Family Guy: A series packed with Easter Eggs.

When I watch Family Guy, it's not just because I love the humor…that is obvious (at least to me). But what Family Guy excels in is that it is ripe full of inside jokes, Easter Eggs, and surprises presented in a very fast paced storytelling format.

Some episodes are themselves mocks of other works (Blue Harvest, Something Something Something Darkside, and It's a Trap! mocking the Star Wars universe), but even within those episodes there are plenty of Easter Eggs that are to be found.

Some Easter Eggs are overt. A prime example is in Season 3, Episode 19 "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", the character Peter looks for his black book in his attic using the same sunlight-through-a-relic-at-the-end-of-a-standing-staff technique that Indiana Jones uses in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Family Guy - Stuck Together, Torn Apart

But the real treasure is finding the very subtle Easter Eggs…things that are so hidden that it takes a few views to actually get. One of these is in the Season 9, Episode 9 "And I'm Joyce Kinney". After smearing the character Lois Griffin on television, she later reveals herself as Joycie Chevapravatdumrong (said only once in the show). The last name was actually taken from the actual Executive Story Editor/Co-Producer of the show: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong. 

Family Guy - And I'm Joyce Kinney

Season 4, Episode 10 "Model Misbehavior" has a very quick Easter Egg that shows up at the end of the boat race and a graphic of the newspaper showing the Griffin family winning the race. If you pause the show, you can see a headline on the bottom right corner, "DVDS PAUSED FOR HEADLINE JOKE -- MILLIONS DISSAPOINTED" 

Family Guy - Model Misbehavior

So whether your'e a fan of the show or not, take Family Guy for a(nother) spin, only this time look for all the Easter Eggs strewn about the show. It's a fun exercise in observation and you'll find there's a lot more than you thought. 

Happy Hunting!