Ernie the Giant Chicken—purveyor of expired coupons, husband to Nicole, father to Nugget, and archnemesis of Peter Griffin—is officially dead. The cause of death was not an airplane propeller (which almost killed him in Season 4) nor was it bird flu (which almost killed him in Season 19). Instead, it was Meg Griffin who ripped his head off and left the rest of his body running around — literally —like a chicken without a head.
Ernie joins a short list of regular Family Guy characters who died and remained dead, including news anchor Diane Simmons, Mr. Weed, Francis Griffin, Horace, Thelma Griffin, Adam West (RIP), and Angela (RIP Carrie Fisher).
In celebration and memory of a beloved Family Guy character, here are 10 of Ernie the Giant Chicken's most violent, iconic moments.
In celebration and memory of the beloved Giant Chicken's death, here are the top 10 most iconic moments ranked.
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10.Meg Kills Ernie
Episode: "The Chicken or the Meg" (Season 25, Episode 7)
Date: March 2025
Unlike every other time that Ernie "died," there was no final gasp of life, foreshadowing more mayhem to come. He just lay there, dead. And in an exclusive interview with TVLine in October 2025, Family Guy executive producer Alec Sulkin confirmed Ernie's demise, explaining that the character had run its course:
"I think that the chicken has gone the way of all flesh. Honestly, I feel like we got so many great set pieces out of the giant chicken fighting with Peter that they became hard to top. It's a lot to ask of our production crew, and we may have just gotten the best out of that character."
Sulkin has a point; there hasn't been a full-length chicken fight in close to 15 years, so it's not like Ernie is indispensable. And yet, there's something oddly sad and nostalgic about his death.
I first started watching Family Guy in 2002, the same year Fox canceled it due to low ratings. I was a college freshman, and the show constituted a bonding experience for me and my suitemates. Fox canceled the show due to low ratings, but it subsequently gained a cult following, which led to its network return three years later. And clipped cutaway gags, like the first "Giant Chicken Fight," created the following, popularizing the show on Kazaa, BearShare, and iMesh. Clips like these were going viral before "going viral" became a common figure of speech!
Ernie, you were a real one. Rest easy.
9.Shotgun Blast to the Head
Episode: PeTerminator (Season 19, Episode 13)
Date: March 2021
A one-off gag, Peter blasts Ernie directly in the face with a shotgun – a Terminator homage in a Terminator-inspired episode.
In hindsight, this should have been a permanent end to Ernie. But then his splattered eye opens at the very end, letting us know (against all odds) that he's still alive and clucking.
8.Peter Saves Ernie's Life
Episode: "Fecal Matters" (Season 19, Episode 10)
Date: January 2021
This is the most character development we've had since the third fight. Ernie's down on his luck. His wife left him and is seeing a bigger cock. He's dying of bird flu. And yet, the one time that Peter has the opportunity to let Ernie die, he won't let it happen. He explains it all in a monologue worthy of Batman and Joker:
"Every day, I wake up not knowing if you're gonna come out of nowhere and punch me in the face, I flinch every time a door opens, I look over my shoulder every time I bend down to tie my shoes, and I flip my porch light on every night before I go to bed just to see if you're standing there. Do you have any idea how exciting that is? So I didn't save your life because I like you. I saved it because I hate you… Also, if you die, I'll be solely responsible for all the destruction we've caused over the years, so this decision is both emotional and financial."
7.Nicole vs. Lois
Episode: Follow the Money (Season 15, Episode 12)
Date: November 2016
Despite his enmity towards Peter, Ernie maintains a close friendship with Lois. It's too bad that Nicole wasn't looped in on this. And when she sees Lois and Ernie having coffee together, she goes into attack mode. The best part of this sequence is when Nicole hands her eggs to Ernie, like they're her earrings or jewelry.
This is the first indication that there might be issues in Ernie's marriage. And four seasons later, it's completely fallen apart.
6.The Fifth Chicken Fight
Episode: "Internal Affairs" (Season 10, Episode 23)
Date: May 2012
By far the longest fight—clocking in at six-and-a-half minutes—the fifth Chicken Fight takes things to a sci-fi level, including time traveling (check out the Marty McFly cameo in front of the train), a launch into outer space, and a cloning machine.
The animators never attempted to top the scope and ambition of this sequence. Every subsequent chicken interaction had some sort of bait-and-switch gimmick that prevented this type of escalation.
5.The Fourth Chicken Fight
Episode: "Back to the Pilot" (Season 10, Episode 5)
Date: November 2011
The fourth Chicken Fight is weirdly unsettling. Thanks to Stewie's time machine glitch, we see it play out in reverse. So we start with the utter devastation—which includes an airline crash in the town square—and we end with the inciting incident, where Peter opens his car door into Ernie, who's riding on a bike. It's bizarre to think about how many people Peter has killed over the years. It has to be in the thousands at this point.
4.Ernie Restores Peter's Memory
Episode: "Big Man on Hippocampus" (Season 8, Episode 10)
Date: January 2010
Ernie does Peter an unexpected favor by curing his amnesia, via blunt force trauma with a crowbar, shovel, baseball bat, and more. We also learn something interesting from this scene; sometime after the third fight, Peter and Ernie met up and called a truce. We also see that Ernie is a citizen of Quahog and apparently owns a house and pays a mortgage. Not bad for a lab experiment gone wrong.
3.The Third Chicken Fight
Episode: "No Chris Left Behind" (Season 5, Episode 16)
Date: May 2007
The third fight could also qualify as a home invasion. Ernie dives through the Griffin's house's window, tackling Peter off his chair. It's probably my favorite Chicken Fight because of three things: the Enter the Dragon homage when Ernie licks his own blood, the ferris wheel sequence, and the peaceful interlude in the middle—when Ernie and Nicole take Peter to dinner— before an argument over the check sends everything back to hell.
2.The Second Chicken Fight
Episode: "Blind Ambition" (Season 4, Episode 3)
Date: May 2005
This was from the third episode after the show's revival, and it was the first sign that our favorite show was back and thriving. Unlike the first fight, which leaned on general action movie tropes, the second fight alluded to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark—more specifically the airplane sequence where Indy fights the massive Nazi mechanic.
The death count and property damage is much higher than the first time, which becomes another part of the recurring joke.
1.The First Chicken Fight
Episode:"Da Bomb" (Season 2, Episode 3)
Date: December 1999
The very first Chicken Fight was less than two minutes long, but it established the patterns that future iterations would repeat. It had classic action movie set pieces, including a helicopter sequence. It had Peter walking into the horizon at the end. And it had Ernie showing faint signs of life, silently vowing to keep fighting.
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