In over 20 years worth of lampooning celebrity culture, the irreverent adult-language FOX cartoon Family Guy has long-proven or at least attempted to convey to those real-life figures they tackle: mockery is the best form of flattery.
Not even certain staples of the pop-cultural zeitgeist like superhero media are safe from the wrath of Seth MacFarlane and Co. The following ten moments in the show's illustrious history are just a few of the many standout moments they dared to pull superheroes down from their pedestals. With honorable mention paid to "Lois, this is not my Batman glass."
Justice League Opening
Though Family Guy fans bask in the comfort of the seemingly-forgotten TV convention calling for shows to begin with a theme song rather than a cold or hot open teaser, the rare change-up is always welcome. This was never made more clear than in the 2009 episode "Family Goy" (season 8, episode 2) when the Griffins (sans the ever-scorned and left-out Meg) assumed the roles of the original Justice League in a full-on parody of the All-New Super Friends Hour (1977-1978)'s title sequence.
Captain America: Civil Union
In a topical Captain America: Civil War spoof seen in 2017's "Petey IV" (season 16, episode 7), Family Guy writers poked fun at the eponymous hero's tendency to have side adventures with Bucky Barnes between Avengers team-up vehicles.
As Civil War essentially played like "Avengers: 2.5," they humorously imply (then full-on state) in this "we now return to.." gag that "Cap" is cowardly for not being as open about his partner - "Randy," within the joke's context - as Randy would like.
The Superfriends' Accountant
To kick things off in season 10's "Grumpy Old Man," the Drunken Clam gang watch the fictional show of the same name - where the titular character hits a nerve with Batman when he asks the group if any of them know a wealthy financial backer like Gotham's Bruce Wayne. Obviously his real identity, the Caped Crusader nervously attempts to deflect in order to preserve face and capital.
Adventures Of Couch Potato Aquaman
The series may have done Aquaman jokes to death. But nothing beats the relentless resonance of his abuse of powers seen in season 4's religiously-charged "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz," where the hero's "Adventures of Aquaman" TV iteration harasses his fish gofer to get him more beer. A spin-off fans may have welcomed as much as they did The Cleveland Show.
"Think Young Anthony Perkins" (The Flash)
In lockstep with season 8's bank vault-set, no-cutaway bottle episode "Brian & Stewie," season 16's "Send in Stewie, Please" sought to flip the show's formula on its head in a similar, insular way.
The 2018 episode exclusively features Stewie not on an adventure, but mid-psychoanalytical treatment. Much margin for deadpan humor is allotted, especially when Stewie explains that Grant Gustin of the CW's Flash TV series is most comparable to the aforementioned Psycho star.
That Week I Lived With Superman
"You know, 800-mile drive for me, like, five seconds for you."
In 2005's "Blind Ambition" (Season 4, ep 3's), Peter briefly reflects on the time he bunked with the Son of Krypton at The Fortress of Solitude. What separates the scene from many other Superman-involved Family Guy parodies is that it made audiences long to live with this Felix and Oscar-level, Odd Couple-ian mismatched roommate pairing for an entire episode's worth of banter, rather than for just the length of a single cutaway.
"Everybody Gets One, Tell 'Em Peter" (Spider-Man)
Whenever someone has a fall in Family Guy, the viewer unconsciously knows to anticipate the likelihood that Spider-Man's web will be there in the knick of time to save them.
Such was true upon Spidey's debut in this capacity in season 2's Grease-spoof, "Let's Go to the Hop," and even more memorably in 2007's "Believe It or Not, Joes Walking on Air" (season 6, episode 3) - where an irked Peter says "apparently everybody gets one" when prompted.
"...and a Batman Symbol" (Batman)
In one of the most celebrated moments in the show's early history, Peter bombs the letter-purchasing component of Wheel of Fortune, only to inexplicably stick the landing. Before correctly providing "Alex Karras in Webster" as the puzzle solution in the 2006 episode, season 4's "I Take Thee Quagmire," the letters he guessed instantaneously solidified themselves as a sequence equally iconic to the LOST numbers: "Z. 4. Q. Another Q. A third Q... and a Batman symbol."
"To Ireland!" (Wonder Woman)
With an on-brand, random stroke of comedic ingeniousness, Peter's response to learning the biological father he never knew about helms from Ireland is as such: he breaks out a Wonder Woman spinning costume-change, followed by a declaration he's to travel there to meet him. It's a certifiably preposterous creative maneuver, and yet a vintage Family Guy joke that helped make 2007's "Peter's Two Dads" (season 5, episode 10) one of the best. Of My Drunken Irish Dad!
The Lonely Stewie (The Incredible Hulk)
Though it was not the first time The Incredible Hulk TV Series' "Lonely Man" theme played in the episode, nor the last time Family Guy would show their David Banner-era Hulk-loving hand, its reprise in the closing moments of 2000's "Wasted Talent" (season 2, episode 20) takes the cake.
As Stewie attempts to hitch a ride while the end credits roll just as Bill Bixby's Hulk would, the devastating piano chords remind vintage World-Breaker fans that his melancholic roadside awakenings were a result of the damning two-way amnesia that befell his radiation-exposed split personality.