Joe Swanson

Joseph Swanson, known as Joe, lives next door to the Griffins on Spooner Street and is one of Peter Griffin's closest friends. Seth MacFarlane created him and Patrick Warburton voices him, from his first appearance in the first-season episode "A Hero Sits Next Door". He is forty-six, paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, and is an officer with the Quahog Police Department. He carries himself as an aggressively masculine man, and Peter and the rest of the group mock his disability without let-up. Nonetheless he is drawn as a highly capable officer, chasing suspects and pulling people out of danger from the chair and leaving it behind when the work calls for it. Close as he is to the Griffins, he has arrested Peter, Lois, Brian, Meg and Stewie when they have broken the law.

Credited in the principal cast or guest list of 260 episodes across 21 seasons. IMDb records up to ten voice credits per episode, so this is a floor: the character can appear in episodes not listed here.

No character imagery appears on this site; the monogram is an original design. See how this character is related to others on the family map.