Top 10 Worst Things Roger Smith Has Done on American Dad

It’s weird how so many Roger-centric episodes quickly escalate into horror territory. To help Steve win a talent show, Roger poses as his ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Dingleberry. Roger soon gets too deep into character, staging a series of freak accidents to take out the competition. While that singer is especially rude, he didn’t deserve to have a weight dropped on his larynx, and Barry definitely didn’t deserve to be locked in a sauna. Dingleberry even framed his former ventriloquist for murder. But when he traps Snot in an escape tank, Steve saves the day and snaps Roger out of it by washing off his makeup... although he does get shot in the process.

Being the most unstable character on the show, it’s baffling that the family constantly seeks out Roger’s psychiatrist persona, Mr. Penguin, for guidance. When Francine’s friend Julie learns that Stan killed her husband, Mr. Penguin is tasked with trying to calm the hysterical widow down. Rather than talking Julie off a ledge, though, he encourages her to jump. Fortunately, Stan and Francine rush in before the noose around Julie’s neck can take its toll. Worse still: Julie’s husband is still alive and Roger knew it. This was all part of a complicated plan to get Francine to stop nagging Stan about sharing, but there was absolutely no reason for Roger to sit back and let Julie hang herself.

On top of babysitting Bullock’s son AJ, Francine also had to deal with an envious Roger, who can’t fathom the idea of anyone else receiving more attention than him. Still, Roger grows fond of little AJ… so much so that after the Bullocks take their baby home, Roger kidnaps him. Nevertheless, it appears that Roger wants to be a good big brother to AJ… until he damages his favorite crystal spider. Since babies shouldn’t be in reach of breakables anyway, this is really Roger’s fault. Roger doesn’t see things that way, however, feeling it necessary to drive AJ into a lake. While Roger’s plan is thwarted by Stan, he was still going to drown a baby over virtually nothing!

For his birthday, Roger tells the family that he wants a Comedy Central style roast. Roger insists that they hold nothing back and he seemingly takes their brutal insults in stride. Behind his sunglasses, though, Roger is drowning in his own tears. Words can hurt, but it's exactly what he asked for. Regardless, Roger not only scorns the family for being so mean, but plots to destroy all of them. Following an explosion, shootout, and car accident, the Smiths retreat to space where Roger hunts them down in a surprisingly creepy sequence. In spite of everything, the Smiths ensure Roger that just because they made fun of him doesn’t mean he isn’t loved. Um… is that a touching ending?

Dressed as Kevin Bacon, Roger abuses his newfound fame to get free stuff and treat people like garbage. Suddenly, Roger ditches the Bacon nose, apologizing to Steve and Hayley for being such a jerk. Could it be that Roger actually saw the light and took a step back before going too far? Of course not! Seconds later, it’s revealed that Roger, while impersonating Bacon, ran over an elderly man with a car and drove off, but not before shooting a traffic cam. Although the evidence shows that he physically couldn’t have done it, the real Bacon is arrested for Roger’s crime. Being responsible for a likely fatal hit-and-run and sending an innocent man to jail doesn’t phase Roger even remotely.

As Stan tries to get on a senator’s good side, Roger – standing in for Steve – strikes up a friendship with the politician’s daughter. Unfortunately, the one thing that they have in common is an addiction to drugs. Feeding into a fifteen-year-old girl’s cocaine problem is already beyond irresponsible, but Roger outdoes himself when he sells her to hostile drug dealers. Sure, they were threatening to shoot Roger in the head if he didn’t pay up, but throwing an underaged girl under the bus is still reprehensible, especially considering that he only owed $300. On the plus side, the dealers did sweeten the deal by referring Roger to a good plumber, but we’d hardly call that a fair trade.

Rogers’s little crush on Hayley soon spirals into a sick obsession. When shooting Hayley doesn’t change the way he feels, Roger does the next most logical thing: he kidnaps her and plans to skin her, ala Buffalo Bill. At the last minute, Roger decides that Jeff will be his victim instead. Roger can immediately tell that this isn’t working and – in a heartbeat – gets over Hayley. Although Roger reattaches his skin, Jeff’s anguish is far from over. In a later episode, Roger gets Jeff abducted by aliens, separating him from Hayley for a couple seasons. It’s eventually revealed that Jeff died in space... although they are able to put his brain in a new body.

In “Kill Bill,” the heroine targets five assassins responsible for a massacre that ruined her life. Roger's story is a bit like that, except his motivation for running down five frat guys isn’t quite as relatable. After giving them a lift in his limo, they refuse to pay the $20 fee. Roger believes that the only way to settle the score is to make them pay with their lives. Sure, the guys were unapologetically obnoxious, and running out on the bill would upset anyone. Painting the road red with their blood, however, feels just a tad extreme. What’s more, Roger somehow runs over the final victim on a plane, and in due course causes all the passengers to perish.

Of all the alter egos in Roger’s repertoire, none have committed as many atrocities as Ricky Spanish. Where do we even begin? Well, he kicked an old lady below the belt, looked up a nun’s habit with a camera, defecated inside a patient mid-surgery, and those are just some of his more minor offenses! Among Ricky’s worst crimes were abandoning Brian Lewis in Tijuana with no way to get home and taking out Bullock’s wife with a katana through the heart… on her birthday, no less! Steve makes the colossal mistake of trying to redeem Ricky, who returns the favor by letting him take the fall (literally) for a sweater heist that he orchestrated with his partner Daniel.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Becoming a Tyrant
“Moon Over Isla Island”

Running a Handbag Sweatshop
“The People vs. Martin Sugar”

Becoming a Crooked Cop
“Cops and Roger”

His Lawsuit Scam
“I Can't Stan You”

Getting Klaus Thrown in Jail For Breaking Up With Him
“Kloger”

How do you top Ricky Spanish’s laundry list of unspeakable deeds? Well, being responsible for the end of the world will do it. On a field trip to Langley Quantum Labs, Roger gets inside a hadron collider. An interrupted experiment results in an energy burst that releases two-hundred of Roger’s personas, turns Langley Falls into a wasteland, and shuts down power worldwide. Granted, Roger didn’t mean to doom modern civilization as we know it, but his incompetence nonetheless caused mass destruction and death across the entire planet. Unlike most “American Dad!” episodes, everything doesn’t just go back to normal in the end. So, if this post-apocalyptic future is canon, Roger really goofed up like never before.