Family Guy: 10 Funniest Cleveland Brown Scenes, Ranked

The hit animated sitcom Family Guy might focus on the central Griffin family, but it is often the supporting characters that steal the show. One of these standout characters is Cleveland Brown, one of the Griffins’ neighbors and one of Peter’s best friends. In fact, Cleveland is so popular he even got his own spin-off show that ran for four seasons.

Cleveland’s hilariously dull personality and his odd manner of speaking make for so many great moments in the show. Looking back at the series and its long run, some of the biggest laughs come from Cleveland and it’s worth revisiting these memorable moments.

10 Cleveland V Quagmire

Fans might forget that Cleveland was originally married to a woman named Loretta. She was not a big part of the show and their marriage eventually fell apart. The main reason for this was that Quagmire and Loretta had an affair.

Once Cleveland finds out about this, he decides to take revenge on Quagmire. He goes to Quagmire’s house with a baseball bat and attacks him. Cleveland keeps swinging the bat at Quagmire and each time he misses and hits something else, one of Quagmire’s secret beds springs out, including from the fridge and microwave.

9 Everybody Everybody

The cutaways in Family Guy are probably the most famous thing about the show at this point. They can often be totally random and nonsensical which sometimes makes them even funnier. Such is the case with this short clip of Cleveland’s musical career.

When Peter and Lois are looking for a babysitter, Cleveland is mentioned as a possibility before Peter remembers he’s on tour with the 1980s house music group Black Box. The scene then cuts to Cleveland in black spandex singing the group’s hit song, “Everybody Everybody.”

8 Bachelorette Audition

When Cleveland discovers Loretta had an affair, he sinks into a depression and Peter decides to cheer him up. Of course, Peter is usually not the kind of person who makes a situation better, and his notion that Cleveland should audition for TheBachelorette is just the beginning of his bad ideas.

While they are in the audition waiting room, Cleveland starts to think this is a bad idea and tries to leave. Peter insists he stay and ties him to the chair. When Cleveland starts freaking out, Peter decides Cleveland is feeling constrained by his clothes and takes them off. Things escalate from there until the show’s producers find Cleveland and Peter in an awkward position.

7 Parole Hearing

In the episode “Three Kings”, the show parodies Stephen King stories, including The Shawshank Redemption. In the parody, Cleveland fills in the role of Morgan Freeman’s Red.

The scene in which Red gives a very honest answer to the parole board is a memorable one, although it seems unrealistic that attitude would grant him his freedom. Cleveland takes it one step further as he starts personally insulting the parole board members then promises to kill again if he is released, only for his parole to be granted.

6 Mutated Quagmire And Cleveland

Some of the most entertaining episodes of Family Guy are then they embrace the weirdest possible stories. One episode, in particular, takes a look into the future when Quahog is turned into a post-nuclear war wasteland.

Among the many changes, Cleveland and Quagmire have fused together into a strange mutant creature and they spend their time arguing about whether their new name is Clevemire or Quagland.

5 Cleveland The Auctioneer

While Cleveland is shown to be a mailman for most of the series, there have occasionally been some other employment opportunities mentioned as well. One of the most unexpected was as an auctioneer.

Given Cleveland’s rather drawn-out way of speaking, it’s hard to picture him as a fast-talking auctioneer. But a cutaway gag shows him conducting an auction with a speed fans have never heard from him before. That is until one of the items for sale is knocked over and hits Cleveland in the head, causing him to develop his slow speech.

4 Cleveland And Carolyn

Despite being a dog, Brian Griffin manages to date a lot of human women in the show, which is just something that is accepted in the Family Guy world. When he begins dating a girl named Carolyn, he is horrified to find her in bed one night with Cleveland.

Instead of being sorry to Brian, Cleveland shows that he can be rather mean-spirited. He insults Brian and dismisses him, laughing at him along with Carolyn. As he walks away with Brian’s former girlfriend, Cleveland says, “We good, Brian. We good.”

3 The Snap

Family Guy is, of course, known for its many pop-culture gags. It always finds some way to parody just about every popular movie and television show around so it’s no surprise that they eventually got around to referencing Avengers: Infinity War.

As Peter and his friends are sitting in their favorite bar, they begin talking about the fact that Thanos now has all the Infinity Stones. Suddenly, Cleveland and Joe start to fade to dust and Cleveland says, “I knew it was going to be us.”

2 Cleveland Returns

Despite best intentions, The Cleveland Show did not work out. Due to poor ratings, the spin-off was eventually canceled after four seasons. On the bright side, this meant Cleveland could return to Family Guy. But it wasn’t the warmest of welcomes.

As Peter and the others are drinking in the bar, Cleveland comes in and is immediately attacked with criticisms of the show. Quagmire remarks that it is not a good sign that this is the first time most fans realized that Cleveland actually had his own show.

1 The Bathtub Gag

Family Guy is well-known for using the same gag over and over in new ways. One of the most popular recurring gags features Cleveland’s bath time getting interrupted in dramatic ways.

In each scenario, Peter is up to some crazy scheme that goes out of control and leads to the front of Cleveland’s house getting destroyed. It then reveals Cleveland in the tub, which proceeds to slide out the front of the house and crash on the ground, leaving Cleveland naked on his lawn. Finally, after this happens half a dozen times, Cleveland decides he needs to stop bathing during Peter’s shenanigans.

About The Author

Colin McCormick
(2028 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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