Top 20 Hilarious Peter Griffin Moments on Family Guy

“Patriot Games”

Peter has had a lot of jobs over the years, including playing professional football. In one Season 4 episode, he joins the New England Patriots alongside quarterback Tom Brady. However, Brady, who plays himself, continually chides Peter for showing off after scoring goals. This reaches its peak as Peter launches into a seemingly impromptu performance of “Shipoopi,” a song from the musical “The Music Man.” The audience, players, and everyone watching at home all join in as Peter belts out this classic number, complete with choreographed dances. It’s the kind of grandiose silliness that makes Peter such a fun character. And all over a single touchdown!

“Da Boom”

With the advent of the new millennium, people were concerned. The whole Y2K thing was a very real concern at the time, even if it didn’t end up panning out. Even so, Peter starts panicking on New Year’s Eve. While Lois and the rest of the family get ready for a New Year’s party, Peter is nowhere to be found. This leads Lois to recall how often he takes to prepare for parties. In a cutaway, we see that Peter and Lois both wear the same dress to attend her cousin’s wedding. To be honest, we think he wore it better.

“Stuck Together, Torn Apart”

It should surprise no one that Peter is the jealous type. After Lois reconnects with an old boyfriend, Peter decides to do the most “Peter Griffin” thing imaginable and hires a “lady of the evening” to make his wife jealous. After dragging Peter into a little-seen room of the house, Lois confronts him about his envy. Peter, after rambling about Congress and the Fifth Commandment, urges Lois to love as much as he loves, doing an absurd dance to emphasize his point. However, the end result of that dance is that he starts to see things her way. The scene is a great distillation of Peter’s theatricality and stupidity.

“The Son Also Draws”

Speaking of Peter’s stupidity, this is an excellent example of it. While on a trip, Lois loses their car at a casino. To win it back from the casino’s Native American owners, Peter is charged with going on a vision quest. Peter claims to Lois that it will be easy, as he has had visions before. Whipping out a cutaway, we see him receive an eerie message in his cereal. It’s a short scene, but it’s a great example of Peter’s idiocy. We’ve had greater success interpreting our Lucky Charms.

“No Chris Left Behind”

Chris may be as dopey as his dad, but thanks to Lois’s father, he’s able to attend a private academy. Unfortunately, the high tuition fees mean that Peter is forced to take up his old job - purveying tools to reach itches in hard-to-hit places at baseball games. His repeated calls of “butt scratcha’” will never get old! He even brings his work home with him, but Lois is less than appreciative. He’d make a killing if he sold to “Family Guy” fans. But sadly, that’s an itch we can’t scratch.

“Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?”

Speaking of Chris, after Peter’s oldest son starts speaking in Ebonics in the car, he becomes convinced he’s possessed. After the rest of the family explains, Peter calms down. Brian recalls that Peter is prone to going through phases of odd behavior himself, citing when he narrated his own life. Peter speaks aloud his inner thoughts while Lois serves dinner, criticizing her cooking and using more complex words than he usually does. It still earns him a punch in the face from his wife though. And even being knocked out for a while isn’t enough to get him to stop. I concluded the fifteenth entry with my own narration, but is it truly mine, or merely what is written for me?

“The New Adventures of Old Tom”

While at the Drunken Clam, Peter drinks with news anchor Tom Tucker, who has recently been replaced with a younger newscaster. Peter resolves to help improve Tom’s image. He claims he can do anything he sets his mind to, citing the time he was on the singing competition show, “The Voice.” A cutaway shows Peter tearfully relating a made-up sob story, lampooning how many talent show contestants advance based on drawing sympathy from the judges instead of their merits. And Peter’s choice of song just seals the deal. “Viva Forever” might’ve been a better choice given his vibe, but this is funnier at least.

“The Man with Two Brians”

Brian’s a dog, and dogs can’t live forever - except on TV. When the family starts to realize Brian’s limitations after a scare, Peter decides he’ll have to get used to the idea, just as he got used to his acrylic nails. We then see Peter apparently acting as a secretary at a law office, sporting long false nails. Peter’s deliberately paced typing and complete lack of concern for all the people he has on hold help make this a hilarious stereotype of the unconcerned personal assistant. The nails totally work on him too.

“Big Man on Hippocampus”

The Griffin family wins a spot on “Family Feud.” Throughout the game, each of the Griffins delivers answers that are funny and often revealing about their personalities. However, it all comes down to Peter in the bonus round. Charged with coming up with an example of something you sit in, Peter says chair. Unfortunately, Lois already answered this during her turn. However, that doesn’t stop Peter, who continues to say variations on the word, with no success. He may lose the Griffins the game, and his memory, but this hysterical moment is a winner in our book!

“The Splendid Source”

As funny as Peter is, in this case, his reaction to something funny is arguably even funnier than what he’s reacting to. After Chris hears a dirty joke from Quagmire, Peter wants to hear the joke himself. However, he soon regrets this decision as he finds the joke so funny, he soils his pants. Quagmire and Joe, after learning this, decide to repeatedly tell the joke to Peter and laugh at his misfortune, using increasingly outlandish ways to deliver it. Peter manages to get his revenge though. We’d say it’s too bad we can’t hear the rest of the joke for ourselves, but at least we won’t spend as much on new pants.

“E. Peterbus Unum”

When Peter establishes his own micro nation called “Petoria” after learning his house is not technically part of the United States, he also gets diplomatic immunity, a power he naturally chooses to abuse. During a night on the town, Peter launches into an impromptu musical number based on MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” during which he flaunts all the things he’s able to do without consequences. The song is an excellent microcosm of “Family Guy” itself, showcasing its irreverence, random humor, and pop culture references in a short and catchy span, while also showing off Peter’s impressive dance moves.

“McStroke”

After winning a lifetime supply of free food at McBurgertown for saving its manager from a fire, Peter proceeds to have a stroke after eating 30 burgers in a row. With half of his body paralyzed, Peter suffers through his day-to-day life for a while before seeking help at a stem cell research center. The scene then jumps to five minutes later, when he exits the building completely cured. Peter then incredulously asks why stem cells are not being funded. Along with being an example of the show’s social commentary, this moment has become a meme; demonstrating Peter’s ability help us give voice to our own opinions.

“North by North Quahog”

When Peter hears that Mel Gibson has a rarely used suite at a fancy New York hotel, he decides to take Lois there and impersonate the famous actor to use the room. The duo enjoys the extravagant luxuries they discover there. However, upon discovering Gibson’s secret screening room and a trailer for an outlandish sequel to “The Passion of the Christ,” Peter decides that it should never see the light of day. Pursued by Gibson’s men, Peter relates the intensity of their chase to the time he forgot how to perform a simple action. It’s a short clip, but it hits harder than Peter hits that chair!

“No Meals on Wheels”

On one occasion, Peter purchases a pair of flannel, full-body pajamas and begins wearing them everywhere, as he finds them extremely comfortable. However, upon being told he has to stop wearing him, he drags his feet on the ground in disappointment, and inadvertently discovers the pajamas’ ability to create static electricity. Naturally, the spectacled man-child goes overboard fast, dubbing himself Electric Man and taking any opportunity to zap everyone in the house in increasingly elaborate ways. Peter’s childish joy and enthusiasm for shocking his family are infectious, and had us giggling right along with him.

“Bango Was His Name Oh”

Peter is a terrible father, particularly to his daughter, Meg. One of the more heinously amusing things he does to her on a regular basis is forcing her to smell his farts. The arguably funniest of these flatulent father-daughter escapades happens when Peter tries teaching Meg how to attract a boyfriend. Part of his training involves keeping her in a locked car with him while his… ahem… odor fills it. This, Peter insists, will help Meg get used to loving a future boyfriend’s own gas. The seriousness with which Peter treats something so ridiculous is hilarious, while Meg’s discomfort is also very entertaining.

“The Thin White Line”

Upset at not being able to go on vacation, Peter checks into a rehab clinic after Brian attends one to overcome addictions he acquires as a police dog. When one of the staff members becomes suspicious of Peter’s behavior and asks him his name, the big-chinned doofus tries improvising a name from the things he sees in the room around him. As it goes, the things that catch his eye happen to be a pea, a tear, and an actual griffin flying inside the clinic. Showcasing Peter’s stupidity, bad luck, and some of the show’s most absurd humor, this is a great Peter moment.

“The Blind Side”

After Stewie gets a splinter, Lois replaces the stairs in the Griffin house. However, Peter finds their slicker surface difficult to deal with, to the point where he falls and hurts himself every time he tries to walk down from the second floor. His attempts to prevent falling and to shield himself from harm become more complex and equally as futile as the episode goes on, culminating in a refusal to go down them at all. Reminiscent of classic cartoon slapstick, Peter’s tumbles are an equally classic moment from him - though you’d think he’d have learn his lesson after trying to turn them into a waterslide.

“Wasted Talent”

Peter does have a penchant for injuries, but perhaps his most notorious one is when he injures his knee. In this episode, Peter runs home, ecstatic to have won a prize. However, outside the house, he trips and hurts his knee, cradling it while inhaling sharply and exhaling slowly. This goes on for nearly half a minute in one of the show’s most drawn-out gags. Thereafter, Peter as well as other characters, often call back to this moment whenever they injure their knees, making the same noises and posture.

Various

After receiving an expired coupon from a giant talking chicken, Peter develops a rivalry with the bird that spans seasons. Following their initial bout, Peter and the chicken, whose name is Ernie, engage in intense and intricately crafted fight sequences on a semi-regular basis and spanning various colorful locales. These fights interrupt whatever’s going on in the episode at the time and last for several minutes before culminating in Peter’s victory, though Ernie always lives to fight another day. While Peter’s conflict with Homer Simpson was also quite well done, his fights with his avian rival will always be our favorite for their excitement and superb visual comedy.

“I Dream of Jesus”

While eating at a diner with his family, Peter rediscovers his love for the song “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen after the tune plays on a jukebox. Thereafter, Peter buys the record and proceeds to annoy his family with the song at every opportunity, setting them up verbally to make a joke using the lyrics and even singing the song in bed. Although that particular record is eventually destroyed, the song becomes Peter’s unofficial anthem, which is fitting, since it kind of fits him to a tee – both are annoying, goofy, and very memorable.