before my political awakening I just took them at face value. But now they're like time capsules of the fairly shallow and hardly biting political commentary of the era.
Specifically im talking about sitcoms that premiered in the late 90s (or early 2000s) and continued thru the 00s. Take Scrubs for example. There's a few episodes where the hospital workers break into camps discussing the Iraq war. Elliott, played by Sarah Chalke, is revealed as a republican. I suppose this mirrors how actual conversations at the time played out but its somewhat endearing how it all seems so quaint looking back. I know watching at the time I was like wow it's refreshing how they're being so political lmao.
I think the cringiest when it comes to this is will and grace. There's a few episodes with bush-targeted jokes delivered primarily by debra messing (yuck). And they all have to do with his intelligence.
I think the only exceptions are either the shows that did it smartly (for libs anyways) like the first three seasons of Arrested Development or ones that just focused on the domestic/life problems of the characters, like Malcolm in the middle (which is probably the last great working class sitcom) or everybody loves raymond.
I was thinking about Married With Children the other day and wondering to myself what Al Bundy was so miserable when his wife was hot and loved him and he was able to work an easy blue collar job and afford a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs and raise 2 kids.. Amazing how much life has slipped that back in the early 90's he was seen as a loser.
lol, I think the conceit was mostly that his job was demeaning, like he worked in retail at a mall selling shoes to women and I think his boss was younger than him and a shithead. also his car broke down on the way home all the time, so he had to push it for the last miles, but he refused to buy anything not American madr haha. I also think there were multiple episodes that threatened the house and various appliances being repo'd.
I mean it's quaint by many standards today, but back when there were still some decent paying trade union jobs around Chicago, some guy having to grovel on the floor to put shoes on Karens for shit pay was not where anyone wanted to be at mid 40.
also, one of the themes of the show was that the family were all shitty to each other until any one of them was threatened by outside forces, then they rallied together to defeat the threat and protect each other.
it wasn't really supposed to be a nightmare life, just the sort of substandard one that could be waiting for anyone. that show caught a lot of flack at the time for not presenting some leave it beaver family.
The Simpsons got the same kind of treatment in the 90s / late 80s too. I remember it being a big deal when the Barbara Bush talked shit about the Simpsons, which prompted the show writers to pen her a letter on behalf of Marge Simpson:
Which then prompted a response from Barbara Bush:
And then we got Two Bad Neighbors out of it
The yikes level of this phrase is astronomical.
The first thing I think of when I remember that show was the episode I saw as a kid where the punchline at the end of the episode was transphobia.
That was probably not the only episode either
It's a bad show for sure.
Peak political discourse. I could never figure out if we were supposed to think that Al was an idiot, or if he was just a victim of his own life. I haven't watched the show at all since it was doing reruns on local cable TV. Al clearly had it going pretty good.
Al was absolutely a victim of Al's choices in life. he was stubborn and dumb and insensitive, so he usually created whatever conflict he found himself embroiled in, and nearly always lost whatever he had staked. usually from his own actions, but sometimes from the shit luck that plagued him his whole life after high school. one of my favorite lines was when something totally random would screw up his plans, as if on cue, and he would just look up and say, "Good one, God." cracked me up as a little kid.
one of my favorite tropes about that show was how stuck in the past Al was. he scored 4 touchdowns in the homecoming game of his senior year, and everything after was downhill. he brought up that game constantly and nobody ever gave a shit. characters like that, who can't let go of some b.s. that happened 20 years ago, are so tragic and hilarious to me.
even the "No Ma'am" club they tried to organize was a completely joke. a bunch of dumbass guys in the neighborhood pretending to struggle against the supposed tyranny of their wives, but it's just guys drinking after work in a garage until they are hungry or sleepy. like little kids running away from home.
You weren't supposed to "think" of Al, you were supposed to relate to his frustrations and musings. I'd go insane if I played St. Peter with entertainment media characters. They're meant to be enjoyed not judged.
Right, I hear you. I guess what I was saying, albeit poorly, is were you supposed to be "laughing at" Al, or sympathizing with Al. In the same way that, every character in Seinfeld is more or less "bad" people to be laughed at. Seinfeld makes it pretty clear that the gang should be laughed at.
I'm 90% sure that Married With Children is supposed to be tongue in cheek and that we are supposed to be laughing at Al -- the stereotype of a peaked-in-highschool chud.
I feel that it's like the sitcom equivalent of a Kelly cartoon.