The series focuses on an eccentric motley crew that is the Smith family and their three housemates: Father, husband, and breadwinner Stan Smith; his better half housewife, Francine Smith; their college-aged daughter, Hayley Smith; and their high-school-aged son, Steve Smith. Outside of the Smith family, there are three additional main characters, including Hayley's boyfriend turned husband, Jeff Fischer; the family's man-in-a-goldfish-body pet, Klaus; and most notably the family's zany alien, Roger, who is "full of masquerades, brazenness, and shocking antics."
This tv show contains 97 potentially triggering events.
In "Pilot", Stan accidentally shoots a dog. In "Finances With Wolves", a wolf brutally murders a puppy. In "Season's Beatings", a blind man's guide dog is killed. In "Stan's Best Friend", Stan is forced to shoot his dog in a flashback and has to put a dog down in the present day.
In the Hot Tub episode--meant to be a series finale if the next episode wasn't picked up--the possessed time machine kills everyone. The final shot is of Stan bleeding out on the front lawn before Cee-Lo Green says bye to everyone.
Spread over every season, each member of the Smith family has hit or attacked another member for some reason or another.
In "Rough Trade," it doesn't happen but circumstances make it appear like Stan is beating Francine--she actually does walk into a door and give herself a black eye, and Stan (drunk because he switched lives with Roger) doesn't help with his explanation. Later, while Francine trips on a mop and hurts herself again pursuing Stan, the cops behind her walk in and she sheepishly says, "I deserve it for leaving the mop out."
In "Can I Be Frank (With You)?", Stan beats up Francine because she's wearing a hyperrealistic costume and he thinks she's a man who killed his wife. When the truth comes out, they hug with Francine still really dinged up--a passerby is threatened into not calling the police, leading to a kind of gross "If you see something, mind your own damn business" message. Not implied either, the message is narrated.
I'm rewatching the show in 2024 and there's SO many animal abuse jokes. Beating up animals, killing them off screen. In S4E6 Stan mentions Hayley killed a pregnant hamster. Another plotline in that episode is based around the cruelty of the egg industry.
Season 4 episode 12: Francine, Stan and Roger find Stan's mum hung (she survives) Season 17, episode 5: after Klaus has a small performance with rope, Rogu does a performance where he hangs himself (they applaud)
The A plot of "Surro-Gate" sees Stan kidnapping a baby so that he can take her away from gay parents to be raised in a state where gay marriage is still illegal (the episode aired in 2007)
In "With Friends like Steve's" Stan and Barry destroy a child's teddy bear, in "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" Stan destroys Steve's plane. I will update as time goes by
S1
Ep 4 (Francine's Flashback) 19:58 and 20:05 and 20:10 and 20:44 Francine v* when she is drunk, only audio
Ep 7 (Deacon Stan, Jesus Man) 7:46 to 7:51 the family v* v* when Roger reveals the potato salad recipe and 14:08 Steve gets pregnant and he v* and 20:48 Stan v*
S2
Ep 7 (Stannie Get Your Gun) 18:21 Haley v* in the trash, only audio
Ep 10 (Rough Trade) 4:33 Stan is drunk and he v*, only audio. And 5:31 Stan is drunk and he v* on a cop
Ep 12 (It's Good to Be Queen) 2:01 Jackson coughs up his heart, not really v* but it can trigger
Ep 14 (Helping Handis) 4:53 Steve v* water
Ep 15 (With Friends Like Steve's) 15:50 the girl is drunk and she v*
S3
Ep 1 (Camp Refoogee) 16:05 Steve v* during the race
Ep 2 (The American Dad After School Special) 15:58 Stan makes himself v* in the toilet, only audio
Ep 5 (Dungeons and Wagons) 18:26 video game monster v* a snake
Ep 9 (The Best Christmas Story Never Told) 0:51 Roger is asleep drunk and there is v* around. Visual only
Ep 12 (A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial) 4:39 during a flashback of Steve and Roger playing together, Roger v*
Ep 18 (The Magnificent Steven) 13:11 a man v*
S4
Ep 3 (Dope & Faith) 15:31 to 15:38 and 15:44 to 16:02 Stan poisons customers at his friend's restaurant and they v*
Ep 9 (Frannie 911) 16:48 to 16:54 Roger is s*ck while he is doing the chores and he v* in the gutter (it's quite triggering because the v* comes back in his mouth and he v* a second time)
Ep 16 (Spring Breakup) 7:56 a drunk guy v* in the pool during spring break
S5
Ep 6 (Pulling Double Booty) (8:28 Francine v* only audio and 8:46 Francine v* only audio and 9:59 Francine v* on the beach and 10:34 Francine v* on the beach
Ep 12 (Roy Roger McFreely) 6:59 to 7:05 Stan v* after eating spicy food only audio
Ep 17 (Every Which Way But Lose) 11:37 Roger is drunk and he v* on the soccer field
Ep 18 (Weiner of Our Discontent) 2:12 Roger spit chocolate, no v* but it can triggering. And 19:29 a dog v* after being poisoned
S6
Ep 3 (Home Adrone) 9:38 et 9:40 on the plane, Roger is in withdrawal and he v* in a plastic bag only audio
Ep 4 (Brains, Brains and Automobiles) 15:43 Klaus is drunk and he v*
Ep 6 (Shallow Vows) 8:24 Francine run and he v*
Ep 10 (Don't Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth) 20:23 to 20:30 Roger makes himself v* during the horse race
Ep 14 (Cops And Roger) 9:44 to 9:50 the girl v* on the cinema, only audio
Ep 18 (Great Space Roaster) 20:54 at the very end, Roger spits scorpions, he does not v* but it can trigger
S7
Ep 5 (White Rice) 13:32 Francine v* when she is on stage
Ep 10 (Stanny Boy and Frantastic) (9:43 Francine is hungover and she v* 10:33 Stan is hungover and he v*
Ep 12 (You Debt Your Life) 1:37 Roger is drunk and he v* and 5:00 there is a photo of Roger v* on a cake, audio only
Ep 13 (I Am the Walrus) 16:52 the drunk girl v*
Ep 17 (Home Wrecker) 15:37 Francine watches a documentary and Stan v*
Ep 18 (Flirting With Disaster) 16:08 the woman v* and 18:24 Roger is asleep drunk and there is v* around. Visual only
Ep 19 (Gorillas in the Mist) 5:54 the child v* and 9:26 Steve is hungover and he v*.
S8
Ep 4 (The Worst Stan) 1:07 Stan v*
Ep 5 (Virtual In-Stanity) 6:32 the young man v*
Ep 7 (Season's Beatings) 0:55 to 0:58 the mouse v* blood and 21:03 to 21:13 Nemo v*
Ep 10 (Wheels & the Legman and the Case of Grandpa's Key) 13:04 Steve v* when he opens the package
Ep 16 (The Kidney Stays in the Picture) 18:08 Roger puts his finger in the drug addict's mouth and he v*
Ep 18 (Toy Whorey) 12:07 à 12:38 there is a very long scene when Stan and Steve come out of the brothel and suddenly everyone v*
S9
Ep 1 (Love, AD Style) 13:22 to 13:38 Roger g*, no v* but it can triggering
Ep 3 (Can I Be Frank With You) 11:49 to 11:53 Dick v* when he drinks a shaken beer
Ep 5 (Why Can't We Be Friends?) 17:03 and 17:20 Stan v* at the carnival
Ep 6 (Adventures in Hayleysitting) 16:33 Haley is drunk and she v* out of Jeff's van window.
Ep 8 (Finger Lenting Good) 5:42 and 6:03 Steve is hungover and he v*.
Ep 11 (Max Jets) 10:16 Max (Roger character's) 's girlfriend v* after kissing him only audio and 11:15 and 15:34 Roger character's girlfriend v* after kissing him
Ep 12 (Naked To The Limit, One More Time) 17:43 there are several flashbacks of Roger and there is a flashback of Roger v*
Ep 14 (Spelling Bee My Baby) 4:04 Steve v* when he plays the saxophone
Ep 19 (Da Flippity Flop) 15:32 Haley v* when she's in the car with Klaus' human body.
S10
Ep 9 (vision: impossible) 11:46 Roger has a vision of Steve v* when he talks to a girl
Ep 12 (Introducing the Naughty Stewardesses) 14:25 Steve's pregnant girlfriend v* when she's at her parents' house
Ep 14 (Stan Goes on the Pill) 6:11 et 14:39 6:11 Stan v* when he becomes a woman. 14:39 Bullock appears to v* off-screen when he's in the car with Stan, I'm not sure if he's v* or coughing
Ep 16 (She Swill Survive) 4:18 a man v* through the window of Roger's bar and 11:13 Haley is hungover and she v*.
all other episodes of the 10 seasons are safe. so far i have only watched the first 10 seasons, i will update when i see the rest of the show
A cis man, Steve, dresses up as a woman to get into the lesbian woman’s roller derby and date them, he is not a woman however, he’s originally sort of doing it in a predatory way, Haley also sexually assaults him by pulling his pants down to show he has a penis and outs him as a man (which is true) because penis=man in dis peoples minds, but the lesbians take this as a gross violation of human rights towards a trans woman, which it would be if Steve was a trans woman. They handled combatting transphobia well on the side of the roller derby people, Steve even has a safe space to question his gender but it falls flat when roger makes jokes about Steve being required to cut his penis off to be a different gender (which isn’t true, and is framed as the whole “genital surgeries are gross”) and Steve then concludes he isn’t a woman because he doesn’t like wearing a dress which isn’t what being a woman is and plays into gender roles. There is unfortunately a stereotype of masc lesbian woman playing sports and having public orgies but idk if it’s meant to be a joke.
"1600 Candles"--Mentioned but not shown in a montage of Hayley's puberty tantrums. She screams "What do you mean, EVERY MONTH?!" and throws a box of tampons at her parents. She then declares she's not using them and sulkily sits on the (then-white) couch, to her parents' horror.
Barry takes "vitamins" that dull his intelligence--without them, he becomes manipulative, greedy, and even murderous. This is on display in "With Friends Like Steve's", and "Stan & Francine & Connie & Ted".
In "LGBSteve," what starts as Steve pretending to be a girl to join a girl's skating team leads to him wondering if maybe he really is just a pre-transition trans girl (thanks to a very open-minded team captain). There's even a whole song where he sings "I thought I was a boy..."
He becomes more confident when wearing flattering women's clothing, but later realizes he's cis after all.
In "The American Dad After School Special," Stan spends the entire first half of the episode getting comments about his weight, and seemingly gaining more as the episode continues. His family finally sits him down for a talk about it, and halfway through he takes off his shirt to show how fat he's become. It abruptly cuts to what he REALLY looks like: a skeletal version of himself with sunken cheeks and not an ounce of fat on him.
Kind of. In "Pulling Double Booty," Stan's daughter Hayley starts dating his body double--Francine, not knowing this at first, is shocked when she walks by Hayley's room to see the two making out.
Steve expresses attraction to his mom in a song titled, "Is She Not Hot Enough?", episode "Rubberneckers" ("Damn, that's my MAMA!....Damn, if that wasn't my mama...")
In "Stannie Get Your Gun," Roger tricks Steve into thinking that he's adopted--Steve then goes on to open-mouth kiss Hayley, as he believes they aren't related by blood anymore.