One of the most successful cartoons in history, and beloved by people the world over, Family Guy, along with its creator Seth MacFarlane (who also created American Dad and The Cleveland Show) has become the face of this kind of animation. Now in its 16th season, Family Guy revels in all things weird, boundary-pushing, and funny.

What it also revels in, and what set it apart from contemporaries like The Simpsons and South Park, is abstract, random humour. With tropes like the signature cut-away gag being used multiple times per episode, Family Guy relies just as much on the bizarre and preposterous as it does on storytelling and conventional comedy.

This approach creates a certain amount of creative laxity: storylines, strictly speaking, do not have to make complete sense; the same rules, or lack thereof, extend to the humor also, meaning that at times the more nonsensical the gag, the better.

This can lead to issues of continuity in storytelling, as well as contradictions and moments which just don’t make any sense whatsoever. In this list, we’re going to look at some of the silliest, confusing and downright nonsensical moments in the series. Perhaps the main difference between this list and others is the fact that, out of almost any other show of its type, Family Guy is the one that could not only get away with errors and general absurdity but could actually wear it as a badge of honor.

25 How Does Brian Date Women?

Love is blind, or so they say. Well, that may be true, but even in the ultra progressivism of today’s world, this one aspect of Family Guy is just something that we can't get behind, no matter how you look at it. It just doesn't make sense! Brian is one of the main characters on Family Guy, a dog whose stock in trade is pseudo-intellectualism and left-leaning political beliefs. His ability to articulate himself and, mostly, fight off his base dog instincts have allowed him to elevate above his canine status as a functioning, accepted member of the Griffin family and the community at large. But he’s still a dog.

That’s why when he dates women, whether it be hopelessly pursuing Brooke Roberts, whom he met on The Bachelorette on the episode along with other males, or engaging in a relationship with dim lightbulb Jillian, it’s just a little bit strange even for a cartoon. What makes it even weirder is the fact that Brian has had dated other dogs, most notably Carter Pewterschmidt’s prized greyhound Seabreeze, which had an episode dedicated to it. It's just a little weird, to say the least.

24 Trying To Injure Joe After He Learns To Walk Again

As the show wore on, Joe’s handicap evolved more and more into a running joke. In the first three seasons, Joe was painted as a hero who overcame his disability through bravery, positivity, and an unshakeable work ethic. After a few seasons, Family Guy showed its true colors as a very adult program by ridiculing it on a regular basis.

In the Season 6 episode “Believe It Or Not, Joe’s Walking On Air,” Joe’s character is given some redemption for the barbs he has had to endure. Unable to dance with Bonnie, he is determined to walk again and receives a leg transplant. Joe, determined to live life to the fullest, is irked by his slow, lazy friends who soon become tired of rock climbing and mountain biking with their recently able-bodied friend, so he finds new friends. He also tells Bonnie he’s leaving her, having outgrown her with his newfound mobility.

His friends hatch a logical but terrible plan: they need to re-cripple Joe to get their old friend back. Joe is easily able to fight them off. Bonnie attacks him (even though she misses and Joe does it himself!). In the aftermath, Joe seeks his friends' forgiveness!

Sure, he may have been a jerk, and leaving his wife was not cool, but surely they should’ve just found a new friend and not attempted to paralyze an active police officer!

23 The Former Life Of Brian

We’ve already discussed Brian’s troubling relationships, and we also touched on the fact that Brian has had puppies in the past. In the Season 6 episode “The Former Life Of Brian,” Brian visits a former girlfriend, Tracy, only to discover that she had a son, Dylan, who was Brian’s child. Brian, stunned by the news, wants to be in Dylan’s life. Dylan proves to be a 13-year-old brat deep in the throes of his teenage years, while Brian proves to be the quintessential over-protective parent, unwilling to let him eat certain foods and worrying incessantly about him, wanting to make good for the lost years and to give his son the father that he never had himself.

The only problem is, Dylan is 13, and Brian is 8 in human years. What?

Also, Dylan is fully human, which is weird. Maybe Brian has a strain of super advanced genes that can discriminate between human and canine hosts. The same genes are also so strong that they speed up the aging process of the offspring. If I was Brian, I would request DNA test, as it's probably pretty likely that Tracy has had this child with someone else.

22 Comparing Dog Rights To Human Rights...

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The genesis of the aforementioned blurring of the lines between human behavior and the actuality of his species began here, in the finale of the very first season of the show. “Brian: Portrait Of A Dog” begins when Peter asks Brian to enter a dog show for him to raise $500 for a new air conditioner. Brian is initially complicit, taking part of the show until he is asked to balance a dog treat on his now. He refuses to do it, costing the Griffins the prize money.

A domestic civil war erupts between Brian and Peter: Brian wants his dignity, equal rights to his human contemporaries, and respect. Peter wants Brian to be submissive, and accept his secondary status as a dog because, well, he is a dog.

Aside from the fact that, again, he is a dog, the parallels between Brian and the civil rights movement in the States are pretty ridiculous: one of the cornerstones of the episode is Brian fighting for the right drink from the same water fountains as humans, a callback to when people had separate water fountains. Apparently, he also wanted the right to perform show tunes at nightclubs sometimes. He’s a dog!

21 She Might Be A Little Young for Peter

Like father, like son. Where do you think Stewie learned how to infiltrate high schools of unsuspecting teenagers? More realistic, but somewhat more creepy, all the way back in Season 2’s “Let’s Go To The Hop” Peter disguises himself as Lando, a super cool 1950s Fonz throwback who successfully convinces the students at James Woods High School to stop licking toads, a fad which is getting the student population into a lot of hot water. Job done. Well, not exactly.

Peter goes all method actor on it and asks Connie D’Amico to the school dance, instead of his own daughter Meg, who, it should be noted, wants to go with Lando to increase her social status, and not due to some serious unresolved issues. So, always falling for the Griffins' schemes, Connie agrees, helping Peter live out his dream of taking his old high school crush Phoebe to his high school dance years ago.

Eventually, Peter’s conscience gets the better of him and he takes his daughter Meg instead. But perhaps this could all have been avoided if Peter had just not done this thing in the first place. Poor Connie, duped by two generations of Griffin men.

20 The Offensive Way They Demonstrated Peter's Relationship With Scott

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As well as being ridiculous, Family Guy is also extremely conspicuous. The Season 7 episode “Family Gay” is neither subtle in title or execution. When Peter needs to raise money to pay for damages he made to Mort Goldman’s Pharmacy by flinging a literal horse through the shop front window, as you do, he agrees to become a test subject for medical research. In the process, he’s injected with several genes to test their effects. Along with the squirrel gene and the esoteric “Seth Rogan” gene, Peter was injected with the gay gene. Unfortunately for Lois, the gay gene didn’t wear off, and Peter ended up moving in with new man Scott.

The fact that there would be an injectable gay gene that could alter a man’s preference is silly enough, but why they would develop a Seth Rogan gene, of all things? Moreover, why is it that said Seth Rogan gene and the previously mentioned squirrel gene wore off almost instantly, but the gay gene didn’t? Surely a gene that alters your muscular-skeletal structure or one that changes what species you are would have longer and more long-lasting effects. I guess not, though.

19 Insensitive Views On Stem Cell Research

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Stem cell research is a controversial topic: some believe that the use of the cells violates the growth of a potential life, while others believe that the use of the therapy can have life-changing effects from the use of cells that have no living viability.

Family Guy has never shied away from political subject matter and humor, and with characters like Brian Griffin, it wears its biases firmly on the left side of its sleeve. In the episode “McStroke,” Peter suffers a (you guessed it) stroke from eating too many burgers from the Burger Town restaurant.

We are then treated to a litany of segments which show how difficult Peter’s life has become since suffering his stroke (you shouldn’t laugh at the R.E.M. scene… you did, didn’t you?). All this sets you up for the final scene, which sees Peter walking, or shuffling, into a stem cell research facility. Five minutes later he walks out completely cured. It’s played for laughs and socio-political commentary: the idea that all that hardship could be avoided if people would just be more progressive... But seriously though, five minutes? Though it almost seems insensitive, that's Family Guy for you.

18 Should Stewie Look Like He's On Roids?

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When the Griffins go to the Swanson house for a party, Stewie gets into a bit of an altercation with Bonnie and Joe’s daughter Susie, with the latter getting beaten by the former. This does not sit well with Peter, who is keen to teach his young toddler son a lesson, which is great parenting 101. He takes Stewie to a boxing gym where, instead of learning how to defend himself, the infant child gets immediately buff and begins lifting weights: thus begins the aptly titled episode “Stew-Roids”.

Subsequently, little Stewie Griffin becomes absolutely jacked. Popping shoulders, massive pecs, and a set of guns that put Greg Valentino to shame. Like any respectable gym rat, he also totally neglects training his legs, because you can’t see them in a tank top!

Other than the overwhelming bad nature of Peter’s parenting, there’s the simple question of how a baby became so huge when he hasn't come of age yet and has little to no muscle. But even more puzzling is how Stewie, an evil genius who extorted Brian for money, engaged in ferocious hand-to-hand combat with his then unborn brother Bertram and made various attempts on his mother, would take such a defeat from such a passive child? And without seeking revenge!

17 They Have No Idea How Math Works

The one that started it all, the pilot episode for the show, will go down in the annals of history as not only a landmark moment in television and the debut of what would become one of the most successful cartoons of all time, but one of the best episodes in the series and one which introduced the world to everything that would become quintessential Family Guy: the adult humour, the iconic theme music, the vintage cutaway gag and, of course, its ridiculous brand of storytelling.

The entire episode is based around the idea that Peter, who was recently fired for gross negligence after falling asleep at his assembly job at the toy factory, resulting in an abundance of dangerous toys being sold to children, has to go on welfare. However, a mix up at the welfare office results in Peter receiving a weekly allowance of $150,000. The reason? A misplaced decimal point. Now, how this works exactly is anybody's guess: where was the decimal point meant to be, exactly? There are only two numbers after any decimal point, so unless the check was meant to read $1,500.0000 or $150.00000, it doesn’t exactly make a whole lot of sense. Cartoon logic!

16 No One Comes Looking For A Kidnapped Pope

In the second episode of the second season of Family Guy, Peter’s father Francis is forced to retire from his job at the Pawtucket Mill. A devout Catholic and workaholic who dedicates his life to his religious teachings and his work, Francis chooses to spend more time with his family, although with his aversion to Lois and her Protestantism and his general disliking of Peter, his whole family, and his way of life, it's hard to figure out why.

Peter spends the better part of the whole episode trying to get his father to like him: he attends church with him and even takes him to a baseball game (a pastime which has brought father and son together for “millions of years”). The only thing that Peter does that inspires his father's approval is when Peter gets him a job at the toy factory, only to see his father promoted and then be fired by him.

To win back his father's affections, even post-firing, Peter does the most logical thing: he steals the Pope from his convoy.

After his driver gets knocked out, Peter hijacks the Pope-mobile and redirects the Pope’s route to his home in Quahog. The Pope, seemingly cool with what has transpired, attempts to reunite father and son. Francis isn’t interested, the Pope nearly loses his temper, meanwhile, no one seems to come looking for his holiness.

15 Peter Losing His Sight... Then Getting It Back With No Explanation

In another moment of wanton self-destruction, Peter begins eating nickels to hold the world record for the man who… has eaten the most nickels. Spurred on by Quagmire’s recent act of saving a woman with CPR (CPR was not his intention, but semantics, eh?), Peter becomes jealous of him and friends like cop Joe who have committed acts of heroism, and this seemed like the most reasonable way to get his name out there and be known for something.

As a result of his noble quest, Peter goes blind and becomes sad, having failed to achieve his goals and now having a handicap to live with. In an attempt to drown his sorrows, Peter walks into a burning building. Horace, the owner, who is trapped underneath fallen debris, asks Peter to take his hand and help him up. Peter, again totally unaware, pulls his friend to safety. He then receives a medal from the mayor, finally achieving his goal, even if it was by accident. All (basically) makes sense, no? Well, he also regains his eyesight after his guide dog drags a homeless person into the afterlife. No explanation was given other than a newspaper headline (not even the top story). Makes sense.

14 The Incredibly Poorly Written Mob Story

In the Season 2 episode “There’s Something About Paulie,” Peter gets into debt with the mafia after they destroy a recently bought automobile so Peter could claim the insurance. Like with any deal with the mob, though, the time came when Peter had to return the favor to his Sicilian friends. All they want him to do is take the Don’s obnoxious nephew Big Fat Paulie to the movies. He does, and soon they develop an uneasy friendship together.

Peter (as much for his own protection as anything) tells Paulie that he can no longer hang out with his friend and blames the break up of their bromance on Lois, saying they could hang out were it not for her. Paulie sees this as a green light and puts out a call for Lois. Paulie is gone before Peter can call off the thing, and attends the wedding of the Don’s daughter to ask him to call it off himself after numerous attempts on her life. Turns out the groom was the man after all, and the whole thing is eventually settled. The only problem is: if he knew she was there, why did he have to take a look at a picture to confirm her identity? Also at the end, he tells them not to start their car, but how did they drive there? Either bad bomb-making or bad script writing!

13 Did Anyone Ask For The Cleveland Show?

When it was time for Family Guy mastermind Seth MacFarlane to create another spinoff show, taking the total to three after American Dad (and possibly a slight bit of one-upmanship to The Simpsons, too), they decided to transplant an existing character from the show, putting them in a new setting and building an entire series around them.

While Cleveland may have seemed like a good choice on paper (a known recurring character whose not so popular that he’d be missed) in hindsight there were better potential candidates for their own show.

The main problem with Cleveland is that while his slow delivery, high pitched laugh, and unique observational sense of humor was a great asset on Family Guy in small doses, having an entire show built around him felt a little overbearing. The increased focus on his character also forced him to adopt a more charismatic, bombastic persona for the sake of entertainment and variety, but that type of leading man persona is so alien to Cleveland’s initial character that it felt like watching two different men!

They could’ve given Brian his own show, since they were planning to get rid of him anyway, only to bring him back again! Or how about Quagmire? He’s charismatic and interesting enough to have his own program, surely.

12 How Do You Get A Black Belt In Two Weeks?

In the Season 3 episode “Lethal Weapons,” Lois comes to the defense of her husband, who's being attacked by a gang of rowdy New Yorkers. Rather than be emasculated by her assistance, Peter tries to capitalize on his wife’s fighting skill by charging people to fight her and getting her to fight his own battles for him.

Lois' natural ability was discovered and nurtured when she goes to a Taijutsu class with neighbor Bonnie Swanson.

Soon she becomes his best pupil, and the two even duke it out in an intense sparring session. Lois, who begins to over-assert her dominance both at home and in the dojo, sees the negative effect she is having on her family when Stewie hits Peter with a baseball bat. All this leads to a family therapy session which erupts into a massive brawl. In the end, the family is able to laugh at the whole situation and put it behind them.

The only trouble is, Lois was seemingly able to attain a black belt in Taijutsu within the space of a few weeks. I don’t care how talented she is, that grading system needs to be re-examined if students are receiving black belts within a month of training!

11 Peter Takes His Father Out... And Does Zero Jail Time

In the episode Season 5 “Peter’s Two Dads,” Peter throws Meg an elaborate but terrible sweet sixteen birthday party. Dressing up as a clown, Peter swallows a link of scarves (which he later throws back up). For the grand finale, he attempts to unicycle down the house’s staircase. However, Peter falls from the cycle, lands on top of his father Francis, which results in passing moments later in a hospital.

When Peter attends therapy to deal with the events that had transpired, he discovers a repressed memory which reveals that Francis was not his father. Upon a visit to Ireland, Peter discovers that his real biological father is a weird man (a noble position in Ireland, apparently), and the two get acquainted over a friendly contest.

Even though Peter brings it up in conversation, the reasons for Mickey (his real father) abandoning him and his mother is never addressed. Moreover, there are no repercussions for Peter doing that to his fake father: even if it was accidental, gross negligence would surely make Peter liable! We know that Family Guy rules don't always add up to real life, but honestly, this just makes a lot less sense than most things on this show.

10 Opens A Bar In His House... While Under House Arrest

In Season 1, when Peter attacks a woman who he thought was a man (yep) at a soccer game, he is put on house arrest. Seemingly more concerned with his inability to go out drinking with his pals than he is for the well being of the woman he KO'd, Peter is driven absolutely crazy by his forced solitude.

To remedy this problem, he decides to build a counter in his basement. He manages to build the counter, complete with pool tables, stools, roundtables and a smorgasbord of different drinks, in the space of time it took Lois to go to the supermarket and cook a roast dinner for her housebound husband (needless to say, he didn't attend).

Within the span of a few nights, Peter's establishment is a swinging hangout complete with single women and piano performances from Lois. The question is, how did a man who is on house arrest manage to start his own public thing without a license? And what about next door neighbor Joe? The heroic true-blue cop who is incorruptible, beyond reproach and dedicated to protect, serve, and enforce the law? Maybe he was enjoying a drink. We'll never know how this was okay.

9 Children Getting Married

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In what is perhaps one of the most sinister moments in the series, Stewie attacks a playhouse with former child co-star Olivia and another small child, Victor, inside. The motivation for this heinous crime? Well, Olivia, Stewie’s “wife,” was having a romance with Victor. A pretty adult problem to have, and a pretty extreme solution to said problem. Perhaps some therapy, or even a time out, would’ve sufficed? Instead, Stewie opted for cold-hearted vengeance.

This happened during the Season 5 episode “Chick Cancer.” Miraculously, 10 seasons later, in the episode “The Boys In The Band,” Olivia shows up again alive and well. Undeterred by Stewie’s previous attempts to end her, and their personal and professional animosity towards each other, going back to Season 3, she starts hanging out with him again and starts managing his and Brian’s band. Back to her old manipulative tricks again, she ends up ousting Stewie from the group and goes off with Brian, clearly unafraid of further repercussions.

How Olivia made it out of that playhouse is a mystery in of itself. Why there was no investigation or fallout after the fire is another. Why Olivia keeps coming back to Stewie and continually tries to twist him around is anyone’s guess, but we think she should probably try and find another musical collaborator!

8 Quagmire is 60, But Can't Get Into An Over-50 Library

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In a Season 14 episode, Peter starts taking dares off of his friends for money. When Peter accepts the dare, he accidentally floods the public library, and in response, Mayor West increases the minimum legal age to 50 years old. Brian, who is 56 years of age in dog years, is able to buy things for the gang. Brian suddenly finds himself in a position of usefulness, and become assimilated back into the group from which he had been becoming increasingly distant, not least because of his rivalry with Quagmire.

Which makes the following revelation even more perplexing: Glen Quagmire, who detests Brian but must put up with him in order to have fun, is actually 60. That right, according to his driver’s license in the Season 7 episode “FOX-y Lady,” the jaunty, jet-setting ladies man is 60 years of age. Now why would a man who (as it is revealed in the Season 8 episode “Jerome Is The New Black”) hates Brian and everything he stands for, allow him to sneak back into the group, when he is technically more than capable of supplying anything to his friends himself, when the group themselves are rather ambivalent towards the dog in the first place?

7 Stewie Being The Coolest Kid At School

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In the Season 6 episode “McStroke,” while Peter is trying to eat himself into the grave, Brian bets Stewie, the youngest Griffin, that he would be unable to disguise himself as a high school student and become the most popular kid at James Woods High School because of his status and stature. But Stewie doesn't let a challenge bring him down!

Stewie, up for the challenge, dons a long sleeve tee, blond wig with an overpowering fringe, and calls himself Zack Sawyer, an ultra-cynical hipster millennial teenager. He quickly befriends Connie D’Amico and her gang of jocks, cheerleaders, and cool kids, and then begins seeing Connie (because she thinks he's really popular/cool).

Brian must concede the bet. Stewie has made it with the popular gang, in spite of his obviously strange appearance.

Things start to get quite weird when Connie and Stewie have a row and he gets kicked out of her car. This ruins Stewie’s reputation and his popularity is over; as a final act of revenge, Stewie convinces Connie to say goodbye… before revealing to a (surprisingly) stunned school that he's the Stewie we all know and love. It's just a really strange storyline!

6 Stewie Going Deep Into Peter's Body To Fight His Brother

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In the Season 3 episode “Emission Impossible,” Peter and Lois announce to the family that they want another child after witnessing the birth of Lois’ sister’s child. All of the Griffins are excited by the idea of a new addition to the family, except for Stewie.

Driven by jealousy (he is, after all the only baby in the family) he sets out on an intricate plan to stop the thought of a new Griffin offspring. After a few hair-brained schemes that ultimately fail, Stewie builds a miniature spacecraft, shrinks himself, and flies into his father’s mouth with the intention of heading south of the border to destroy any of his competition.

He manages to lower Peter down to one. The surviving guy boards Stewie's vessel, and thus we are introduced to Bertram.

Both an intellectual and physical match for Stewie, he ultimately decides to spare him and, discovering their mutual disdain for Lois, is now excited about his brother’s birth. However, Peter banishes him into the toilet bowl and it looks like game over for Bertram. However, Stewie realizes that he is still alive when he sees the “twinkle” in his father’s eye.

Bertram not only survives Peter’s attempt to release him, but when Peter makes a donation, Bertram manages to survive long enough to be part of that donation and is born as Stewie’s arch nemesis once again.