Family Guy has been on air for so long that it's easy to forget just how bizarre it really is. Compared to other similar shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy kind of revels in just how absurd everything about it is.

From the random digressions, to the talking dog, to that chicken that comes out of nowhere to engage in a fistfight, Seth Macfarlane's cartoon is always looking to surprise its audience. However, that does come with its set of issues. The amount of insane stuff that's on this show can be so overwhelming that there are large chunks of it that just straight up don't make any sense whatsoever. It's easy to scoff at the writers for these huge oversights but, honestly, with the amount of gags and cutaways this shows has going on, you have to kind of feel a little impressed by their ability to keep everything (relatively) together.

Also, this show's been going on for nearly twenty years. It took The Simpsons much less time to achieve this level of confusing "jump the shark" moments. Anyway, looking at some of these nonsensical Family Guy moments can be a pretty interesting peek behind the curtain of a show that may have gone on for a little too long.

Here are 20 Things That Make No Sense About Family Guy.

Stewie gets stage fright for no reason

Stewie has never really been one for shyness. The masterminding, diabolical infant has basically made a name for himself for his outsized personality.

Aside from constantly coming up with diabolical schemes, Stewie also has somewhat of a penchant for showmanship. Not only are his plans over elaborate, he also has put on several musical performances. Even the opening credits of the show have him g and dancing with a top hat. Wearing a top hat in public basically shows that you have a sense of confidence that's virtually unshakeable.

That's why the episode "Peter-assment" makes no sense. One crucial plotline involves Stewie putting on a musical number for the school's talent show. However, he finds himself unable to do so because of his stage fright.

How exactly is someone who is constantly singing and dancing whenever he gets the chance suddenly overcome with a neurotic fear of judgement?

The answer? Probably just because Seth MacFarlane loves singing. This is actually why there is so much singing on the show. MacFarlane, who voices nearly all of the characters, wants to give himself as many opportunities as he can to sing. And honestly? He's pretty great at it when he isn't doing a cartoon voice. The guy's actually made some really great original music.

We wish he could stick to that instead of forcing his music into his TV shows.

Brian is apparently psychic

One of the most popular dynamics in Family Guy is the one between Stewie and Brian. The two are basically polar opposites, with Stewie being the unpredictable wild-card and Brian being the responsible straight man. It's the kind of dynamic that's straight out of a buddy cop movie.

In season 8, episode 8, the ever erratic Stewie burns down a liquor store and ends a dog. Later, Brian confronts Stewie about this, understandably more than a little ticked off. The only problem? There was no way for Brian to know about the event. When the firefighter discusses the event with Lois, Brian is nowhere to be found.

Sure, there might be some logic gymnastics one can do to explain this away, but the simple matter is is that it is impossible for Brian to know what happened. So what can explain this plot event? Well, basically, lazy writing.

Listen, the show's been going on for nearly 20 years. The writers should be cut some slack, right? Well, not really. See there one thing to have massive leaps of logic in an over-the-top cartoony way. That's just typical Family Guy. But a silly plot hole like this? That's just an oversight of the highest order.

Peter may not be Meg's biological father

The central family in Family Guy has its own fair share of issues. Most cartoon families do. Homer literally strangles Bart in nearly every episode of The Simpsons, Kyle's mom has an interesting hobby in South Park, and the family in American Dad has an alien for a member and everyone seems to be cool with it.

In regards to Family Guy, one bizarre aspect of this particular family's dynamic revolves around Meg. In an episode titled "Screw the Pooch", it is revealed (in a cutaway gag no less) that Peter may not actually be Meg's biological father.

In fact, that role may actually have been for a man named Stan Thompson.

Who is Stan Thompson? We don't know. In fact, the show never touches upon this idea ever again. Sure Family Guy is known for its constant cutaway gags, but these are usually just non sequiturs, not important bits of backstory. Doesn't this completely reshape our view of this entire family? Why bring up a bombshell like this and decide to just sweep it under the rug?

This is a real jumping the shark moment, almost as if the writers couldn't think of a proper joke and just decided to show something really shocking in hopes of getting a laugh.

Brian dates human women

One of the most common types of joke in Family Guy revolve around ridiculous, cartoony things to be played completely straight. A good example of this? The talking dog, who would normally be the wackiest character on any other show, is probably the most "normal" character on the entire show.

Brian doesn't even really act like a dog at all. He mostly just does regular, boring, human things - one of which is dating. Sure, Brian's gone out with his fair share of canines, but one of the most bizarre things on this show is the fact that he dates human women.

What's even weirder is that the show never acknowledges how weird this is. Is cross-species dating just a commonly accepted thing in Quahog? What kind of other sick stuff to they get up to there?

The strangest part of all is that these women don't even react that much to dating a dog - not even so much as a raised eyebrow. Is Brian really that smooth that he manages to date across species without so much as a hitch?

Honestly, the real answer is probably that stuff like this fits into the surreal atmosphere of the show perfectly.

No one cares that the Pope gets kidnapped

In keeping with the spirit of a show that wants to push people's buttons, Season 2, Episode 2, involves Peter stealing the Pope's car - with the Pope in it- and makes a run for it. Why? Because Peter wants to impress his father. Don't ask us how he came upon this solution, because we can't figure it out for the life of us.

The episode ends on a heartwarming note, with the Pope himself mending the relationship between Peter and his father. Only, one thing seems to be a little bit off. No, it's not the fact that Peter was able to kidnap the Pope so easily. Nor is it the idea that the Pope would be somewhat chill about the fact that he's being held against his will.

No, it's the realization that the Pope has been kidnapped and nobody seems to care.

Seriously, do you think that if Pope Francis so much as stubbed his toe that people wouldn't go insane?

The fact that the head of the Vatican has mysteriously disappeared apparently has caused zero media uproar. Did the press have more interesting things to worry about? Then again, in a city where Jesus seems to casually visit every once in a while, maybe people just lost interest in some run-of-the-mill Pope.

Brian has a 13 year old son

It's pretty much a given that many long-running TV shows are going to have a loose relationship with time, so to speak. The Simpsons has been on since the Prehistoric era and all of the characters are still the same age. This isn't because they are omniscient, immortal gods sent down to destroy us - although with the amount of times the show has jumped the shark, that might actually be a legitimate plot point - they're just a product of TV logic. Family Guy is no different.

Again, when the show's been going on for about 20 years, it's understandable that viewers don't exactly want to see the adventures of a geriatric Peter. However, one of the sloppier ways the show deals with the age of time involves Brian's son.

Brian's son is, of course, a human - presumably the doctors never questioned the scientific validity of this. He also happens to be 13 years old, while Brian is 9 years old.

Now, if we're talking in of dog years Brian would be about 50 years old - but we aren't talking about dog years, we're talking about physical, human years. In that case, it would be literally impossible for Brian to have a thirteen year old son, even if he is 50 at heart.

Did the screenwriters think of the implications of this, or did they think it'd just be funny if Brian's kid was an adolescent boy?

Everybody mistreats Meg

Has anybody ever really stopped and considered why Meg is such a punching bag? She isn't nearly as stupid as many of the characters, nor is she particularly mean spirited. So why does she always find herself on the receiving end of everyone's abuse?

The show makes a kind of cruel joke out of this idea.

Basically, every single problem can be traced back to Meg, no matter how improbable the explanation. the "shut up, Meg" meme? Is there some aspect of Meg's personality that we just happen to be missing? Because we honestly can't think of any reason why she would be treated the way that she is.

There is a writing device that basically turns a character into a punching bag. Basically, if you're writing a comedic show that's filled with irredeemable characters, the stories become easier to swallow if there's one character that's the worst of the lot. In doing so, that character makes everyone else seem much better in comparison.

Futurama has its version of this with Bender. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has Dennis stand out from a cast of psychopaths. So it seems like Meg is the version of this type of character. The only problem is that she doesn't really do anything particularly awful, like Dennis and Bender.

Sure, she's got her faults, but nothing that makes her look worse than Peter - or even Stewie, for that matter. In fact, this writing device implemented this way makes every other Family Guy character look even worse in comparison.

It's legal to marry dogs

Yes, believe it or not, there is an episode where a character marries a dog. This is the episode called "Perfect Castaway", which is about Peter coming back after being stranded on an island before coming back, showing him returning home only to find Lois marrying Brian.

It's kind of a great reference to the Tom Hanks movie Castaway, turning the original's gut punch of an ending to yet another joke fixated on inter-species relations. But we have to wonder if it really is a joke within the messed up rules of this show's world.

As we've established, Brian has dated human women in the past and nobody batted an eye. The fact that humans can date dogs is pretty weird. Humans marrying dogs? That's just inexplicable. How does this law even get ed? Was there literally zero pushback? Who was the brave Congressperson who campaigned for the right to marry dogs?

This also brings up the question: is it allowed for humans to date other animals? Like, would a cat be acceptable but an iguana be too out of the ordinary? All we do know is that the writers of the show have some interesting views on animal rights

Chris is blond

Seth MacFarlane is a multi-talented man. He's a showrunner, producer, writer, voice actor, and a pretty dang good singer. However, a geneticist he's not. In a family filled with people who either have red or brown hair, Chris sticks out as being the only blond in the group. This is something that's literally never explained.

The writers just expect us to accept that Chris is blond, and that's that, and stop questioning things - despite the fact that parentage has been used as a punchline on the show before.

Here's the thing: the fact that Chris is blond isn't even the result of an ill-conceived joke.

The show literally makes zero mention of this weird discrepancy, so we assume that this aspect of him was just written in without thought.

This wouldn't be as big of a deal if the writers hadn't already stumbled upon a solution to fix this problem. the weird cutaway gag we wrote earlier about Meg's biological father being somebody else? Why not just swap out Meg with Chris? Wouldn't that make so much more sense?

It's not like this majorly disrupts continuity. At the very least, it would be just as confusing if this gag was about any member of the family.

Only Peter and Lois can't understand Stewie

The fact that Stewie can speak freely about his psychopathic impulses without any repercussions has been a long-running joke throughout Family Guy. How many times has Stewie plotting to end Lois right in front of her, only for her to obliviously go about her day?

The obvious explanation here is that Stewie is the only person who can understand what he's saying because his words just sound like baby talk to everyone else - except Brian. Okay, that still kind of makes sense. Brian is a dog after all, so he could just have some sort of dog powers? That let him understand babies? Look, it's a leap of logic, but it can be hand-waved away easily enough. Things start getting a little sketchy, however, when we find that everybody else seems to understand what Stewie is saying.

Stewie has full-on conversations with several adult characters throughout the show.

Putting aside the fact that adults don't question that a baby can hold a normal conversation, isn't it weird that Peter and Lois happen to be literally the only people who can't understand Stewie? Now it's clear that he isn't just speaking baby talk. He can form proper and complete sentences.

Maybe it's because the parents are so consumed by the need to take care of Stewie that they're just too exhausted to try to listen to what he has to say. Okay, that really doesn't make any sense.