Talk:Peter Griffin

Seth MacFarlane is the voice of Peter and creator of Family Guy, not this "Paul Usher" guy. The_S 07:59, November 13, 2005

That is NOT a picture of Peter Griffin. Get a real picture of him, please. Kakashi-sensei 00:17, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The only difference I see is that his head isn't rounded. Other than that, it's quite real. Mike H 03:22, May 2, 2005 (UTC)

Um...no...The face isn't even close to the real Peter. Kakashi-sensei 16:35, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

I looked at two different pictures again, and it looks similar to me. In any case, if it isn't right, don't "um" me (the written equivalent of an eyeroll, if you ask me) and just fix it already. Mike H 21:07, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Too unfamiliar with Wikiformat. I'm sure if I did try replacing it, I'd violate a copyright law or two in the process.Kakashi-sensei 15:14, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I believe the picture is the hybrid of Seth McFarlane & Peter Griffin used in one of the shows. I think it's quite a cool pic to have in the article, although technically is incorrect. Nli10 16th June 2005 GMT

I deleted the picture, it's better to have no pictures than a cheesy fake. Citizen Premier 01:27, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I didn't like the old picture either, but this new one seems worse somehow. Cromulent Kwyjibo 23:32, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't like it either. This article needs a picture of Peter Griffin that looks like something you'd see in a typical episode of the show. If the picture makes you scratch your head and wonder what episode it came from, then it's not a good picture for the article. Robert Happelberg 21:12, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Added a new picture of Peter Xunflash 01:16, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

That's good. It suits the "something you'd see in a typical episode" criteria. Cromulent Kwyjibo 19:53, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. It's much better. Kakashi-sensei 03:40, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

Why is there no picture now? Was it due to copyright issues? Manufracture 17:39, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Peter's sex change

User:B-101 added a line about Peter having a sex change, which I removed.

I think I know what episode he's talking about, but I'm pretty sure it was meant as a throw-away gag. Just about every other flashback of Peter's past seems to indicate that he was born male (e.g., when his life flashes before his eyes in "And the weiner is" Cromulent Kwyjibo 28 June 2005 21:30 (UTC)

Look, in the recent new episode on FOX, Peter says that he remembers when he became a man. Then, there's a flashback where a doctor says "the operation was a success" and "what do you want to go by now?". Then he says he wants to go by "Peter". That's where I got the impression that he had a sex change.- B-101 29 June 2005 00:46 (UTC)

Oh, that's right, it's from a recent episode. I still think it was meant as a throw-away. Cromulent Kwyjibo 29 June 2005 18:14 (UTC)

We have every right to be annoyed when Data's cat Spot changes gender for no reason. But on Family Guy, it's different.

We can put flashbacks into two categories depending on their effect on continuity: binding and non-binding. We call a flashback binding if the writers make an effort to follow its continuity in subsequent episodes, and non-binding if the writers ignore it. An example of a binding flashback is when Peter meets Lois at Cherrywood. Later episodes obey that continuity and elaborate it. An example of a non-binding flashback is Lois as a young girl shown as a circus freak. No episode afterwards refers to that.

So when it comes to Peter's sex change flashback, it doesn't fit with other flashbacks of Peter's past. He's always been a man in those flashbacks. For a comedy, it would be too much work to try to make the sex change flashback fit into Peter's back story. Of course, the writers could simply ignore all the continuity so far and write Peter a new back story, one in which he was born a woman. But we'll just have to wait and see if the writers take that route. Robert Happelberg 29 June 2005 21:08 (UTC)

its a cartoon for crying out loud! besides, everyone knows Peter can't tell the diffrence between his life story and whatever movie he watched last night.

He does have a point there, guys. :D Kakashi-sensei 03:40, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

Move comparison to Family Guy page?

It seems like the section comparing Peter to other cartoon dads is actually comparing the cartoon shows. Maybe we should move it to the Family Guy page? Reub2000 1 July 2005 03:36 (UTC)

That might be a good idea. Cromulent Kwyjibo 1 July 2005 19:53 (UTC)

I've given this more thought, and I think only the show-level comparisons should be moved. The article has both character-level comparisons (both Peter and Homer are fat) and show-level comparisons (both Peter and Hank have a friend who lusts after their wives). Cromulent Kwyjibo 00:56, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Peter's weight

What's the source for Peter weighing 298 pounds? I can't recall a single instance of any number being given in any of the first three seasons of the show. (Unlike Homer Simpson, for which plenty of episodes indicate his weight is exactly 239 pounds). Cromulent Kwyjibo 21:00, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

• • I believe it's from a song on Family Guy: Live in Vegas, "But I'm Yours."

Here's an excerpt.

"PETER: I may be chubby,

LOIS: Well, 296.

PETER: I may be lazy,

LOIS: Sorry, 298..."--70.160.178.221 22:28, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Peter Griffin based on other cartoon characters?

Can someone add this to the article or edit it as they see fit? I got this idea from the Family Guy newsgroup, in a discussion comparing homer simpson and peter griffin.

• the usenet post

Comparing Peter Griffin to other cartoon characters is ill-informed because the character is an exaggeration of the all-american dad. Before Homer Simpson there was Archie Bunker, Ralph Kramden etc.... In summation, Peter Griffin is based on the general stereotype of an american dad etc....

If the comparison is ill-informed, it would be better to just delete the whole comparison section of the article. Robert Happelberg 18:42, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

The more I think about that "ill-informed comparison" spiel the more it rubs me the wrong way. To put it in and keep the "ill-informed comparisons" seems to be saying "Yeah, it's ill-informed but we'll make the comparisons anyway." To put it in and delete the comparisons would be saying "All you who worked on compiling these comparisons, you were wasting your time, just because one person thinks so." Cromulent Kwyjibo 20:35, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

I really didn't like the section of the article which compares Peter to other cartoon fathers. I don't think it fit and I think it took away from the article. Besides theres no section comparing cartoon mothers on Louis's page, or comparisons to cartoon children on Meg, Chris, or Stewie's page. Peter is a paody of the typical suburban father. Any similarities to other cartoons is because they're parodies of fathers too. If someone really wants to keep this article, they should make a new page about cartoon fathers and put it there.

This section really should be removed or put on a separate page. It's just totally redundant, uninteresting, and not encyclopedic. Mcfly85 22:20, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Category:African-Americans

I put him in the African-Americans category in reference to the episode where he finds out he is part black. I see that RadicalBender has removed it, calling it "incorrect". I guess he either didn't catch the reference or didn't get the joke? On second thought, maybe it's better that he not be in that category.

I think the question here is whether real life African Americans want to accept Peter Griffin as a fictional black man? I suspect the answer to this is no. From what has been revealed of Peter's fictional genealogy, Peter is only fractionally black. Culturally, he's very white (a point that was abundantly made in the episode, when he used his reparations money to duplicate Pee Wee's playhouse). Robert Happelberg 20:08, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Having one black ancestor from slavery times doesn't make you black. The entire purpose of that episode was to scoff at people's preoccupations with race and to show that race doesn't mean anything. It's parodying situations like the woman in the 1950s who, because she was only 3% black, was still listed as black in official state records, and so she took the law to court and fought vehemently for its repeal. Do you understand what I'm saying? Kakashi-sensei 03:40, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

NPOV

I think this statement in the comparison section "(The show itself also shows God, which is not allowed by the Ten Commandments.)" is a little non-neutral becuase it applies only to a select group of Christians who believe that all icons of God are impermissible, as opposed to the mainstream view that permits icons of God in movies, storybooks, religious icons, etc. Maybe just saying "Family Guy shows the actual image of God which is rare in television programming" or something like that.Mbisanz 04:16, August 11, 2005 (UTC)

Good point. But even rephrased as you suggest, I think it belongs in the Family Guy article rather than in this article. Robert Happelberg 22:46, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to put it in the main article, but given the context of comparing Homer and Peter's religous beliefs it might be acceptable. For now I'm just gonna change it to the neutral version, but if you'd like to transfer the whole God description to the main article that would be ok. Mbisanz 03:15, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

Is Peter Really Catholic

I'm not sure if Peter is actually Catholic. In the episode with Mel Gibson, Peter gets Mel to walk off Mount Rushmore and explains this by saying that Christians don't believe in gravity. This implies that Peter does believe in gravity and is therefore not Christian. I know there have been other episodes which say that he is Christian but the Mel Gibson episode is fairly recent. Maybe Peter has changed his religion from what it was in the earlier episodes.

From the second season episode, I would speculate that Francis Griffin has his son Peter baptized in the Catholic faith. As an adult, Peter attends church sporadically, making inappropriate comments like Jesus must've been wasted 24/7 (pilot episode) and the football game starts soon ("Lethal Weapons") during Mass. Cromulent Kwyjibo 19:48, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps the best term for him would be "lapsed Catholic"; his father is very obviously a devout Catholic, and when he tries to convert Chris to Judaism (in "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein"), a team of nuns are alerted and pursue him with rulers. -DynSkeet (talk) 16:46, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

There are other quotes that might contribute to 141.157.5.229's confusion over Peter's religion. In "Wasted Talent," Peter says "The Catholics have churches, fat people have Wisconsin, and I have the Pawtucket Brewery." As Alonso Delarte says in Bob's Poetry Magazine [1], page 27, "he’s presumably Catholic, and he’s definitely fat." (Of course, Peter's self perception can be really off sometimes. Remember the episode in which he thought Quahog was in French Polynesia?) ShutterBugTrekker 22:56, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

At first I was going to suggest "Easter and Christmas Catholic", but DynStreet's "lapsed Catholic" might be a better term. It seems to me that after the events of "Holy Crap", Peter got accustomed again to going to church regularly, even if it meant risking that the Mass might run long and cut into the football game (e.g., "Lethal Weapons"). Robert Happelberg 17:40, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Is Peter a Fisherman

Is Peter still a fisherman. I know he used to work in a toy factory but that he was fired. At first i thought that it was like the Simpsons where each episode starts off, not acknowledging the effects of any past episodes. But then I realised that I hadn't seen him in the toystore since the episode where he got fired. Also, a friend of mine said he'd seen Peter near a bunch of boats in the begining of one of the episodes of the new season. So is he still a fisherman or what. Someone must know.

Yes, he has been a fisherman since the Season 3 episode "A Fish Out of Water". In the most recent episode, "The Perfect Castaway", we learn that he's still a fisherman, though not a very successful one. Cromulent Kwyjibo 21:21, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Lowenbrau?

Where did that come from?--Princess Homestar

The second season episode "Peter Peter Caviar Eater" Cromulent Kwyjibo 22:13, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Taking too seriously

My god are you guys taking this show too seriously. I mean you're actually saying that Peter may have been replaced by a robot or had a sex change. Have any of you ever heard of a joke? It's not a Soap Opera, it's Family Guy -- Anonomous

UHAUHAHUAUHUHA yeah man you're right! people here in wikipedia use to do these things...it's so stupid. and another thing! peter is just a homer simpson's kitsch. fact.

Here's another fact: Anonomous doesn't mean a thing to the history page. PrometheusX303 04:56, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

• I agree with "Anonomous". The entire point of Family Guy is that it's one nonsensical and unpredictable gag after another. To attempt to document them all and piece together some sort of life story about Peter Griffin and the other characters is beyond silly. In my opinion, to be considered to be "historical" information about the world of the characters, it should either be a recurring theme or at least a theme that is central to an episode (and not just part of a single cut-away). I would totally support the massive elimination of these "facts" from the article such as the robot-switch, or may do it myself if I feel so inclined in the near future. GT 08:10, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

"Yeah. You're right. Family Guy is full of throw-away jokes. Little of the plot actually carries from one episode to the next. PrometheusX303 13:37, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Anyone who says "little of the plot actually carries from one episode to the next" is seriously underestimating and disrespecting the effort that the writers put into continuity. Cromulent Kwyjibo 23:06, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

You're joking, right? Yes, some plot points are carried through: Peter's job situation, for one. But some are only used for one episode. Prometheus^-X303- 14:17, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Watch one of the episodes with the commentary. You might not be so eager to belittle the continuity of the show afterwards. ShutterBugTrekker 21:53, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not "eager to belittle" the continuity. I know there are plot points that carry through. I never said there wasn't. However, many are simply one-timejokes. Prometheus^-X303- 01:56, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I've removed some of the "one-time jokes" (or at least the ones I don't think will ever get elaborated in any future episodes. But if that happens for any one of the points I've removed, then it can be put back in with my blessing). Cromulent Kwyjibo 00:26, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Wow. The article reads like a list of every throwaway gag ever done in the series. Nobody seeking encyclopedic information on Peter Griffin is going to be able to parse useful information from the one-off jokes. Peter's main character traits are that he is fat; boorish; lecherous; generally stupid, coming up with hair-brained schemes; married to Lois, father to Meg, Chris and Stewie, 'owner' of Brian; and arguably a Homer Simpson analog. We don't need to know about the one episode where he played the piano, or couldn't understand a cartoon, or couldn't live without TV even though these traits are never mentioned again. 70.53.122.234 05:06, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

You've listed a counterexample to your own argument. Peter still can't live without TV, even though the extreme of his dependency hasn't been shown since that first season episode. Cromulent Kwyjibo 21:40, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Except the episodes where he's standed on a life raft or in the jungle or anywhere else he couldn't watch TV. But you are missing the point. Take a step back and read the article -- it is a classic example of failing to see the forest for the trees. All the article really needs is a sentence or two under the heading "Throw-away character traits", conveying something like "Because of Family Guy's gag-driven format, the show frequently ignores continuity between episodes. Peter has often displayed character traits that propel the plot and humour of a single episode and are never seen again, such as an extreme addiction to TV or the ability to become a musical virtuoso when drunk." It's actually notable that Family Guy embraces this style of humour. It's not notable that in episode xyz Peter dressed up as a clown in Vietnam and this "may have been a joke" (given he would have been about 15 when Vietnam ended, what do you think?) Caradhras 06:19, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

And you need to give the show more credit for continuity. They actually do a pretty good job and turn in a funny show most of the time. Cromulent Kwyjibo 21:38, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

Plot points carried through several episodes

Just a few off the top of my head. ShutterBugTrekker 22:15, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

1. Peter's job situation
2. Peter and the giant chicken (two episodes so far and a third bout has been promised)
3. Lois's wealthy Pewterschmidt background
4. Chris's interest in drawing, painting
5. The evil monkey in Chris's closet
6. The old pervert who's interested in Chris
7. "Meg does her bird calls" (just two episodes, but still)
8. Stewie's brother Bertram
9. Brian went to Brown
10. Brian's feelings for Lois
11. Peter rolled up the window in the General Lee and Brian got smacked up on it
12. Stewie teases Brian about his novel
13. The Browns' divorce
14. Quagmire's job as a pilot
15. "Joe had his accident at Christmastime"
16. The medical barbershop quartet
17. Goldman's Pharmacy was established in 1983

Name origin

Does anyone know the origin of the name Peter Griffin?

That's a very good question. The only thing I can think of is "Pea-tear Griffin" from the episode Brian went to rehab. I can't recall Seth MacFarlane mentioning it in any of the DVD commentary tracks. Cromulent Kwyjibo 00:27, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Qoutes

Some of the quotes need checking.

• There are different versions on the web, but some of them are only found in this article, which makes me think they are too different from the original.
• Some of the quotes (such as "I am out of shape") aren't really notable without context. Prometheus^-X303- 14:03, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree on both of these points. Ideally quotes should be straight off the English audio track. Quotes from the English subtitles are still acceptable, and quotes from English closed captioning a little less so. ShutterBugTrekker 22:20, 30 March 2006 (UTC)