Character from Family Guy by Seth MacFarlane / Fox
An elderly resident of 35 Spooner Street with a very soft, high-pitched voice and an unsettling fixation on teenage boys that the show leans into as dark comedy.
Herbert is a retired U.S. Army veteran and, according to the show, the eldest member of the Skull and Bones society, which is either an explanation or makes it worse. His fixation on Chris Griffin began when Chris took up a paper route. The show commits fully to the joke without much hand-wringing, which is either brave or irresponsible depending on your relationship with the premise. What gives him a kind of odd coherence is the voice — Mike Henry created it as a slow whisper with a whistle lisp that is both unsettling and, somehow, sincere. Herbert is not menacing in the way a real predator is. He is menacing in the way the show finds menacing, which is its own specific register. He is a Quahog institution. He attends the same church as the Griffins. He has Christmas episodes. The show is committed to him.
A very old man in a light blue robe and slippers who gets around with a zimmer-frame walker. Moves slowly, speaks even more slowly, and has the particular stillness of someone who is waiting for something. His dog Jesse — elderly, arthritic — follows at a matching pace.
Also known as: Old Man Herbert, John Herbert