Family Guy

Structural and comedic approach

The characters live and work in fictional Quahog, Rhode Island (pronounced "KOH-hog", IPA /koh??/), a hyperrealistic and intensely satirical version of a small Rhode Island town. Characters' lives largely revolve around items and ideas of popular culture, which are incorporated into everyday conversation and events. Some of these references have exaggerated grounding in reality?a paranoid and psychotic Adam West (voiced by the real West) serves as Quahog's mayor, and public schools are named for Rhode Island natives James Woods and Buddy Cianci?while others unabashedly delve into the realm of fantasy without being questioned.

Related Topics:
Quahog, Rhode Island - Hyperrealistic - Satirical - Rhode Island - Popular culture - Adam West - James Woods - Buddy Cianci

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Although Family Guy sometimes maintains a rough sense of continuity, complicated plots are most often traded for a concentration on comedy that is based largely on pop culture references and non sequiturs. Though this style is often played within the characters' world, the series is also known for its use of cutaways, where the plot is interrupted and segues into unrelated, self-contained sketches of variable length. Often initiated when a character refers to a past event (accompanied by phrases such as "remember the time that..." or "I haven't felt like this since..."), these sketches are wildly divergent in topic?ranging from classic film scenes to historical events to contemporary television commercials?though many times they encapsulate twisted, humorous takes on reality, and sometimes they are completely nonsensical like Peter being a mirror for Kevin Federline.

Related Topics:
Non sequitur - Cutaway - Sketch - Film - Television commercials - Kevin Federline

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Though earlier animated series (such as The Critic) experimented with this style, few before Family Guy have wandered the line between reality and fantasy with such aggression. Indeed, the use of this style has been parodied by the show itself; an entire episode was revealed to have been a dream concocted by Pam Ewing, a character from the television series Dallas (TV series), which retconned an entire season to the same conceit.

Related Topics:
The Critic - Dallas (TV series) - Retcon

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Because of this approach, the series reverts to normalcy by the end of most episodes, and occurrences in past episodes are sometimes ignored. Some changes back to normalcy are accomplished by tortuous or unlikely means, while others are tacitly implied. The episode "He's Too Sexy for His Fat" offers examples of each: Peter's extensive liposuction and cosmetic surgery is reverted by having Peter have a car accident and land in a lard factory, where he consumes a whole vat of lard. Stewie's dramatic weight gain in the same episode simply disappears in the final scene.

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But there are also cases of episodes making changes to continuity that are upheld and even elaborated on in later episodes, such as Peter's occupation being shifted from a toy factory assembly line worker to a fisherman, and the breakup of secondary characters Cleveland and Loretta.

Related Topics:
Toy - Factory - Fisherman

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Being a native of Kent, Connecticut, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, MacFarlane has written a number of in-jokes and references into Family Guy which allude to real life places in Rhode Island and the surrounding New England area, including Providence, Rhode Island, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Newport, Rhode Island, Natick, Massachusetts, Framingham, Massachusetts, South Attleboro, Massachusetts, Webster, Massachusetts, Warwick, Rhode Island, and Warwick, Massachusetts.

Related Topics:
Kent, Connecticut - Providence, Rhode Island - Pawtucket, Rhode Island - Newport, Rhode Island - Natick, Massachusetts - Framingham, Massachusetts - South Attleboro, Massachusetts - Webster, Massachusetts - Warwick, Rhode Island - Warwick, Massachusetts

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