Season 21 of Family Guy is in full swing, making it the perfect time to put the spotlight on Brian Griffin, everyone's favorite self-impressed talking dog. When he's not trying to dissuade Stewie and Peter from diabolical schemes and reckless stunts, he's still trying to put his thoughts on the page in another literary masterpiece.
Like Lois, the person of his affection, Brian is often the voice of reason in the Griffin household, but that doesn't mean he's stuck being the straight man. As this memes highlight, Brian is complex character who's melodramatic tendencies combined with his self-seriousness had led to some of the show's best episodes.
Brian Has A Lot Of Vices
Of all the characters in Family Guy, Brian is the one with the most vices, which he often abuses because he thinks they help creative people function better. Like his favorite authors Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey, known for their heavy drinking (and in Kesey's case, LSD parties), he believes writing is as much about following the lifestyle as it is about actually producing anything.
This meme compares him to Roger Sterling from Mad Men, and the comparison isn't too far off, especially given that most of the authors Brian looks up to wrote some of their best novels in the '50s and '60s when the series is set. Brian tends to want to feel pleasure at the moment in order to experience a heightened sense of reality - anything but actually write his book.
Brian Thinks He's A Great Writer
Brian considers himself to be a great novelist, even though his novels are a running joke in the series. The rest of the family sees his manuscripts as ego-serving tomes of hot air better used as doorstops than pieces of entertainment. As he tends to favor literature over popular fiction, he has a smaller demographic of readers interested in his work, which mainly consists of himself
Like this meme suggests, Brian's books are only interesting to him, because no one else has the patience to look for the meaning behind his metaphors or symbolism. Ocasionally, Brian does have epiphanies about his work, and realizes he hasn't made the lofty opus he thinks he has.
Peter Is One Of His Best Friends
A lot of the best Family Guy episodes star Stewie and Brian, but Peter is one of Brian's best friends too, and the two share some common interests despite Brian feeling that his owner isn't part of the intellectually elite. Brian is loyal to Peter and embraces his reputation as "man's best friend" even though he can find him exasperating.
This meme features Peter having to watch TV with Meg because he's had a fight with Brian, but Meg doesn't respond to advertisements about other dogs the same way that Peter would like. Even though he thinks he doesn't need Brian to enjoy some time in front of the tube, he realizes that some friends can't be substituted.
Brian Is Voiced By Seth MacFarlane
This meme features a scene where Brian is speaking at the dinner table, paused at the exact moment the scene is transitioning to Peter talking, making it look like the man behind the dog, Seth MacFarlane (who also voices Peter). Since it's creation in the late '90s, MacFarlane has been faithfully voicing several of Family Guy's most prominent characters, but he's mostly known for Brian.
Brian is the character who doesn't require MacFarlane to alter the pitch or cadence of his voice. When Brian speaks, it's basically like listening to MacFarlane in any real interview. It's for that reason that some viewers think that Brian represents MacFarlane in several ways, from echoing his personal views about politics and religion to dating younger women like Emilia Clarke and his Orville costar Halston Sage.
Brian Is Sometimes Compared To Roger The Alien From American Dad
Family Guy and American Dad may be different in terms of tone and humor, but certain elements are the similar. Both Roger and Brian are two highly intelligent yet self-involved characters who make pithy commentary about the reckless antics of the human characters around them. Roger and Brian also tend to be part of wacky plots where they're violently mutilated - Roger's been skinned and had his organs harvested while he's still alive, and Brian's been electrocuted, shot, and torn apart at various times.
Not only are they laugh riots, they counterbalance the flippancy and obstinacy of the other characters, who often are involved with lots of problems of their own making that could be solved if they just listened to Roger or Brian.
Brian Is The Most Political Character
In the first several seasons of Family Guy, Brian was a very liberal character; he read Mother Jones, corrected everyone about their language and tone, and generally tried to act respectful of everyone regardless of their differences. According to Heavy, Macfarlane was one of 13 celebrities who nearly died during the September 11th attacks, and the character of Brian changed after that.
He developed a drinking problem, became more cynical, and his left-leaning politics became a source of mockery by other characters. Did his brush with death have anything to do with the development of Brian's character? It could be that MacFarlane simply wanted Brian to learn to take himself less seriously, and remove his ego from the equation.
Violent Things Happen To Brian All The Time
The comedy in the show often involves violence, but Brian often was on the receiving end of the most physical abuse. Burned, struck by lightning, slashed into pieces by Doug's cat - Brian has been ripped apart in all manner of ways. But one moment stands out among the rest as the most violent and poignant; they day he was struck and killed by a car.
The episode, entitled "Life of Brian," was a traumatic one for fans who had grown to love his character. The Griffins weren't ready to say good bye to him and neither were fans, and it proved an effective way to get viewer engagement.
Brian's Death Deeply Affected Fans
Whether fans liked Brian more than the other characters or not, his loss had a profound effect on the series. He couldn't be a best friend to Stewie or Peter, and no longer get into political debates with Quagmire. Without his buffet intellectualism, everyone seemed to operate with their mundane views unchallenged.
It's been a decade since one of the darkest episodes of Family Guy aired, and even if the storyline wasn't used to increase ratings, there's no denying that it was effective because the show produced ten more seasons after that and is still going strong.
Brian Is Irreplaceable On Family Guy
After Brian's death, the Griffins try to replace him with another dog, but it's just not the same. This dog doesn't act as the voice of reason, and although he needs a home, he doesn't feel like part of the family in the same way that Brian did. Luckily, he receives his own touching storyline before Brian returns.
Brian's return highlighted what was missing with his absence, and how as one of the most intelligent characters in the series, it's his job to highlight the silly comicality of characters like Peter, Chris, and others who behave on impulse without fully thinking anything through.
Brian Has A Lot Of Devoted Fans
"Life of Brian" proved that Brian was essential to the series as the glue that held the rest of the family together. He not only stood in as an anthropomorphized version of MacFarlane, he also often represented the audience's thoughts and reactions to things on screen.
Fans weren't happy with Brian being killed off, and also weren't happy when his death was made cheap by being impermanent, but one thing is true regardless - Brian has a lot of devoted fans out there who are fiercely protective of him.