It is expected of a Seth MacFarlane work to Cross the Line Twice, though American Dad! is often admired for showing some restraint and using this trope sparingly like a fine, expensive spice rather than slathering it on like ranch dressing on an otherwise healthy salad.
- One of the show's best Black Comedy strengths is ruining a positive moment. In "G-String Circus", one stripper asks two others if Stan has tried to rape either of them. When they shake their heads no, she responds, "That's weird, right?"
- In "Killer Vacation," Stan's attempt to kill a war criminal is botched by a suicidal lemur who tries to get Stan to kill him instead. When the guy tries to shoot Stan and Francine as they're fleeing (using Stan's gun that he was attempting to shoot the guy with), the lemur Takes The Bullet in slow motion, then gives a thumbs-up as it dies.
- Bad Larry describing how he killed someone by strangling him, popping out one of his eyes without severing the optic nerve, and turning it around so he could watch himself die.
- Roger: My God, Larry!... Would it kill ya to give me ONE good hand?!
- The video game Steve and his friends created, which pretty much involves aborting fetus Hitler by throwing stuff at his pregnant mother.
- The "Leopard Chainsaw
" scene. Stan breaking a bottle and being ready to attack Francine with it? Not funny. Giving up then coming back with a chainsaw? Exaggerated, but probably not that funny. Giving up and coming back with a leopard? This is just getting silly. Giving up and coming back with the same leopard holding the chainsaw? Hilarious! - The dead-on parody of Award Bait films in "Tearjerker" with Oscar Gold, the gripping tale of a mentally retarded alcoholic Jew living during the Holocaust whose puppy dies of cancer. A real movie using literally every downright emotionally exploitative story beat to guarantee Oscar prestige would be considered laughably cynical, but the episode's villain revealing that his real intention is to make audiences literally cry themselves to death is a hilarious satire of these kinds of movies. And just for added authenticity, the trailer is even narrated by Don LaFontaine, aka "the Movie Trailer Voice Guy," just as dead serious as any real-live drama he'd be advertising.
- The cherry on the top is when the film does premiere. As planned, audiences around the globe are crying their eyes out...except in Iran, where the audience is laughing uproariously.
- The entire concept of Francine's attempt at a sitcom, White Rice. A real sitcom about the white adoptive daughter of a Chinese family would undoubtedly be seen as tactless and offensive, but the knowledge that Francine is just writing what she knows, to the point that nobody (not even her Chinese co-stars) ever considers that it would be seen as offensive, makes for prime Cringe Comedy. The fact that the resulting Show Within a Show is considered tactless and offensive by its In-Universe audience, enough to get canceled immediately after the literal first joke of its premiere episode, makes for the perfect punchline.
- On paper, the intersex joke that ends "The One That Got Away" (Roger tells his girlfriend that he has no genitals, to which she replies "That's okay. I have both.") would just be an offensive Bottom of the Barrel Joke, but the reassuring, almost comforting tone with which she says it makes it yet another hilarious example of the character Comically Missing the Point.
- It is offhandedly mentioned in "Stan's Food Restaurant" that Stan was molested as a child by a priest at summer camp. Not funny and Pedophile Priest is such an overused trope. Then it turns out that Stan actually molested the priest. It's so absurd that you can't not laugh. (This is assuming, of course, that Stan's not in denial and blaming himself.)Stan: Thing is, I'm not sure it was entirely his fault. I may have deserved it. In fact, I may have instigated it. Actually, Francine, I seduced him. I don't know why I wanted him, but I wanted him. There was no actual inser—.
Francine: Stan, No!!
- It is offhandedly mentioned in "Stan's Food Restaurant" that Stan was molested as a child by a priest at summer camp. Not funny and Pedophile Priest is such an overused trope. Then it turns out that Stan actually molested the priest. It's so absurd that you can't not laugh. (This is assuming, of course, that Stan's not in denial and blaming himself.)
- A counter was made saying 100 characters would die for their 100th episode. It actually goes a while without anyone dying until Stan blows the legs off a dog just to see which one has a tracking chip that's also an explosive, which at first is in bad taste until he comes out saying he helped the dog and it will be okay, only to have the counter show its first death. Another example came later in the episode, when an entire bus full of minor characters falls off a cliff. Announcing that a hundred recurring characters are going to die over the course of one episode seems like a cheap ratings ploy, but to actually kill dozens of them in a single fiery explosion is just too over-the-top to be tragic.
- Roger testing out his eggnog in "Season's Beatings" on the rats.
- Everything about Roger's Ricky Spanish persona.
- The ending to "Can I Be Frank With You" crosses so many it's hard to keep count. Thanks to Francine's episode-long deception, Stan gives her a severe beating before realzing it's her. They make up, but a hiker comes upon the scene and naturally thinks he stumbled on an incident of domestic abuse. When Stan is unable to convince him of the truth, he pulls his gun on the hiker and threatens him. Then the scene freezes and this happens:
- Jon Hamm: Is this how you want your hike to end? Hi. I'm Jon Hamm. Over a hundred percent of all domestic disputes are just two people trying to work stuff out. You getting involved isn't gonna help; you don't know what's going on. I don't care what you think you see; just keep your eyes down and keep walking. For more information on how not to get involved, go to www.dont-be-a-hero.com.
