20 Best Family Guy Episodes From Two Decades Of Absurdity

For twenty years now Family Guy has entertained millions with its deft blend of absurd humour, cutaway gags, uncaring attitude towards the censors, and willingness to approach serious, topical issues (albeit in an often-insensitive manner).

With over 300 episodes under its belt and the status of being one of the few series to be revived post-cancellation, there have to be some Family Guy episodes that stand out from the crowd, whether because of their screenplays, their animation or their significance to the series as a whole. To mark twenty years of Family Guy, here are twenty such episodes in chronological order.

 

The Best Family Guy Episodes

1. Season 2, Episode 3: Da Boom

Airing on Boxing Day 1999, Da Boom depicts the start of the new Millennium that was just days away for audiences. Rather than depict glorious New Year celebrations, however, the writers ingeniously played to paranoias surrounding Y2K by depicting the world becoming ravaged by a nuclear holocaust as the old Millennium ended. From there, we the viewers are treated to one of the most visually surreal and absurdly written episodes to date, which includes Cleveland and Quagmire fusing together, Stewie becoming an octopus, and mankind’s last hope being a Twinkie factory, culminating in a shameless parody of the iconic dream reveal in Dallas.

To think that all that happened after Peter’s first ever fight with Ernie the Giant Chicken, which alone was enough to cement Da Boom as one of the most significant episodes of the series, along with the fact that this episode saw Mila Kunis take over as the voice of Meg (hard to imagine anyone else in that role, isn’t it?).

 

2. Season 2, Episode 18: E. Peterbus Unum

It had been clear since the pilot episode that Peter Griffin is more than capable of getting himself into absurd situations, but just how absurd a situation he can get himself into (not including fights with a Giant Chicken) is first exemplified here. A situation that even Homer Simpson had never managed to get himself into, Peter establishes his own property as an independent micronation, meaning that (as the owner) he becomes Leader and gains diplomatic immunity (which he does not hesitate to abuse), culminating in him going to war with America.

No, you read that all correctly, this is an insanely absurd situation for anyone to get into, from which all manner of great gags stem, not least Peter’s casual abuse of his diplomatic immunity. The biggest highlight, however, is Peter flaunting it via song – “Can’t Touch Me”, a shameless rip-off of “Can’t Touch This” that is both self-aware and an awful lot of fun, paving the way for many more ingenious songs in future episodes.

 

3. Season 3, Episode 5: Emission Impossible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbbNOBT7TWU

Okay, we all knew by this point in the series’ run that Stewie Griffin is a technological genius with all manner of weapons at his disposal, but this episode took it a step further. Horrified at the thought of Peter and Lois having another child, Stewie shrinks himself down and enters his father’s testicles to wipe out every last sperm, before eventually reconsidering upon meeting Bertram (voiced terrifically by Wallace Shawn), a sperm who is just like himself. A thoroughly exciting episode filled with great slapstick, Emission Impossible today serves as a foreshadowing of what would later come in the series – including brilliantly animated Star Wars parodies, the true extent of Stewie’s technological genius and his love-hate relationship with Bertram (who went on to become a recurring rival).

 

4. Season 4, Episode 1: North by North Quahog

Following the series’ cancellation at the end of Season 3, North by North Quahog marked the return to screens for the Griffin family after the success of re-runs and DVD sales convinced Fox to revive the series. Creator Seth MacFarlane was certainly ready to make their return known with this episode, which opens with a monologue that serves as a huge middle finger to the Fox network for cancelling Family Guy in the first place.

After that, MacFarlane presents a clever homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest that heralded in a new era for the controversial cartoon sitcom, thanks to crisper animation, well-realised direction and very clever writing. But this return for Family Guy also saw a return of everything that viewers had always loved about the series – a focus on familial relationships, quite risky and even shocking gags, cutaways, pop culture references galore and absurd characters and situations – emphasising that the series was here and here to stay.

 

5. Season 4, Episode 14: PTV

Going for a more outrageous level of humour is something that the Family Guy writers have never shied away from, of which this episode serves as an excellent example in which they combine their penchant for outrageous humour with their love for shocking the censors. However, with the latter they go one step further than usual by raising a massive middle finger to censorship. How? By having Peter create his own television network in response to increased censorship. PTV is not only a satire on how extensive censorship can infuriate loyal television viewers and writers alike, but an unashamed glorification of just how unafraid of censors the Family Guy writers have been for the duration of its run, the latter of which is best conveyed through a terrific musical number – “The Freaking FCC”.

 

6. Season 4, Episode 20: Patriot Games

Similarly to how Homer Simpson’s physical attributes led to him becoming a boxer for one episode, Peter Griffin’s physical size and strength lead to him being invited to join the New England Patriots by Tom Brady himself, until his showboating leads to him being transferred to the Silly Nannies in London, England. There is great physical and verbal humour in the scene where Brady first spots Peter’s potential, with the episode also boasting the brilliantly written and spectacularly choreographed musical number “Shipoopi”, and some highly amusing stereotypes of Englishmen.

However, the highlights are in the subplot, which sees Brian plotting to get revenge on Stewie for shooting him in the knees over a gambling debt. We, along with Stewie, end up spending the entire episode wondering how and when Brian will exact his revenge, the outcome of which does not disappoint.

 

7. Season 5, Episode 4: Saving Private Brian

Never a show to shy away from controversial topics, here Family Guy approaches the topic of war, but does so in a very clever and, at times, surprisingly serious manner, reflecting the fact that it was a sensitive topic at the time due to the War on Terror. Brian and Stewie join the army and, after completing their training, are deployed in Iraq, where they realise just how horrific a war zone is and become desperate to return to Quahog. Saving Private Brian serves as a great example of how well Family Guy can do drama, as the fear and change of perspective for Brian and Stewie is a saddening and ultimately realistic portrayal of how nobody realises the true horrors of conflict until they are experiencing it.

However, the heart of the episode is when they are in training and Stewie encourages Brian to stick at it, to persevere, reflecting that (in spite of the numerous times that they have clashed or belittled each other) Stewie genuinely loves and respects Brian.

 

8. Season 5, Episode 18: Meet the Quagmires

In the Season 5 finale, Peter gets Death (as in the Grim Reaper himself) to transport himself and Brian back to 1984 so that he can enjoy one night of being single. He only does it because Quagmire boasts of the sexual exploits that the single life provides him with but, when Peter returns, he finds that Quagmire and Lois are married with kids, while he is married to Molly Ringwald, so he and Brian must return to 1984 to restore the original timeline.

Despite being over a decade old, Meet the Quagmires could easily be a new episode today, its references to Back to the Future, Caddyshack and Die Hard reflecting a nostalgia for the 1980s that’s still prominent in modern pop culture. What stands out most about it, however, is the fact that it bluntly tells the viewers to never take their loved ones for granted as a world without them would be unimaginable, while highlighting just how genuine and sincere Peter’s love for Lois actually is.

 

9/10/11. Season 6, Episode 1/Season 8, Episode 20/Season 9, Episode 18, a.k.a. the Laugh It Up, Fuzzball trilogy

The first of these three episodes (Blue Harvest) was created in honour of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars and served as a parody of the iconic space-opera film. At approximately 50 minutes long, it immediately became one of the most beloved Family Guy episodes of all time, thanks to its loving homage to Star Wars, at times outrageous humour, stunningly detailed animation and clever pop culture references.

Its success inspired the writing department to parody The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in later seasons with Something, Something, Something, Dark Side and It’s a Trap!, the latter episodes continuing from where Blue Harvest left off while taking the pop culture gags a step further with shameless use of live-action footage from Rocky IV and Caddyshack respectively. As such, these episodes became a trilogy in their own right and the Laugh It Up, Fuzzball trilogy has become regarded as one of the greatest Star Wars parodies of all time.

 

12/13. Season 6, Episodes 4-5: Stewie Kills Lois and Lois Kills Stewie

To celebrate 100 episodes on the air, Family Guy created their second ever two-parter that saw the culmination of a 100-episode long subplot. Stewie’s desire to kill Lois had been a subplot since the pilot, with many of the earlier episodes depicting at least one murder attempt, but this time it took centre-stage and depicted precisely what would happen if Stewie succeeded in his efforts to take his mother out once and for all, before going on to take over the world.

The 100-episode milestone celebration featured everything that we expect from and love about Family Guy – absurd situations, pop culture references galore, digs at both politicians and other television series, a musical number and an almighty fight. When you first watch this two-parter, you are constantly wondering what impact it will have the rest of series, and you have to wait until the very end to find out.

 

14. Season 7, Episode 3: Road to Germany

While the Road to… episodes had become an established component of Family Guy, the fourth one became the most significant one as it introduced a recurring plot device – Stewie’s time machine. Yep, this infant is even capable of building a time machine. In this adventure Brian and Stewie travel back in time to 1939 after Mort accidentally goes there in Stewie’s time machine, arriving in Poland mere hours before the Nazi invasion. To get back to the present day, they must retrieve Uranium from Berlin, a matter made more difficult because they also have to protect Mort (one of the most stereotypical Jewish characters in television history) from the Nazis.

What ensues is an exciting, fast-paced narrative that is full of historical satire, slapstick and excellent parodies of Back to the Future, Flash Gordon, and Duck Soup (the latter in Stewie’s encounter with Hitler himself). A brilliantly written episode that would serve as a catalyst for many future episodes.

 

15. Season 7, Episode 4: Baby Not on Board

Family Guy have never been averse to parodying successful films and this episode is no exception. A parody of Home Alone, the Griffins go to visit the Grand Canyon only to discover that they have accidentally left Stewie at home. While the youngest Griffin initially loves his solitude, the fact that he is so young is emphasised more here than in most episodes. This is first emphasised in an absurdly hilarious moment when, upon opening one of Chris’s hidden pornography magazines, he freaks out and destroys it with machine gun fire.

However, in a rare display of childlike innocence and vulnerability, Stewie eventually comes to realise just how much he genuinely needs his family, leading to a heart-warming reunion at the end of the episode, the impact of which even his calling Meg “Dog” cannot dampen.

 

16. Season 7, Episode 15: Three Kings

For Three Kings, screenwriter Alec Sulkin broke away from the usual format of the series and penned a three-segment anthology episode with Peter as overarching host. The three segments that Peter presents are parodies of (arguably) the three most iconic Stephen King adaptations to date – Stand by Me, Misery and The Shawshank Redemption. Three Kings stands out from the crowd of Family Guy episodes because its three clever, witty parodies proved to be a surprising, yet refreshing break from the usual episode formula, while also incorporating the usual controversial material found in Family Guy, such as sexual references, violence and a dig at the Fox network. It is by no means a traditional Family Guy episode, but it is by all means a great one.

 

17. Season 8, Episode 1: Road to the Multiverse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iATNzM3bc6s

The ‘Road to…’ episodes of Family Guy have often served as season highlights which follow Brian and Stewie on an adventure. However, this season premiere stands out from them all. Using a remote control that allows them to travel to parallel universes, the anthropomorphic dog and evil genius infant travel to multiple universes and go through all manner of brilliantly absurd experiences. The stand-out of this episode is the animation, which utilises multiple styles ever so well as the universes that Brian and Stewie travel to include a Disney universe and a Robot Chicken universe, for which storyboard artist Greg Colton received a well-deserved Primetime Emmy.

 

18. Season 9, Episode 1: And Then There Were Fewer

Kicking off the ninth season with a 50-minute episode, And Then There Were Fewer is easily one of the series’ best episodes to date. The Griffins, along with numerous other Quahog residents, are invited to James Woods’s mansion, the actor seeking to atone for wronging them all in the past. However, trapped in the mansion by an almighty storm, the Quahog residents end up in a murder mystery as people are killed off one-by-one. This episode’s core strengths are in the screenwriting, as the viewer is presented with a real sense of mystery and a very clever puzzle that they piece together along with the characters, uncertain as to which supporting character will be killed off next in a bloody fashion. Furthermore, this episode has become one of the most significant as the events of this episode served as a catalyst for multiple latter episodes in future seasons.

 

19. Season 10, Episode 5: Back to the Pilot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P0Ow9E69ek

Brian and Stewie’s time-travel adventures are undeniably fan favourite episodes and provide much in the way of laughs and drama. This time they go back in time to 1999 and the events of the pilot episode. However, Brian’s meddling with the past means that they have to go back time and again – a nice reminder of how Stewie is often the voice of logic within the pair. The genius of this episode’s screenwriting is not in the alteration of time, but in its wonderful self-awareness. The visual quality of animation can change a lot in a decade or more and Back to the Pilot pokes fun at the inferior animation of the pilot (errors and all), as well as the fact that Lacey Chabert quit her role as Meg less than a year in. As such, Back to the Pilot serves as a nostalgia trip, an excellent Brian and Stewie adventure and, ultimately, a reward to the loyal viewers who have stuck with Family Guy through thick and thin.

 

20. Season 11, Episode 5: Joe’s Revenge

A successful sitcom needs to give added layers to its characters and be willing to centre episodes around supporting characters, which is something that Family Guy has been good at for years, with Joe’s Revenge serving as one of the finest examples. It is not because of the humour (which includes some clever moments of self-awareness), but because of the character-driven drama.

After fifteen years, Joe looks like he is about to get closure when the gunman (Bobby Briggs) who left him a paraplegic is finally arrested, only to be left devastated when Briggs escapes custody. Joe is very much an alpha male-type chap, but this episode emphasises his vulnerability more than any previous episode that has focused on him. Ultimately, we see just how much his disability has impacted his entire life, and that is what drives his search for closure, resulting in him becoming a more well-rounded character and Joe’s Revenge being a great example of how well Family Guy can do drama.

Any all-time classic episodes you think we missed out? Let us know in the comments.