Stewie Griffin

Stewart "Stewie" Gilligan Griffin is a fictional character in the animated television series Family Guy. He is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, the brother of Meg and Chris Griffin, and the half-brother of Bertram. He is voiced by the creator of the show, Seth MacFarlane. Stewie Griffin is an example of a breakout character.

Personality

Stewie is extremely intelligent and speaks with an affected English accent. His Machiavellian ambitions include world domination and matricide. His personality and mannerisms have been compared by Seth MacFarlane to those of a Bond villain. In the commentary of one episode, MacFarlane reveals that Stewie's evil and selfish personality is a result of Lois smoking marijuana while pregnant with him, as is mentioned in a dream sequence in the episode "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington" (although another episode shows his personality as sinister even while existing as Peter's sperm).

Stewie's sophisticated attitude and mannerisms are juxtaposed with typical childish interests and drives. He reads literature such as Marlowe's Faust and Sun-Tzu, and cites pop culture references that date much farther back than his age would permit; however, he is also fascinated by Raffi and the Teletubbies. In the episode The Road to Europe he travels to the BBC in England, in order to meet Mother Maggie who is a presenter of a childrens television program. However, he also shows the traits of a loan shark, often beating up or chasing after those who do not return money to him.

Stewie succumbs to other weaknesses of children his age, such as when Lois subdues him by blowing on his stomach in "Emission Impossible". MacFarlane has stated that Stewie is meant to represent the general helplessness of an infant through the eyes of an adult.

Stewie's mastery of physics and mechanical engineering are at a science-fictional level. He constructs a laser, advanced fighter-jets, a mind control device, a weather control device, robots, and even a time machine. Stewie employs these to cope with the stresses of infant life (such as teething pain, and eating hated broccoli) and to kill Lois. He also seems to be perpetually carrying a firearm, either a lasergun or a conventional gun, which he whips out at various times when he feels threatened or wishes to make a threat. Stewie is seen carrying a laser gun but sometimes he carries real guns like the M3A1 Grease Gun, M14, M16A2, a shotgun, and probably his favorite pistol: the Beretta 92. In one case, he pulls out his Grease Gun and fires around 30 rounds into the ceiling because he was angry at his mother.

Relationships with other characters in the show

Stewie suffers an infantile dependence on Lois. To his constant vexation, Lois remains patiently dismissive of his abuse, and insusceptible to his repeated attempts on her life, matricide being Stewie's solution to the intolerable situation.

He almost never refers to his parents as "Mommy" or "Daddy", preferring to use the terms "Lois" and "the fat man". In an early episode when Peter does a favor for Stewie, he thanks Peter by assuring him "When the world is mine, your death will be quick and painless." Stewie does however bond with his mother and father in (respectively) "Stewie Loves Lois" and "The Courtship of Stewie's Father"; in both cases Stewie's attitude returns to loathing in subsequent episodes.

A peer rivalry exists between Stewie and family dog Brian, who often mocks and undermines Stewie. Despite this, Stewie seems to find a grudging affinity with the dog, possibly because he is the only other intellectual in the family. Brian is unwittingly the participant in several of Stewie's homosexual experimentations. The two are often paired for adventures, and in "Road to Rhode Island" , "Road to Europe", and "Road to Rupert", they go on Hope-Crosby-like adventures, complete with musical numbers.

Stewie wielding a ray gun.

Influences

Some elements of Stewie's personality come from British actor Sir Rex Harrison. MacFarlane has stated that My Fair Lady (starring Harrison) heavily influenced his portrayal of Stewie, and on The Late Show with David Letterman, described Stewie as "Rex Harrison in an infant's body". Family Guy has included several tributes to My Fair Lady, most notably in "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea" and "Running Mates".

His football shaped head is similar to other fictional characters such as Arnold from the cartoon "Hey Arnold!" and Jimmy Corrigan (the world's smartest boy) from the comic Acme Novelty Library whom Stewie superficially resembles being like Jimmy a highly intelligent baby who has a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. Stewie is frequently compared often unfavourably to Brain of Pinky and the Brain being a small but ingenious creature with a large head and a sophisticated accent who plots domination of the world. He is also vaguely reminiscent of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory being a small child with a very high intellect whose dreams of glory are frequently and often unintentionally foiled by a dim-witted female member of their family. In Dexter's case his hyperactive sister Dee Dee, In Stewie's case his mother, Lois.

Stewie is also similar to Hans Gruber of Die Hard and also Hannibal Lector due to his villainous, erudite personality, lithe menacing appearence, dark sense of humour and impecable sense of social refinement.

His effeminate mannerisms and personality as well as his cultured British accent are also reminiscent of Noel Coward who like Stewie occasionally smoked with a cigarette holder.

Communication with adults

MacFarlane has asserted he will never take a definite stand on whether Stewie can converse with adults. Whether the other characters understand him or not is left to the writers, who can decide which possibility is most appropriate for a given situation. In the episode of "E. Peterbus Unum", a student from the future, after watching the episode, is perplexed by Stewie asking, "Can the family understand the baby? What's up with that?" The question is never answered.

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Stewie with Brian, the only family member who takes him seriously.

Non-recurring adults often clearly understand the content of Stewie's speech. Brian is the only main character whose ability to understand Stewie is unambiguous; the two always converse "normally".

Despite this, in the DVD audio commentary for "E. Peterbus Unum", MacFarlane states that adults can understand Stewie, but don't take him seriously, "sort of like... if a 4-year-old who [could] talk told you to fuck off." This concept is supported by the other characters often looking at him as he speaks to them, as if to acknowledge him, but paying no mind to his often-ungracious addresses, such as calling Lois by her first name, or Peter "the fat man".

Ambiguous sexuality

There's always been a lot of tension between Lois and me, and it's not so much that I want to kill her, it's just I want her... not to be alive anymore. I sometimes wonder if all women are this difficult, and then I think to myself: my god, wouldn't it be marvelous if I turned out to be a homosexual?
— Stewie's video camera confessional from "Fifteen Minutes of Shame"

When the writers began to flesh out Stewie beyond being a generic evil genius in season two, MacFarlane and the writers began to explore the infant's sexuality with a series of one-off gags which hinted that Stewie could be gay. On the commentary of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, the writers describe how they were going to make Stewie discover he was gay, but decided to go "another way." His personality, which is often rather theatrical and effeminate, easily lent itself to such speculation.

In "Saving Private Brian" and "Patriot Games" Stewie reacts with spontaneous enthusiasm to (brief) homosexual encounters, and in "Chick Cancer" he wishes men could "get together with their buddies, and just have it be the same thing as being with a woman". Disguised in feminine clothing, Stewie is entranced by a same-sex kiss in "Deep Throats".

Series creator Seth MacFarlane planned for the series' third season to end with Stewie coming out of the closet after a near-death experience. However, the show's abrupt cancellation caused MacFarlane to abort these plans. Since that point, MacFarlane has opted to have Stewie portrayed as sexually-ambiguous, since, in his eyes, the flexibility of Stewie's sexuality allows for much more freedom in terms of writing for the character.

It should be noted that Stewie has had many liaisons and attractions to women as well, notably in "Dammit Janet", where Stewie falls in love with a day-care moocher named Janet, and "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", where Stewie falls for his babysitter. Stewie becomes sexually aroused watching cheerleaders in "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?".

In any case, Stewie is frequently shown to have very little understanding of sex at all while on others he seems to know a great deal of it and on more than one occasion it has been implied that he runs a brothel. Possibly at the beginning of the series he knows very little of sex then as the series progresses he learns more and more about it.

Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

Main article: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

On September 27th, 2005, 20th Century Fox released a direct-to-video movie featuring Stewie as the main character, titled Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The movie follows Stewie's cross-country adventures as he searches for a man he believes to be his real father after seeing him on a television news segment.

The movie was re-edited into 3 half-hour segments and shown as the season finale on May 21st, 2006.

Trivia

• In an apparent gaffe, Stewie is shown to have a full set of teeth throughout most of the show, despite being shown to have only two (an incisor and a bicuspid) in the episode "Mind Over Murder." A similar glitch can be noted regarding his distinctive American football-shaped head: when Stewie is born, he already has the squashed shaped head. Stewie has also stated to Lois that she must have been Wonder Woman to give birth to a baby with a head his size. But in Stuck Together, Torn Apart, it shows that Stewie flattened his head by hitting it on the ceiling while jumping on a bed.
• In the episode "Death is a Bitch" Stewie tells Death his e-mail address loismustdie@yahoo.com, which, incidentially, was a real working e-mail address. It belonged to the staff at Family Guy and was an outlet for fans to communicate with the show. The current email address is loismustdie@damnyouall.com, www.damnyouall.net being the official Family Guy and American Dad forum.
• In the pilot episode, Stewie wears a purple shirt and green dungarees.
• In the episode "Prick Up Your Ears", Brian confesses to him the truth about the Tooth Fairy and to prove his true identity, he says that Stewie's middle name is Gilligan.
• In the Family Guy movie, "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", Stewie is referred to as being 5 years of age.

Other appearances

• Stewie appeared in a short clip on the 20th annual MTV Video Music Awards dissing rapper 50 Cent, which has become a viral video circulating on numerous online services. Stewie, with blocks spelling out "MTV", Rupert and a baby toy in the background, reads some words from the song Wanksta in a comical voice, then commenting: "Well, good luck finding the subject and predicate of that run-on sentence! And what the bloody hell does it mean, "we don't go nowhere without toast"? Now, you listen to me, Mr Cent. If you want to make it in this business, lay off the doobie!". He then pulls out a hitherto concealed sign reading "Stewie for Governor".
• Stewie's face, on a stick, can be seen in the background of the Tony Kornheiser Michael Wilbon ESPN talk show, Pardon the Interruption.
• On a bonus DVD segment for the Family Guy Soundtrack, Stewie performs a rap/R&B song called "Sexy Party."
• During the 2006 Canadian Election Royal Canadian Air Farce ran their own election with Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton (all leaders of the major parties that election), Jim Harris (whose Green Party, while still minor, was gaining public attention), and "Stewie from Family Guy." Stewie ended up winning by an overwhelming majority of votes.
• Stewie has appeared on the MSNBC news program Countdown with Keith Olbermann, often introducing (or regressing) news stories regarding Bill O'Reilly. On the May 24th show, he introduced O'Reilly as Worst Person in the World (a regular Olbermann segment) on the program. Stewie said, "Oh, wait, Bill, hold still. Allow me to soil myself on you. Victory is mine!" This has been shortened to just "Today's Worst Person in the World." Stewie announced June 1 "Countdown presents: 'Factor Fiction', wherein we expose that bastard Bill O'Reilly lying again." He then repeated what he had said above. This has become the norm on O'Reilly segments most of the time. Recently, on June 5th, he introduced "Breaking News" about TomKat/American Idol by saying "Oh here we go. Probably some story about Britney Spears or, knowing Keith, some baseball card."
• Stewie has also appeared on the unaired short of My Name Is Earl called Bad Karma, in which he influences Earl to get even with everyone who's wronged him. Earl watches him on TV instead of Carson Daly. This short appears on the My Name Is Earl Season 1 DVD.
• Stewie was an announcer of the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards.

References

• S. Callaghan Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide : Seasons 1 - 3 New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2005
• A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 4" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 3.January 2006: 11, 13, 14, 18, 21, 22, 24, 26 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs03Ja.pdf

External links

• Family Guy at IMDb
• Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story at IMDb
• TurnInto How to dress up as Stewie Griffin for Halloween
• Stewie Shrine