Chris Griffin

For the Cleveland Browns linebacker, see Kris Griffin.

Christopher Cross "Chris" Griffin is the second child of Peter and Lois Griffin in the TV cartoon series Family Guy. He is the brother of Stewie and Meg Griffin. Chris is voiced by Seth Green.

Character history and personality

Chris, like his father and grandfather, is obese, has a low intelligence quotient and common sense. However, he has other talents, in particular artistic ability, knowledge of film and TV actors, and occasionally [[makes very insightful comments from out of nowhere (e.g. in "Deep Throats", he gives Peter and Lois a detailed lecture on the effects and disadvantages of marijuana).

He is often tormented by an evil monkey who lives in his closet.

When the Griffin home seceded from the United States (the episode was entitled E. Peterbus Unum), Chris was head of their "space program", albeit an unsuccessful one, which can be seen when he falls from the tree trying to grab on to the moon.

At one point, Stewie used mind control on Chris, until a microwave short-circuited the mind-control device and he tried to murder Stewie.

In the episode "Brian the Bachelor", Chris developed a pimple, which he named Doug the Pimple, which had the ability speak and even, at one point, hold a gun. It compelled him to commit various acts of mischief. In the episode "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do", Chris was pulled into a-ha's "Take On Me" video. In "Jungle Love", he unwittingly gets married in South America after joining the Peace Corps.

In "Emission Impossible" , Chris is revealed to have been an accident caused by a faulty condom, but his parents seem to have no regrets as the resulting lawsuit bought them their house.

Whenever Peter and Lois are engaged in conflict, Chris seems to take Peter's side. When they were both running for president of the Quahog School Board, Chris supported Peter while watching the debate on TV. When Meg Griffin pointed out that Peter couldn't hear him, he cheered again even louder. On another occasion, when Peter and Lois were having a fist fight, Chris cheered for Peter, telling him to "kick her ass!" Also, Chris assumed he was having another brawl with Lois and was winning when the two were really making love in the garden.

Chris's talent for painting was discovered when Peter used a painting Chris gave him as a birthday gift to patch up a broken window in his car. When Antonio Monatti, a snobby New York City gallery owner, sees this painting, he takes Chris to New York, dresses him in different clothes and renames him Christobel. The gallery owner also distances Chris from his father. The unveiling of Christobel's latest piece, an Andy Warhol-esque portrait of his father, dashes Chris's career, and the family returns to Quahog.

In the direct-to-video Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, the future Chris is a traffic cop married to a smoking, foul-mouthed hustler named Vanessa, but his history was later changed when Stewie, prompted by Lois, traveled back to Chris' wedding and blew her up with a missile launcher. History was again altered when Stewie went further back to the film's present day and prevented any of the occurrences in the film, possibly even the wedding from ever happening.

Sexuality

Generally, Chris is considered to be heterosexual, and in several episodes he demonstrates a compelling interest in girls. In "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives", he is attracted to a student named Alyssa, who is a young Republican; Chris becomes a Young Republican, not because he has conservative views, but because Alyssa offers to let him touch her breasts. In the episode "A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks", he dates the famous model Kate Moss, although nothing physical between them is depicted.

While possessing incomplete-at-best sexual knowledge — in "Love Thy Trophy" Chris is convinced babies come from the Child Welfare Office — Chris is an experienced masturbator, as revealed in the episodes "Running Mates", "The Fat Guy Strangler" and "Barely Legal". Ironically, in "Holy Crap", grandfather Francis Griffin accuses Chris of masturbating when he was really just using the bathroom. He spends the rest of the episode holding in his waste (unaware that Francis thought he was masturbating) until Peter lets him "defy" his grandfather. As quoted by Chris, "I'm a sinner and God's a pervert."

Chris is probably the only member of the Griffin family who has not had his heterosexuality questioned by the writers; however, in To Love and Die in Dixie, Chris is kissed by a girl he believes to be a boy (later saying to Brian it kinda felt right). Later, the two discuss Chris' confused feelings; they make out moments after Chris is prompted to think of her still as a boy.

The only episode that seems to contradict his heterosexuality is "Barely Legal"; when Brian (who is trying to avoid dating Meg) lies that he and Chris are going to masturbate that day, although Chris' response is that he is "not one hundred percent okay with this", he goes upstairs to wait for Brian.

Character origins

Chris' voice was based on Ted Levine's performance as James/Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs. In the commentary for Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Seth Green reveals that he based his voice for Chris on what "Buffalo Bill" would sound like if he were working at a drive-thru in a McDonalds (speaking through a PA system); the result being a pre-Chris Griffin voice.

Chris' character resembles Milt, the son of the main character Larry Cummings in The Life of Larry, an animated short film created by Seth MacFarlane at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1995 that led to the development of Family Guy.

Chris was originally given a "punk" image, according to creator Seth McFarlane's DVD Commentary tracks. He wore earrings, and his painful awkwardness was not as emphasized as it is later in the series.

Name

Chris's seldom-used middle name is probably a homage to musician Christopher Cross. It is first used in the episode "Brian the Bachelor", shortly after the revelation that his mother Lois had been a late 70s MOR groupie.

References

• Callaghan, S. (2005). Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide : Seasons 1 - 3. New York: Harper Paperbacks.
• Delarte, A. (3 January 2006). "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 4" (PDF). Bob's Poetry Magazine. pp. 11, 14, 20, 25, 26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)