Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin

Peter Löwenbräu Griffin, Sr. (Peter Löwenbräu McFinnigan) is the obnoxious, boisterous man who is the protagonist of the show and origin of the title "Family Guy". He's a man of Irish descent currently residing in Quahog, Rhode Island with his wife Lois Griffin. However, he was born in Mexico, where his mother had tried unsuccessfully to abort him. They have three children, Chris, Meg, and baby Stewie. After a mix up at a sperm bank, Peter also became the biological father of Bertram. In addition, he and Lois had a child named Peter Griffin Jr. who died when Peter shook him too much. Out of pity he also adopted an intellectual talking dog named Brian Griffin who formerly lived on the street as a stray, an accepted fact in Brian's two adoption stories. In The Real Live Griffins he was portrayed by Tom Arnold. He is also a bad man.

Personality

Similarly to Archie Bunker from All in the Family, Peter appears to be unintelligent and is consistently depicted as crude and lowbrow (though sometimes to a greater extent) and is uninterested in things that are high class (with exceptions). He enjoys activities such as going to up-market tailors and farting inside the suits. His favorite pastime is watching TV. A running gag on the show is Peter's preference for Pauly Shore movies over classic films such as The Godfather and Citizen Kane. He is also a huge KISS fan and followed them during the KissStock shows and even got a copy of Kiss Saves Santa for Christmas. Peter is also an ardent fan of Barry Manilow, though this is a fact he has been known to deny in public (to a certain extent, anyway). Peter also mentions that he wears the male deodorant Speed Stick to his wife Lois, saying "Smell my Speed Stick?" while he is standing behind her in the office. Peter also mentioned that he enjoys the following breakfast cereals: Total, Trix, and Boo Berry. Additionally, Peter is an avid Star Trek fan and at the annual Quahog Star Trek Convention, mistook a person with the mumps as being in costume as an alien.

An I.Q. test confirms that his low intellect places him in a category below mentally retarded. His mental shortcomings have resulted in various accidents to other people; most notably the death of his step-father Francis Griffin, and injuries on multiple occasions to his wife Lois Griffin. His attention span is also incredibly short. When he discovers his mental retardation in Petarded, he closes his eyes while driving, wishing "it would all be over" (hitting Tom Tucker with his car instead). Given his short attention span, as well as his erratic and frequently inappropriate behavior, it is conceivable that Peter suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.

Peter also has a habit of proving his masculinity, not wanting Lois to fall for another man. He is incredibly jealous of other attractions Lois has in her life, an attitude that tends to get out of hand in most cases; in Stuck Together, Torn Apart, he goes so far as to punch his reflection in the mirror after Lois comments on it being handsome. In Brian Sings and Swings, he tells Lois, "Remember what I always tell you, if I come home in the middle of the day and catch you having sex with someone, I'll kill you both" (though when he catches her in bed with Bill Clinton in Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey, he takes no hostile actions whatsoever). However, he seems not to mind the fact that she slept with other men before they met, just so long as she doesn't do so again; he is particularly proud of the fact that she once slept with Gene Simmons of Kiss when he discovers this in Road to Europe, but forbids any sexual activity between the two now as seen in Don't Make Me Over.

Peter seems to find it frustrating that he is "wrong" while Lois is "right" about issues all the time, and apparently takes these issues competitively, just waiting for the day she slips up. This day finally comes in the episode PTV after settling a conflict with Lois about censorship on television that she appeared sure to win. In an ironic twist that forces Lois to concede defeat, Peter celebrates by opening a secret compartment within the ceiling containing balloons, streamers, confetti, and a banner reading "PETER'S RIGHT!"; Peter then claims that he set this up 15 years ago, suggesting that this hed been a pretty major issue for him for quite some time (there was also a clown in the stall, but he had died after being in there for so long). Curiously, in the non-canon episode Da Boom, after Lois admits he was right about the end of the world and she was wrong, Peter makes no reference to the compartment, though he had been bragging about his "victory" for two weeks straight. Maybe the compartment had been damaged in the nuclear devastation.

Among the members of his family, he tends to treat Meg with the least respect; in Peter's Daughter, for example, he reminisces about the various pranks he played on her, including tripping her, flicking her nose with his finger, and even shooting her at one point. Also, (in a flashback) he wipes a boogie on her hat saying "Hey Meg...Proud of you". He is known to embarrass her at times and with things that mean the most to Meg; the entire family once huddled together to read her diary and continue after Meg catches them. However, later episodes of the series show Peter developing greater respect and unity between himself and his daughter (such as in Road to Rupert and the aforementioned Peter's Daughter), though these moments tend not to last for very long.

The episode I Dream of Jesus reveals that his favorite song is the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird", and loves the song to the point of repeatedly singing it, playing the record of it, and trying to convince others that "the bird is the word". In the episode Wasted Talent, a running gag debuted when someone, usually Peter, will be running and fall and then hold his shin exclaiming the sound "Ssss Ahhhh" once or multiple times.

Peter also accuses Mr. Washee Washee of stealing his shirt, inviting him over for dinner and sneaking into his house to retrieve what he thinks is his shirt. When Peter discovers the shirt isn't his, Mr. Washee Washee challenges Peter to and defeats him in a fight.

Friends

Peter has four best friends - his Spooner Street neighbors Glenn Quagmire, Joe Swanson and Cleveland Brown, and Brian. They enjoy hanging out at their local bar, The Drunken Clam, drinking and chewing the fat. The four men (often without Brian, although he has joined them on several occasions) do many things together. Once the four friends entered and won a costume contest at an 80s TV convention, dressing up as the A-Team. On another occasion, their fishing boat was wrecked, and they were stranded together on a desert island. Peter also has other friends such as Mort and Muriel Goldman and nudists Dave and Dotty Campbell, with whom he is seen occasionally. He became friends with Brian's ex-girlfriend Jillian, which stems from their intelligence; she even asked him to give a speech on her wedding.

Hobbies

• Trombone: Peter took lessons in junior college. He plays the trombone during Chris' open house in Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High.
• Air travel: Peter was able to pilot a blimp over the Superbowl, to return his fraudulently obtained welfare payments. In addition, Peter managed to obtain his own helicopter, the (Petercopter) and an airship '(Hindenpeter)'. He also once challenged Lois to a race around the World and flew off in a plane. In Dammit Janet!, Peter encouraged Lois to become a flight attendant, so that he could travel free as a spouse, enjoying journeys to places as far away as Australia and Kentucky ("I say you he dead"!!).
• Guitar: He played the song Rock Lobster on his guitar to cheer up Cleveland when his wife was having an affair and had kicked him out of the house. Together Lois, who played the mandolin, and Peter on guitar formed the duo "Handful of Peter" in their younger days. In Padre de Familia, accompanying himself on the guitar, Peter sings a brief paeon to the USA, What America Means To Me, in a USO concert, as a tribute to the troops.
• Cup Collecting: According to Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater, Peter collects Star Wars collector cups, confirming Peter as a Star Wars fan (Also - he mentioned he collects Star Wars trading cards in Screwed the Pooch).
• Farting very loudly - more of a lifestyle than a hobby. (Peter's are particularly powerful and noxious farts since in Let's Go to the Hop and many other episodes, they make people vomit, and on one occasion caused Peter himself to pass out after he farted whilst in a sealed box). He was also known to have had out farted Michael Moore in a restroom. However, this more resembled a duet between the two, resembling the song "Dueling Banjos" from the film "Deliverance".
• Fighting: Beating up Ernie The Giant Chicken.
• Piano: He can play perfectly provided he is drunk.

Employment History

Peter first met Lois while he was working as a towel boy for Marguerite Pewterschmidt. He worked at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory for the bizarre Mr. Weed for the first three seasons of the show. But when Mr. Weed was accidentally killed by choking on a dinner roll on which Brian had originally been choking, Peter was out of a job and had to find work elsewhere.

So far, he has been seen as a knight and a fisherman in two episodes from Season 3. In one episode of Season 4 it is implied that Peter still makes a living from fishing, but has hired two Portuguese men to do most of the work. However, after finding he isn't catching enough fish to make a living, and during a desperate attempt to catch more fish at a private island, Peter's boat is destroyed by a hurricane. Despite surviving the hurricane, with the loss of his boat, Peter is again jobless. In Jungle Love, Peter goes to the unemployment office, and obtains a job at the Pawtucket Patriot Brewery. Initially he is placed on the line, but after over-indulging in the free ale, he is demoted to the shipping department, working with Opie and under Angela.

Ernie The Giant Chicken

In a running gag, storylines are interrupted by unexpected fights between Peter and a giant chicken. These battles feature long strings of action film-style sequences, with explosions, high-speed chases, and excessive collateral damage to both property and innocent bystanders, ending with Peter the victor leaving the giant chicken for dead, only for a sudden movement to show that the chicken is still alive.

In the episode Da Boom, the feud starts over a trivial incident where the chicken gives Peter an expired coupon at the grocery store. The fight resumes in Blind Ambition. In No Chris Left Behind the chicken is identified as "Ernie", and he has a wife named Nicole, also a giant chicken. Peter is invited to dinner with them after they realize that their fighting is pointless, but then they argue over who will pay the bill, and the fighting starts all over again. Ernie makes a brief, non-fighting appearance in the time travel themed episode Meet the Quagmires, in which Peter unwittingly assaults the giant chicken at an 80s dance, retroactively providing Ernie with a grudge against Peter. Ernie the chicken appears in the Star Wars parody episode Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, as the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett. He also appears in It's A Trap!.

Ernie was also mentioned in "New Kidney in Town". When Peter was hospitalized due to kidney failure. Brian offered to give Peter his kidney. In response to the family's shock, Dr. Hartman stated that this transplant was not the only crazy thing that took place in medical research, and said that he once attempted to clone a chicken. This resulted in the original chicken to grow human-sized, violent, and incredibly hostile. Peter paused at this, and stated "we need to have a talk later."

Ernie appears in the video game as the final boss.

Health

Peter is shown generally to be a complete idiot, such as being dumb enough in "Stew-Roids" to think that there can be a World War 5 before World Wars 3 and 4 because it would be so intense that it would "Skip right over the other two.". In "Petarded", after winning a game of Trivial Pursuit which Lois rigged with questions from the Pre-school edition so he could win, he thinks that he is a genius, and at Brian's prompting he takes an exam to apply for the MacArthur Genius Grant, which he fails so awfully that he is found to be mentally retarded. In "Quagmire's Baby", Peter thinks that babies can be aborted whether they're born or not.

Peter has shown some sparks of being smarter than those around him, such as in "Back to the Woods" when James Woods returns to get revenge, Peter and Brian get rid of him the exact same way they did the first time, using a box and trail of candy, he makes a point that next time Woods shows up they should do that in the beginning as he has already fallen for it twice.

Peter does have ideas he thinks are smart but often back fire, such as in "FOX-y Lady" when he got his new drivers license he decided to have the picture taken when he was drunk, so if a cop pulled him over for DUI when he looked at his license he would think he was just fine.

Also despite being married to Lois for 20 years, he was unable to realize she was in danger in "And Then There Were Fewer" despite her acting very odd. As well as was more interested in listening to his songs than to pay any real attention. He also firmly believed that Derek Wilcox was a god due to the fact the picture on his phone made him look as if he was holding up the Hollywood sign, despite Derek clearing explaining to him it was merely a camera trick.

Intelligence

Peter is shown to be a complete idiot, such as being dumb enough in "Stew-Roids" to think that there can be a World War 5 before World Wars 3 and 4 because it would be so intense that it would "Skip right over the other two.". In "Petarded", after winning a game of Trivial Pursuit which Lois rigged with questions from the Pre-school edition so he could win, he thinks that he is a genius, and at Brian's prompting he takes an exam to apply for the MacArthur Genius Grant, which he fails so awfully that he is found to be mentally retarded. In "Quagmire's Baby", Peter thinks that babies can be aborted whether they're born or not.

Peter has shown some sparks of being smarter than those around him, such as in "Back to the Woods" when James Woods returns to get revenge, Peter and Brian get rid of him the exact same way they did the first time, using a box and trail of candy, he makes a point that next time Woods shows up they should do that in the beginning as he has already fallen for it twice.

Peter does have ideas he thinks are smart but often back fire, such as in "FOX-y Lady" when he got his new drivers license he decided to have the picture taken when he was drunk, so if a cop pulled him over for DUI when he looked at his license he would think he was just fine.

Also despite being married to Lois for 20 years, he was unable to realize she was in danger in "And Then There Were Fewer" despite her acting very odd. As well as was more interested in listening to his songs than to pay any real attention. He also firmly believed that Derek Wilcox was a god due to the fact the picture on his phone made him look as if he was holding up the Hollywood sign, despite Derek clearing explaining to him it was merely a camera trick.

Sexual Noises

Like Cleveland's sexual noises, Peter normally increases speed while going "Uh? Uh?" and then when that has finished he will end with a triumphant "Shazam!" This has been seen in Fifteen Minutes of Shame (while Meg is with friends) and on the video Stewie made in The Perfect Castaway.