3. Brian Griffin (Family Guy)
It's weird thinking that the death of a cartoon dog is somehow more shocking than those of an innocent wife murdered next to her infant son, but that's for a sociologist to debate. Brian was recently killed off in Family Guy, an unprecedented move for an extremely popular adult cartoon show, which has been running for well over a decade now. He was such a major character in the show that a great deal of episodes were centered around him, and his antics with Stewie in particular had become some of the most popular segments of the show with fans. Not to mention the sheer amount of merchandise his face appears on...or that his voice is simply creator Seth McFarlane's normal speaking voice. To the regular viewer, all this adds up to not a lot of sense when looking for an answer for why the character was killed off. It came completely out of the blue too, a simple car accident wiped out everyone's favourite white cartoon pooch who isn't Snoopy. It lead to one of the most touching scenes in the history of the show as Brian said his farewell to the family, which added to the surprise of the event, as Family Guy hadn't even attempted to be even the slightest bit teary for quite a few years at this point. Rumours about just why Brian was killed off seem to point to McFarlane's dislike for just how long his show has gone on for now, but has his hands tied in terms of cancelling it, as it still brings in a major audience. The removal of one of the most popular characters may help his cause there, if people stop watching because of this, but that all seems slightly farfetched. Either way, it's fair to say that not many of us saw that one coming.