The Stewie Griffin Theory That Changes Everything About Family Guy

Fox's hit animated show "Family Guy” has been delighting fans with its hilarious jokes and hijinks since we were introduced to the Griffins and their friends in 1999. Head of the family Peter (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), his wife Lois (Alex Borstein), and their three kids — teenagers Meg (Mila Kunis) and Chris (Seth Green) and their baby brother Stewie (MacFarlane) — seem to be an average family living in Rhode Island. However, there are definite differences between their animated world and ours, like the fact that they have a talking pet dog named Brian (MacFarlane) and that little Stewie has the mind and vocabulary of a full-grown British adult.

So, while we've been happily playing along with the idea of the youngster's unique baby language and big boy schemes being just a treat for the audience, there's a particular Stewie Griffin fan theory that changes everything about "Family Guy" as we know it. Don't worry, you don't have to scour the internet to find out — we'll fill you in right here.

The Stewie Griffin fan theory puts a spin on the seemingly normal family dynamics. Redditor u/Jacob_Wallace_8721 kicked things off in the thread "The animated actor for Stewie Griffin is actually the eldest sibling and is just very short." They noted how in the Season 15 episode "Inside Family Guy," it's revealed that the comedy we know and love is really a "show within a show" and that while Stewie plays the youngest of the Griffin brood, he's, in reality, a little person and the oldest of the bunch.

To elaborate on the theory, they wrote, "Stewie acts the most adult, being openly gay, pursuing lovers, and has his own side businesses going on. He also has the deepest voice ... When developing the show as a family, they just thought it would be funnier if he was a baby in the show. It also makes the sex jokes less creepy, as everyone in universe would know he's an adult."

They even defended their position by saying it's plausible that Stewie is the oldest child because Peter and Lois are in their mid-40s.

In fact, there are quite a few precedents set by other TV shows to give this fan theory about Stewie Griffin's real age.

As Redditor u/Lenzar86 put it, "They ['Family Guy'] do love ripping off 'The Simpsons' don't they?" For those who need a refresher, there's a character on "The Simpsons" known as the Estonian Dwarf (via Fandom) who is revealed to be an aged, cigarette-smoking actor/stuntman on the animated show who doubles for several of the smaller and younger characters, including Lisa in "Burns' Heir" and Milhouse in "Radioactive Man."

That wasn't the only example noted in the Reddit thread. u/NotSayingJustSaying pointed out that in "The Golden Girls," the oldest character was not played by the oldest real-life actor. With the idea that Stewie is actually the oldest child, we can't wait to re-watch the series from the get-go and see how it changes our perspective of the Griffin family.