Lois Griffin

For the former Toronto city councillor, see Lois Griffin (politician).

Lois Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is a fictional character from the animated series Family Guy. She is the wife of Peter Griffin and the mother of Meg, Chris and Stewie. She is voiced by former MADtv cast member Alex Borstein.

Life

Lois was born into the wealthy Pewterschmidt family from Newport, Rhode Island. Peter Griffin, her husband, was a towel boy at the family country club; Lois eventually fell in love with him due to his low-class, easy-going manner, which she found more appealing than the stuffy, uptight suitors in her social circle. Lois was crowned Miss Teen Rhode Island and wished to pursue a career in modeling, but her father thought that was beneath the dignity of the family.

Before meeting Peter, Lois had relationships with other men, especially those associated with 1980s rock bands, such as J. Geils, Daryl Hall, the "pyro guy" from the band Whitesnake, and Chaim Witz—now legally known as Gene Simmons of Kiss.

Lois was raised Protestant, for which Peter's staunch Irish Catholic stepfather, Francis, despises her; on their wedding day, Francis spray-painted "To a Protestant Whore" underneath the "Just Married" sign on the back of their car. As she gave up her inheritance for Peter, Lois, not surprisingly, has a testy relationship with her father.

Lois teaches piano to supplement the family's income, though she spends the majority of her time caring for her family, and has rarely been seen teaching piano in the recent seasons. Chris, the middle child, was always overweight, even at birth, while her youngest son Stewie is intent on matricide, although Lois seems not to notice; on one occasion, when Lois noticed Stewie acting up, though she assumed it to be a result of Stewie lacking fatherly attention from Peter. In a dream sequence though, she finds Stewie's 'secret lab' while putting away clothes. She mentions that she actually smoked weed when she was pregnant with him which could explain his obsession to kill Lois and his ability to talk. Lois doesn't really mind her eldest child and only daughter, Meg, though she makes attempts in keeping with the apparent popular perception of Meg.

In "Perfect Castaway", After Peter had been lost at sea for a few months and presumed dead, Lois and Brian wed in a sexless marriage of convenience. When Peter was finally rescued, Lois was torn between her love for Peter and her commitment to Brian. Brian understood her dilemma and divorced Lois, but was annoyed when he discovered that Lois was apparently one day away from having sex with him.

Lois has a younger sister, Carol, who has had nine husbands, at least eight of whom have left her, and had a boy by her eighth husband. Lois also has an older brother, Patrick, whom she discovers for the first time in "The Fat Guy Strangler". Lois took Patrick out of the asylum in which he was interned, refusing to believe that he was a serial killer until Brian confronted her with evidence.

Lois also attended Kent State University evidence given when she mentioned that "One time the National Guard came and shot a bunch of my friends" in the episode "The Story on Page One." This is an obvious reference to the May 4th shooting in 1970 that took place at Kent State in which the National Guard shot and killed 4 students and wounding nine others.

Personality and health

Lois's morals can seem questionable at times. She went through a brief period of kleptomania in the episode "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do", for which she went to prison. She also showed a gambling addiction when the family went to an Indian casino in "The Son Also Draws" during the first season. Various episodes have hinted that Lois is a drug user, but this is shown most clearly in "Deep Throats". She revealed that she smoked marijuana when she was pregnant with Stewie, a claim backed-up by series creator Seth MacFarlane on a DVD commentary. Also, when asked by Peter where she got a tattoo on her lower back, she replied, 'I don't know Peter, meth is a hell of a drug' (Prick Up Your Ears). She also hints that she engaged in similar activities when a younger Meg was around.

In many episodes scattered throughout the series, Lois is seen smoking cigarettes. In the episode "Stewie Kills Lois", Meg and Chris got her smokers toothpaste for her birthday. Lois also had an extramarital affair with former President Bill Clinton, which resulted in the temporary separation between her and Peter, although the relationship was later rekindled after Peter himself engaged in a sexual liaison with Clinton.

In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", she has a nervous breakdown when just about everything goes wrong, throws a destructive tantrum, and is subdued with a tranquilizer shot by a police sniper. Lois partially explains her role as a mother and homemaker by saying that feminism is about choice, and that she choose to not have a job and should not be stereotyped as a typical housewife. In the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", she gets into an argument with Mayor Adam West and threatened to run for mayor of Quahog against him, winning the election over West. However, she eventually returned the job to him after discovering it was too difficult for her to ignore special interests and maintain her integrity while in politics. In 'Petarded' when Lois heard her voice over the intercom, she commented, "Is that really my voice? All whiny and nasally?"

Besides her quirkiness and hidden talents, Lois has a strong sexual side as well, to the point where it could be assumed she has nymphomania. She is a practitioner of BDSM: one instance finds her in a dominatrix outfit; another has her entering the bedroom dressed as the "Dirty" Grimace; another episode has her reaching an emotional climax by yelling at Peter to slap her backside. Later, she role-plays the bad schoolgirl, asking Peter for a spanking. She even displayed a level of masochistic arousal once when Peter accidentally grazed her with a bullet from a handgun, "I know! Now stick your finger in there and twist it!".

Lois also tends to deny even the most obvious things for various reasons and makes up several crazy excuses. It is only until after she runs out of excuses, or when someone else (often Brian) sharply intervenes, that she accepts something to be true. For example, in "The Fat Guy Strangler", she refuses to believe the increasingly-obvious fact that her brother is the Quahog Fat Guy Strangler, even after Brian shows that he has two fat men (one fully dead, one half-dead. The half-dead one even says, "Patrick tried to kill me".) and pictures of him strangling them in his room; after this, it only took one sharp remark from Brian to snap her out of her denial and convince her that Patrick was dangerous.

She puts up with Peter's childish stupidity and hides how she truly feels about it, but at a hidden price; she has developed a brain tumor due to constantly repressing negative thoughts about having married a mentally retarded man, as revealed in "Petarded". Along with other jokes and subtle implications, this suggests that Lois is not entirely happy with her marriage. Nevertheless, Lois loves him very much since she knows how important she is to him.

Lois also has an interest in show tunes, having sung "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl, "Steam Heat" from The Pajama Game, and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music. Lois also directed a local production of The King and I, which Peter very loosely adapted by changing nearly everything in the script.

In the episode "Sibling Rivalry," when Peter is unwilling to have sex after a vasectomy, Lois channels her sexual frustration into eating and becomes fat. Peter's interest is eventually renewed and things heat back up in the bedroom until her unhealthy eating habits get the best of her. She suffers a heart attack and, during the surgery, the doctor removes her fat in order to "get to her heart", thus restoring her to her original size.

In "Petarded", Lois is doused with hot French fry oil and burned horribly when Peter attempts to steal a grill at a restaurant. After being covered head-to-toe in bandages and left in the hospital for several days, she had no visible scars, but mentioned that she would smell like French fries for the next six months (much to Peter's joy, calling her his, "Delicious french-fry wife.").

Despite all of the physical harm that she has been through, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story hints that she is healthy enough to live for at least another thirty years.

External links

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