Summary

• The hatred toward Meg in Family Guy is a running gag and is meant to be funny, but it stems from the extreme and undeserved mistreatment she receives from her family.
• Meg is a relatable outsider who just wants to fit in and be loved, making her a sympathetic character despite the abuse she faces.
• Despite the terrible treatment, Meg is actually the funniest character on the show, often providing a voice of reason and delivering some of the best one-liners.

It's a running joke that everyone in Family Guy hates Meg, with everyone from the other kids at school to her father Peter (especially her father Peter) taking their loathing to extremes — but many viewers wonder why Meg Griffin is so hated, and whether the gag is just typical random Family Guy humor or if there's a reason she's so unlikable. From the very start, Meg was unwanted by her parents, who tried to abandon her at a fire station as a baby. Her family often tries to avoid her, and "Shut up, Meg" is basically one of Peter's catchphrases.

Peter Griffin should be in prison for the mistreatment of his daughter, and how the rest of the Griffin family actively abuses Meg isn't much better. Peter often throws things at her, and farts in her face, and even sells Meg to the Goldman family. He once even asked God to remove Meg from existence. While the rest of the family doesn't mistreat Meg quite as harshly, they still avoid, mock, and verbally abuse her. While it's obvious that every Family Guy character hates Meg, the reasons why aren't as clear.

There's No Real Reason Everyone Hates Meg

Family Guy Never Explains What About Meg Makes Her So Disliked

As Family Guy employs dark humor, Meg’s abuse is for comic effect. The hatred of Meg doesn't stem from a single incident, nor does it have a specific cause — everyone hates Meg because everyone hates Meg. Meg doesn't usually deserve the vitriol hurled in her direction. What makes it so funny is how extreme and undeserved it becomes.

Were Meg a real person, it would of course be abhorrent, but real-life morality doesn't apply in Quahog.

Family Guy is a humor of extremes — as evidenced by Peter's ongoing feud and ever-longer fights with Quahog's resident human-sized chicken. The Meg hate is no exception. Everyone hates Meg because hating Meg is hard-baked into the Family Guy universe. Were Meg a real person, it would of course be abhorrent, but real-life morality doesn't apply in Quahog. While hilarious, it's also extremely dark, and the "everyone hates Meg" gag is a little deeper than other Family Guy staples.

The constant Family Guy Meg-hating makes her a relatable outsider in a family that doesn’t know how to communicate. All she wants is to fit in and receive affection, which is absent in her life. She even goes so far as to make predatory attempts to enter into romantic relationships with a criminal, a dead body, talking dog Brian Griffin, police officer Joe Swanson, and renowned creep Quagmire. The dark comedy surrounding the Meg Family Guy arc gets darker, as years of unmerited abuse make her a psychotic killer who eventually murders for fun.

Why "Shut Up Meg" Is So Funny Despite Being Hateful

The Meg Hate Is One Of Many Dark Family Guy Jokes

The reasons everyone hates Meg are never explained, but the joke and catchphrases it spawned, like "Shut up, Meg", is primarily funny because she is such a relatable character, and she was designed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as such. Everyone who ever felt like an outsider or felt like people were mean to them for no good reason can empathize with Meg from Family Guy and feel sorry for her. Even her character design is remarkably normal within the Family Guy universe, making her abuse all the more absurd.

Meg's only crime is that she simply doesn’t fit in. The others probably avoid speaking to her and are mean to her as they have little in common with her and simply don’t know what to say. This is especially true for Peter Griffin, who shares almost no common interests with his daughter. It is also hinted that Peter’s hatred of Meg might partially stem from the fact he is not her father. In several episodes, it is insinuated that Meg's Family Guy twist is that she might be the daughter of an unknown character named Stan Thompson.

Family Guy may never give the absurd joke a canon cause, but with all the hate Meg receives, it isn’t surprising that “Shut up, Meg” became one of the most iconic one-liners in Family Guy. Time and time again, the poor teenager has her self-esteem worn down by those she loves most, leading to her unhealthy relationships and murderous tendencies. Unwanted and misunderstood, Meg is essentially the black sheep of the family. Her teenage desperation to fit in makes her relatable, while her traumatic experiences cause viewers to sympathize with her.

Mila Kunis Gets "Shut Up Meg" All The Time In Real Life

The Actress's Family Guy Role Has Defined Her Career

Meg Family Guy voice actor Mila Kunis confirmed on The Graham Norton Show that she constantly hears "Shut up Meg!" from passers-by in reference to the cast's catchphrase. Though this seems harsh, Kunis is generally a good sport about it and seems to find it funny, as the audiences that shout catchphrases at her — as uncouth as it sounds — are typically only expressing their love for the show and Meg Griffin.

Indeed, despite the terrible treatment Meg gets, Kunis has had no problems playing the character and has even stuck with the show even though Family Guy keeps getting shunned by the Emmys. While the show still has no Emmy Awards, the fact that Family Guy catchphrases have become common in the real world is indicative of the true impact that Mila Kunis and the other actors in the cast have made on the viewers.

Meg Is Slyly The Funniest Family Guy Character

Being The Butt Of Many Jokes Doesn't Mean Meg Isn't Hilarious

While "Shut up, Meg" may forever be ringing in audiences' ears when it comes to Meg from Family Guy, she's secretly the funniest character on the show for two reasons. First, she's the most down-to-earth character. If anyone in Family Guy can be considered relatable, it's definitely Meg. All of her storylines are usually within the realm of reason, and until her psychotic killer arc, she was just a typical unpopular high school girl. Meg balances the rest of the characters' wild antics, like Stewie's time travel, and usually has something funny to say about her family.

Secondly, Meg is often the voice of reason in the Griffin family. When Brian fails to be the voice of reason, in steps Meg. Meg was never one to go along with her family's outrageous schemes, usually remarking how stupid everything was along the way. So, while everyone on Family Guy hates Meg, she's an integral character to the show and generally has some of the best one-liners. Episodes like season 5's "Barely Legal," wherein Meg becomes infatuated with Brian, or season 8's "Dial Meg For Murder", are some of Family Guy's funniest and most memorable classic episodes, too.

When Did The Everyone Hates Meg Joke Begin?

Family Guy Has Featured Meg Hatred Since The Start

Everyone in Family Guy hating Meg started from almost the beginning, although it was never as pronounced in the earlier seasons. The abuse was not as harsh in the early seasons, as it was mostly Peter and kids at school making fun of Meg for being boring. In those seasons, she was much duller than her family, but that is just because she was normal, and they were all over-the-top and ridiculous creations. However, the Meg Griffin abuse intensified in season 4 when the cruel jokes about her appearance started.

The very first instance of Meg abuse came in the very first episode of season 1, "Death Has a Shadow." In this episode, Peter grounded Meg for daring to touch the thermostat. Then when ollagen lip injections deformed her face, Lois just said she deserved it and refused to help her get it fixed. From there, things just got worse as time went on. In "I Never Met Mr. Daddy," Family Guy's second episode, Peter told Meg that her birth was a disappointment.

In Family Guy season 4, episode 1, "Don't Make Me Over," the Meg-hate notably ramped up when a boy rejected a date from Meg, saying she was ugly. This caused Peter to say the kid seemed smart and Meg probably was ugly. Peter then tells Chris to burn all Meg's old photos. In "Petarded," the show hints that Meg's dad was not Peter and that her real dad abandoned her. With 22 seasons and running, the Meg hate remains one of the longest-running gags in Family Guy history, even if it is one of the darkest jokes on the show.