When Seth MacFarlane'due south Family Guy first hit Fox's airwaves, it was criticized as a stake fake of The Simpsons. The evidence'due south drunk, overweight, blue-collar father, underappreciated housewife, and three kids fabricated it a shallow rip-off of The Simpsons with cutaways. Notwithstanding, equally information technology evolved into its own thing and developed its own sense of humour, Family Guy carved a unique niche as the much darker cousin of The Simpsons.

Family Guy's willingness to go to much more than offensive and challenging places than The Simpsons, exploring dicier themes and pushing the boundaries of network television, has resulted in these dark installments of the testify.

x Seahorse Seashell Political party

When Fox did a crossover consequence with hurricane-themed episodes of Family unit Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show, Family Guy's entry in the "Night of the Hurricane" pantheon took a strange turn. Stuck in the house during the storm, Brian decides to take magic mushrooms and has a really bad trip.

In that location's a lot of fun to be had with the surrealist animation equally Brian hallucinates and Stewie helps him through information technology, but it'south more disturbing than funny.

9 Stewie Is Enceinte

When he becomes worried that he and Brian are globe-trotting autonomously in "Stewie is Enceinte," Stewie secretly takes some of the domestic dog's Dna and impregnates himself with information technology. Eventually, a agglomeration of canis familiaris-baby hybrids pop out of him.

Brian and Stewie end up with way more kids than they can handle. Most of them accept birth defects, necessitating round-the-clock care that the ill-prepared parents can't afford. Eventually, they ditch their kids at an creature shelter.

8 Trading Places

Chris works at the brewery and Meg becomes a homemaker while Peter and Lois go to high school in "Trading Places," in society to determine whether it'south easier to exist an adult or a child. Chris ends upwards being so skilful at Peter's job that he's hired permanently.

Nonetheless, the stress of being the breadwinner of the house at such a immature age gets to Chris and he starts drinking heavily, having heart palpitations, and verbally abusing his family at every opportunity.

7 Partial Terms Of Endearment

While it is available on home media, "Partial Terms of Endearment" has never been allowed to air in the United States. Fox refused to broadcast the episode and requested that Adult Swim not air it, either. Ironically, this drew way more attention to the episode than if Fob had only aired it.

In the episode, Lois is asked by friends to be a surrogate mother. She gets meaning, and so the friends who were going to raise the babe die, so Lois has to decide whether to heighten it herself or get an abortion.

6 Halloween On Spooner Street

Chris and One thousand thousand become to a political party with the hopes of finding someone to hook up with in "Halloween on Spooner Street." The merely issue is that they unwittingly hooked up with each other because they were in a nighttime closet.

At the terminate of the episode, subsequently being initially horrified by the revelation, they determine to simply savor the fact that they hooked upward, despite information technology being incestuous.

5 Brian & Stewie

The titular duo gets trapped in a banking concern vault over a weekend in "Brian & Stewie," the extra-long 150th episode of the series. The lack of cutaway gags and location changes puts the focus squarely on the characters, allowing for some uncharacteristic soul-searching.

The darkest point in the episode is when Stewie finds a gun in Brian'south safety deposit box and Brian reveals that he keeps it in case he always wants to kill himself.

4 Turban Cowboy

Peter befriends a Muslim man named Mahmoud in "Turban Cowboy," and since this is Family Guy and the most offensive stereotypes are indulged at every turn, Mahmoud turns out to be a radical extremist plotting a terrorist attack.

To brand this episode even darker, information technology also has a gag almost Peter killing a bunch of people at the Boston Marathon, and it aired just a couple of weeks before the tragic Boston Marathon bombings.

3 Send In Stewie, Please

Ian McKellen guest-starred as a child therapist who was appointed to counsel Stewie after an altercation with one of his classmates in "Ship in Stewie, Please." The whole episode takes place in the therapist'southward office, beginning with Stewie deducing everything about the therapist'southward personal life from the personal furnishings around the room.

Throughout the episode, the therapist gets Stewie to open up and reveal that he puts on his pseudo-British accent. However, Stewie doesn't similar someone knowing his secret and decides not to save the therapist when he starts dying.

2 A Shot In The Dark

Taking inspiration from the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin, "A Shot in the Dark" begins with Peter setting up a neighborhood watch arrangement and accidentally shooting Cleveland, Jr. when he thought he was breaking into his own business firm.

The ensuing courtroom example in which Carter's lawyers do everything in their power to discredit Cleveland, Jr. is a poignant — if unsubtle — take on how the justice organization handles these alarmingly frequent cases.

1 Screams Of Silence: The Story Of Brenda Q

Widely regarded to exist one of Family Guy's worst episodes, "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q" revolves around Quagmire's sis's concrete and psychological corruption at the easily of her fiancé. It's Always Sunny alum Kaitlin Olson was squandered with a guest spot in an episode that has no redeeming comedic value.

Whenever Family unit Guy tries to get serious, information technology falls flat horribly, and that's exactly what happens in "Screams of Silence." The episode oversimplifies its subject thing and presents all the wrong messages.

NEXT: Southward Park'due south 10 Darkest Episodes, Ranked

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About The Author

Ben Sherlock (3375 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He's currently in pre-product on his get-go characteristic (and has been for a while, considering filmmaking is expensive). Yous tin can catch him performing standup at odd pubs effectually the Great britain that volition give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Volume Resources, and BabbleTop.

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