When Family Guy first hit the airwaves, far and away the funniest character on the show was Stewie Griffin. "The broccoli must die!" "Victory is mine!" and so on. Family Guy had their own version of Bart Simpson - and he was constantly trying to defeat, and possibly kill, his mother. It was dark humour. It was funny. It made the character stand out. In the early years, people would mention "the baby" even when they didn't really watch the show. Then something happened. Maybe it was a focused effort to move away from being a Simpsons/Flintstones clone, but the character of Stewie began to change. He was now flamboyant if not outright gay (not that there's anything wrong with that, said in a Seinfeld voice). He became more of a smart-ass, and catch phrases that hooked you were dropped in favour of tedious gags like poking fun at Brian for taking forever to write a novel. It might have been done in the name of character development, but in reality, it's a cartoon, and continuity is hit and miss. The show actually buried one of its funniest elements early on as a result of this chance, and really blew it when they did so. Stewie is still a fantastic character, but most of the time we're watching him, we're hoping for a glimpse of the Stewie of old (other than him just breaking out the time machine over and over). Fans got a sort of send-off with "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie" - but really, we still want the old Stewie back.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
