save Peter. When they're about to go through the procedure Dr Hartman comes back and tells the family that he'll donate his one of his kidneys instead. Because Brian is a dog, the surgery would be doomed to fail and both Brian and Peter will die due to species incompatibility.
• Freudian Excuse: Deep down, Brian is aware of how little importance his life has, which is why he tends to go overboard when he actually succeeds in getting attention or glory.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: A recurring theme with Brian is that he always tries to blame someone else for his own faults, only for someone to point out to him that a lot of his problems were caused by his own ego and were, in fact, his own fault.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: He hasn't interacted with Babs Pewterschmidit onscreen yet.
• Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Brian has a habit of getting intrigued by some new activity or aspect of himself, and becoming totally obsessed with it, to the point of letting it consume his identity. Stewie notes this in "Fecal Matters", disdainfully calling Brian a "Pretentious absorber".
• Fully-Clothed Nudity: After subverting discussion about his constant state of this for almost fifteen years, it was lampshaded in "A Fistful Of Meg".
• Funny Animal: In seasons 1-3, he was a dog with humanoid traits, but now he's more like a human stuck in a dog's body. He also walks on two legs and behaves as human as a dog can. Lampshaded in "The Simpsons Guy" where he's forced to eat in the kitchen with Santa's Little Helper, whom he doesn't understand due to his barking. He also acts as a living Deconstruction on occasion, albeit with occasional Talking Animal moments (particularly in the first run of the series, where they were more frequent).
• Furry Confusion: He plays up the trope, driving a recognizable Toyota Prius while Peter and Lois have generic cartoon cars, and often holding a martini (complete with olive) while walking around the house on his hind legs, all of which makes it MUCH funnier when he does engage in realistic canine behavior.
• Furry Reminder: In later seasons, they are often thrown in his face when he tries to sound smarter than everyone.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Though he'll often teeter towards Insufferable Genius.
• Go Out with a Smile: In "Life of Brian", the last thing he does before succumbing to his wounds is to smile at the family he truly loved.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He is this way regarding his friendship with Stewie.
  • In "Dog Bites Bear", he destroyed Rupert out of spite over Stewie considering a stuffed toy to be his best friend rather than Brian.
  • In "Pal Stewie", his jealousy over Stewie getting a friend his own age led to him hiding a birthday party invitation meant for Stewie.
  • In "Brian's Play", he gets so upset that the play Stewie wrote is so much better than his that he tells him it's bad and buries it in the yard.
  • In "The Movement", he does a very poor job of hiding his jealousy after Peter is mistaken for an activist and applauded by the media.
• Groin Attack: Was on the receiving end after his death got prevented.
• Growling Gut: Brian experiences this in "Meg Stinks!" due to hunger when he was forced to live in the backyard because he was sprayed by a skunk.
• The Heart: The closest thing the Griffins have to a glue that keeps them together. He serves as a counterbalance to Peter's stupidity, the closest thing to a decent parental-figure to Chris and Meg, a chain to hold down Stewie's more amoral side, and an intellectual equal for Lois to talk to.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Stewie.
• Hidden Depths: "Peter, Chris,and Brian" and "Turkey Guys" show that he's a surprisingly talented sketch artist. The former also shows that he's capable of expert-level mathematics.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: In regards to his writing career. Even before the show's first cancellation, Lois mentioned that she found his writing "hackneyed and stilted"; his attempts to sell his scripts in Hollywood went nowhere.
• Hypocrite: He has a nasty tendency to be a huge hypocrite.
  • In "Quagmire's Mom", he calls out Quagmire for blaming all his problems on his mother. While he isn't wrong, this is still coming from someone who refuses to accept his own failings in both his romantic and literary pursuits, constantly blaming others for them.
  • In "Family Guy Lite", he had no problem using what he read in what he thought was a list of qualities Lois wanted in her ideal man to try and seduce her into cheating on Peter. But when it looked like she was having an affair with someone else, he begged her not to do it, claiming she would be betraying Peter.
  • In "Peterminator", he accuses Stewie of being in love with himself. Brian himself is a major Narcissist, to the point of sleeping with the robot double of himself in "Bri, Robot".
  • In "Brian & Stewie", it is a well-established fact that Brian is a left-wing, gun-grabbing liberal stereotype. Stewie questions why Brian keeps a gun in his safety deposit box; Brian admits to having it in case he ever contemplates suicide. This is extremely hypocritical of Brian because he believes in strict gun control laws, which include restrictions that do not allow the mentally ill or people who are a major risk for self-harm or suicide to possess firearms, which would include Brian himself. This is essentially a continuation of Brian's most common hypocritical trait of not following laws, morals, rules, or policies that he would enforce on others.
  • In "Short Cuts", while ranting over being kicked out of Mort's pharmacy just for being a dog, he claims it's discrimination, comparing it to what happened with "those blacks" at the Starbucks. Stewie is noticeably unnerved by Brian's choice of words.
  • In "Play it Again, Brian," he talks about how Peter doesn't deserve Lois (due to Peter paying Lois back with selfishness and neglect despite Lois being so giving towards him). While what Brian said was true, you have to remember that Brian had some good ex-girlfriends that he didn't deserve either due to faults of his own (with Rita being a good example because Brian repaid Rita by cheating on her when Rita was nothing but good to him).
  • In "Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog)", Brian was desperate to win the dog show just so he could breed with Ellie, yet in "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", he refused to do dog tricks in another dog show because he felt that certain dog tricks were demeaning, even though the prize money could have bought the family a new air conditioner, which they needed. This just proves that Brian thinks that it's wrong for people to engage in demeaning acts, but it's okay for people to engage in said acts for their own personal benefit.
• Hypocrite Has a Point:
  • As Quagmire routinely points out, Brian is sleazy, self-important, and completely hypocritical, but he is often on the dot when he claims Quagmire is as much a self contradicting egotist as he is. Even the aforementioned case in "Quagmire's Mom", he isn't wrong to think Quagmire blaming all his life choices on his mother's upbringing is total bullshit, especially from someone who claimed his true redeeming function over Brian is at least being honest about being sleazy (and Quagmire just call him on it).
  • Even though Brian was hypocritical when he talked about how Peter didn't deserve Lois, he still isn't wrong about that point. Even other characters, like Carter, think Peter is a bad fit for Lois.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: When it comes to women, Brian really can’t control his urges. Notable examples include:
  • "Be Careful What You Fish For" has him wanting to discuss matters with the teacher of the school because Stewie told him about her neglectful treatment of the students there. When he sees that she's an attractive young woman, he goes from trying to call her out for her poor management to trying to have sex with her. Only when he finds out that she has a boyfriend does he finally do the right thing.
  • In "Whistle While Your Wife Works" he gets into a relationship with a dimwitted blonde named Jillian because she's an attractive woman with a rather fit body. When he finally decides to break up with her because he can't put up with her stupidity anymore, he fails to go through with it when she removes her towel and unintentionally arouses him. Afterwards, he decides to just have sex with her, though he is ashamed of doing so.
  • In "Switch the Flip", he swaps bodies with Peter and when Lois has sex with him, he immediately gives in and is proud of himself afterwards.
  • "Scammed Yankees" has him attempting to seduce Meg's friend Patty when he finds out that she has a rather impressive body.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Brian bounces between a narcissistic douchebag and a suicidally depressed Glory Hound. His love life is a mess because when he thinks he has to prove himself, he'll marry the first woman who shows her support to him. Even if it's been only a week since they started dating.
• Insufferable Genius: In later seasons, and that "genius" part is really stretching it.
• Intellectual Animal: What he's supposed to be, being far more erudite than the human members of the Griffin family. If he still qualifies as "intellectual" after his Flanderization, it's a debate among fans.
• Interspecies Romance: Brian has several of these with humans (and a mogwai).
• I Reject Your Reality: Brian has a bad habit of refusing to see his own flaws and mistakes, and make all kinds of excuses for why he doesn't get what he wants.
  • He's convinced he's a great writer, despite his first book being universally panned by literary critics. In "Brian Writes a Best-Seller", he claims the reason no-one bought his book is because everyone wants to read self-help books instead.
  • When it comes to women, Brian will often claim he has a "connection" with them, and that it's "true love". When all the women he's dated bring up his shortcomings in "Valentines Day in Quahog", he insists that they're all just mad he didn't want to be with them.
  • In "The Finer Strings", he is unable to accept that Carter no longer needs him around, quickly convincing himself that Carter sees him as a friend, and only pushed him aside because he was insulted that Brian was offering to work for him rather than just hang out.
• Irony: Seth MacFarlane uses his natural speaking voice for a character that's not human (even though Brian hardly, if ever, acts like a dog. In the rare times he does, it's wooden and unconvincing — i.e., when he barks).
• It's All About Me: In "Cat Fight", Brian worked tirelessly to get Quagmire's cat cafe closed down, chiefly because it was right next door to his favorite drinking spot, and he didn't want cats anywhere near it.
• Jaded Washout: At times, Brian can admit to himself that he hasn't accomplished much despite having already lived half his expected lifespan, a fact that he hates.
• Jerkass: Later in the show. Much like Peter and Lois, he became one through Flanderization. By Season 12, he has devolved into an amoral, selfish jerk who deliberately gives Stewie and Chris herpes as a joke and sells Quagmire a dilapidated apartment after he has the decency to help Brian fix his teeth.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Brian stated that Peter doesn't deserve Lois because he always paid Lois with selfishness and neglect. Considering Peter's personality, Brian may have a point.
  • He is vindictive towards Quagmire and exasperates his charade around dog-lover Carrie for kicks in "Must Love Dogs", though as he warned him earlier, it was a badly thought idea in the first place and really not worth the effort for a fling he'll likely get sick of, something Quagmire rudely dismisses as Brian just being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All again.
  • Additionally, while Quagmire has plenty reasons to reject Brian as a friend, he is also often antagonistic towards Brian even when he isn't bothering him, a large reason Brian eventually snapped and requitted him as his Arch-Enemy in the first place. In "The Bird Reich", after Quagmire heckles Brian's pretentious behaviour in a book signing event, Brian asks why he even came in the first place.
• Jerkass Realization: He gradually reaches this in "Bri, Robot". When Stewie creates a robotic version of him designed to think and act exactly the way he does, Brian is ultimately disgusted at how insufferable and pretentious he can be.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He still has more moments of clarity than most of the other Griffins. Out of all the family, he's the one who treats Meg more nicely, although that's not saying much.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In "Brian The Closer" when Brian tricks Quagmire into buying a dumpy home despite Quagmire having had a legitimate Pet the Dog moment towards him earlier in the episode by paying for fixing his ruined teeth when even the rest of the Griffins wouldn't. Quagmire calls him out for it, causing Brian to have a My God, What Have I Done? moment. However, this was just a trick for Brian to get past the 72 hours before Quagmire could cancel the deal. When the deadline reaches, he gloats cruelly in Quagmire's face, getting his face smashed and teeth knocked out again with a lamp in retaliation. Even if this were a possible attempt at getting back at Quagmire for how badly he's treated him these past few seasons, it didn't work out for him entirely.

Tropes K to P

• Kavorka Man: He has dated a fair number of human women considering he's a dog.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All:
  • Especially in the later seasons when he insists he's right about everything and pushes his beliefs to get everyone to take his side, and takes credit for ideas that weren't his in the first place and other times using them as an excuse in order to get into a woman's pants, as Quagmire put it:
    Quagmire: You pretend you're some profound intellectual, but you're not!
  • It's also been shown, in both early and late seasons, that for all his supposed intellectualism, he is a terrible writer, rarely reads anything worthwhile, and watches trash TV.
    Brian: Oh, finally, another reader in the family. You know, these are some of my favorite books and authors.
    Peter: Oh? What are you reading right now?
    Stewie: Oh, boy.
    Brian: Well, I'm I'm sort of between books right now.
    Peter: Yeah? What was the last thing you read?
    Stewie: He's got you on the ropes now.
    Brian: I-I'm actually rereading a lot of stuff.
    Peter: Yeah? Like what?
    Stewie: Just tap out.
    Brian: Uh the classics, you know? Going back to the, uh basics, really. Words on the printed page. Thank you, Steve Guttenberg, right? What is this, oak?
    Stewie: Oh, I don't even think it's oak!
  • It reaches its head in "Our Idiot Brian," where Brian is convinced by Meg to take her SAT class... and ends up getting the lowest possible score, much to Meg's annoyance. It turns out that this was the result of a brain tumor.
    Meg: Damn it, why did I ever think you were smart?!
  • In "Inside Family Guy", he claims working on the show reminds him of his favorite scene from Macbeth. When asked what that scene is, he immediately gets defensive about it.
  • In "Bri-da", he made a Night at the Museum reference, then moments later admitted that he'd never actually seen the movie.
  • In "Get Stewie", he tries to sell the well-known line about powers and responsibilities as a quote from Nelson Mandela, much to Stewie's boredom.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • In "The Woof of Wall Street". When he and Stewie discovered a protein shake company he planned to invest in was using dogs as ingredients, Brian barely batted an eye at the inhumane conditions his fellow canines were kept in, and still wanted to invest in the company.
  • "Cat Fight" reveals that Brian's worst nightmare is having to listen to other people's problems.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Cat Fight". After trying to get Quagmire's cat cafe closed for petty reasons, he finally succeeded - only to find the order banning cats from such business extended to all animals, meaning he could no longer go into bars.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: In "Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog)", he chuckles while re-reading some of his own tweets.
• Lazy Bum:
  • In "Brian's a Bad Father", he considers putting together a half-baked story idea to be a "good afternoon's work".
  • In "Peter Problems", he adamantly refuses to help support the family (following Peter getting fired) by getting a job, claiming that his writing is his job.
  • In "Bri, Robot", his robot double (who acted just like him) spent an entire day "working on the margins" rather than actually writing anything.
• Mirror Character: Throughout the course of their feud, Brian has become more openly sleazy and antagonistic back towards Quagmire, while Quagmire has became more prudish and judgemental. Most of their verbal spats revolve around them pontificating at each other for utterly hypocritical reasons, with "Tiegs For Two" even ending on them getting called out for being as bad as each other.
• Modern Major General: Brian is an awful writer, but one episode indicated that his true talent was as a director. When his cousin Jasper got him a job directing porno films, Brian turned out to be so good at it that he even won a "Woody" award.
• Morality Pet: He is one for Stewie. Stewie's good traits are often shown in his friendship with Brian.
• Moral Myopia:
  • In "Run, Chris, Run". While pretending to be a student at Chris's school, he tried to hit on some girls, to the point of following them into the girls' bathroom. After he gets thrown out for this, he points out to Stewie that there were security guards in the bathroom, and starts ranting about how they're living in a "state of fear".
  • In Family Guy Lite he mistakes Lois' story as a list of qualities in her perfect man and openly states that he plans to use this info to compose himself as her dream man and finally have sex with her. However, when he discovers that her ideal man is based on a real person, he assumes she's cheating on Peter and tries to stop the affair. After the matter is straightened out, Lois wastes no time pointing out Brian's skewed moral take on the whole situation.
• Motive Decay:
  • In early seasons, Brian wanted to date a woman of depth and substance, having gotten tired of Brainless Beauties who have no idea what he's talking about when he wants to have meaningful conversations. Later on, the Griffins (Lois especially) make fun of him for dating nothing but said Brainless Beauties and Quagmire even calls him out on this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech from "Jerome Is The New Black" (with Quagmire pointing out his hypocrisy by stating, "Yeah, I date women for their bodies, but at least I'm honest about it...") Not to say that he still end up in dates with women of depth that end badly, most notably Carolyn and Ida, the former who Cleveland snagged, and the latter who turned out to be Quagmire's dad post-sex change.
  • Brian was originally truly in love with Lois, enough that he respected her request that they stay friends. In later series, this erodes into Brian just wanting to sleep with Lois, and caring nothing for her desires.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Brian acts like a human for most of the time, but sometimes he shows dog traits; for example, he will chase balls, is attracted to the sound of dog food in a bag, and is terrified of the vacuum cleaner.
• Narcissist: In later seasons. He has an ego the size of Texas, bashes everything that does not agree with him, told Meg that there is no God because she does not have a good life, and is a Know-Nothing Know-It-All that makes everybody that seems to have a lower IQ look like idiots. And everyone else knows it; When he offers to let Stewie "kill" something he loves in return for destroying Rupert, Stewie immediately puts a gun to Brian's face, saying "Why don't I do that?"
• Nay-Theist: Brian hates God, so he prefers Cessation of Existence.
• Never My Fault:
  • When it comes to his relationships. Brian always tries to act intelligent and suave to get women to have sex with him, and when they break up with him, he always blames them, but never thinks about what he did. Plus, he blamed Stewie for everything in "Brian Writes A Bestseller."
  • This reaches new heights in "The Woof of Wall Street"; After his greed almost got him killed, he blames both the stock market and money itself, despite Stewie pointing out that he himself has been playing the stock market for years with no problems, and that Brian is entirely at fault for what happened to him. Although he's not wrong pointing out their own flaws in "Valentine's Day in Quahog" (which only pissed them off).
  • In "Bri, Robot", he obsessively cyber-stalked a waitress until he found her home, and freaked her out by standing outside her window. He has the nerve to claim all that is her fault for putting a smiley face on his receipt.
• No-Respect Guy: Starting in season 4, he's apparently become the "New Meg", and often receives the next-worst of the humiliation in the show, such as being forced into a bee costume. His genuine concern for Meg in the later seasons actually makes a lot of sense.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Often to Stewie.
• Not So Above It All: Especially in episodes like "Be Careful What You Fish For".
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: As of "A Fistful of Meg", he (probably) lost a ton of weight and his skin somehow became shriveled. It should be noted that is was not originally the case, as several earlier (post-cancellation) episodes involved him losing his fur, showing his skin and body condition to be completely normal looking.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Despite being such a laid-back character, he is the best friend of the psychotic Stewie.
  • Oddly enough, all of his few interactions with Cleveland show that they have a decent friendship.
• Off the Wagon (but occasionally ends up back on it)
• Only Friend: Stewie doesn't have any friends his own age and Brian is the only person who he has a stable friendship with.
• Only Sane by Comparison: In later seasons, he's a smug, pretentious Know-Nothing Know-It-All who thinks he is a brilliant writer (when he's anything but) and he has a habit of getting caught up in his own hype, can be extremely selfish and consistently refuses to face up to or learn from any of his flaws. That said, Brian can still fill the role of the Only Sane Man with his usually down-to-earth attitude whenever Lois is being just as insane as the rest of the dysfunctional Griffins.
• Only Sane Man: Used to be the most level-headed of the family in early seasons. He can still be one in later seasons, despite his Small Name, Big Ego tendencies.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the episode "Once Bitten", Brian goes to obedience school, and when he comes back home, he's a totally different dog. He asks permission to come in the house, is polite and submissive towards everyone at all times, and constantly worries about being a "bad dog." But the one thing that drives the point home is that he doesn't argue with Stewie over the latter's pronunciation of the word "whip."
  Stewie: It looks like someone's gone at him with a hwhip.
  Brian: That is... that is a perfectly valid way of saying that. Bravo, Master.
• Opinion Flip-Flop: His most common method of picking up women in later seasons. In "Peter's Got Woods" he meets a beautiful black woman and tries to curry her favor by getting Chris' school renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. In another episode, when a woman says magicians turn her on, he immediately blurts out "I'm a magician!"
• Papa Wolf: Sometimes subverted in some instances but played straight in others. A lot of plots involving he and Stewie involve Brian trying to protect the latter; however, sometimes Brian's good intentions are derailed by his rather glaring flaws (for example, in one episode he attempts to bust a neglectful daycare Stewie is attending, only to fall for its attractive owner and forget his original intentions).
• Parental Substitute: Played straight with Meg and Chris on occasion. His connection with Stewie is obviously more of a friendship. Stewie does however state in a dream that he considers Brian more of a father to him than Peter has ever been.
• Perpetual Frowner: Especially in the first three seasons.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Out of all the family, Brian treats Meg the least shabbily, often sharing heartwarming moments and meaningful conversations with her, the most poignant examples being "Dial Meg For Murder" and "Seahorse Seashell Party."
  • He defends Quagmire from Peter a number of three times in "Hot Pocket-Dial." The first instance was when Peter revealed the voice mail Quagmire accidentally sent, Brian advices Peter to delete it and not allow it to get in the way of their friendship. The second was when Quagmire and Ida arrived at the party the Griffin family were hosting, he immediately tells Peter to remember what they discussed the previous night. The third time was when Peter assaults Quagmire, he almost immediately puts himself in the middle of Peter and Quagmire before helping Cleveland restrain Peter and prevent him from further attacking Quagmire. Brian had nothing to gain from helping Quagmire and their rivalry will still carry on as if nothing happened, making Brian's defense of Quagmire all the more well-intentioned.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being half the size of most characters and not fighting back most of the time, Brian is formidable in a brawl. "Play It Again, Brian" has him beat Peter in a brutal bar fight, which is quite impressive when his long, bloody scraps with the Giant Chicken are taken into account. It helps that as a dog, he can bite pretty hard; on two separate occasions, he traumatises Peter after biting his arm.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Depending on the Writer in the post-cancellation episodes, and sometimes not even that:
  • He's shown to be openly hostile or otherwise derisive of Black people, particularly Black men, often insulting them to the point of Stewie of all people calling him out on his behavior.
  • As Quagmire infamously pointed out, his views on women are pretty hypocritical and at times misogynist despite his beliefs to the contrary or that the former's not exactly a representative for the National Organization of Women (which he excuses via At Least I Admit It).
  • He goes after Arianna Huffington for her calling out his book for potentially being harmful by making fun of her heavy Greek accent, saying that she talks like she has a mouth full of syrup and calling her Zsa Zsa (in spite of the latter being Hungarian).
• The Pornomancer: Brian tries to be romantic, but invariably most of his encounters are quickies and one-night stands with women he barely knows, often brainless beauties (i.e. Jillian and the nameless blonde who mispronounced "escargot" and "Chablis" in "Brian Wallows, Peter Swallows"), as pointed out by Quagmire in his rant against Brian (with Quagmire pointing out that, yes, he goes after airheaded women too, but he doesn't put up a pseudo-intellectual front to get in their pants the way Brian does). Though, as seen in some Season 10 and 11 episodes, it seems that he finally gave up on purchasing long time, meaningful relationships, and is merely interested in having sex with as many women as possible. Ironically, this makes him similar to Quagmire.
• Pride Before a Fall: A recurring theme with Brian. All too often, he lets being successful at something (or the idea of someone recognising his skills) go to his head, bringing about humiliation when things go wrong.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While not as bad as Peter, Brian can be pretty impulsive himself especially in one episode where he's being chased to two men on a boat, he gets psychotically gleeful with a gun and thinks of it as playing a video game and even shoots a random person in a different boat just for the fun of it.

Tropes R to T

• Rage Breaking Point: Though Brian was showing some brimming resentment back, Quagmire's hatred for him was mostly one-sided until "Tiegs For Two" when Brian blames him for failed dating tips. Quagmire snaps back it was Brian's own follies at fault, and makes a cheap shot about the girl dodging a bullet by dumping a loser like him, leaving Brian livid and plotting a very personal revenge. From that point, Brian is generally just as openly curt, judgemental and petty towards Quagmire as vice versa.
• Rape by Fraud: Twice, when Brian dated a blind woman he pretended to be human so she could give him a fair chance. But, he secretly took pictures of her breasts when she showed them to him. After she broke up with him, he decides to imitate an actor so she could date him again. Brian also slept with Lois after switching bodies with Peter, she never knew about the mind swap and consented to sleep with Peter, not Brian.
• Really Gets Around: He’s slept with enough women to fill the Griffin Family's living room. And he’s still going.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Gives one to Connie at the prom after she insults Meg.
  • Was on the receiving end of an iconic one from Quagmire in "Jerome is the New Black". Glen concludes that he would easily forgive the long list of shortcomings if he wasn't such a "bore".
  • He finally gets to serve a mini-one back in "Quagmire's Mom" where he outright labels Quagmire a coward for blaming all his shortcomings on his mother.
  • He gets one from Stewie in "Pal Stewie", calling him out on his petty jealousy over Stewie making a new friend, yet putting no real effort into their friendship afterwards.
  • Lois delivers one to him in "Family Guy Lite", basically calling him out for trying to sleep with her, then acting like her sleeping with someone else was morally repugnant.
  • Quagmire delivers another one to him in "Adam West High", pointing out that the only reason he was running for mayor was to satisfy his own ego.
  • He unleashes one on Peter in "Turkey Guys" for causing them both a string of problems that made it difficult for them to return home. When he finds out that Peter framed him, he finally snaps and decides to just leave Peter by himself.
• Redemption Rejection: In "Brian the Closer", Quagmire shows a begrudged moment of sympathy towards Brian and even starts becoming affable and trusting towards him after he takes a job in realty estate. Unfortunately, the job goes to Brian's head and he remorselessly cons Quagmire into buying a run-down building, reigniting Quagmire's violent hatred of him.
• Sadist: He frequently kills and terrorizes squirrels for pure sadism. This is an act that even shocks Stewie.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Jillian when they were together.
• Seen It All: Due to how he's lived past his expected lifespan, his reaction to most of the weird occurrences he's witnessed are either fully opening his eyes for a second and going back to his eyes being half-closed or his eyes remaining half-closed the entire time. Afterwards, he either snarks about it or throws a short but brutally honest remark about it.
• Selective Obliviousness: In "Adam West High", he ignores the rest of the family's statements that him running for mayor isn't the best idea, instead believing they're all supporting him.
• Self-Serving Memory: When confronted by all his ex-girlfriends in "Valentine's Day in Quahog", he reacts to their criticisms of him by claiming they're all just mad because he didn't want to be with them - despite the fact that most of them were the ones to break up with him.
• Sell-Out: Brian acts high and mighty, and likes to think he's morally superior to the people around him, but he'll throw away his values and convictions in a second if it means he gets money and/or positive attention (especially from attractive women, in regards to the latter).
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Quagmire's hatred for Brian gradually became more mutual during Season Nine, and evolved into a full blown case in "Tiegs For Two" before the tension died down, until it came back full circle in "Brian The Closer". As of recent seasons, the two share a mutual contempt for each other, though are willing to work together in certain situations.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • After the revival. He spent years working on a novel entitled Faster Than The Speed of Love which turned out be a complete rip-off of the Iron Eagle film series, even though Brian claimed he never saw any of them. Everyone who had heard of the book's plot mercilessly taunted Brian about it being a rip-off but he refused to acknowledge it. When the book did get published yet did not sell a single copy after being critically lambasted, the next day Brian read a rave review for a celebrity self-help book and thought self-help books were the reason the novel sold so terribly. He then decided to write a similar book out of spite; the book became popular and Brian slowly began raving "I have created a best selling PHENOMENON" until he was taken down on Real Time with Bill Maher.
  • In "Brian's a Bad Father", he talked down to the writing staff on Dylan's show, lecturing them on what they should be writing about, and using half-baked terminology to try and get his point across.
• Smug Snake: He's not only a rather snarky and dismissive towards others, but he's also an egotistical, pretentious and self-righteous snob who will screw his friends over his own selfish ambitions.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Originally to Peter, and later to Stewie.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Often exchanges snide against Stewie, and Quagmire in later seasons.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The series may as well just be "The Brian and Stewie Show" in later seasons. More and more episodes are about Brian dating someone and the 150th episode special is completely about Brian and Stewie being trapped in a bank vault. In fact, said 150th episode was simply called "Brian and Stewie". They are the main characters of the 200th episode. Let's face it, it's all about them now. Not to mention the "Road To..." episodes, which focus on Brian and Stewie entirely. Another example of this would be the episode "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", where Peter flat-out states that this was a "Meg episode" and that he wouldn't blame the audience for changing the channel... the episode was actually more about Brian. Even besides Stewie, Brian also still gets plenty screentime through other character dynamics, such as being Peter's Straight Man or his rivalry with Quagmire.
• Stealing the Credit: In two separate episodes, he claimed Stewie's time machine as his own creation, and in "Guy, Robot" he stole Stewie's jokes for his stand-up routine.
• Straight Man: Brian originally existed simply as a foil to Peter's antics. While he has devolved a massive deal away from that role since then, it still occasionally returns, especially since Peter has ended up even worse.
• Straw Hypocrite: From Season Seven onwards, Brian is depicted as very fickle and shallow about his left wing views, even called out for basing his opinions solely on being a "contrarian" and the center of attention.
• Super-Speed: During the events of "Super Griffins".
• Talking Animal:
  • It could be argued that he is actually just as human as most of the Griffin family, but he is a dog. When he visited his birthplace...
    Luke: Lots of dogs have been born here. Refresh my memory. Which one were you again?
    Brian: [dryly] I was the one who could talk.
    Luke: Brian! Come on in!
  • Despite being more human than dog for the most part, Brian still has some tendencies of a non-anthropomorphic canine. He hates squirrels, he'll chase after an object and bring it back in his mouth if someone throws it, he loves car rides and going to the park, pees on things to claim them for himself, and is easily distracted by things like rope toys, belly rubs, tennis balls, and other dogs:
    Brian: [in the car, with Lois driving] Wait a minute! I know where we are! The park is near here! We're near the park, Lois! Oh, that's the tree! I peed on that! [Lois pulls up next to another car at a red light] Hey! Hey, Lois! Lois! There's another dog in that car! Hey! Are you seeing that?! Hey! Other dog! Fuck you!
• Team Pet: Of the Griffin family.
• Teeny Weenie: Brian has repeatedly been the butt of tiny penis jokes. In "Valentine's Day in Quahog," this was one of the major complaints of all of his ex-girlfriends, which they also all laughed at. In "And the Wiener is..." he himself proclaims that his penis "goes inside (him) when (he) stands up." Even Mort has made fun of his lack of length in "Short Cuts," when he humiliates Brian in front of the entire pharmacy by calling a price check on "extra small condoms." It's also worth noting that in "And the Weiner Is..." that Brian states his lackluster length in order to somewhat comfort Peter, implying that his penis is smaller than Peter's. Considering that we find out Peter's is smaller than Stewie's later, we can infer that Brian has the smallest penis of the entire cast of Family Guy!
• Then Let Me Be Evil: After having his attempts at making peace rebuffed very fiercely by Quagmire in Seasons Eight and Nine, Brian finally snapped back, having more occasions he deliberately screws him over or is willing to call out his hypocrisy. Bonus points for Quagmire usually having the nerve to exclaim he didn't think he was that low beforehand.
• Too Clever by Half: He's intelligent among his species, the family often calls him the smartest of the family and people come to him for advice. But, if he gets one too many compliments he'll start thinking he's smarter than he actually is. A running gag in the series is that Brian often forgets he's a dog and when he wrote a book in "Brian Writes a Bestseller", he let the fame get to his head and forget that he wrote the book in protest and mockery of self-help books.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • In "The Woof of Wall Street", he thought it was a good idea to try and invest in a company that made cheap protein shakes using dogs as ingredients. Since he's a dog himself, the company simply knocked him out and locked him up with all the others. If Stewie hadn't intervened, Brian would have been done for.
  • In "Patriot Games", having already been brutally beaten by Stewie once for not paying him back, Brian continues to not pay him, leading him to be shot in both knees and set on fire with a flamethrower. At which point he says "Let's go to the bank", meaning he had the money the entire time.
  • In "Adoptation", he was tricked into entering a wolf enclosure when one of the wolves stroked his ego by claiming to have read his book, which lead to him being brutally mauled. He later made this same mistake with a gorilla enclosure, with the same outcome...except the gorillas did read his book (they just didn't like it).
• Took a Level in Badass: After The Reveal that Quagmire hated Brian, the latter spent several episodes as his personal Berserk Button, with Quagmire supplying one-sided lambasts or even attacking Brian over a minor slight. From "Tiegs For Two" onwards, while it comes with a huge dose of Then Let Me Be Evil, Brian becomes far more of a worthy adversary for Quagmire, engaging in two-way Snark-to-Snark Combat or fist fights against a lot of Quagmire's vitriol, and even intentionally screwing him over in several elaborate revenge schemes. This of course means Brian is every bit the Jerkass that Quagmire says he is, but puts him on the spot when it comes to self-righteously antagonising him over it.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: He went from being the smartest, most cultured member of the family to a Smug Snake who feigns being smart. This was flanderized to the point where he tries to avoid mentioning that he hasn't read any books.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The 7th season. The writers presented Brian as the voice of reason with his political views being unchallenged and presented as correct. This lead to an audience backlash and made the character seem less likable to some fans. Later seasons would see Brian presented more as a Butt-Monkey.
  • His behavior in "Be Careful What You Fish For", in which he refuses to report Stewie's preschool teacher for child negligence due to feeling attracted to her. Only when he finds out she has a boyfriend does he report her.
  • Also his behavior in "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", in which he's intolerant to Meg's beliefs and uses very weak arguments for atheism against her. Many fans prior to this episode had criticized his character for being close-minded and conceited, but in this episode he reached his peak. The writers seemed to realize Brian had turned into a soapbox for their and Seth MacFarlane's political views, and would start to present the character in a much more negative light starting in season 8.
  • Whenever he comes on to Lois, who's married to Peter.
  • Ever since his resurrection in "Christmas Guy" he's behaved like much more of a dick than before, the most shocking moments so far being him giving Stewie and Chris herpes in "Herpe, the Love Sore" and screwing over Quagmire out of all his money even after Quagmire put aside his hatred of him to help him fix his teeth in "Brian the Closer". Were it not for the fact that his revival came about due to altering the timeline so that he never died rather than literally bringing him back from the dead, you'd swear that he's been following the characteristics of Came Back Wrong to a tee. Season 15 subverts this by having him portrayed much closer to his pre-"Christmas Guy" characterization (for the most part).
  • When a woman is trapped in a car that sinking into a river, Brian initially tries to help her. He then abandons her to drown when he learns that she has a child (though he did end up getting a hernia as result of this).
• Took a Level in Kindness: Somewhat. With some exceptions, Season 15 portrayed him closer to his pre-"Christmas Guy" characterization (meaning that while he was still a jerk at times, it wasn't to the same degree as in Seasons 12 through 14).
  • So far, by Season 18, he's had more Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments rather than straight out Jerkass ones as he was willing to put aside his differences with Quagmire (despite not liking each other) and seemed to genuinely care about Ida.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Jack Daniels liquor, as well as Martinis.
• True Companions: With Stewie. Their friendship is one of the only consistent things about the show.
• Typhoid Mary: Has a nasty case of herpes, and spreads it to both Chris and Stewie through a Blood Oath to become blood brothers.

Tropes U to Z

• Undying Loyalty: One of his better traits is this to his family. For instance, he is willing to die for Peter in "New Kidney in Town" where he is willing to undergo an operation that would save Peter's life at the cost of his own. As long as Peter lives, he is okay with it. And in a Bad Future depicted in "Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas", the elderly Brian is shown sleeping at Peter's grave. Shockingly, however, he lets Stewie die in "Road to Vegas".
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Quagmire accuses Brian of this in his famous rant, citing the fact that Brian is trying to steal Lois away from Peter, the man who saved his life and gave him a good home. Subverted in "New Kidney In Town", where he was completely willing to give up his own life so that Peter may live simply because Peter took him in and cared for him.
  • So Stewie travels back in time to save Brian from his imminent death courtesy of a driving vehicle (actually performing a Heroic Sacrifice in order to do so, mind you). How does Brian pay him back? By transmitting herpes on Stewie at an attempt to become blood brothers without any remorse or sign of guilt episodes later.
  • Brian is a very big one in "Brian the Closer". After Quagmire helps fix his teeth, Brian cons him into buying a dumpy apartment. It doesn't help that he said he'll never forget what Quagmire did for him earlier.
• Vehicle-Based Characterization: Brian drives a 2004 Toyota Prius, reflecting his position as a staunch, sometimes "holier-than-thou" liberal (since it's a hybrid car). Some early appearances also gave it a "Kucinich '04" bumper sticker.
• Villain Ball Magnet: A Running Gag concerning Quagmire during Season Eight and Nine, any attempt at him socializing with Quagmire led to him accidentally offending and infuriating Quagmire. Reached a climax where, after one too many gratuitous outbursts from Quagmire, Brian decided to just go with it and made a very personal blow out of spite. The two have had rarer but still more even-handed spats since then. In "Must Love Dogs", Brian is given an opportunity to possibly end their feud by helping Quagmire pretend to be a dog lover in order to charm a woman. Instead, Brian repeatedly messes with Quagmire, and ultimately brings about the end of the relationship, thereby ensuring their feud will continue.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The idea early on obviously was that he was Peter's best friend, but by season 7 the only long-term positive interaction he has is with Stewie, and it's their friendship that results in ''The Road to..." episodes. Although it's not to the same extent, he often shows a lot of kindness towards Meg too.
• Vocal Evolution: Much like Stewie and Lois. His earlier voice sounds a bit more deadpan compared to now.
• Welcome to Hell: In Halloween On Spooner Street, after some Halloween pranksters dye his fur magenta/pink, he gains the sympathy of the Pink Panther.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This was more of an issue in earlier seasons, but now Brian is almost universally silently treated like a human by family and strangers alike, with occasional amusing Furry Reminders.
• Willfully Weak: He rarely ever fights back against Peter, Stewie, and Quagmire's abuse but is shown to have been capable of beating them in a head-on fight as shown in the episodes "Play It Again, Brian", "Dog Bites Bear", and "Cat Fight".
• With Friends Like These...: Despite considering himself to be Stewie's best friend, Brian often takes advantage of Stewie's friendship, or takes credit for Stewie's own work to get ahead. And in "Peterminator", despite agreeing with Stewie that they need to preserve their friendship in order to prevent a future war, Brian leaves a mocking comment on one of Stewie's InstaGram posts just moments later.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Despite his generally civil nature, he's hurt Stewie on several occasions, most notably in the episode "Brian and Stewie", in which he actually made the latter cry. Granted, he takes as much as he dishes out where Stewie is concerned.
  • In "Halloween On Spooner Street", he doesn't hesitate to say "Okay, let's kill 'em" after the kids who stole Stewie's candy spray-painted him pink.
  • He bites a special needs kid because the kid kept on smothering him after repeated attempts to get him to stop.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Zig-zagged. Lois punches him repeatedly in "Barely Legal", and he doesn't hit her back. He hits her in "Joe's Revenge", though.

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