The Griffin Family Booking It Downstairs Becomes A Meme About Running Away On Twitter, TikTok

About

Family Guy Running Down Stairs or Griffin Family Running Downstairs is a series of memes based on a scene from Family Guy where the Griffin family runs down the stairs into the basement with serious expressions on their faces. The clip is often edited to feature louder, more intense stepping sounds.

As a meme, the scene is often used as a reaction image and attached to captions using the phrasal template, "There's X upstairs," "X" being a subject like "good writing" or "Arbys," with the clip being used to represent someone avoiding the subject. The meme was popularized on X / Twitter and TikTok throughout April 2026.

Origin

On May 17th, 2020, Family Guy season 18, episode 20, "Movin' In," aired. In the episode, Principal Shepherd, the principal of the high school, moves in with the Griffin family after losing his job. At one point, the family tries to kick him out and he tricks them into going into the basement to get his things. Eager to get him out, the family all runs down into the basement.

In early April, the clip started to spread online as the subject of memes and edits. One of the earliest examples is an edit posted on April 4th, 2026 by TikToker @fortnite.peter.griffin, garnering over 31,300 views in 10 days.

@fortnite.peter.griffin Aura monster Subaru stairs remastered #petergriffin #familyguy #edit #fyp #stairs ♬ original sound – fortnite.peter.griffin

Spread

The clip became increasingly popular as a meme throughout April 2026 on TikTok and X.

On April 4th, 2026, TikToker @memes_master7 posted a video editing the clip in several different ways, garnering over 540,000 views in 10 days.

@memes_master7 Family guy running down stairs #meme #fyp #familyguy #viral #joke ♬ original sound – Granny grenade 👨🏿‍🦼‍➡️

On April 12th, X user @MoofusHasPassed posted the clip under the caption, "'There’s good writing and game design upstairs' | Mario Kart World:," garnering over 1,500 likes in two days.

On April 13th, X user @sillyfella600 posted a version of the meme captioned, "'There’s good writing and game design upstairs' | Tic Tac Toe:," garnering over 3,100 likes in a day.

Later that day, X user @astralphen posted a version of the meme reading, "' there's consenting adults upstairs' | wordle devs:," garnering over 20,000 likes in a day. It is unclear what the post is referencing.

Various Examples

@deftherealhomiefrfr stairs #petergriffin #loisgriffin #meggriffin #familyguy #familyguyclips #giftok #stairs ♬ original sound – P2W Homie @masev35 Peter griffin running downstairs 2% accuracy @Natedawg #petergriffin#familyguy#longjohnsilvers#fyp ♬ original sound – mas35.main @bottle_of_irish_spring Griffins running downs#fyp #familyguy #arbys #longjohnsilvers ♬ original sound – Alfie @td.alejandroo did i mention im israeli 💕🥰 #flop #fyp #katseye #stantwt #familyguy ♬ som original – lena :3

Search Interest

External References