Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy has evolved a lot throughout its lifetime. Its initial seasons were criticized for copying The Simpsons. Then, after its first cancellation, it morphed into a beast of its own by focusing on what set its characters apart (and, of course, plenty of cutaway gags). In recent years, the show has become meta, finding the humor in its own reputation.
There are a ton of hilarious characters in the show – and a few with a claim to be the funniest of them all – but most Family Guy fans would agree that the series’ M.V.P. is Stewie Griffin. Still, he faces some stiff competition.
Why Stewie Is The Best: He Keeps Getting Better
When Family Guy first hit the airwaves, Stewie was an evil genius bent on killing his mother. Around the fourth season, he moved away from dreams of matricide and became more defined by his campiness and sexual ambiguity.
Before this change, Stewie was funny, but he was pretty one-note. This transformation opened up the character’s potential, and since then, he just keeps getting better.
Closest Contender: Peter Griffin
Although Peter Griffin started off as a pale imitation of Homer Simpson, he grew into something entirely different. Whereas Homer is a guy who tries his best, but his best isn’t very good, Peter is a guy who doesn’t try at all.
He’s sort of a subversion of the Homer Simpson type, which has since been done to death in TV comedy, as Peter is even dumber, even more reckless, and even more negligent as a parent than Homer.
Why Stewie Is The Best: He Has Great Chemistry With Every Other Character
Some Family Guy team-ups don’t work particularly well. An episode about Lois and Chris, for example, would be pretty weird, because they don’t really have any chemistry. Stewie is the only character who has great chemistry with everyone.
Whether he’s sharing the spotlight with Brian (as is usually the case), Peter, Lois, Chris, or Meg, there’s always something to enjoy, because he has chemistry with all of them.
Closest Contender: Cleveland Brown
When Cleveland was given his own spin-off, his transition from supporting character to series lead was a tough one, as his characterization shifted more toward Peter’s to allow him to carry The Cleveland Show.
What made Cleveland so hilarious in Family Guy – and when he returned to the show following his spin-off’s cancellation – was his deadpan reactions to the absurd situations around him.
Why Stewie Is The Best: He Has The Most Interesting Storylines
Since Stewie is a genius who can create time machines and interdimensional teleporters, he is the source of the most interesting storylines on Family Guy, and it’s a show that doesn’t focus too heavily on storytelling, so this is a big plus.
Whereas a Meg storyline will involve something generic like getting a job as a mortician, a Stewie storyline will involve alterations to the spacetime continuum.
Closest Contender: Mayor West
With the unfortunate passing of Adam West in 2017, his satirical counterpart had to be retired from Family Guy. The star of the ‘60s Batman TV series played himself as the Mayor of Quahog in 118 episodes across two decades and he was hysterical in every single appearance.
To say that Mayor West had a couple of screws loose would be an understatement, as he continued to top his own zaniness.
Why Stewie Is The Best: He’s The Smartest Member Of A Family Of Idiots
Stewie doesn’t fit in with the rest of the Griffins. Peter and Chris are the biggest idiots of them all, but Lois and Meg aren’t particularly smart either. Stewie is a bona fide genius, and he can see right through his family’s idiocy.
Part of what makes the Griffins’ stupidity so funny is Stewie’s reactions to it, because he’s smarter than all of them, but they (mostly) can’t even understand him.
Closest Contender: Joe Swanson
When he was introduced in season 1’s “A Hero Sits Next Door,” Joe Swanson served to challenge Peter’s prejudice against the disabled. However, over the years, he’s grown into a much more rounded character.
Joe is the most socially awkward of his friends, making Peter and Quagmire roll their eyes with his lukewarm takes on politics, and he’s had some emotionally charged storylines, like seeking revenge against the crook who disabled him and writing a children’s book about a disabled squirrel to combat ableism.
Why Stewie Is The Best: He’s The Most Likable Character
The characters in Family Guy are not particularly likable, and that seems to be the point. It’s the sociopathic cousin of a show where the characters feel like a real family that really love each other, like The Simpsons.
But Stewie is genuinely likable. He’s prone to doing immoral things sometimes, like burning a playhouse containing his girlfriend and the male friend he’s jealous of, but for the most part, Stewie is the most likable Griffin.
Closest Contender: Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin feels like Seth MacFarlane’s avatar in Family Guy. He’s a liberal atheist writer, he’s the character MacFarlane uses his regular speaking voice for, and most importantly, he’s the voice of reason that grounds the insanity of Family Guy, and particularly of Peter.
In the early seasons, the show was on Brian’s side, but in more recent years, it’s shown him to be faking a lot of his intellectualism, which, if anything, has made him even funnier. A couple of years ago, when the show temporarily killed off Brian, there was an uproar among the fan base, because we’ve become attached to Brian and didn’t want to see him go. Fortunately, he was brought back a few episodes later.