Roger (American Dad!)
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| Roger | |
|---|---|
| American Dad! character | |
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| First appearance | Pilot |
| Created by | Seth McFarlane |
| Portrayed by | Seth MacFarlane (voice-actor) |
| Episode count | 86 |
| Information | |
| Species | Space Alien |
| Gender | Male |
| Specialty | Mixing drinks. Costumes and personas. |
Roger Smith (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) is one of the main characters in the animated comedy series American Dad!. He is a space alien (whose appearance resembles that of the greys) living with the Smith family. Roger is sarcastic, self-centered, surly and speaks in swish. Roger's array of powers is constantly expanding: he can currently "learn others' memories" through anal probing, and is completely fireproof. Roger came to live with the Smith family after saving Stan Smith's life in Area 51. This is similar to how Peter Griffin met Brian on the road as a stray dog in Family Guy season 1 finale Brian: Portrait of a Dog.
Roger's flamboyant talking pattern is a parody of Paul Lynde. He can speak four different human languages; English, Spanish (though not fluently), French and Armenian. On his home planet, he was a greeter at a Wal-Mart-analogue store called Philaxido.
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[edit] Biography
Little is known about Roger's past; his planet is never seen or described in-depth, though according to him, it sounds fairly similar to Earth, though in a deleted scene, it is also mentioned to be four hundred degrees colder. He has mentioned that snow reminds him of his home planet, and figure skating apparently exists there; he also comments that he enjoys the cold in, and expresses bewilderment when his human friends begin to freeze to death.[1][2] He has also commented that the planet has stores like Wal-Mart (where he was once a Greeter) and colleges. He also states that his home planet is full of chickens, warning Hayley against "giving them the vote".
Why Roger came to earth is explained on the season 4 episode 18 "Weiner of Our Discontent" where he states that he is the decider of mankind's future, even though later on the episode it is revealed to Roger that he was only a crash test dummy for his species' spaceship; he also does state that the reason he came was to collect a sample of cholera, although since arriving he seems mostly to be mooching, and seems in no hurry to go back home. He claims that he landed during the Roswell UFO incident,[3] and that he "invented" disco and became a millionaire in the 1970s after he discovered a cassette tape from the future (which Stan dropped whilst going back in time in an attempt to assassinate Jane Fonda/Donald Sutherland), therefore creating a time paradox. He apparently also fought with the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War for some unknown reason.[4] Stan and Steve once took part in a Vietnam War reenactment and Roger participated on the Viet Cong side; at one point, Roger tortured Stan by reading the 700 page first draft of the Sex and the City film.[5] It is revealed in the episode "Frannie 911" that Roger has been on Earth for 60 years; as of the date of this episode that is 1947, the year of the Roswell UFO Incident.
In the episode "Family Affair" Roger is revealed to have lived with at least one other foster family before the Smiths and possibly several others. Though he seemed to be suffering from trauma after being abandoned by this family, Roger is revealed to have treated them abusively and refused to pay rent. It is likely that Roger settled into this pattern of foster family life after his success in the 1970s, before being temporarily caught by the CIA.
Four years prior to the series, he was incarcerated by the CIA in Area 51, when Stan Smith, then an intelligence officer, was on duty at the base. Tired of living in a laboratory, he escaped his holding cell, thus triggering off a lockdown investigation. Stan tracked him down in a laboratory and was about to kill him before Roger pleaded for mercy, but the security team threw grenades into the room, and Roger pulled Stan to safety. They leaped down a laundry chute into a laundry truck, just as the grenades blew up where they previously had been standing. Grateful to Roger for saving his life, Stan offered to repay him in anyway at all, leading to his being added to the family. As a means of convincing the family to let him stay, Stan presented him as a birthday present to Steve for his tenth birthday. Hayley and Francine were horrified of him at first sight, as was Klaus, but Steve was delighted in having his own alien. By the start of the show, however, the others seem to have come to terms with him and consider him a part of the family.
[edit] Vices
Roger spends his time watching television, eating (mainly junk foods such as Pecan Sandies, Dunkaroos, Chocodiles, and occasionally leftover pizza), smoking, and drinking alcohol. His drink of choice is almost always wine, usually white wine and he occasionally shows an appreciation for wine tasting as a connoisseur. His alcohol consumption would probably qualify him as a chronic alcoholic - he is often intoxicated, references are regularly made to his alcohol consumption and in the episode "Rough Trade", he is seen drinking deeply from a bottle of white wine even before getting out of bed in the morning. The motivation for his vices appears to be simple boredom, although it is suggested in the episode "The Best Christmas Story Never Told" that he is deeply unhappy about being stranded on Earth for decades and, moreover, achieving almost nothing in this time.
He can be mischievous and annoyingly childish; once, after finding Dick Cheney's BlackBerry, he prank-called several world leaders including a call to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during which Roger played the "Chicken butt!" prank.
Roger is a film and television buff. He knows a great deal about celebrities and can quote famous speeches, line for line, from a number of notable movies. His appreciation for and extensive knowledge in this medium probably stems from the fact that watching TV is one of the few things he can occupy himself with while essentially forbidden from leaving the Smith household. He appears to draw a lot of his life experience from characters in films, often emulating their behaviors. For example, in the episode "Iced, Iced Babies", he posed as a professor of English literature at Hayley's college and deceived his students into believing he understood the medium he was teaching by copying the performance of Robin Williams as John Keating from Dead Poets Society. In the same episode, Hayley accused Roger of being an "uneducated alcoholic" - while this may merely be an insult, it may be true in the sense that Roger never appears to show any knowledge outside of what he could have absorbed from watching television.
Roger is also very petty and spiteful. When something bad happens to him, even something rather minor, he tends to take it very personally. When Steve took a cookie Roger was going to eat, he went so far as to convince Steve that he was kidnapped by the Smith family from a less fortunate family.
He can also be very greedy and cruel, having once adopted a group of foster children to make them work in a vineyard he installed in the Smith's yard as slaves. He even had them dress up for Thanksgiving as Indians and Pilgrims and shocked them whenever moving out of display. However, this scheme ended when Hayley (who, for some reason was suffering from cancer at the time) tipped off Child Services in the end, obeying a promise to God that she made. He even caused Hayley and Francine to brawl with each other by alternating his affections with them. It is later revealed that he did this for a free T-shirt from the fictitious web site 'motherdaughtercatfight.com'.
It is shown in Frannie 911 that Roger actually can't be nice because it is painful for his metabolism. To earn the love of his family, he tried to be nicer than he has ever been and became weaker within days, coming to a near-death status. His family let him be mean again and he was cured rapidly after.
[edit] Disguises
He is not allowed to leave the house and the family has to conceal his existence, although he leaves frequently in various disguises. He did go out once as himself to a sci-fi convention without any suspicion. He has dressed as a Saudi woman twice (once in America, once in Saudi Arabia). He has also dressed as a costumed food vendor, a Persian playboy and an elderly white woman, a Rastafarian in "Francine's Flashback", "Stannie Get Your Gun" and "With Friends Like Steve's", two kinds of well-coifed white cracker hipsters, a television anchorman similar to Ron Burgundy, a "sassy black woman"/telephone customer service representative named "Shavonda Dykes" and as an equally well-coifed "employable" used-car salesman in Francine's pantsuit. While in early episodes he had a hard time coming up with disguises, in more recent episodes, he leaves the house often in various costumes, without anyone ever noticing his identity, even at times when it is fairly obvious.
"Camp Refoogee" expands upon Roger's disguises - to save himself from boredom, he invents characters to play, including detectives, Asian delivery men and college professors.
In "Joint Custody", it is revealed that Roger enjoys wearing disguises, though he seems to deny it without realizing it. He also has a "fashion montage" in this episode, which he can't go five minutes without, experimenting with several outfits to wear when he decides to become a bounty hunter; he dresses up as Boba Fett, Greedo, and a Predator before settling with a Dog The Bounty Hunter-like costume, which he wears for the remainder of the episode.
It is also revealed in the episode "Oedipal Panties" that Roger keeps all of his disguises in a carousel in the attic; it also appears to allow him the convenience of mixing and matching sections of his outfits for more combinations. He seems to have made notes of which kinds of disguises he should wear for which situation.
In "Four Little Words", Roger wore an artificial nose moulded from Kevin Bacon's nose, after public ridicule about his "freakish lack of a nose" drove him into depression. While wearing the prosthetic, he was mistaken for the real Kevin Bacon, and used this to his advantage by demanding freebies and special treatment wherever he went. He gave up on the disguise (and the nose) after being involved in a hit and run accident, for which Kevin Bacon was wrongly convicted.
In "The One That Got Away", Roger discovers that one of his alter-egos, Sidney Huffman, a puritanical Bible-manufacturer with a fiancée, has actually developed into a split personality. The two personalities have been functioning independently of one another and Roger doesn't find this out until he notices strange charges on his credit card. He spends the entire episode ruining the life of this alter-ego, eventually killing him. This and the episode "Bar Mitzvah Shuffle" show that Roger could possibly be losing his mind. This is developed on in the episode "Jack's Back" where an extended competition between Roger and Hailey to out-disguise the other with rapid personality changes seems to leave Roger uncertain of what just happened, and whether or not he won. The episode also portrays him having an imaginary young boy staying in his attic with him, with whom he is shown to argue, which suggests Roger's constant swapping of personalities may contribute to his deteriorating grip on reality. Also, in "Oedipal Panties", Roger isn't sure whether he had made up a situation involving switching from cable to satellite dish, and tells Francine "I don't know what's real anymore".
[edit] Politics
Unlike most of the main American Dad! characters, Roger's political leanings are unknown. There is some evidence he could be considered conservative; for example, once when Hayley was ranting about the weak job market because of George W. Bush, Roger shouted for her to "let it go!" though whether this is a sign of disagreement with her liberal views or merely annoyance at Hayley's ranting is unknown. He has also told Stan that he fought for the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war, which could imply Roger's political inclinations towards communism. Roger though seems apathetic to the topic of politics.
[edit] Relations with boys
In the episode "All About Steve", Roger went with Hayley to a sci-fi convention where he met someone whom Roger has probed before, causing his family to leave him as they thought he was turning crazy; this encounter had the undertone of a one-night stand. His best friend is undoubtedly Steve, as he is the best human companion to do stuff together with. He also tried to kill Steve in the episode "Star Trek", enslaving foster children together in " Tears of a Clooney", going to New York City together to make a fortune in "Irregarding Steve", and saving him when Roger is being abused by another human in " A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial". Other than that, Roger also becomes Stan's Buddy in the episode, "Roger 'n' Me". Other than all these, Roger has also interacted with other non-recurring characters in some episodes. In the episode "Deacon Stan, Jesus Man", Roger passes his "egg" on to Steve when he performed CPR on him; this was part of his reproductive cycle. Later in the episode when Steve kissed the neighbor girl, Betsy, he passed the egg on to her. She moved after she got "pregnant" and it is presumed she gave birth to Roger's child. Also, in "The Best Christmas Story Never", Stan buys Roger a cassette of Best Disco Hits 1974-1980. When Stan goes to the past with Michelle the Ghost of Christmas Past (originally the Tooth Fairy) to 1970, he drops the cassette, then found by Roger while smoking. Roger uses this tape and releases all the records on it as his own, then going broke in 1981. At the end of the episode, Roger states that he was the one who invented Disco.
Roger also has indirect contact with humans via his fecal matter. Apparently, he is able to excrete a large amount of "matter" which is not only solid gold but also jewel-encrusted (with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc.) as well. Unfortunately, this "matter" has the ability of bringing out the worst qualities in a human (greed, envy, even thoughts of murder, and massive amounts of guilt). When a person (who is totally unrelated to any member of the cast) is about to come in contact with the "matter," viewers' screens switch to widescreen format, telling the viewers that this is a separate story line all together, even though it indirectly affects one of the main cast members. So far a man who worked for Langley Falls' Department of Water & Power killed his best friend after finding the "matter". Guilt ridden, he committed suicide by driving onto a set of railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train. The cop on the scene (who was days away from his retirement) found the "matter" & stole it. Also, guilt ridden, he decided to do the right thing by returning the "stolen evidence" to his precinct the next morning to "face the music". His wife didn't like that idea at all. As a result, it is led to believe that she poisoned him by putting rat poison in his tea. The audience assumes this happen as the scene fades to black with the words "To be continued..." which comes after every "Roger's Jewel-Encrusted Solid-Gold Poop" segment, suggesting that there is more to come as the "matter" continues to change hands throughout Langley Falls.
[edit] Romance
Roger, whose sexuality is constantly questioned throughout the series, has had various crushes and relationships with both men and women. In "Con Heir", he has an obvious crush on Stan's father, Jack. Then, in "The American Dad After School Special", Roger develops immense feelings for Steve's now ex-girlfriend Debbie. Even to the point where when Steve and Debbie are making-out in Steve's room, Roger is in the closet taking photos scheming to make Debbie his. His plans, of course, fail. Though he once became engaged to and almost married a Jewish woman named Shari Rothberg in "An Apocalypse to Remember", this was based on a plan to receive wedding gifts rather than sexual attraction or romance. On several occasions he has offered sexual favors to men to get out of sticky situations. He also fell obsessively in love with Stan after performing a probing experiment that was very similar to anal sex which made him feel like Stan was in love with him also. In "Stan of Arabia" where Stan gets "promoted" to a position in Saudi Arabia, Roger "makes the two-backed beast" with a rich Arabic man, presumably royalty, as Roger's leverage over him enables Stan and the rest of the family to avoid being stoned to death at Roger's request. A hint that Roger may be gay occurred in the episode In Country...Club where Roger was explaining to Hayley how the Barbra Does Celine concert was:
- Roger: Imagine being high at a Rusted Root concert while two dudes take you on in a sunbaked Porta-John.
- Hayley: Wow, huh that actually does sound really good.
- Roger: Yeah, I'd like that too.
Another major clue that Roger maybe gay was from the episode Rapture's Delight after Stan states that they have been left behind during the Rapture, Roger looks up gasps and says:
"Oh my god! The homeless guy from the bus station is hung (Pause) But I knew that."
[edit] References
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