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.
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.