Top 10 Darkest Family Guy Cutaways

“PTV”

It’s a question that’s been plaguing humanity for years - how did they come up with the idea of combining chocolate and peanut butter? “Family Guy” has an answer, but it’s not a pretty one. It begins dark enough, with two inebriated drivers colliding into each other and being violently ejected from their vehicles. One driver is eating chocolate, the other peanut butter. When Officer Reeses comes onto the scene, he eats the combined concoction, discovers its delicious taste, and silences the men permanently before ostensibly taking the idea for himself. The idea of Peanut Butter Cups coming from an instance of drunk driving and an act of horrific violence is definitely not how we would’ve imagined it.

“He’s Bla-ack!”

Nothing is off the table for “Family Guy” - even orphans. In season 12’s “He's Bla-ack!,” Cleveland returns to “Family Guy” after his eponymous show was canceled. His house is a disaster, and Peter explains that it was rented out as an orphanage. The scene then cuts to a group of dirty, Victorian-era orphans singing about how they’re too old to be adopted. We don’t know why an orphanage would be showing “Family Guy” to nine-year-olds, but just imagine if they saw this. Their hearts would break into a million pieces. As if the cutaway wasn’t dark enough, it ends with Peter throwing a shoe at one of the children. Just to twist that knife a little bit deeper.

“Turban Cowboy”

One could argue that “Family Guy” got darker in the 2010s. This joke, however, had the misfortune of becoming even darker come a tragic, real-world event shortly after it aired. Peter mentions winning a marathon, and it cuts to people running through the street. Subverting our expectations in the most shocking manner possible, Peter drives his car through the marathon and runs down countless people as they scream in fear and pain. This scene is already incredibly dark, but it also came at a horrible time. The Boston Marathon Bombings occurred just one month later, prompting Fox to remove the troublesome scene from streaming services.

“Road to the Multiverse”

Is a line crossed when a joke involves real people? It’s a debate that we can certainly have. In this cutaway from standout episode “Road to the Multiverse,” McDonald’s mascot Mayor McCheese stands in for President John F. Kennedy during his infamous assassination. McCheese is shot twice, causing chunks of hamburger to splatter. Jackie Kennedy then scampers onto the trunk and starts eating the hamburger bits. “Family Guy” is undoubtedly one of the best adult cartoons out there when it comes to shock humor, but this one even has Brian and Stewie questioning its tact.

“Dearly Deported”

“Family Guy” goes to some truly surreal places at times. In this bizarre cutaway, Peter is sitting in a tree guarding some eggs when Lois calls him into the house for sloppy joes. When he gets there, he discovers a scarecrow Lois and a recorder playing her voice. It’s all a ploy to get the eggs. A mongoose steals them while another kills Peter in the kitchen. They proceed to trick Chris as well, kill him, and steal the family television. Lois’s repeating voice rings out as the camera lingers on the empty house, its inhabitants seemingly all dead. It’s like something ripped out of a horror movie, and it’s certainly not where we thought the cutaway was going…

“Love, Blactually”

Leave it to “Family Guy” to take a harmless Dr. Seuss book and turn it into something decidedly not kid-friendly. Stewie picks up a book called “Horton Hears Domestic Violence in the Next Apartment and Doesn’t Call 911,” and the resulting cutaway shows exactly that. Horton is reading in his apartment when he hears a man and a woman yelling. The fight escalates, the walls thump, and the woman starts shrieking, which indicates that the fight has grown physical. Horton simply sits there, claiming that there’s “two sides” to the argument. Needless to say, we wouldn’t blame anyone if they found this cutaway more than a little triggering.

“Peterotica”

We honestly don’t know how the writers think of some of these jokes. This cutaway shows Peter dressed as some type of 19th-century plantation owner asking the farmer rats in his basement for rent. The rats don’t have it, because obviously Peter’s dark basement is not conducive for farming. Peter works out an arrangement with the rats and has the female strip for him. It’s a dark enough joke, but it’s even more so by the rat’s crying and Peter’s malicious cackles. This show really knows how to milk a joke for all the darkness that it’s worth, and it’s not afraid to make Peter look really bad.

“Tiegs for Two”

As previously mentioned, you know it’s bad when “Family Guy” breaks the fourth wall and admits it’s going too far. That’s exactly what happens with this joke involving Michael J. Fox. Peter claims that his white shirt was ruined at a wine tasting hosted by Fox. The show then hilariously cuts to Peter addressing the audience and claiming that actually showing the cutaway would just “make us all sad.” Which…yeah. After making more jokes aimed at Fox’s Parkinson's disease, the episode cuts to the gag anyway. And yes, it did indeed make us all sad. Poking fun at someone’s disease is a very dark method of comedy, but at least the show has some self-awareness about it.

“Play It Again, Brian”

There are some things that most people don’t joke about, and cancer is one of them. Of course, “Family Guy” isn’t “most people,” and they will essentially joke about whatever they feel like. Chris mentions the first chemo patient who disguised his bald head with a bandana. The show cuts to said man and his partner gleefully admiring his new look and forgetting, for at least a second, the painful reality of their lives. This being “Family Guy,” the cutaway ends on a dark note with the man gloomily reminding her of his “aggressive cancer.” Sometimes the show really wants us to feel guilty about laughing at it.

“The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire”

“Family Guy” has proven time and time again that it isn’t afraid to take shots at off-limit topics. Things like Parkinson’s, cancer, and AIDS are very difficult subjects for comedy, and they make for some truly dour cutaways. In this one, Peter belongs to a barbershop quartet that delivers a horrible bit of news to a hospital patient. In the traditional barbershop style, they reveal that the man has “full-blown AIDS.” There’s a lot of contrasting elements here, from the dour implications and the jaunty tune to our cringe and how catchy the song kinda is… Say what you will, but no one can deny that “Family Guy” has guts.