Why Family Guy Characters Fall With Their Arm Behind Their Backs
Matthew Harrington Family Guy has a recurring gag where characters fall and land with an arm pinned behind their backs, but how did it come about?
Why do Family Guy characters always tend to fall with an arm pinned behind their backs? While Family Guy has run for nineteen seasons and counting, it wasn't always a major success story. The show gathered a cult following in its early years but its ratings were somewhat lukewarm, however, and it was eventually cancelled after season 3. Luckily for fans, the series became extremely popular on re-runs and DVD, and it was revived again a few years later.
Family Guy is a show that revels in bad taste and random gags, but while it has featured some undeniably hilarious scenes over the years, its critical reputation has also declined in recent seasons. Its overreliance on mean-spirited gags and constant cutaways has often been criticized - even by shows like South Park - and it lacks the freshness of early seasons. Family Guy is clearly doing something right though, as it's been a steady ratings performer since its 2005 return.
Family Guy has many recurring gags, from Peter's destructive fistfights with Ernie the Giant Chicken, Chris being tormented by an evil monkey or cutaways to late country musician Conway Twitty. It has a couple of very specific gags relating to characters falling down too. One features Peter tripping and hurting his knee, which he nurses for a long time as he sucks air painfully through his teeth. The other involves characters falling over or tripping down some stairs and landing with an arm behind their back.
It doesn't happen every single time a character falls, but it happens regularly enough that Family Guy fans have taken notice. Outside of it just being a funny visual, it's been stated by the makers of the show that they just tried to imagine the most uncomfortable position someone could fall in, and it just became a recurring gag as time went on.
Once fans notice this common pose it's hard to unsee and while some of Family Guy's other recurring jokes can run stale from too much use, a character falling over with an arm awkwardly pinned still raises a chuckle for some reason. While creator Seth MacFarlane has often spoken of getting a movie version off the ground this has yet to happen, but one thing that's certain is the series will continue for at least a couple more seasons. It was confirmed by Fox Family Guy will last until at least season 21, and even after that, there's a good chance it will run for the foreseeable future.
