By Jadyn Buccilli
Staff Writer
The humor of our generation, known as Gen Z, is heavily influenced by popular media. Whether it is a segment of a popular song, or a clip from an anime, pop culture seems to be more relevant than ever when it comes to today’s memes. “Family Guy,” the adult animated comedy series, has recently had various clips go viral on TikTok and Instagram Reels, and I feel like it is the show with some of the most influential memes of our time.
The show is known for referencing pop culture in every episode, similar to “South Park” and “The Simpsons.” Recently, a “Family Guy” clip has gone viral of movie star Robert Loggia at an airport desk, spelling out his name.
Each letter he spells is an acronym for something that has to do with himself, saying things like, “R, as in Robert Loggia, O, as in ‘Oh my god, it’s Robert Loggia!” This scene goes on for a while, before Peter Griffin finally sighs in annoyance, ending the cutaway gag.
While this clip is the current craze when it comes to the television show, this is not the first time a pop culture reference from “Family Guy” has gone viral. A couple of years ago, a clip of Mr. Pewterschmitt pretending to be Jay Kay from Jamiroquai, a 1990s jazz and funk band in the famous “Virtual Insanity” music video, went viral.
The lyrics were changed to say, “Dancing, walking, rearranging furniture,” while all of the furniture in Pewtershmitt’s living room began to move around just like how Kay moves in his music video.
While these two clips don't have many similarities, they both are inspired by pre-existing pop culture celebrities. People who may not have seen Jamiroquai’s music video or have seen any movies with Robert Loggia in them have suddenly learned about them through these clips, even though they are satire. That is the beauty of “Family Guy.” It takes things that people may already be familiar with and keeps them alive through their funny clips.
Some of the funny moments that people have been reposting from the show do not even take inspiration from anything that already exists. Sneakers O’Toole is a character seen on one of the show’s cutaway gags, and his song has been frequently quoted and referenced by people on social media. Brian Griffin has also had his fair share of meme worthy moments, such as him eating chocolate, or him yelling at a screaming baby.
If I were to name every single time that Family Guy had a clip that went viral, the list would go on for a very long time. The show is so influential that it even has a parody song.
Based on “wifiskeleton” and “i wanna be a jack-o-lantern’s” song “Nope your too late i already died,” a viral parody featuring lyrics from various adult cartoon dads such as Griffin, was created, named “If You See Me Out In Quahog.”
The show has personally affected my humor since I began to see clips show up on my social media feeds, and I notice the people around me referencing it all the time. It could be something so simple, like saying “Peetah” in Lois’s voice, but I feel like many people do this without realizing just how much the show influences our humor.
As I said before, a ton of the memes from our generation come from different pieces of media, but “Family Guy” in particular has had so many iconic moments from the show turned into something plastered all over social media. The clips that I mentioned were not the first memes that were taken from the show, and I highly doubt that they will be the last, and I am personally fine with that realization. “Family Guy” is a great show, and I am glad that there are so many moments in it that are worth rewatching and quoting. I just hope that more people realize the show’s true influence, and continue to spread the humor around.
