"This cartoon satirizes the common sitcom family that includes an average-looking, bumbling husband and a gorgeous, put-together wife. It reverses the roles to illustrate (1) how offensive these sitcoms are to men (men are useless oafs who can’t be expected to act like adult human beings) and (2) how we take for granted that hot chicks should marry useless oafs,"
"I know, it’s satire, and, if you’re a regular reader, you know how I worry about satire. To me, this points out how stupid (and gendered) family sitcoms are. But, for others, it might just reinforce the hateful stereotype that fat women are disgusting and useless. The problem is that the impact of the cartoon depends on who is watching it."
A-men!
I worry about satire too, it's so easily manipulated into the opposite of what it sets out to be.
those shows (hot wife/slob husband) never appealed because of the lack of realism (not to mention the abysmal writing). gotta love some roseanne for filling the void (on both fronts).
ReplyDeleteThat was traumatizing.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you think Married with Children fits in to this scheme? The wife is lazy and dumb, kind of skanky, and the husband is... I don't have words for that...
oh yeah, I HATE how MWC is held up as this pinnacle of sit comm b/c it depicted a blue collar family.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of the most sexist and gendered things I have ever watched. IT was also SO dumb; ala Saved By the Bell, I never managed to watch it due to its insipidity and the god-awful live audience overreacting to every shitty line/ joke. I keep hearing that it was primarily written by the woman who played the neighbor but imdb has only two writers credited with the majority of the shows, both men. I love the woman who played Peg and I like Christiana Applegate and even the dad in
other things but that show is garbage.
I also, like Jen, love Roseanne and hold a special place in my heart for it.
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ReplyDeletenot a huge mwc fan, LOVE roseanne. but i can appreciate mwc for the absurdity, which is it's true aim, imo (less intelligent viewers may see it as some true representation of life, but alas, that will be with anything where stupid people are concerned). obviously, i'm not going with the sexist/gender angle on this. but generally, anything that pushes the the boundaries of what can be funny/be made fun of, i tend to enjoy. similarly is southpark, again not a fan, but i appreciate the 'habitual line stepping' (to quote charlie murphy), so to speak. i am a morrissey fan afterall, and he is the ultimate line stepper.
ReplyDeleteTO be honest, I haven;t watched MWC since it's early inception on Fox when I was a kid, I just have extremely negative associations with it.
ReplyDeleteBUt boundary pushing is good and the absurd is always funny.
It's weird with SP I genuinely think it's brilliant, but I NEVER watch it.
Morrissey is indeed, a line stepper, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
I had a long comment, and then the cat knocked out the power to the computer. So... here's what I remember most from that comment.
ReplyDelete... (in reference to oafs being easy leads for comedies) the only exception being Frasier. But the core of that show's laughs didn't come from brainy condescension. Lest we forget, Professor Smartypants got his doctorate in pratfalls from Vasser.