Characters / Family Guy - Peter 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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Peter Löwenbräu Griffin, Sr., born Justin Peter Griffin

"Daddy loves you, but daddy also loves Star Trek, and in all fairness, Star Trek was here first."

Voiced by: Voiced by Seth MacFarlane, using a voice that sounds like Archie Bunker's, only whinier; Rick Dees ("Radio Voice" in "La Famiglia Guy").

Voiced by (Latin Spanish): Humberto Vélez

Voiced by (EU Spanish): Juan Perucho

Voiced by (Italian): Mino Caprio

Voiced by (EU French): Michele Dodane

Voiced by (Canadian French): Daniel Picard

Debut: Death Has a Shadow

Meg: [Peter's] a fat, lazy, abusive, blue-collar, Irish-Catholic dad who drinks way too much, and barely makes enough to support his family!

A portly father from Rhode Island who's an immature, dim-witted, outspoken, eccentric alcoholic. Used to work at a toy factory before the owner of the plant died, then worked as a fisherman for a couple of seasons, and now works a desk job at a brewery.

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Tropes A to D

• Abusive Dad: Exaggerated in later seasons. He wasn't always like this in early seasons, although now he's a lot worse than the Jerkass version of Homer Simpson. In "Peter's Sister" it's revealed that he is like this due to the fact that his sister Karen always bullied and abused him.
• Acrofatic: He can really move for someone that's considered to be technically obese. This becomes a plot point in “Patriot Games” where Peter is asked to be a member of the New England Patriots by Tom Brady due to rushing to the bathroom incredibly fast because he was about to throw up. As Tom Brady put it, “I’ve never seen a guy of your size that could move like that!”
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Happens to him a lot. For example, he becomes increasingly narcissistic after getting extensive plastic surgery to make himself fit and beautiful. It ends when he gets in an accident and goes back to normal.
• Action Dad: Sometimes. His battles with Ernie The Chicken certainly prove this as he's able to put up fights that go through the whole town and last about five minutes.
• Aesop Amnesia: In "Peter's Daughter", after Meg endured an accident in which she nearly dies, Peter decides that he should become a better father and never treat her badly ever again. It goes well during the course of the episode, to the point he becomes overprotective. Despite this, he goes back to abusing her by the next episode.
• The Alcoholic: He's actually less of a drunk than Homer is, although that isn't saying much as he still establishes himself as an outright nuisance when intoxicated both at home and in public.
  [Peter drunk at a library]
  Peter: [slurred] Aw, don't be ashamed of your hand, Johnny Tremain, you still live in exciting times!
  [a police officer walks up to him]
  Peter: Ah, crap.
  Officer: Sir, do you know how loud you were reading?
  [Peter starts running with the officer chasing him]
  Peter: [reading rapidly] "The life of a silversmith's apprentice was not an easy one—" [slips and crashes into a bookcase]
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: While he's plenty stupid on his own (to say the least), several of his antics are fueled by inebriation.
• Alcoholic Parent: He got that from his biological Irish father. It's a great honor in Ireland to be the town drunk.
• All Women Are Prudes: A believer of this trope. Lucky for him, he's married to an aversion (who even agrees with him about the trope), and quite ironically, the show depicts women (namely Lois) in the opposite.
  Peter: You know what really grinds my gears? This Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan with all those little outfits, jumping around there on stage, half-naked with your little outfits. Ya know? You're a... you're out there jumping around and I'm just sitting here with my beer. So, what am I supposed to do? What you want? You know, are we gonna go out? Is that what you're trying to - why are you leaping around there, throwing those things all up in my, over there in my face? What do you want, Lindsay? Tell me what you want. Well, I'll tell you what you want, you want nothing. You want nothing. All right? Because we all know that no woman anywhere wants to have sex with anyone, and to titillate us with any thoughts otherwise is - is just bogus.
• AM/FM Characterization:
  • He's a huge KISS fan and followed them during the KISS Stock shows and even got a copy of Kiss Saves Santa for Christmas. He's also an ardent fan of Barry Manilow, though this is a fact he has been known to deny in public. He also once sold his soul (again) for The Bee Gees tickets.
  • "I Dream of Jesus" reveals that his favorite song is the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird", and he loves the song to the point of repeatedly singing it, playing the record of it, and trying to convince others that "the bird is the word".
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Before evolving into a deliberately abusive one.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: He always writes/draws with the hand that is closest to the viewer.
• Animal Motifs: Pigs, for fairly obvious reasons. There was even one cutaway gag where Peter was one of The Three Little Pigs!
• Annoying Laugh: His nasal "Heheheheheheheh!" is a memorable part of his character.
• Anti-Role Model: Pretty much ever since day one, where the family's debut episode is memorable for him being passed out on the kitchen table after a night of drinking at a stag party.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Chris even lampshaded one episode after Peter's stint as a pirate in which he quickly loses interest after losing his parrot and found a piano. Most of Peter's antics is due to his "It Amused Me" attitude. If something is not amusing him, he will quickly find something else that will, which makes his focus waver all over. Peter also has a nasty habit going completely off topic when he speaks to someone without missing a beat at all. Brian lampshades this when he asks Peter if he is asking for his help or if he is going to ask another pointless question again.
• Attention Whore: Particularly in early seasons.
  Peter: Hey look! I fell in the pool with my clothes on! How hilarious is that? That is so Peter Griffin! Guys? Guys?
• Author Avatar: In later seasons, he'll often break the fourth wall to discuss the writing or address various points about the show in a way that is quite obviously the writers directly talking to audience. He also has suspiciously similar pop culture interests to Seth MacFarlane.
• Ax-Crazy: At his worst. Terrorizing elementary school students in a cougar costume and going on a homicidal rampage at a bank in front of Meg, among other things. He doesn't need much provocation, either; on one occasion, he murdered three children after losing his mind when Brian replaced his I Can't Believe It's Not Butter with real butter.
• Bad Liar: Usually in Cutaway Gags; in one, he denies having eaten some of the candy in Willy Wonka's factory despite having swelled up into a giant blue ball (like Violet in every adaptation), and in another he farts and tells the guy next to him "Uh, it was you." After botching the reservation at Cheesy Charlies for Stewie's birthday, he comes up with a ridiculous story about the restaurant being a sweat shop/torture facility run by a devil Nazi, that ends with Peter transforming into the Incredible Hulk to escape.
  Brian: Peter, you're the Spalding Gray of crap!
• Bank Robbery: He commits one in "Meg Stinks", and it's revealed that this is how he pays for all of his wacky shenanigans.
• Berserk Button: Being called out for being fat, stupid, or being forced to put literally anybody else ahead of himself is usually a pretty good way to piss him off.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Childish and goofy but can be really dangerous if provoked.
• Big Beautiful Man: In the episode "He's Too Sexy For His Fat."
• Big Eater: He is quite a glutton; in "Saturated Fat Guy", he became so heavy that he couldn't move out of his food truck. In "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", he orders a whole pie as an appetizer.
• Big Fun: In the early seasons anyway, where he was a Kindhearted Simpleton who cared about his family deep down and tried to do the right thing.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: In the pre-cancellation seasons, he showed signs of intelligence, but was too lazy to do so.
• The Bully: Aside from abusing Meg, he acts like one in 'The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou' when he beats up another bully named Kyle and is convinced to be like one.
• Bullying a Dragon: In "How The Griffins Stole Christmas," he thinks it's okay to keep pissing off the real Santa after the latter's warnings. He pays hard for this.
• Bully Hunter: He sometimes defends Meg and Chris by dishing No Holds Barred Beatdowns to their bullies, which is hypocritical since he bullies Meg most of the time.
• Bumbling Dad: In the earlier seasons, Peter did seem to try to do the best for his kids, even if he fails miserably.
• Butt-Monkey: He's often being the subject of slapstick, especially in the cutaway gags, not that he doesn't deserve it.
• Can't Take Criticism: Doesn't take being called out by Meg well at all in "Seahorse Seashell Party". "Roasted Guy" has him finding new friends because his feelings were hurt at a roast in his honor. He thought they were going to tell amusing stories instead of, you know, roasting the guy.
• Career Not Taken: Peter mentions that when he was younger he dreamed of being a podiatrist. At first this seems to be a set up to a Cutaway Gag, but Peter tells the audience that he was serious and that at one point in his life he had hopes and dreams.
• Cerebus Retcon: Abiding by "Peter's Sister", Peter's bullying on Meg was due to venting out years of bullying from his sister, Karen.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Pre uncancellation, Peter was still an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, but little past an exaggerated Bumbling Dad, and usually more Innocently Insensitive than outright callous. Most of the early episodes revolved around dilemmas exacerbated by his well intentioned attempts to care for his family.
  • In the early seasons, Peter had a very low opinion of women, treating them like objects at worse (such as referring to Lois as "it" in "Running Mates"). From the uncancellation onwards, Peter tends to treat women better.
  • Over the course of seasons 6 through 8, he develops some tendency to rather fight or kill others just to get what he wants and develops into a Villain Protagonist.
• The Chew Toy: Most of the abuse and slapstick he endures balances out the times when he gets off scot-free.
• Child Hater: Was present in his character in some form or fashion starting in Season 4, though it was generally limited to mostly Meg. As the series progressed, though, it got to a point where he makes little effort to hide how much he resents his children, to the point he bluntly says he wishes he didn't have them.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's the most observant othe wackiness of the universe around them, (and sometimes the most knowledgeable about it), and is the most frequent supplier of it too.
• Competition Freak: Parodied in "Running Mates" after he becomes obsessed with beating Lois in an election for school board president.
  Brian': Peter, are you sure you wanna run against Lois. You know how competitive you get.
  Peter: Hey, I can be just as noncompetitive as anyone. In fact, I am the most noncompetitive, so I win!
  Brian: I've seen how competitive you get. You can't even handle losing a game of checkers. (cue Cutaway Gag)
• Conflicting Loyalty: While working for a cigarette company when they planned to advertise their product to children. This also applies to Quagmire and Brian since both Characters had feelings for his wife Lois, he even mentions that he hates Brian for flirting with her, despite their friendship.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Mostly due to Flanderization, Peter Griffin has essentially become a corrupt version of Homer Simpson. They’re both dumb, reckless, fat, lazy, alcoholic Abusive Parents who are known to cause trouble wherever they go. The difference between them is that while Homer definitely makes things worse most of the time, he usually means well and tries his best to be a good person and father. Peter, on the other hand, takes great joy in the suffering he inflicts upon others, intentionally creates chaos for the sake of chaos, and actively tries to abuse his family, especially Meg.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The very guy who has constantly showed instances of stupidity and immaturity, is the same guy who is a competent hand-to-hand combatant, proven by his several conflicts with a certain chicken.
• Deal with the Devil: Sold his soul in 1976 for Bee Gees tickets. Somehow sold it again, in 1981, for half a Mallomar.
• Dirty Coward: Though he can also be a Lovable Coward on his better days.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Occasionally. His feud with Ernie The Chicken in particular comes to mind, as it all began with an expired coupon. And then a restaurant bill when it seemed like they had settled their differences.
  • There's also a scene in which Meg casually walks into the living room and greets her father. How does he reply? He shoots her in the face of course.
• The Ditz: Peter really isn't smart at all, overlapping with Fat Idiot.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Uses his intellectual disability label to get away with a lot of jerkassery. Except when the excuse bites him in the ass after his kids get taken away, due to his actions proving that he's mentally unfit to be a parent.
• Does Not Like Spam: In "Amish Guy", his attempt to eat a rice cake ends with him violently choking on the thing and spitting it out, shouting, "Who could think of such a horrible thing!?" He's like this with healthy food in general, as shown when he tried quinoa for the first time, and couldn't even swallow it.
• Drunken Master: Inexplicably becomes a virtuoso pianist while staggering drunk, and in fact, can't play piano at all unless he's staggering drunk.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Occasionally.
  Peter: You better watch who you're calling a child, Lois, because if I'm a child, then you know what that makes you? A pedophile, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna stand here and be lectured by a pervert.
  • Also in "Play It Again, Brian" during his argument with Brian after the latter tried to hit on Lois.
    Peter: Well who the hell are you to tell me how to run my marriage? You can't even hang on to a girlfriend for more than a couple of months.
    Brian: What the hell is that supposed to mean?
    Peter: Oh, y-you're a freakin' train wreck with that crap, Brian! You couldn't even get Jillian to take you back, and she was dumber than Lou Ferrigno.
  • Done spectacularly in "Quagmire and Meg" where Lois chastises Peter for interfering with Meg's supposedly harmless fling with Quagmire, due to her assuming it was a game on Meg's part to try and provoke her parents. When she finds out Quagmire intends to have sex with Meg and blames Peter for letting it happen, Peter instantly calls out her hypocrisy, leading her to begrudgingly admit she was wrong for a change.
  • In "Brothers and Sisters," Lois tries to break up a romance between her sister Carol and Mayor West, believing the relationship will end badly like Carol's previous marriages. When West finally gives up and plans to leave Quahog, Peter calls her out on her bullheadedness by reminding her of the time Carol stuck up for them when others thought their relationship would fail.
    Peter: Nobody believed we'd make it and look at us now. I drink and you use sex as a weapon. That seems to me like a successful New England marriage.

Tropes E to I

• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Before the cancellation, Peter had cartoony floating eyebrows and a bigger forehead
• Embarrassing First Name: Subverted in "Quagmire's Mom"; after finding out his given name is actually Justin, he decides it to be an Awesome McCoolname, and proceeds to milk it for all it's worth.
• Entitled Bastard: A cutaway in "Quagmire's Mom" showed him trying to abandon Meg in a field, then begging her to save him and nurse him back to health after he crashed his car into a tree.
• The Everyman: How Peter regards himself, and how his character is supposed to be regarded by the viewer.
• Even Evil Has Standards: There are some things even he, a lazy, petty, irresponsible, psychotic alcoholic idiot, just won't agree with.
  • Example in The Cleveland Show season finale, where Quagmire still wants his own spin-off.
    Quagmire: Well, they made it through the whole season. Now can I have my own show, Peter?
    Peter: Quagmire, you're a rapist.
  • He's legitimately disturbed at the implications of Meg and Chris bathing together in "Fresh Heir".
  • Even Peter thinks that Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown is messed up.
  • He usually doesn't have a problem with Quagmire trying to get women into sleeping with him, and he's pretty negligent when it comes to Meg. However, he draws the line when his best friend tries to seduce his daughter.
  • In "Girl, Internetted", when he asks Meg for a skill they could use to make her internet famous, she reveals she does something very vulgar and horrible that Peter almost bursted into tears. When she mentions shuffling a deck of cards in an equally appalling manner, he decides to remove her bedroom door so that she doesn't try anything like that again.
  • Both Played Straight and Played for Laughs in "Welcome Back, Carter." He is appalled when he catches Carter in bed with his mistress and increasingly becomes disgusted when Carter throws multiple lies as an excuse (like saying that the mistress is his sister, or a man). Peter says "Eww!" for every lie Carter throws.
• Extreme Omnisexual: He is attracted to women, has had sexual relationships with men (Bill Clinton for example), is Ambiguously Bi and in one instance was shown to have intentions of wanting to have sex with a tiny female rat and also was in an abusive sexual relationship with a male bull who had raped him. There are even unfortunate implications that he's sexually attracted to minors (has a crush on Connie D'Amico and once told Lois that he shouldn't nag him about being a kids' show host as he "...can have any 3-year-old [he] wants.") "Fresh Heir" also implies he'll go as far as incest and ephebophillia, as it's heavily implied he wanted to do more than just marry Chris for his father-in-laws inheritance. He also had sex with the Surfing Bird record.
• Extreme Omnivore: According to a cutaway, he's eaten numerous toys, rubber bands, an antique clock, a pet rock, coloured pencils, nickels, wedding rings, a Cee-Lo CD, and banjo strings. All that happened was that he was constipated.
• Fanboy: He's a massive fan of TV shows, movies, and comic books, but his love for Game of Thrones and Road House (1989) stands out.
• Fat Bastard: He makes Homer Simpson look like a real saint...while also making Satan's existence redundant. He's even depicted as one of the Three Little Pigs in one Cutaway Gag!
• Fat Best Friend: To Joe, Quagmire, Cleveland and Brian.
• Fat Idiot: Fatter than Homer Simpson and a complete moron. He provides the trope page image.
• Fat Slob: He always says something inappropriate at the wrong times and will always try to fart anywhere and at anyone. He will also get drunk at any chance he can get.
• Fighting Irish: He's Irish from his real dad's side, and often gets into violently explosive fistfights, especially against the Giant Chicken.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: During his worst moments, he can be a mix of this and Psychopathic Manchild, and he threatened to kill a kid in an episode. He wears glasses, by coincidence landing on this trope.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Peter has been legally classified as an intellectually disabled person.
  • "Peter's Sister" reveals he bullies Meg to deal with his sister Karen bullying him as a kid.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: With each passing season, Peter has clearly become an inconvenience to his friends. In "Lottery Fever", he watches Quagmire and Joe perform a vaudeville act while shooting at them with a BB gun, deliberately hitting Joe in the eye.
  Quagmire: What the hell, Peter?! You shot him in the eye!
  Peter: Keep singing, you! And keep your chin up so I can see your throat!
  Quagmire: No, no! Screw this! You're a jerk!
  Peter: Jerk? What kind of a way is that to talk to your friend who gives you money?
  Quagmire: Go to hell, Peter! We don't need your money! And we don't need friends like you!
  Joe: Yeah, we're outta here!
  Peter: Fine, go on! I don't care! I don't need you! I got money!
  Quagmire: You know, Peter, you used to be a great guy, but ever since you won that lottery— [gets shot in the throat, he yells in pain] Come on, Joe! Fuck this guy! Ahh! [they leave the stage]
• Gasshole: He likes to fart a lot.
• Generation Xerox: Pretty much every single biological relative before him was basically a clone of him (with only differences being race for a few). Keyword being biological, since his direct, adoptive father is the only one that isn't exactly like him in nearly every way.
• Genius Ditz: Peter knows a lot about pop culture, KISS in particular. He's also a skilled musician, able to sing and play trombone, and when he's drunk, he's a piano virtuoso with (apparently) no prior training. He also managed to use the ''cutaway gag'' to his advantage in "Finders Keepers"!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Not to the extent of Stewie's personality before around late season 4, but especially post-uncancellation episodes, he seems to get furious and Ax-Crazy at the smallest things.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Peter is often presented as the classic misogynist, thinking he's superior in every way and that Lois and other women are unworthy of anything other than satisfying his whims and desires, and woe be it on them if they object. He frequently thinks nothing of women other than sex objects and gets into a huge argument when others point this out.
• The Hedonist: The most extreme examples are usually reserved for cutaways, but he tends to spend money on whatever will entertain him even to the detriment of those around him (later episodes have implied that the family's finances are shaky). He's criticized by Meg for this in "Seahorse Seahorse Party".
  Meg: You have no education, you have no interests, you just do whatever reckless thing you wanna do, whenever you wanna do it, without regard for anyone else! And, oh, when you're not terrorizing the community with your impulsive escapades, you're being a total jerk to your family! You shove your daughter's face in your ass and you fart on it!
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His (step)father was a hard-nosed fundamentalist who constantly ragged on him and, apparently, told him he wasn't his father repeatedly. And there was one flashback where his mother threw a bottle of whiskey at him to shut him up. He has a sister named Karen, who basically treated him like the way he treats Meg but worse and his parents didn't do anything to stop it. They are basically the reason why Peter is the man he is today.
• Hypocrite:
  • He sometimes calls out other people on the bad stuff they did, even though he's way more guilty than they are of committing the same crime. For example, in "Stewie Loves Lois", he sued Dr. Hartman because he thought he molested him, this was after he attempted to grope his wife (he ended up touching Stewie instead).
  • He tells Brian that Jillian was "dumber than Lou Ferrigno," but Peter himself is an idiot as well.
  • While Peter was right to lambast Brian on how the latter has issues maintaining healthy relationships with the women that he dates, this is still hypocritical since Peter himself doesn't like to put in any effort to maintain a good marriage with Lois (despite Lois doing nothing but being giving as Brian points out).
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: He puts Meg through hell on a daily basis, but he will brutalize anyone outside the family who does it to her.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • He insults women for being fat and ugly, but he isn't that good looking himself.
    Peter: Men aren't fat. Only fat women are fat.
  • In the Simpsons Guy crossover he finds it insane that Homer strangles his son. While he's right, this would have been a Everyone Has Standards moment if not for the fact that Peter has done far worse abuse (both emotional and physical) to his kids, like hitting Meg in the head with a baseball bat, shooting her with a Desert Eagle, and even whipping her and Stewie. And it's worth noting that, while child abuse is never justified in any case, Homer strangles Bart because of his bad temper when Bart makes him mad unlike Peter who tortures Meg for his own amusement.
• Idiot Houdini: In-Canon, he was sent to prison for one week for accidentally blowing up a children's hospital. That and many examples can be owed more to his stupidity than his callousness. Meg lampshades that most of the things he's done should have landed him in jail by now.
• The Illegal: In one episode, it turns out that his mother actually gave birth to him in Mexico (she was there for an abortion but changed her mind), and never filed proper citizenship paper for him, technically making him an illegal immigrant. After predictably botching the citizenship test, he's forced into the life of immigrant labor, serving as Laser-Guided Karma due to him having gone on an anti-immigrant crusade earlier in the story. He gains proper U.S citizenship by the end of the episode.
• Innocently Insensitive: Some of his more thoughtless actions in earlier seasons count as this. Less so in later seasons, where he is more just an apathetic Jerkass that hides behind his "I'm retarded" excuse when it suits him.
• It Amused Me: The main reason for his shenanigans.
• It's All About Me: He does whatever he wants, whenever he wants with no regard to anyone but himself, and gets mad when made to put others first, especially in later seasons. He has his selfish moments early on too, but is much more well-intentioned the majority of the time.
• I Am Not Shazam: Invoked. Peter often calls characters in movies or films by the title of the movie or film in question, such as Scrubs, Black Scrubs, Jaws, and Bigger Jaws.
• Insufferable Imbecile: He's narcissistic, slovenly, lazy, and imbecilic, all of which Meg laid into him for in her rant near the end of "Seahorse Seashell Party". Peter, of course, completely misses the point and takes offense to her calling him "a waste of a man".
• Iron Butt Monkey: He always comes back from his numerous (sometimes fatal) injuries.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl:
  • He was upset when Stewie was beaten up by Suzie Swanson, so he put Stewie on steroids.
  • He himself got brutally beaten by Meg after she finally snapped, and usually gets his ass handed to him whenever he and Lois have physical clashes.
  • He's constantly on the receiving end of Lois' wrath. When she gets fed up of his antics, chances are that Peter will end up bloody and broken, but he deserves it considering the type of person he is.

Tropes J to M

• Jaded Washout: Barely does anything with his life.
• Jerkass: Occasionally in earlier seasons, more frequently after season three. He starts out as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold but after the show comes back he transforms into an abusive jerk who openly hates Meg for no reason, both physically and verbally abusing her. He even puts his other family members in danger without caring what would happen to them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Twice;
  • When Peter discovers Quagmire's secret lust for Lois, he is understandably paranoid since Quagmire is a sex offender at his worst and a serial womanizer, not only that but he ruined Cleveland's first marriage. Also, Peter had a right to be angry with Quagmire for making passes at Meg when the latter turned 18 (even though Meg is of legal age, Quagmire is in his sixties, a sex offender at worst and the act would be classed as ephebophilia).
  • When Brian tells Peter that he doesn't deserve Lois, Peter has some justification in being angry since Brian forced himself on Lois and in later seasons, would have affairs with married women. Also, Peter rightly lambasts Brian on the latter's inability to keep a healthy relationship (bonus points with Peter bringing up the fact that Brian couldn’t even get Jillian to take him back).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In earlier seasons.^note He still has his moments in post-revival seasons though. While Peter was a bit selfish and insensitive at first, he was still a decent guy who only wanted the best for his family.
• Karma Houdini: More than anyone else on the show. Peter has gotten away with assault, murder, robbery, arson, fraud, child molestation, kidnapping, spousal abuse — in short, pretty much every felony on the book. He's a jerk at work and to his family and friends. His mind is constantly occupied with lewd thoughts and freely uses foul language (some of which has to be altered or bleeped out on television). The man should be either dead or, as Meg once said, in jail. Yet, he walks free, he proclaims himself as "everyman," and he still has everything he holds dear: he's a homeowner, he has a good job, he has a family and good friends. For a lot of fans, this irritates them, despite that, Family Guy is supposed to be an exaggerated take on family sitcoms and chooses not to follow reality until the plot calls for it.
• Kavorka Man: For some absolutely unexplainable reason, Peter has had a surprising success with women, especially when he was younger, despite looking almost exactly like he does in present day, albeit with sideburns and longer hair. At least two of his former girlfriends are still obsessed with him.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: In earlier seasons. His negative actions mostly came from his stupidity, and he was well-meaning and a fairly nice guy to begin with (at worst, he was a bit self-centered and irresponsible).
• Lack of Empathy: Exaggerated from season four and onwards. Although, on some occasions, he has been known to show concern and/or outrage towards heinous acts.
• Large Ham: Very frequently post-cancellation. He's prone to insane, sometimes random fits of quirkiness.
• Lazy Husband:
  • To Lois, and very much so. Case in point, he was asked to mow the lawn in one episode and he bought a herd of goats instead, hoping that they would do it for him. They ended up wrecking the house.
  • However one flashback shows this is in part Lois's own fault because when he bought groceries on the way home as a favor to her, she responded by beating the shit out of him for taking her job.
• The Leader: To his Four-Man Band of Cleveland, Joe, Quagmire, and himself.
• Lethally Stupid: In the later seasons. His stupidity has reached a point to where he's extremely dangerous to those around him, and possibly sociopathic.
  Peter: [screaming and being held down in a straight jacket after Brian switches his "I Can't Believe Its Not Butter" with actual butter]
  Lois: I don't know, Doctor. Looking back, I think it may have been real butter.
  Doctor: Your husband murdered three children.
• Like a God to Me: What he thinks of KISS.
• Like Father, Like Son: "Peter's Two Dads" shows that Peter is incredibly similar to his biological father, Mickey McFinnigan, despite having never met him before. They're both stupid, overweight, childish and irresponsible drunkards who are often accompanied by a sarcastic, but more responsible pets who serve as a counterbalance to their stupid shenanigans.
• Made of Iron: On top of surviving various over-the-top injuries that are usually his own fault, during their fights, Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken suffer horrific injuries that should by all rights kill them, but Peter is never more than just breathless after the battle ends.
• Manchild: He's about 43 years old, but he acts like an eight-year old. There was also the plot of "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" in which he was sent to the 3rd grade.
• Massively Numbered Siblings: Meg, Chris, and Stewie aside, Peter has a deceased son named Peter Griffin Junior, Bertram, who was conceived through an accidentally using his sperm on a gym teacher, and a large amount of children from his past as a sperm bank donor. That's not even getting into the sewer animals who were probably conceived from his flushed semen.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Fitting a beer-swilling brewery employee, Lowenbrau is a German brewery in Munich. It means "lion's brew."
  • It also sounds like 'Low Brow', which means to have low intellect or interest in culture. Which describes Peter's tastes perfectly as he hates Citizen Kane for it's lack of raunchy material but loves Paulie Shore movies like Bio-Dome.
• Medium Awareness: It's fitting there's a scene of Peter playing Deadpool.. Cause he basically already was.
  Peter: Oh, no! Connie's been hurt! I guess I should lie on top of her to keep her warm. [lies on top of Connie] [glares at the audience] What are you looking at? It's a cartoon!
• The Millstone: Due to his extreme carelessness:
  Lois: You're unbelievable! The last four days have been a living hell! Our baby is at home all by himself yet instead of getting us home you've managed to make things worse at every turn! A monkey would be a refreshing step up from you! A monkey would talk less! Here's a little tip. If your instinct tells you to do something, don't do it! If your instinct tells you not to do something, IT'S PROBABLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO!!!
• Moral Myopia: After his attempt to abandon Meg in "Quagmire's Mom" went wrong, resulting in Peter being very badly injured, he wailed "Why do bad things happen to good people?!".
• Motive Decay: Peter is prone to this. Even when he does something for a good reason (such as helping a friend), he quickly goes overboard with it, to the point where he cares only for how it affects him.
• Motor Mouth: When he's a dog at least, in the episode "Road to the Multiverse".
  Dog Peter: OH-MY-GOD-I-KNOW-THAT-SOUND-IT-MEANS-THERE'S-A-POTENTIAL-INTRUDER-AT-THE-FRONT-DOOR-OR-ONE-OF-MY-PALS-EITHER-WAY-I'M-EXCITED-AND-READY-FOR-ANYTHING!

Tropes O to T

• Obsessive Hobby Episode: Virtually every episode of modern Family Guy starts with Peter obsessing over some new passion to the detriment of everybody else around him, at least until they real plot kicks in.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Multiple characters have commented on the expenses Peter incurs in his shenanigans, and wonder how he can possibly afford them.
  Joe: How can you afford these things?!
  • "Meg Stinks!" reveals that Peter actually robs banks in order to pay for those very expenses.
  • "Farmer Guy" suggests that the network itself funds Peter’s shenanigans.
• Older Than They Look: He looks alright for a man in his early forties. Herbert even mistook him for a teenager at one point because of this.
• Only Sane Man: Not usually, but Peter does have his moments of clarity, especially in the earlier seasons. One example is in a cut-away gag from Season 2 Episode 13, in which Peter reminisces on the time he was forced to sit through Lois’ uncle Jerry’s Snuff Film. He’s the only one shown to be perturbed by the idea of watching an unseen girl get murdered on-screen and asks Lois if it’s real. Lois simply hushes him in response.
• Overly Long Name: His full name is Justin Peter Lowenbrau Griffin Sr.
• Pædo Hunt: Quite possibly, he's the only lead protagonist-type character in prime time history to have strong sexual feelings toward children, as evidenced by episodes such as "You Can't Do That On Television, Peter" and "Brian's a Bad Father."
• Papa Wolf:
  • He gets really hostile towards Quagmire when he tries to have sex with Meg once she turns 18. This is especially jarring when he's usually ignoring or flat-out abusing her. With a few exceptions.
  • He does beat up Jimmy Fallon for sleeping with Meg. Or at least for laughing at his own jokes.
  • He becomes straight up overprotective in "Peter's Daughter" in which he brings a rifle with him when he's going to talk with Michael, Meg's ex-boyfriend, because he made her pregnant.
• The Pig-Pen: Downplayed. Peter isn't visibly filthy, but many gags revolve around the fact that his hygiene is poor. Perhaps most notably, in the Season 14 episode "Underage Peter", Quagmire offers him $10 to wear the same pair of underwear for a month:
  Peter: [immediately after the offer was made] Pay up. [Quagmire gives him $10] Actually, you owe me 20.
  Quagmire: Ew. Here's 50. Go change your underwear.
  Peter: [shaken] It won't come off!
• Potty Failure: There's a Running Gag that Peter frequently has "accidents" like this, to further emphasize his childish and immature nature.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Peter's antics are responsible for dozens of serious injuries, millions of dollars in property damage, and a death toll well into the hundreds or even thousands.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Lois after being called The Millstone. It's enough to make Lois feel bad much later. And it's from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
  Peter: You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right. I talk too much. I also listen too much. Oh, I can be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. But you think what you want about me. I'm not changing. I like- I like me. My kids like me. My friends like me, 'cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get.
• Running Gag: His love of The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird," for one. He also has an enjoyment of The Facts of Life, as subtly shown throughout the series.
• Sadist: In the later seasons, he becomes a sociopathic domestic abuser to his family and his kids.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Frequently gets into epically destructive fights with Ernie the Giant Chicken.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of his many defining traits.
  Lois: Aagh, I hate what you've become! Why don't you go back to that doctor and have him suck the fat out of your head?!
  Peter: Maybe I will. Then I'll put it on my feet and skate around Paul Bunyan's giant skillet to cook his flapjacks!
  Lois: That doesn't make any sense!
  Peter: It doesn't have to. I'M BEAUTIFUL!
• Straw Loser: The entire universe consists of a bunch of brainless sociopaths, but nothing on this Psychopathic Manchild with a dead end job who thinks hitting his daughter is funny. The largest reason Brian and Lois can still seem closer-to-Earth these days and his invoked Memetic Molester and mentally depressed handicapable buddies can end up as Straight Men. Lampshaded in "The Most Interesting Man In The World". When Peter starts to act intelligent and sophisticated, the others start to feel insecure from them now being the idiots of the bunch.
• Teeny Weenie: Peter is said to have a small penis. In "Trans-Fat" Peter's size original size was 4 inches, as his new penis is now 6 inches "2 inches past his goal". And in an earlier episode, he measured Stewie's penis size compared to his own, with a short timeskip afterwards has him be grouchy and complaining how it's a "Stupid game, anyway".
• Temporary Bulk Change:
  • In "Fish Out Of Water", Peter gains so much weight after he loses his job that he becomes an immobile blob who has to be moved around by a crane. But when he starts looking for a job, he somehow gets his body shape back to normal.
  • In "Da Boom", he eats an entire year's supply of dehydrated food, and looks no different. Then he complains that he's still hungry and drinks a glass of water, and immediately balloons out to fill half the room.
  • He also gets liposuction twice to be thin and (later) muscular. But after being an ass about it, he crashes his car and falls into a lard vat in a lard factory, eating it to get out. He's taken to the hospital, where he's back to being fat.
• Territorial Comic Relief: In "Killer Queen", Peter and Chris are sent to fat camp, where Peter quickly tries to establish himself as the "cabin clown". When the lamb he's riding on (as part of a Pun about "going on the lam") cracks a joke of his own, Peter quickly tells him to stop.
  Lamb: You sure you got the chops for it?
  Peter: Knock it off, I'm the cabin clown!
• Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: At a job interview, Peter is asked where he sees himself in five years. He thinks to himself that he "Don't say doing your wife. Don't say doing your wife." He ends up saying "Doing your," looks at the interviewer's family photo, and follows up what he said with the word "son."
• This Loser Is You: In the same vein as Homer Simpson, albeit dumber, fatter, and less sympathetic. This has been extended in special episodes. If Peter joins an opposing side to Brian, then Peter will represent everything that's wrong with that movement.
• Too Dumb to Live: Especially in the later seasons of the show, where he often creates some hairbrained scheme that we get himself, as well as around his vicinity, in danger, to which Petarded hangs a lantern.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Peter was a stereotypical bumbling dad in the first season, being a dumb, but well-meaning man who was more or less capable of fitting in with the rest of society. With each following season, his stupidity was cranked up, to the point he was declared to be intellectually disabled early into season 4.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He always was somewhat selfish and dumb. However, in the first few seasons, he seemed to do insane actions to, at least in his own mind, better the lives of his family and was still a well-meaning and was a mostly friendly and easygoing guy. By season 8, he was turned into a full-time jerk who is even implied to be a psychotic killer according to the cutaways.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Around the 14th season, his abuse towards Meg and the family as a whole has been somewhat phased out.
• Trademark Favorite Food: While he's a Big Eater in general, several episodes have shown that his absolute favorite food is pizza.
• Tranquil Fury: In "Peter's Daughter", Peter is led to believe that Meg has gotten pregnant. He calmly makes his way to the supposed father's house and starts assembling a shotgun while repeating the same sentence in a monotone: "I just want to talk to him."
• Troubled Abuser: As revealed in "Peter's Sister." His older sister Karen's treatment of him echoes his own treatment of Meg, and their parents did nothing to stop it.

Tropes U to W

• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ugly Guy to Lois' Hot Wife with a little Lampshade Hanging, as the couple was once described in an in-universe news report as "a fat man inexplicably married to an attractive redhead", along with an artist's impression of what they might look like - Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
• Ultimate Job Security: Angela had apparently given this to Peter. No matter how much trouble he gets into, he's never gotten the punishment of losing his job at the brewery. Exemplified best in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing", when Peter burned down a children's hospital on the job. This was forgotten about until the very end of the episode, when Angela brought it up again and said that she called the cops. Peter was arrested, but the judge only sentenced him to a week in jail.
• The Unapologetic: Peter hardly ever feels bad for his antics and is more likely to blame others when things go south. In "Brian Sings and Swings", he gets distracted and accidentally runs over Brian, which he refuses to take responsibility for.
  Peter: I know we're not here to place blame or beat ourselves up. But I can't help feeling like this is somehow Meg's fault.
• Unconfessed Unemployment: The pilot episode revolves around Peter getting fired due to falling asleep on the job, and desperatly trying to avoid telling Lois, mainly to avoid an "I Told You So", since he was tired from binge drinking at a bachelor party. This ends up escalating into a massive case of welfare fraud due to a clerical error paying out about 1000% more than the family is supposed to recieve.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In "You Can't Do That On Television Peter," Meg saves his life and he never even thanks her for it.
  Meg: Isn't anybody gonna thank me?
  Peter: Yeah, I'll have a water if you're getting one.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: He constantly undermines his wife (who, herself, isn't too fine and dandy of a character either), scolds Chris when he finds out he has a larger penis than him, constantly bullies and mistreats his own daughter, and has apparently put all of his kids in a coma while hiding it from his wife and not taking them to a hospital.
• Villainous Glutton: He is an alcoholic Fat Bastard who eats copious amounts of junk food. In "Saturated Fat Guy", he became morbidly obese to the point where he was unable to exit his food truck and had to be craned out by the fire department.
• Villain Protagonist: He has become this post cancellation, where he has killed many innocent people, blows up hospitals just with the click of a one button remote, and even shows signs of possible Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Vocal Evolution: A slight one, but earlier episodes give him a slightly deeper, if not more nasal voice.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: During the events of Super Griffins, Peter becomes a shapeshifter, enabling him to transform into any person, animal or object at will.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: During the early seasons, Peter is shown wanting respect from his father Francis. He even hires a band to play sappy Sitcom music for his moment. Francis eventually admits that he does love Peter, he just doesn't like him. This trope is played straight when he gains the approval of his biological father.
• We Want Our Idiot Back!: The episode "The Most Interesting Man in the World" has Peter becoming an intellectual after going on several business trips across America. His family enjoys it at first, until Peter starts pushing his new lifestyle on them. Brian and Lois especially dislike the new Peter, because they're no longer the smartest people in the house and he makes them look dumb by comparison. The two of them decide to revert Peter back to being an idiot by sending him on a trip to Tuscon, Arizona, where he's back to his old intelligence level by the time he returns home.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Whenever Peter attempts to change and starts acting more polite or intellectual, Lois soon wants him back to normal. In at least one case it's heavily implied to be because Peter being a dumb jackass makes her feel intellectual by comparison.
• With Friends Like These...: He has a habit of talking down to his friends, mocking them, using them, and even ditching them when someone cooler comes along. He's even been shown willing to try and kill them at times for temporary gain.
• Would Hit a Girl: Peter has no problem beating up women, to the point he has frequently gotten into vicious fist fights with his wife.
  Lois: You can't hit me! I'm a girl!
  Peter: Sometimes I wonder!
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Setting aside how he treats his own, Peter, especially in later seasons, has little compunction picking on children. To rattle off a few examples: he beats up a girl who practices karate because he was jealous of her trophy, threatens to kill a child with a crossbow unless the boy's father explains to him why Smoky the Bear doesn't wear a shirt, blows up a children's hospital (albeit by accident), beats up a little boy so he can steal his jet ski, and occasionally fantasizes about killing kids. It's implied that he does this specifically because he know's they can't fight back.
  • One particularly noteworthy incident involves him giving Lucy Van Pelt a well-deserved comeuppance after making Charlie Brown slip backward while trying to kick the football one too many times.

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