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, afterwhich Ernie, who is seemingly dead, wakes up, foreshadowing their next encounter.
It's only funny the first few times.
Meg being generally abused by everyone around her in general is probably the longest running gag. In the newer seasons she does at least stand up for herself sometimes
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.
Peter is so mean to her
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.
This happens a lot
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 undecisive about the title of his book, thinking about what kind of plot he wants or being teased by the Griffins.
It's almost never funny.
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 is honestly an annoying one.
This gag is one of Family Guy's most diversed as it as 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 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 and 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 Newcomers
A gag which usually sees Peter kicking someone, or something, and then say "Roadhouse!" which is a reference to the movie of the same name.
This gag involves an evil looking monkey coming out of Chris' closet.
Random and unfunny.
Meh, that one is way too long. Peter always spends 1 full minute grabbing his knee.
This one always kills me