Peter Griffin

"Remember what I always tell you, if I come home in the middle of the day and catch you having sex with someone I'll kill you both."

- Peter Griffin to his wife Lois Griffin. "Shut up, Meg."

- Peter to his daughter Meg Griffin. "You are a fat, lazy, abusive blue-collar Irish-Catholic dad who drinks way too much and barely makes enough money to support his family!!!"

- Meg accurately describing her father.

"Justin" Peter Löwenbräu Griffin Sr., better known as just Peter Griffin is the titular protagonist of the adult animated series ; he is the father of Christopher "Chris" Griffin, Stuart Gilligan "Stewie" Griffin and Megatron "Meg" Griffin, biological father of Bertram Griffin, husband of Lois Patrice Pewterschmidt-Griffin and best friend and owner of Brian H. Griffin. He is a man in his early 40s who lives on 31 Spooner Street of the fictional town of Quahog,.

However, he is not as nice as most would like to imagine as he has caused others misfortune due to his stupidity but also deliberately to better himself which backfires leaving Peter stuck with the raw end of the deal. He is not alone in these respects as he has an evil brother named Thaddeus Griffin, a bullying older sister named Karen Griffin and an abusive fanatical stepfather named Francis Griffin suggesting antagonism runs in his family and helps explain the behavior of his children (although in fairness Peter does have caring moments despite the fact they are increasingly rare).

He is voiced by series creator who also provides the voices of many other characters.

Personality
Though not exactly villainous or outright evil Peter is shown to be an obnoxious, stupid, rude, crude, moronic, arrogant, short-tempered, stubborn, selfish, ignorant, dimwitted, reckless, egotistical, self-absorbed and argumentative person who causes a great deal of harm and misery to those around him. Some of his more defining traits are his borderline alcoholism and drugging habits which tend to leave him in a state of incomprehension specifically regarding things like decency and safety measures and causing him to enter an unrestrained stupor.

Most of his time is spent with drinking buddies getting wasted, going wherever and doing whatever they want and costing thousands to millions of dollars in damage with the oft-combined forces of their drunken or quasi-sober tomfoolery. He had also been willing to do more for his friends Glenn Quagglechek-Quagmire, Joseph "Joe" Swanson and Cleveland Orenthal Brown Sr. than his family as well.

Another example of his negative aspects was how terrible he was to Lois. Peter almost always took her for granted despite her being the daughter of billionaire Carter Pewterschmidt, very attractive and having the affections of others who were arguably better. There had been more than enough instances to show Peter was cheating on her such as when he admitted on live TV he knew the names of all pornographic stars and was openly shown to have attractions for or interests in other women and/or former sexual partners during marriage.

He was also shown to be an absolutely manipulative, atrocious and cheating father figure by demeaning, degrading, demoralizing and downright abusing his family, especially Meg and Brian in particular; Peter actually left the former behind when she was in danger saying he and Lois decided if they needed to leave a child behind it would be Meg. Along with this he openly admitted he hated the kids simply because they did not do anything he liked or were not entertaining to him. However, there have been moments where Peter is there for his family, having good times with them, getting laughs and taking them to places such as amusement parks or parties.

While early seasons depicted him as a good-natured oaf in later seasons this was no longer the case: At the crunch he was a childlike selfish jerk whose destructive influences and violent tendencies pretty much made him bad. In the cruel and bizarre world involving Family Guy every character has their share of maliciousness. However, Peter took the cake as the scenes where he was sympathetic paled in comparison to his nastiness.

Villainous Acts/Antagonistic Moments

 * Peter proclaimed an independent micronation that involved the ownership of his home when he learned it wasn't formally and officially part of the calling it "Petoria". He abused his newfound diplomatic immunity, became anti-American and proceeded to invite the leaders of countries hostile to the US including, , , , ,  and  over for a pool party and BBQ using the pool stolen from Joe's backyard after annexing it.
 * He attempted to get a promotion by blowing up a billboard advertising a rival brewery. Unfortunately he placed the explosives in the wrong building which happened to be a children's hospital. When Peter had Angela watch the explosion he caused the destruction of the hospital instead. Though Peter was initially shocked he quickly got over it when the fire burned the billboard. When he passed the third grade and was eligible so he could use the executive bathroom Angela refused to give it to him. Her reason was that nobody had forgotten the burning of the hospital which resulted in over fourteen deaths. The learned it was Peter but he was sentenced to only a week in prison presumably to the outrage of the dead people's families.
 * This was not the last hospital Peter destroyed as he blew up another one while mimicking 's Joker as part of an anti-vaccine campaign by him and Lois; earlier he made a faux medical advertisement protesting vaccines which he paid for with Meg's college money.
 * Speaking of which Peter constantly abused Meg by talking down to her, neglecting and ignoring her, insulting her, farting on her, beating her, telling her to "shut up", nearly drowning her and in a cutaway shooting her simply because she said "Hi" to him.
 * He went to Meg's school James Woods High to create a story that Luke Perry was gay and burned her story about Mayor Adam West. However, this was to get more readers as he believed the Mayor West story would put people to sleep.
 * There have been occasions where Peter forgets Meg; he once made Brian bring up a man named Stan Thompson who they claimed was Meg's real father.
 * He and sometimes Lois were seen in cutaways trying to abandon Meg.
 * However, this was due to him being abused by Karen. Upon realizing what transformed Peter into the man he was known for being (the direction of Peter's ill-intentioned antics likely due to his daughter's resemblance to his sister) Meg helped fight Karen during a boxing match knocking her out with a real chair and putting her in a coma.
 * Another person Peter abused was Lois. He sometimes showed little to no respect for her, ignored her and made her do things against her will.
 * After a boxing match the announcer asked if any more women wanted to fight and Peter forced Lois to enter the ring against Deirdre Jackson. After witnessing Lois beating Jackson he forced her to enter more matches so he could get rich by betting on them.
 * Peter insulted Lois for becoming as fat as he was until he discovered fat sex. He then encouraged her to gain weight which was even worse than putting her down insisting she get fatter and literally stuffing her face. She gained so much weight she had a heart attack and almost died but that didn't stop Peter anyway. He even tried to have sex with her body fat after it was surgically removed by Doctor Elmer Hartman.
 * Lois started to feel insecure about getting older but during a surprise birthday party with everyone they knew Peter compared her to old machinery and referred to her as a work animal whose only use was menial labor and sexual intercourse which sent her into a midlife crisis.
 * Peter learned about Stewie's interest in tormenting Lois and the fact they both found her pain and suffering amusing; to bond with his youngest son they pulled pranks such as smashing a jar of pickles on her head, spraying her with a hose causing her to fall into the bathtub and down the stairs and pushing the family car with her body locked inside into a lake nearly drowning her.
 * He convinced Lois to keep a job as a flight attendant which she hated due to uptight passengers because he got free flights.
 * Peter once wrote hate letters to his family although he did not realize what he was doing was wrong.
 * Peter was attending a golf game during their anniversary but to prevent Lois from knowing he set up a fake scavenger hunt so he could play with his friends. This moment nearly ruined their marriage but with help from Death he managed to save it.
 * He attempted to shoot her and Mort Goldman while imitating Amon Goeth when he learned she was Jewish.
 * He crossed the Moral Event Horizon when he threw an unconscious and possibly-deceased Stewie with infected head wounds underneath the car after weeks of no medical treatment so she wouldn't ask how he got hurt.
 * Peter also abused Chris by teasing his low intelligence and overweight stature despite possessing these traits himself.
 * Peter pretended Chris was dying so he could save a cancelled TV show and when confronted claimed he cured him causing everyone to call him a God which aroused the anger of the real God who plagued the Griffin house. Despite everyone demanding he tell the truth Peter refused until Chris almost died for real.
 * Peter made Chris lose a girlfriend by giving him bad advice about how to act while on a date.
 * Peter always thought he was better in every way but when he found out Chris had a bigger "junk" he got jealous and tried to prove he had the bigger "junk" even unintentionally telling Lois that their "junk" was the reason for trying to be the bigger man.
 * Peter and Chris tried to lose weight and found out about liposuction. Chris refused to take the procedure but Peter took it to be skinnier. At first he was still interacting with and helping his son lose weight but when he added muscle he began to forget Chris, especially when joining the Handsome Guys Club.
 * He and others often made fun of Chris whenever he brought up the Evil Monkey living in his closet much to Chris's fear and dismay.
 * Peter attempted to ruin Chris by disguising himself and saying he was gay because the Evil Monkey seemed to be more of a father figure than him. Before learning the Evil Monkey was real a video recording showed Peter and Quagmire placing one of Chris's hands in a bowl of water causing him to urinate while Quagmire punched him in the face before leaving.
 * When Peter found out he was mentally-retarded and no charges would be held if he did anything wrong he decided to take full advantage of this: He went into ladies' bathrooms and kicked the doors open, destroyed plates after finishing dinner and grabbed a fryolator accidentally burning Lois. Because there was no adult officially marked as legally-sane his children had to live at Cleveland's house as enforced by ; Peter put seven prostitutes there so he could get his kids back only to be put on trial for their custody which he lost.
 * After Quagmire got a cat Peter, Joe, Cleveland and Brian decided to sneak into his house and shave it. Peter accidentally killed the cat though he was unconcerned adding further insult by stealing beer from the fridge and driving while intoxicated with it. In the end Quagmire asked where his cat was and before Peter slammed the door he took the money offered to him and apathetically said "I killed your cat." Earlier he did a cutaway showing he lured people to their deaths with siren songs while dressed as a mermaid.
 * Peter's comment before the supposed end of the world expressing shame and disgust for his children ("I just hate being around the kids...") was deliberately uttered thinking he would have no price to pay. How mistaken he was once the hoax passed without incident and even Peter's heartfelt apology was fruitless as his children were still mad; when Lois confronted him he asked her if she ever felt like they should've run away or been kidnapped to be taken to the Temple of Doom. In an attempt to interact with his children he asked Meg about her "period" and used crystal meth in front of Chris and Stewie.
 * The Griffin family opened a restaurant but Peter refused to allow Joe and his handicapped friends in again because they were "gross cripples" to which they responded by forming a giant robot that attacked and destroyed the restaurant causing the sign to fall on Peter breaking his legs. In a cutaway he said 's movies were awful behind his back which the actor heard anyway thanks to his elephant-like ears.
 * He put Stewie on steroids after he was beaten up by Joe's daughter Susie Swanson.
 * When he found out Chris was being bullied by Kyle he went to Kyle's house to talk to him but beat him up after losing his temper. Though Peter only hit him out of anger and was never willing to do so this was still a crime because Kyle was 13 while Peter was 43; being an adult he should've known better than to get angry at all. Upon realizing how good it felt to bully people he started bullying his family and friends. When he realized he was like his high-school bully Randy Fulcher he went with Chris to pay him back. However, it turned out that growing up Fulcher suffered which led to him being physically disabled; instead of feeling sorry Peter attempted to beat him up anyway only to be beaten up by Chris in turn.
 * He continuously tormented Brian with his nude body and stopped when Brian shaved to reveal his bald appearance which he used to scare Peter and convince him into putting his clothes back on.
 * A cutaway revealed he accidentally murdered Peter Griffin Jr. who was a baby by shaking him to make him stop crying. This was more of a misdeed since Peter did not mean it; however, it still seemed shocking that he and Lois actually stayed together to conceive Stewie.
 * He killed and eviscerated a beached whale with a forklift trying to get it back into the ocean. To add insult to injury he then carefully and gently picked up a seashell with the same forklift and said "You're whale-come" to a horrified crowd.
 * It was shown Peter held a hairless twin hostage in his storm shed feeding him garbage. He also murdered who he thought was a bully of Chris and presented his head but it turned out to be a deaf student. The main plot involved Peter attempting to marry his eldest son who was made the heir of Carter's will.
 * He menaced numerous people including Meg, Stewie and even Cleveland with a whip that was supposed to go to Quagmire.
 * It was revealed he paid off his shenanigans by frequently robbing a bank. After Meg accidentally killed the manager Peter told her to kill everyone else.
 * When Brian denied that kicking could solve problems Peter beat him up and threw him out a window leaving him to almost get run over. While having dinner he and his family except Brian did things that would make Brian's date Rita say her age. After they failed he yelled at her and forced her to say it which caused her to run away crying after saying she was 50 to Brian's anger.
 * When Lois and Cleveland's new wife Donna Tubbs-Brown had an argument on parenting methods the two banned him and Cleveland from seeing each other again. To try to get Lois and Donna to be friends as well they performed various (and questionable) stunts to do so. One of them was showing them naked babies and their private areas; however, Cleveland asked why Peter had pictures of them in suggestive positions and taken long before they made the plan which indicated he was a pedophile at one point. He also intentionally crashed his car by driving it into a pole with him and Cleveland still inside resulting in the latter ending up hospitalized and in critical condition due to Peter being protected by airbags alone; this attempt only further cemented hostilities between his and Cleveland's wives.
 * When drinking became banned for people under 50 he manipulated Brian into buying alcohol because he was 56 in dog years. When a police officer caught them both drunk he told on Brian leaving him to do community service; Peter didn't care about what happened and still asked him to buy alcohol. Additionally, he drank a beer can in front of Brian, burped at him in his face, littered with the crumpled can and insulted a glaring policeman making Peter do community service as well.
 * He got into destructive brawls with Ernie the Giant Chicken which started when Ernie unknowingly gave him an expired coupon; he later got into another fight after knocking Ernie off a bicycle and again by crashing into his car. Each fight in itself ended with everywhere they went including most of Quahog demolished and countless innocents dead while Peter and Ernie survived none worse for the wear.
 * He got into a similarly long and violent fight with Homer Simpson that destroyed much of Springfield killing and/or injuring many residents; he repeated this with Donald Trump in a fight which caused similar damage and destruction.
 * Peter desperately tried to get Brian's old rope to the point when he ties the rope to his car and drives off in an attempt to get it away from Brian. This greatly injures Brian, causing him to collide headfirst on a fire hydrant making him lose his teeth and break his nose. Peter later uncaringly gave Brian the rope back having grown bored of it and along with the rest of the family refused to help fix Brian's face.
 * Peter got drunk again and ended up eating the Thanksgiving turkey supposedly with Brian; the two headed out to find a replacement turkey. Through Peter's stupidity, the two encounter bad luck and misfortune which endangers Brian. When Brian could not take anymore, he yelled at him to which Peter revealed he was just framed so Peter didn't have to take all the blame. He furthered this by saying Brian was a dog, he could throw him off a bridge and unless he hit a person he was fine.
 * He presumably beat an innocent boy to death with a shovel because he thought he was after buried treasure. In the beginning, he disgusted his family with putrid breath. He later punched Chris giving him a black eye and causing Lois to bail on him with the rest of his kids; he thought about holding her at gunpoint when they found the treasure.
 * He tormented Quagmire and Joe for amusement after becoming rich forcing them to perform while criticizing and shooting them with two rounds blowing out Joe's eye and piercing Quagmire's throat forcing the former to get a glass replacement eye and the latter to presumably get vocal implants. He also defecated on Angela's desk after resigning.
 * He shot Cleveland's son Cleveland Brown Jr. in the arm and was arrested and charged with a hate crime by Joe. However, he did not mean to because while in a neighborhood watch organization it was dark and he thought Cleveland Jr. was trying to rob his father's house; in the end Peter confessed he did something stupid and Cleveland "confessed" he shot his son.
 * Peter and Quagmire helped Mort burn down his pharmacy to collect the insurance money since it was already falling apart after the death of his wife Muriel Goldman and a few others at the hands of Diane Simmons. As part of a campaign to save the business Peter and Quagmire flew a plane with an advertising banner which was pulled off by an antenna spire and fell to the ground where it blindsided a school bus causing it to fall off a bridge and into a river which killed everyone including the driver; they and Mort showed remorse and concern not for the deceased but instead Mort's livelihood which had taken a further nosedive.
 * He stole Nielsen boxes and ruined television causing everybody to hate him.
 * After he became annoyed with Chip he attempted to get a dingo to eat him; this failed and Chip realized Peter wanted to kill him so he angrily left the house.
 * He and Lois forced Stewie to do a commercial which tired him, gave him drugs to keep him active and pressured him to succeed as well as using the money they planned for his college fund for themselves instead.
 * Peter became a patriot and convinced Angela to check if workers were legitimate citizens only to find out from his mother Thelma Griffin he himself was an immigrant after which he was fired. While working as a nanny he fell through a roof skylight dressed as Mary Poppins killing two children and showed no remorse only being disgusted as he puked; after that he pushed the corpses under a bed with his umbrella and left. In another scene while working as a maid and housekeeper he entered a motel room even though the person inside specifically told him not to.
 * He shot Quagmire in the arm to prove a hunting rifle's safety mode was not on and revealed he lost a borrowed CD in a game of poker making him end their friendship.
 * Once Peter returned from being lost on an island at sea he became distraught after learning Brian married Lois. He then seduced her into having intercourse with him; while this could be considered less villainous since they were previously married Peter still did not respect the marriage between Brian and Lois or Brian in general cheating behind his back and when she attempted to explain it wasn't right Peter said he loved her more and Brian was simply a dog demeaning him as a pet instead of an actual deserving husband.
 * Peter was angry upon finding out Lois slept and was once in a relationship with Jerome who was supposed to Cleveland's replacement; he flew into a jealous rage attempting to drive Jerome away by dressing up as a "ghost" and spent the rest of the evening drinking. Stopping by Jerome's house he threw his bottle through a window and hit a lamp causing a fire that nearly killed Jerome while Peter failed to notify emergency services.
 * He became equally furious when he learned through a pocket-dialed message that Quagmire also loved Lois. Unable to control his jealousy he ignored Brian's suggestions and got into a fight. Later, while still angry Peter flipped Quagmire off when he moved away. He even blamed Lois for Quagmire loving her.
 * He drove his car into a rich family's house and went into the library where he retold ', ' and . He tried to escape the police by hiding in the attic but was apprehended and battered by them in the end; he even had his nose broken after insulting them.
 * He and his friends (except Quagmire who served as a pilot before becoming a civilian one) impersonated military officials and he later beat an innocent boy to death so he could ride a jet ski.
 * While he and the guys were in charge of the Drunken Clam he brought in a real bull which destroyed the bar and portrait of Jerome's mother who passed away resulting in Peter being attacked after failing to evacuate himself from the Clam's premises as a ploy to avoid being hurt by replacing himself and his friends with scarecrow replicas.
 * It was implied he was interested in raping 3-year-old girls.
 * Peter put a brain-damaged horse he had purchased on his car after it died of a heart attack and drove only to slam the brakes and send the horse crashing into Mort's pharmacy; his family was made to pay the damages even though he alone was responsible.

Quotes
"Old man?!?! What, you think you're not gonna get old, you little bastard?!"

- Peter before beating up Justin Bieber.

"If that DVD even touches Road House, I will kill you."

- Peter to a merchant passing him a film he hates.

"Okay, that is the last time you are gonna pull that crap! (Kick in the face.) You hear me? (Lucy: Yes!) Do you hear me? (He continues to hit her.) (Lucy: Yes!) And you are gonna hold down that football until Charlie Brown kicks it. You got that? (Lucy: Yes.) Go ahead, Charlie. (Charlie kick in the ball.) And you know what else? I did some checking around. You're not a licensed therapist. (Kick in the face.) Road House."

- Peter beating Lucy Van Pelt.

"Hey, stupid, what the hell are you doing? That's my daughter! (Jerk: Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?) What am I gonna do about it? I'll knock your teeth down your throat and out your butt, you little bastard! (Another jerk laugh.) Oh, you think that's funny, him spilling juice all over the floor? This is gonna make people's sneakers sticky, and then we're gonna have to listen to (IMITATES STICKY SHOES WALKING) all day! Well, I won't have it. Get on your knees and lick that up! (Jerk: What? A-Are you serious?) Yeah, I'm serious. I'm the principal!"

- Peter as the principal of James Wood High.

Trivia

 * In many respects Peter was similar to Homer and seemed like what people called an "average Joe". However, there were differences as while Homer usually had a tendency to feel guilt and remorse Peter hardly did so as often. In the early seasons, he was naive and was a good father, in the later seasons he helped others for personal gain and abused his family, notably Meg and Brian. He had at one point abused all others in his vicinity.