Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family and is best known for his catchphrase “Giggity” and his hypersexuality. The show’s creator and voice actor Seth MacFarlane describes him as “an appalling human being who is still caught in the rat-pack era” based on anachronistic 1950s party-animal clichés.
The name Quagmire was chosen by a college acquaintance of MacFarlane’s; the word quagmire refers to both a soft soil that yields easily (such as quicksand), and a situation that is difficult to get out of. The title of the episode “Quagmire’s Quagmire” plays on the second meaning. MacFarlane came up with Quagmire’s voice after listening to fast-talking radio jockeys from the 1950s era, describing the character as a “50s radio guy on coke.” The “giggity” phrase was inspired by Steve Marmel’s Jerry Lewis impression. Quagmire’s home follows the same retro theme, decked out in a style reminiscent of the swinging party set of the 1950s and 1960s; nearly every part of the house has a discreetly hidden bed.
Quagmire is a bachelor who works as a commercial airline pilot. He lives on Spooner Street where he is a neighbor and friend of Peter Griffin, Cleveland Brown and Joe Swanson. He has had two spouses: Joan, a maid for the Griffins who died; and Charmise, a prostitute whom he divorced. The former episode, “I Take Thee Quagmire”, was acknowledged by MacFarlane as the first to have a plot revolving around Quagmire.
In the episode “Quagmire’s Baby”, he discovers his daughter Anna Lee but puts her up for adoption; several episodes imply that Quagmire has other children due to his promiscuity. His father, Dan, is introduced in the episode “Quagmire’s Dad”; he is a naval veteran of the Vietnam War who has a sex change and becomes a woman named Ida. Quagmire’s sister, Brenda, is first seen in the episode “Jerome is the New Black” and is the subject of “Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q”. In both episodes she is the victim of domestic violence from her partner Jeff, whom Quagmire murders in order to protect her.
He is characterized as indulging in numerous sexual fetishes such as BDSM, frotteurism, biastophilia, somnophilia, and erotic asphyxiation to voyeurism, exhibitionism, pecattiphilia, zoophilia, and necrophilia. Following the episode “Family Goy”, he develops a pornography addiction after discovering the existence of internet pornography. When in sexual situations, he often shouts variations of his catchphrase “giggity”, which has been used on Family Guy merchandise such as keyrings.
Scenes involving Quagmire’s sexual behavior have sometimes been censored by Fox, such as a cutaway in the episode “Airport ’07” which implied that engaged in necrophilia with a dead virgin at her funeral. The Parents Television Council, a long-term critic of Family Guy, says that Quagmire provides “some of the tawdriest moments” in the show.