|
STEWIE GRIFFIN
Stewart Gilligan Griffin is a fictional character in the animated television series Family Guy. He is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin. He is 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.[2]
[edit] Personality
Stewie is extremely intelligent and speaks with an affected English accent. His Machiavellian ambitions not only include world domination, but matricide. In the commentary of one episode, MacFarlane reveals that Stewie's evil personality is a result of Lois smoking marijuana while pregnant with him. Lois also mentions this to Stewie in a dream of hers in "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington."
Stewie has a sophisticated style, attitude and mannerisms, juxtaposed with typical childish interests. He enjoys literature such as Marlowe's Faust, Machiavelli, and Sun-Tzu (the latter two he read for advice on world domination). He cites pop culture references that date much farther back than his age would permit; however he has also shown an affinity for children's singer Raffi and has a hypnotic attraction to the Teletubbies. Stewie also succumbs to other failings of children his age: in "Emission Impossible", Lois subdues Stewie by blowing on his stomach. At one point Peter convinces Stewie that he has vanished into thin air by playing peek-a-boo with him. MacFarlane has stated that Stewie is meant to represent the general helplessness of an infant through the eyes of an adult. Consequently, his longing to conquer the world is based upon his desire for control over his own life.
Stewie is a scientific genius, apparently able to master physics and mechanical engineering, as well as construct a bewildering variety of machines including lasers, advanced fighter-jets, mind control devices, weather-control devices, robots, and even time machines. He frequently uses these devices to cope with the stresses of infant life (such as the pain from teething and his hatred of broccoli), to kill Lois, or for other purposes, such as destroying all of the sperm in Peter's body so he will not have to compete with another baby.
[edit] Relationships with other characters in the show
He has a complicated love-hate relationship with his mother. Even as he grudgingly acknowledges his dependence upon her, he reasons that matricide will free him of his present circumstances, which he finds intolerable. He often fantasizes of a world without Lois (in "Emission Impossible", he imagines her as a floor rug.) Stewie knows that because he is a toddler he would never be suspected should he successfully kill Lois; however this also means no adults take his plots seriously, and, to his constant vexation, Lois remains blissfully dismissive of his repeated attempts on her life. Stewie fails to realize that, if he did indeed kill Lois he would likely end up in foster care as revealed in "Petarded" when a judge rules the only reason the children can still live with Peter is because of Lois' presence. He does, however, suffer from a drug-like addiction to Lois' breast milk. In the episode "Stewie Loves Lois", after Lois fixes Rupert (his teddy bear) after a dog rips him apart, Stewie becomes enamored with her, up to the point where he drives Lois into having homicidal thoughts about her baby.
In general, Stewie has a strange relationship with both his parents. He almost never refers to his parents as "Mommy" or "Daddy", preferring to use the terms "Lois" and "the fat man". In one early episode when Peter accidentally does a favor for Stewie, he thanks Peter by assuring him that "When the world is mine, your death will be quick and painless." In the episode 'The Courtship of Stewie's Father', the boys bond, though Stewie's subsequent behavior towards Peter appears no different than it was earlier in the series.
He also has a love-hate relationship with Brian; while he often jeers at him and seeks to undermine and mock him at every turn, he seems to find a grudging affinity with him, possibly because he is the only other intellectual in the family. Stewie's attraction to Brian may go yet deeper: when the two kiss incognito during the episode Deep Throats, Stewie seems to fall for the dog, saying 'Hey listen, freakin' shot in the dark: you wanna do something sometime?', and at one point calls Brian 'sexy', while drunk (Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story). In another episode, he asks Brian to spit on him in a SDM thing during a heat wave. The two even go on Hope-Crosby-like adventures, complete with musical numbers.
[edit] Influences
Many elements of Stewie's personality come from British actor Sir Rex Harrison. MacFarlane has stated that My Fair Lady (starring Harrison), a play based on George Bernard Shaw's screenplay Pygmallion, heavily influenced his portrayal of Stewie. During a recent interview on The Late Show with David Letterman, he described Stewie as "Rex Harrison in an infant's body," and has included several tributes to My Fair Lady in Family Guy, most notably in "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea". The episode features a subplot in which Stewie bets Brian that he can train a female Cockney-speaking toddler to act like a proper lady, echoing the plot of My Fair Lady. Another tribute was in the episode "Running Mates", where Stewie sings "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" when he misses his mother.
[edit] Communication with adults
MacFarlane has asserted that he and his staff 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.
Brian is the only character whose ability to understand Stewie is unambiguous; the two generally converse "normally." In one instance, they are apparently able to hear each other's thoughts, in Running Mates.
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, although paying no mind to his often-ungracious addresses, such as calling Lois by her first name (although a few times over the course of the series, he has referred to her as "mother"), referring to Peter as "the fat man", Brian as "dog" or on occasion "Dogbert", but most of the time simply calls him Brian, and Chris and Meg as simply "you there".
Non-recurring adults often clearly understand the content of Stewie's speech. In Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story the other characters, including "Stu", can understand him. Though this may simply be true because "Stu" is Stewie's future self.
At the end of the episode "E. Peterbus Unum", there is a self-referential joke relating to this issue. The scene features a class in the distant future watching a "historical" video of events from the episode presented to them and a student asking, "So... can the family understand the baby or what's the deal with that?"
In the episode "Untitled Griffin Family History", when discussing about The Godfather, it appears that, at least Lois, understands him as she says "I agree with Stewie".
[edit] Ambiguous sexuality
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, and the fact his voice could be interpreted as a Quivering Lisp, easily lent itself to such speculation. The shift began in the episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", when Stewie gives the following video camera confessional, parodying MTV's The Real World show: "There's always been a lot of tension between me and Lois. It's not that I want to kill her, it's just that I want her... not to be alive anymore. I sometimes wonder if all women are like this, and then I think to myself: my god, wouldn't it be marvelous if I turned out to be a homosexual?" In the 2006 episode, "Saving Private Brian" he and Brian try to act gay to get out of the army by making out. Although it was all a plan, when a soldier asks if there was room for one more, Stewie exclaims, "Hell yeah!" followed by Brian slapping him in the face. Also in the season four episode Deep Throats Brian and Stewie spy on Meg and Adam West, Stewie is dressed as a woman and Brian as a gentleman, when Meg and Adam pass them they kiss so that they aren't spotted, then Brian leaves telling Stewie to follow him but Stewie is still in the position of when they had the kiss. Stewie comes out of this trance and says to Brian, "freakin' shot in the dark here, you wanna do something sometime?". Another possible indication is that during the episode "Patriot Games", after Lois and Meg create a small hole in Stewie's bedroom wall, which enables them to watch football player Tom Brady take a shower, Stewie looks through the wall and yells "Bing Bong, Hello!".
During the episode Chick Cancer, Stewie "marries" his old friend Olivia in a difficult, self-described "sexless marriage" (although Stewie is unsure of what sex really is, guessing that it is "a kind of cake"). After discovering she was with another child, Stewie burns their fake house down, with Olivia and the kid still in it although the episode doesn't reveal whether they died or not. Later on, Stewie tells Brian that he wishes men could "get together with their buddies, and just have it be the same thing as being with a woman, only the man just being with one of their buddies". When Brian tells Stewie that is the actual meaning of gay, Stewie says "Wow, I could totally get into that".
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 (however, it seems that this carried over to the alien, Roger, from American Dad!).
It should be noted, however, that Stewie has had many liaisons and attractions to women as well. In "Dammit Janet", Stewie falls in love with a day-care moocher named Janet, who only wanted his cookies. After being flung into a female infant's stroller in "Lethal Weapons", Stewie notes, "I smell a dirty diaper!", after which he remarks, "God, why does that turn me on?". In "Mr. Saturday Knight", at Mr. Weed's funeral, Stewie looks at some of the baby girls and points at them and says, "I'd do her, do her, wouldn't do her, oh, who hasn't done her. I'd do her. Lose the pigtails and we'll talk. I'd do her..." In "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Stewie falls for his babysitter, Liddane, and possibly even murders (though unintentionally) a rival suitor for her affections. However, after his love goes unrequited, he exacts a nasty revenge by making her look like a drug addict and alcoholic and getting her fired. He also spies on some cheerleaders getting changed and he utters the line, "Goodness, it seems my peepee has been stricken with Rigor Mortis." in "Sibling Rivalry" when Stewie takes over the playground it shows he has a trophy girlfriend. A few of his cutaways (that revolve around his future) show him being married.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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."
- 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.
- In recent episodes, he has become less focused on taking over the world and killing Lois. He seems to now be more focused on things that happen to him.
- In the pilot episode, Stewie wears a purple shirt and green dungarees.
[edit] 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".
- On a bonus DVD segment for the Family Guy Soundtrack, Stewie performs a rap/R&B song called "Sexy Party".
- 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 pilot of My Name Is Earl, in which he influences Earl to get even with everyone who's wronged him.
- Stewie was an announcer of the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards.
[edit] References
- ^ Stewie's hair is brown in future-set episode Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure
- ^ Nathan Rabin (2005-01-26). Seth MacFarlane. The A.V. Club.
- 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
[edit] External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
|