Top 10 Family Guy Running Gags
This gag sees Ernie the Giant Chicken show up in the middle of a random scene involving Peter. The two then engage in a long (and very entertaining) fight, which Peter always ends up winning. After which, Ernie, who is seemingly dead, wakes up, foreshadowing their next encounter.
A gag in which the front of Cleveland Brown's house is destroyed while the character is taking a bath, which steadily tilts and slides off onto the ground below.
Meg Griffin is often the butt of the joke on the show, and the rest of the Griffin family often tell her to shut up, ignore her, fart on her, or do anything to humiliate her.
Meg being generally abused by everyone around her is probably the longest-running gag. In the newer seasons, she does at least stand up for herself sometimes.
Quagmire often says "Giggity" when he's aroused by the sight of a beautiful woman, and "Giggity giggity goo!" when he's really aroused. This gag was used very creatively over the years.
This has been a constant throughout the series. Even his children say it.
Quagmire is the best part of the show for me. Too bad they toned him down.
This gag isn't used anymore in the newer seasons, but in the first few seasons, Stewie was always conceiving complex plans in order to see his mom meet her demise.
Peter Griffin is a huge fan of the song "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen. Every time this song starts playing, Peter dances similarly to how the singer dances in the song's music video.
Classic gag, the episode about it was hilarious.
The entire point of this gag is that Brian is a crappy writer. Brian can be seen trying to write a book in a Starbucks, being indecisive about the title of his book, thinking about what kind of plot he wants, or being teased by the Griffins.
A gag which usually sees Peter kicking someone or something, and then saying "Roadhouse!" which is a reference to the movie of the same name.
This gag is one of Family Guy's most diversified as it has almost never been used the same way twice. The initial incarnation of this gag saw a courtroom progressively go "Oh, no!" inciting the iconic Kool-Aid Man to break through the wall and say "Oh yeah!".
This gag involves an evil-looking monkey coming out of Chris' closet.