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 Pewterschmidt-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 when she gets tired of him.

Peter Löwenbräu Griffin Sr. (born July 22, 1955), better known as just Peter Griffin is the 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 Pewterschmidt-Griffin and owner of Brian Griffin. He is a man in his early 40s who lives in 31 Spooner Street in the fictional Quahog, Rhode Island. However, he is not as nice as some would imagine; throughout the course of the series Peter has caused misery for those around himself often due to his stupidity but sometimes deliberately to better himself which backfires leaving Peter stuck with the raw end of the deal.

Peter is not alone in this respect as he is shown to have an evil brother named Thaddeus Griffin, a bullying sister named Karen Griffin and an implicitly abusive stepfather named Francis Griffin suggesting antagonism runs in his family and helps explain the behavior of his children (though in fairness Peter does have moments of being a caring individual despite the fact that they are increasingly rare).

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

Personality
Although not exactly villainous or evil Peter is shown to be a stupid, rude, crude, moronic, arrogant, short-tempered, stubborn, selfish, dimwitted, reckless, egotistical and argumentative person who causes misery to a great deal of people around him.

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

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

He is also shown to be an absolutely manipulative, atrocious and cheating father figure, demeaning, demoralizing, pranking and downright abusing his family, especially Meg and Brian in particular; Peter actually left the former behind when she was in mortal 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 has been there for his family, having good times with them, getting laughs and even taking them to places such as amusement parks or parties.

While earlier seasons depicted him as a good-natured oaf in later seasons this was no longer the case. He was at the crunch a childlike selfish jerk whose destructive influence and violent tendencies pretty much made him bad. In the cruel and bizarre world involving Family Guy every character had their share of maliciousness. However, Peter took the cake in being a bully. The few scenes where he was portrayed as sympathetic paled in comparison to his nastiness.

Villainous Acts

 * Peter proclaimed an independent micronation that involved the ownership of his home as soon as he knew this did not formally belong to the United States and called it "Petoria". He became anti-American and proceeded to invite the leaders of several countries hostile to the United States (including Slobodan Milošević, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro and Ali Khamenei) over for a pool party and barbecue using his pool stolen from Joe's backyard after annexing it.
 * He attempts 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 look out the window to 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. By the end when Peter passed the third grade and was eligible for the promotion 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, talking down to 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 even 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 help get more readers as he believed the Mayor West story would put people to sleep.
 * There's even occasions where Peter forgets Meg; he once makes Brian bring up a man named Stan Thompson who they claim is Meg's real father.
 * Occasionally he and sometimes Lois were seen in cutaways trying to abandon Meg.
 * However, it is revealed this mistreatment was because he had been severely abused by Karen as a child. Upon realizing Karen's treatment transformed Peter into the man he was known for being (the direction of Peter's 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. A grateful Peter thanked Meg for her help, even genuinely apologizing and admitting he was stupid to take his pain out on her. Ever since then Peter starts to show some respect and care for Meg, even defending her from bullies.
 * Another person Peter abuses is Lois. He sometimes shows little to no respect towards her, ignores her and makes her do things against her will.
 * After a boxing match the announcer asked if any women wanted to fight and Peter forced Lois to enter the ring against Deirdre Jackson. After witnessing Lois beating Jackson he forces her to enter more matches so he can get rich by betting on them.
 * Peter ruthlessly insults Lois for gaining weight and becoming as fat as he was until he discovers fat sex. He then encourages her to gain weight which is even worse than him putting her down. He insists she get fatter and literally stuffs her face with cake. She gains so much weight that she has a heart attack and almost dies but that does not stop Peter from having sex anyway. He even tried to have sex with her body fat after it was surgically removed by Doctor Elmer Hartman.
 * Lois starts to feel insecure about getting older but during a surprise birthday party with everyone they knew Peter refers to her as a plow horse whose only use is menial labor and sex, something which sends Lois into a midlife crisis.
 * Peter learned about Stewie's interest in tormenting Lois; to bond with his youngest son they pulled deadly pranks such as smashing a glass jar of pickles on Lois' head, spraying her with a gardening hose causing her to to fall down the stairs and pushing her body into a lake nearly drowning her.
 * He convinces Lois to keep a job as a flight attendant which she hates due to uptight passengers only because he gets free flights.
 * Peter once wrote hate letters to his family though on that occasion 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 can play with his friends. This one moment nearly ruined their marriage, but with help from Death he managed to save their marriage.
 * He attempts to shoot her and Mort Goldman while imitating Amon Goeth when he learns she is Jewish.
 * He crosses the Moral Event Horizon when he threw an unconscious and possibly-deceased Stewie with heavily infected head wounds underneath Lois' car so she would run him over after weeks of no medical treatment just so she would not ask how Stewie got hurt.
 * Peter also abuses Chris, teasing his lower intelligence and equal weight despite these traits being possessed by him as well.
 * Peter pretended Chris was dying so he could save a cancelled TV show and after being confronted by the city claimed he cured Chris causing everyone to call him God which arouses the anger of the real God who plagues the Griffin House. Despite everyone demanding he tell the truth Peter refuses to until Chris almost dies. Peter would have crossed the Moral Event Horizon if he had not pleaded for forgiveness.
 * Peter made Chris lose a girlfriend by giving him bad advice about how to act while on a date.
 * Peter always thought that he's better that Chris in every way but when he found out Chris had a bigger "junk" Peter got jealous and tried to prove he has the bigger "junk", even unintentionally telling Lois that their "junk" was the reason he's trying to become the bigger man.
 * Peter and Chris try to lose weight and find out about liposuction. Chris refused to take the procedure but Peter takes liposuction to be skinnier. At first he was still interacting with and helping his son lose weight but when he used the liposuction to add muscle he began to forget Chris, especially when joining the Handsome Guys Clubs.
 * Peter attempted to ruin Chris' life by disguising himself and saying his son was gay because the Evil Monkey seemed to be more of a father figure than Peter. In that same episode before finding out the Evil Monkey was real Peter and Quagmire placed Chris' fingers into a bowl of water causing Chris to urinate while Quagmire punched him in the face before leaving.
 * Peter found out he was mentally retarded and also that no charges would be held against him if he did anything wrong, he decided to take advantage of the situation. He went into the ladies' room and kicked the doors open and destroyed some of Lois' plates after he finished dinner. When he went to a fast food restaurant he grabbed a fryolator and burned Lois. Because there was no mentally-sane adult his children had to live at Cleveland's house; Peter put seven prostitutes in there so he could get his kids back only to be put on trial for their custody which he lost.
 * Peter is angry after finding out Lois slept and was once in a relationship with Jerome who was supposed to Cleveland's replacement; he flies into a jealous rage, attempting to drive Jerome away by dressing up as a "ghost" and later spends the rest of the evening drinking. Stopping by Jerome's house Peter throws his bottle through a window and hits a lamp accidentally causing a fire which burns it down nearly killing Jerome while Peter failed to notify emergency services.
 * After Quagmire got a cat Peter, Joe, Cleveland and Brian sneak into his house and decide to shave it. Peter accidentally killed the cat though he was unconcerned about it and added further insult by stealing Quagmire's beer. At the end of the episode Quagmire asks where his cat is outside the Griffin household and before Peter slams the door he apathetically says "I killed your cat." Earlier Peter does 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 while thinking he will have no price to pay. How mistaken he is once the hoax passes without incident... and even Peter's heartfelt apology is fruitless as his children are still mad at their father; when Lois.
 * The Griffin family runs a restaurant but Peter refuses to allow Joe and his other cop friends in again because they are "gross cripples" to which they respond by forming a giant robot which attacks and destroys the restaurant causing the sign to fall on Peter breaking his legs. In a cutaway he said David Schwimmer's movies were awful behind his back which the actor heard from a distance anyway thanks to his elephant-like ears.
 * In "Stew-Roids" he put Stewie on steroids after he was beaten up by Joe's daughter Susie Swanson.
 * In "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" when he finds out that Chris was being bullied by Kyle he decided to go to Kyle's house to try 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. And being an adult he should've known better than to get angry at all. Later, 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 multiple sclerosis which led to him being physically disabled. But instead of feeling sorry for him Peter attempt to beat up Fulcher only to be beaten up by Chris. After being beaten Peter finally realized bullying is wrong and stopped trying to beat up Fulcher.
 * In "A Fistful of Meg" he continuously torments Brian with his nude body. He only stops when Brian shaves to reveal his bald appearance which he uses to scare Peter and convince him into putting his clothes back on.
 * In "The Juice is Loose" a cutaway reveals Peter accidentally murdered Peter Griffin Jr. (who was a baby at the time) by shaking him to make him stop crying. This seems like more of a misdeed since Peter did not mean it; however, it still seems shocking that he and Lois actually stayed together to conceive Stewie.
 * In "Peter Problems" he kills and eviscerates a beached whale with a forklift trying to get it back in the ocean. To add insult to injury, he then carefully and gently picks up a seashell with the same forklift and says "You're whale-come" to a horrified crowd.
 * It is shown Peter is holding a hairless twin hostage in his storm shed and feeding him garbage. He also murders who he thought was a bully of Chris and presents his severed head but as it turns 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 he received from the mail which was supposed to go to Quagmire.
 * It was revealed he pays off his shenanigans by frequently robbing a bank. After Meg accidentally killed the bank manager Peter told her to kill everyone else.
 * When Brian denied Peter's method of kicking and saying "Road House" to solve problems Peter beat him up and threw him out the window almost leading him to get run over. Also, while having dinner he and his family except Brian does things that will 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 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 Lois and Donna naked babies; however, Cleveland asked why Peter had pictures of them in suggestive positions and taken long before they made the plan. This indicates Peter may have been a pedophile at one point. After realizing this Peter burst into tears and admitted he had problems. 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 only Peter being protected by airbags; this attempt only further cemented the hostility between his and Cleveland's wives.
 * When drinking becomes banned for people under 50 he manipulates Brian into buying him alcohol because Brian is 56 in dog years. When a police officer catches him drunk he tells on Brian leaving him to do community service. Peter does not care about what he did to Brian and he still asks him to buy them alcohol when Brian is doing community service. Additionally, when Brian is doing community service he drinks alcohol, burps at him, litters and insults a glaring policeman making Peter do community service as well.
 * He got into an extremely long and violent fight with Homer Simpson that destroyed much of Springfield, killing and/or injuring many residents (although this may be non-canon).
 * Peter desperately tries to get Brian's old toy rope to the point when he ties the rope to his car and drives off in an attempt 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 uncaringly gives Brian the rope back having grown bored of it.
 * Peter gets drunk and ends up eating the Thanksgiving turkey with Brian. The two head out to find a replacement turkey. Through Peter's stupidity the two encounter bad luck and misfortune, most of which endangers Brian. When Brian cannot take anymore he yells at him to which Peter reveals Brian had nothing to do with eating the turkey and he just framed him, so he did not have to take all the blame. He furthered this insult by telling Brian that he's a dog and that he could throw him off a bridge, and unless it hits a person he is fine.
 * He presumably beats an innocent boy to death with a shovel because he thinks he's after the treasure. In the beginning of the episode he disgusts his family with putrid breath. Later he punches Chris giving him a black eye and causing Lois to bail on him; he later thought about holding her at gunpoint when they found the treasure.
 * He torments Quagmire and Joe for his own amusement after becoming richer than them, forcing them to perform while criticizing and BB gun-shooting them, one pellet blowing out Joe's eye forcing him to get a glass one. He tries to justify this by saying the money caused him to do it. He also defecated on Angela's desk after resigning.
 * He shot Cleveland's son Cleveland Brown Jr. in the arm and was arrested by Joe and charged with a hate crime. However, he did not mean to shoot Cleveland's son because while in the neighborhood watch it was dark and he thought Cleveland Jr. was trying to rob Cleveland's house; at the end Peter confessed he did something stupid and Cleveland "confessed" he shot his son in the arm.
 * He stole Nielsen boxes and ruined television causing everybody to hate him.
 * After he becomes annoyed with Chip he attempts to use a dingo to eat him. This fails and Chip realizes that Peter wants to kill him so he angrily leaves the house. But after Chip saves Peter when he falls into the basement and breaks his leg Peter is grateful and reconciles.
 * He and Lois forced Stewie to do a commercial which tired him and kept giving him drugs to keep him active and pressuring him to succeed as well as using Stewie's earned money they planned for his college fund for themselves instead.
 * Peter became a patriot and convinced his employer Angela to check workers if they were legitimate US citizens only to find out he was an immigrant after which he is fired. He started looking for a new job, cycling through many and a scene of his job as a nanny was shown. In it he fell through a skylight killing two children and showed no remorse, only being disgusted as he puked. After that he proceeded to push the corpses under the bed with his umbrella; in an earlier scene while a maid he entered a motel room even though the person inside specifically told him not to.
 * He shot Quagmire just to prove a hunting rifle was not in safety mode and revealed he lost a Huey Lewis CD in a game of poker making Quagmire end their friendship.
 * Once Peter returns from being lost on an island at sea he becomes distraught when he realized Brian married Lois. He then seduced Lois into having intercourse with him; while this could be considered less villainous since it was justifiable because they were previously married Peter still did not respect the marriage between Brian and Lois or Brian in general, secretly cheating behind Brian's back and when she attempts to explain that it is not right to do so Peter simply says he loves her more and Brian was simply a dog demeaning him as a pet instead of an actual, deserving husband.
 * He also became furious when he learned Quagmire also loved Lois. Unable to control his jealousy, he ignored Brian's suggestions of ignoring it and got into a fight with Quagmire. Later, still angry Peter flips Quagmire off when he moves away. He even blames Lois for Quagmire loving her.
 * He drove his car into a rich family's house and broke into the library where he decided to retell the stories of ', ' 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 Navy 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 bar he brought in a real bull which destroyed the bar and portrait of Jerome's mother who passed away resulting in Peter being attacked by Jerome 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's 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 too fast only to put his foot on the brake and send the horse crashing into Mort's pharmacy; his family was made pay the damages even though Peter alone was responsible.
 * Peter and Quagmire helped Mort burn down his own pharmacy to collect the insurance money since it was already falling apart after the death of Mort's wife Muriel Goldman alongside James Woods 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 no remorse or concern for the deceased people only paying attention to Mort's livelihood which had taken a further nosedive.

Trivia

 * In many respects Peter was similar to Homer Simpson 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. He helped others for personal gain and abused his family, notably Meg. He had at one point abused every other character in his vicinity.