American Dad!/Nightmare Fuel

American Dad is just a comedy show right? Nothing too terrifying to be found here right? Right? Well let us count the ways.

• The sheer amount of technology that the CIA has at their disposal and how they use it not only invade privacy but use it, and its sheer destructive potential, to satisfy their base instincts.
• Roger still alive with his face sliced off and most of his organs removed after being dissected by alien hunter Scarlett Reynolds.
• The reveal of Francine's face which had been horribly damaged after Lorraine threw acid at it in "Flirting With Disaster".
• It's made worse by the constant hiding of Francine's burned face and the comical reactions of everyone, as it naturally leads to assumptions that her face won't be shown.
• What happens when a rat drinks Roger's eggnog?
• The inside of Roger's mind. It's rather disturbing, examples including the Steve-Hayley-Klaus fish that hatches from a weird bird's egg, shrieking at him. Then Stan walks through a dark swamp with trees shaped like Roger (as he's trying to find Francine), which are oddly designed. Finally, Stan walks into a cave and sees Jiminy Cricket from the Disney version of Pinocchio (who is actually Roger's conscience, who is dying of neglect) moaning, "Kill me!" The scene was quickly turned to Lightmare Fuel when Stan also finds Tom Skerritt wrapped up like a bug in a spider web, moaning, "Get me work!"
• Kisses, after being "revived" by a crazy old woman. The poor little beagle looks like he crawled straight out of Hell!
• The ending to Iced Iced Babies: With this face, Francine creepily tells Steve "That's okay. You can stay right here at home with Mommy... forever." after shattering his confidence about ever finding a girlfriend.
• Stan's anorexic body in The American Dad After School Special is practically Body Horror. There's also Fridge Horror when it's revealed that Stan's personal trainer, Zack, doesn't exist, meaning that Stan has been that skinny and talking to himself for days and the family didn't notice until after Stan got fired -- or, rather, the family did notice, but the viewer wasn't aware.
  • What makes it all the more horrifying? This episode actually won American Dad an Annie Award for its realistic portrayal of such a disease and how it showed that not only teenage girls are at risk.
• Seeing Steve and Hayley's future in the episode where Stan searches for Oliver North's gold. Hayley has piercings everywhere, as well as tattoos all over her body, like a prison inmate, and Steve's girlfriend is a (noticably lifeless) robot so far in the Uncanny Valley it hurts.
• In "Cops And Roger" Roger kills dirty cop Chazz, resulting in his head violently imploding then exploding with blood flying everywhere, complete with a Gross Up Close-Up.
• Steverino.
• Hayley's flashbacks to being brainwashed as a child.
• Everything about the Golden Turd saga from the second part onwards. It's just... creepy.
• From Toy Whorey, Stan takes Steve down to Mexico so he can lose his virginity and become a man. One of the brothels they visit houses a man with hand puppets, dolled up like prostitutes. One of them has an actual mouth full of teeth and slithers its tongue in a seductive manner.
• Evil Barry. He's a cold Manipulative Bastard whose only motivation for anything is simple For the Evulz.
• Roger's crush on Hayley. It wasn't so bad at first but then, in some twisted desire to be closer to Hayley, he ripped off Jeff's skin and wore it like a onesie. And he was prepared to do the same to Hayley. Talk about Yandere.
  • From the same episode, Roger also severed Christina Aguilera's larynx and presented it as a gift to Hayley. It spews blood when he plays it.
• We finally meet Roger's people in "Lost in Space." They're a horrifyingly decadent Higher-Tech Species who enslave people without any remorse. And while you can be granted your freedom, the test to prove you deserve it is rigged. And once you fail, you'll be casterated.
  • And of course, the whole thing is Roger's fault.
• In "Anchorfran", Roger develops a crush on a character from a board game only to learn that the model who portrayed him is nothing like the character. After a cut back to the car, Roger is silently driving away with a bloodied phone and something in a jar only telling Steve, Klaus, and Hayley "Dylan was bad. And now we have the jar."
• Dudley Dingleberry. The makeup Roger uses turns him psychotic to the point that he'd murder just to win a talent show.
  • From the same episode, Principal Lewis is willingly to let Snot die just to make the talent show better and the bullet that saves Snot goes through Steve's body.
• Stan attempting to surgically reconstruct Hayley's face in "The Mural of the Story." To start off, he uses a hammer and a chisel. Then he pops out one of her eyes. Then her whole face slides off!
  • Eight months before the episode aired, this clip was shown at SDCC 2017 and the audience reaction was mostly horrified screams.
• "Death by Dinner Party." Roger is stalked throughout the whole night by a serial killer and finds his friends and family's corpses. The whole thing turns out to be a giant prank but the episode ends with an actual serial killer making his way to the Smiths' home.
• Yet everything can't even begin to hold a candle to "Rabbit Ears" and the fictitious Nighthawks Hideaway. The show is set in the 1960s in a penthouse but only comes on when there's one person in the room. Viewers eventually become so obsessed with the show that they pass through a Television Portal and end up becoming a Living Prop. If they break character, they're Eaten Alive by the host, Alistair Covax, some sort of demonic Knight of Cerebus.