For Meg, Family Guy’s characters are never shy about expressing their disdain for the character — but why does everyone hate Meg? From the very start, Meg was unwanted by her parents who tried to abandon her at a fire station as a baby. At school, she is bullied by her peers, and the abuse continues at home. Her family often tries to avoid her, taking very little interest in her life and tiptoeing around her so as not to be noticed when she is in the room. Even her stuffed animals run away from her and Sunshine Bear jumps in front of a truck to avoid living with her.
Peter Griffin should probably be in prison for the mistreatment of his daughter, and how the rest of the Griffin family actively abuses Meg isn’t much better. Peter often kicks her out of the house, throws things at her, and farts in her face. Peter even sold Meg to the Goldman family, and once asked God to remove her from existence. Lois also bullies Meg by washing her clothes with baby Stewie’s diapers and even sleeps with her boyfriend. While the rest of the family doesn’t mistreat Meg quite as much as her parents, they avoid her, mock her appearance, and verbally abuse her. But, why does everyone hate Meg?
There’s No Real Reason Everyone Hates Meg
As Family Guy employs dark humor, Meg’s abuse is for comic effect — used for jokes that are incredibly dark in tone even for Family Guy. Meg doesn’t usually deserve the vitriol hurled in her direction. What makes it so funny is how extreme and undeserved it becomes. Family Guy is a humor of extremes — as evidenced by Peter’s ongoing feud and ever-longer fights with Quahog’s resident human-sized chicken. The Meg hate is no exception. Why does everyone hate Meg? Because hating Meg is hard-baked into the Family Guy universe. Were Meg a real person, it would of course be abhorrent, but real-life morality doesn’t apply in Quahog.
While extremely dark for a running gag, the treatment of Meg is a little deeper than other Family Guy staples. The constant Family Guy Meg-hating makes her a relatable outsider in a family that doesn’t know how to communicate. All she wants is to fit in and receive affection, which is absent in her life. She even goes so far as to make predatory attempts to enter into romantic relationships with a criminal, a dead body, talking dog Brian Griffin, police officer Joe Swanson, and renowned creep Quagmire. The dark comedy surrounding the Meg Family Guy arc gets darker, as years of unmerited abuse make her a psychotic killer who eventually murders for fun.
Why “Shut Up Meg” Is So Funny Despite Being Hateful
So, why is everyone always saying “Shut up Meg!”? The answer to why does everyone hate Meg is never explained, but the “hating Meg” joke is primarily funny because she is such a relatable character for most of the series, and she was designed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as such. Everyone who ever felt like an outsider or felt like people were mean to them for no good reason can empathize with Meg from Family Guy and feel sorry for her. Even her character design is remarkably normal within the Family Guy universe, making her abuse all the more absurd.
As a teenager who is initially more normal than the rest of her family, Meg simply doesn’t fit in. The other characters probably avoid speaking to her and are mean to her as they have little in common with her and simply don’t know what to say. This is especially true for Peter Griffin, who shares almost no common interests with his daughter, preferring the company of his son Chris. It is also hinted that Peter’s hatred of Meg might partially stem from the fact he is not her father. In several episodes, it is insinuated that Meg’s Family Guy twist is that she might be the daughter of an unknown character named Stan Thompson.
Why does everyone hate Meg? Family Guy may never tell, but with all the hate Meg receives, it isn’t surprising that “Shut up Meg” became one of the most iconic one-liners in Family Guy. Time and time again, the poor teenager has her self-esteem worn down by those she loves most, leading to her unhealthy relationships and murderous tendencies. Unwanted and misunderstood, Meg is essentially the black sheep of the family. Her teenage desperation to fit in makes her relatable, while her traumatic experiences cause viewers to sympathize with her.
Mila Kunis Gets “Shut Up Meg” All The Time In Real Life
Meg Family Guy voice actor Mila Kunis confirmed on The Graham Norton Show that she constantly hears “Shut up Meg!” from passers-by in reference to the cast’s catchphrase. Though this seems harsh, Kunis is generally a good sport about it and seems to find it funny, as the audiences that shout catchphrases at her — as uncouth as it sounds — are typically only expressing their love for the show and Meg Griffin.
Indeed, despite the terrible treatment Meg gets, Kunis has had no problems playing the character and has even stuck with the show even though Family Guy keeps getting shunned by the Emmys. While the show still has no Emmy Awards, the fact that Family Guy catchphrases have become common in the real world is indicative of the true impact that Mila Kunis and the other actors in the cast have made on the viewers.
Meg Is Slyly The Funniest Family Guy Character
While “Shut up Meg!” may forever be ringing in audiences’ ears when it comes to Meg from Family Guy, she’s secretly the funniest character on the show. Meg remains one of Family Guy’s funniest characters for two reasons. First, she’s the most down-to-earth character in the series. If anyone in Family Guy can be considered relatable, it’s definitely Meg. All of her storylines are usually within the realm of reason, and until her psychotic killer arc, she was just a typical unpopular high school girl. Meg is able to be a balance for the rest of the characters’ wild antics, like Stewie’s time travel, and usually has something funny to say about her family.
Secondly, Meg is often the voice of reason in the Griffin family. When Brian fails to be the voice of reason, in steps Meg. Meg was never one to go along with her family’s outrageous schemes, usually remarking how stupid everything was along the way. So, while everyone on Family Guy hates Meg, she’s secretly an integral character to the show and generally has some of the best one-liners. Episodes like season 5’s “Barely Legal,” wherein Meg becomes infatuated with Brian, or season 8’s “Dial Meg For Murder” which saw her go to prison, are some of Family Guy’s funniest and most memorable classic episodes
When Did The Everyone Hates Meg Joke Begin?
Why does everyone hate Meg? It started from almost the beginning of the series, although it was never as pronounced in the earlier seasons. The abuse was not as harsh in the early seasons, as it was mostly Peter and kids at school making fun of Meg for being boring. In those seasons, she was much more dull than her family, but that is just because she was normal, and they were all over-the-top and ridiculous creations. However, things really got bad starting in season 4 when the cruel jokes about her appearance started.
The very first instance of Meg abuse came in the very first episode of season 1, “Death Has a Shadow.” In this episode, Peter grounded Meg for daring to touch the thermostat, and then when she tried to get collagen lip injections, and it deformed her face, her mom just said she deserved it and refused to help her get it fixed. From there, things just got worse as time went on. In “I Never Met Mr. Daddy,” the show’s second episode, Peter told Meg that her birth was a disappointment, and then later in that same episode, her teachers and fellow students all bullied her at school, showing how bad her life really was.
In season 4, things got worse from the start. In the fourth episode, “Don’t Make Me Over,” a boy rejected a date from Meg, saying she was ugly. This caused her dad to say the kid seemed smart and Meg probably was ugly. Peter even tells Chris to burn all Meg’s old photos in that episode. In “Petarded,” the show hints that Meg’s dad was not Peter and that her real dad abandoned her. With 21 seasons and running, the Meg hate remains one of the longest-running gags in Family Guy history, even if it is one of the darkest jokes on the show.