There are a few truths about Roger on American Dad! that are quite apparent after almost 20 seasons. The sexually ambiguous alien loves throwing himself into alternate personas. He also has a significant substance abuse problem. But a key component of his personality is the fact that he’s kind of a jerk. As it turns out, this is for good reason because being nice will apparently kill him.
Roger joined the Smith family approximately four years before the beginning of the series. He had been imprisoned at Area 51 and broken out of his cell. This triggered a lockdown which members of the CIA, including Stan Smith, responded to. Roger ended up saving Stan’s life, rescuing him from certain death, and they escaped the facility together. To repay him, the Smiths harbor Roger and keep him hidden from the government.
What the Smiths didn’t know was how difficult harboring this particular alien would be. Roger is a hedonistic, selfish individual who just barely cares if anyone else in the house lives or dies. Sharing any space with Roger is a lot to ask of anyone, keeping in mind that Stan is also legendarily self-absorbed. They butt heads constantly, leading to some of Roger’s worst behavior. Fortunately, he’s hard to kill.
For the most part, Roger seems invulnerable to most illnesses, toxins and forms of physical harm. That probably explains why he can ingest a constant stream of drugs and alcohol with no severe, long-term repercussions. But it turns out that his one vulnerability is being nice. Apparently, being a complete and utter jerk is what keeps Roger alive.
After pushing her too far in Season 3, Episode 9, Francine finally stopped enabling Roger’s terrible behavior and demanded better of him. He obliged and became a model member of the family. Roger started doing chores, drank a lot less and was generally respectful to everyone else in the house. This was over the period of approximately a year, during which he experienced an obvious decline in his health.
Death’s door was moments away when the family figured out that being mean kept him alive. Without a constant stream of nastiness flowing from his mouth, toxins were building up inside of his body and poisoning Roger from the inside. The only way to recover was to unleash a barrage of hate. Steve, who had inexplicably spent the American Dad episode being a backup dancer in random scenes, was the most appropriate target.
It’s hard to say if this condition impacts all of Roger’s species or not. To be frank, it’s entirely possible that he made the whole thing up just to force the family into letting him be a massive jerk again. Roger has committed much more horrible acts of deception for far less rational reasons. But as far as anyone in the Smith household knows, Roger needs to be mean to survive, and it’s probably best to not upset that equilibrium.
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