A Dark Family Guy Theory ‘Proves’ Peter Is Not Meg, Stewie & Chris’ Real Dad
“Family Guy” has never been afraid to get a little (OK, a lot) dark every week. It’s a show where characters can be casually murdered onscreen, then brought back to life after a commercial break, after all. These are characters who always go too far, and they’re not ashamed to admit it. But some changes — the deaths of important characters, the birth of others, and Peter Griffin’s (Seth MacFarlane) many changes in occupation — have stayed.
This fluid storytelling landscape makes “Family Guy” ideal territory for fan theories that give the show darker-than-usual twists, as evinced by u/MatildeLover128 on the “Family Guy” subreddit. He posits that Peter isn’t the biological father of any of the children he’s raising. Aside from Meg (Mila Kunis) being Stan Thompson’s daughter — which is spoken of during Season 3’s “Screwed the Pooch,” MatildeLover128 suggests that Chris (Seth Green) and Dr. Hartman are biologically related, and Stewie (MacFarlane again) is the son of a pornographic actor from the adult film Lois starred in, “The Quest for Fur.” An actor on the set is shown to sound and look exactly like Stewie, after all.
“The reason why I came up with this theory is because of the House of Peters episode where all of his donated children look so much like him. Also, Peter is known to do stupid things to irritate Lois which results her in cheating on him,” u/MatildeLover128 explained on Reddit. While some of these details are supported by the ever-flexible timeline of “Family Guy,” other parts of the theory are demonstrably proven to be false.
Canon doesn’t quite prove or disprove this theory
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“Family Guy” has never hesitated to make jokes about the Griffin kids’ paternity, mostly at their shared expense. While the Stan Thompson reference has never been fully disproven — and it might even explain why Peter refuses to act like a “family guy” to her and Lois (Alex Borstein) treats her so badly — Chris’ origin point in particular has been used as volleyball. A clip showing Lois post-partum with an enormous infant Chris can be spied during “He’s too Sexy for his Fat.” But this is seemingly retconned by a running joke later on that suggests Lois and Peter kidnapped Chris from a Dutch family. Since the truth is flexible in the “Family Guy” world, let’s just presume he, too, is Peter and Lois’ biological child.
At least one part of this theory has been strongly disproven by the show’s canon, and that’s Stewie’s paternity. Between multiple entire plots centering on his conception — like that of “Chap Stewie” — and the existence of his long-time nemesis and half-brother, Bertram (Wallace Shawn), who’s only around because of Peter’s donation to a local sperm bank, he seems to be firmly in the Griffin camp. While the theory might not be fully true, it’s definitely a lot of fun to think about.