# Family Guy Effect The Family Guy Effect is a term used online to describe how an internet meme briefly spikes in popularity after being referenced on the animated show Family Guy, only to burn out fast afterward. The idea grew out of an older definition about jokes losing their humor through repetition, and was later applied by meme researchers to track over-saturated formats. ## Overview The Family Guy Effect is a slang term for the idea that once an internet meme gets a cameo on the Fox animated series Family Guy, it enjoys a short spike in attention and then dies almost overnight[3]. Meme circles treat it as a kind of curse, where mainstream exposure through the show marks the end of a format's life cycle rather than a boost[3]. Before it was tied to internet culture, the same label described a much simpler joke problem, a bit that gets told so many times it stops being funny[1]. That older definition still floats around, but the meme-death reading is the one that stuck in forum posts and wiki entries[3]. ## How It Spread The term picked up steam across meme-tracking communities in the early 2010s. On August 27th, 2010, TV Tropes launched a "Discredited Meme" page that cataloged formats considered dead in popular culture, with the Family Guy Effect cited as a driver[3]. In July 2011, a thread about the effect appeared on the Bungie video game forums, showing the term jumping out of meme-research circles into general fandom chatter[3]. By late 2011, the phrase was casual shorthand in image-board comments. After a Family Guy clip featuring Trololol Guy was posted to FunnyJunk on September 26th, user pyrothermal replied, "Well, that's another meme dead due to the Family Guy effect"[3]. That kind of drive-by usage is how the term still tends to show up today, as a one-line verdict on any meme the show references. Notable episodes fans point to include "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" from September 27th, 2005, which used Wilford Brimley's "diabeetus" line[3]. "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" on November 20th, 2005 had Brian performing Peanut Butter Jelly Time in a banana costume[3], and "Boys Don't Cry" on April 29th, 2007 featured a Chuck Norris cameo built around Chuck Norris Facts[3]. Later cameos ranged from the Christian Bale rant to Rickroll, Trololol, and Boom Goes the Dynamite, with a Flea Market Montgomery bit showing up in spinoff The Cleveland Show[3]. ## How to Use People typically invoke the Family Guy Effect as a comment rather than a template. The common convention is to drop the phrase under a clip or screenshot where Family Guy references a known meme, often as a short sign-off like "and that's the Family Guy Effect" or "another one killed by the Family Guy Effect." It is also used more loosely to call out any joke that has been repeated into the ground, echoing the original 2008 Urban Dictionary sense[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Family Guy Effect? It is a slang term for the idea that internet memes briefly spike in attention after being referenced on Family Guy, then drop off fast[3]. ### Where did Family Guy Effect come from? Urban Dictionary user rapelax coined the phrase on August 22nd, 2008 to describe joke over-saturation[1], and Know Your Meme's Chris Menning applied it to internet memes in a forum post on July 30th, 2009[3]. ### What does Family Guy Effect mean? In its meme-culture sense, it means a format has been over-exposed by a mainstream Family Guy cameo and is now considered burned out[3]. The older sense simply meant a joke told too many times stops being funny[1]. ### How do you use Family Guy Effect? People typically drop the phrase as a comment under a Family Guy clip that references a known meme, using it as a one-line verdict that the meme is now dead[3]. ### Is Family Guy Effect still popular? The term is a classic bit of meme-community jargon that still appears in forum and wiki discussions of over-exposed formats, though it saw its biggest surge of use in the early 2010s[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Family%20Guy%20Effect]() 2. [https://bygonebureau.com/2009/07/27/an-interview-with-nathan-rabin/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-family-guy-effect]() 4. [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DiscreditedMeme]() 5. [https://www.bungie.net/]() 6. [https://funnyjunk.com/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/family-guy-effect Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library