As we march toward 2019, I'm taking a slow walk down the memory lane of my past manosphere content. Rewatching the first season of The Simpsons, post-red pilling, absolutely shocked me and was one of reasons I started a long-form blog- to take a closer look at the memes of pop-culture. The series acknowledged from the very beginning that modern fatherhood had lose all respect, in the larger society but also within the family. Mom secretly hates and resents Dad, and that sentiment trickles down- this is not new to the late 1980s. However, what changed is how the series reacted to this sentiment. Newer episodes roll with it- Dad is a retard who isn't deserving of respect- but this is not how it was first addressed. Very interesting to look back at that first season. [Ed note: Please exclusive the clunky writing- it's old]
BBP
The very first episode of The Simpsons, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” debuted the series on December 17th, 1989– roughly twenty-five years ago (I was there watching it live), launching the series and the family into the forever consciousness of pop-culture. I recently re-watched the episode and it shocked me how different the series was when it initially aired.
Watching an episode of today’s Simpsons reveals an entirely different show. The Homer character, while likable and endearing, is emasculated, negligent of others, and retarded.
Upon re-watching the first episode, Homer is instead presented as a sympathetic, under appreciated father whom, despite his best efforts, finds tremendous difficulty in providing a perfect family life for his wife and children.
The running joke is that Homer tries- Homer has ideals shaped by his television predecessors like “Father Knows Best” and “Donna Reed,” where Fatherhood looks effortless and family life appears perpetually blissful.
Take for example the scene where Homer tries to string Christmas lights along his roof- a ritual all Christmas celebrating suburban fathers can relate… Homer goes to great lengths to decorate his home for the holidays with pride, even falling off the roof at one point, and invites his family out for the debut of his efforts only to have the lights blow out and malfunction. The kids say “nice try, dad,” and that’s about it.
The joke is that Homer is trying his hardest to emulate what he thinks a good father should be and finds the ideal unobtainable despite his best efforts. That’s the joke- not that he sucks, not that he’s negligent, not that he’s an idiot; the joke is that his effort goes unrewarded by his family- the joke is that Homer’s failure renders his effort unappreciated.
The episode follows this structure throughout… Homer is a drone worker at a power plant to support his family while his wife is a stay-at-home mother. Despite this, Marge’s single aging sisters both despise Homer for reasons that are never apparent.
The theme is that “despite great effort a modern father is not respected nor appreciated.” In the episode Homer is relying on his company’s Christmas bonus to buy gifts for his family and through no-fault of his own that bonus is canceled by his boss. In a scramble for the holidays to work out, Homer takes a side-job as a mall Santa to pay for the family’s gifts. To his dismay, he is only paid $13 on Christmas Eve- which leaves him short on money and time to provide his family a memorable holiday.
Homer decides to take his son to the dog racing track and let his $13 ride on a scrappy greyhound, believing the myth of a “Christmas Miracle” (again, the gag is that Homer’s Fatherhood ideals are informed by 1950s era media and the expectation of a “happy ending”).
However, “The Simpsons” take place during the realities of the late 1980s and Homer loses his paltry $13 betting on a “billion to one” odds dog. It should be noted that during this tense scene of holiday drama the women of the family, Marge and Lisa, are at home with Marge’s Homer-hating sisters and are unaware of Homer and Bart’s desperate attempt to save Christmas for the family.
These efforts are invisible only to the women of the family- Bart is deliberately paired with Homer as a right-of-passage from boyhood to manhood. Bart can now see how difficult his father’s responsibilities are for his family. Bart can be in on the secret that the women of the family will forever be shielded from.
Defeated, Homer and Bart leave the dog track to return to their family. The responsibility for an amazing, memorable, at-least-adequate Christmas fall squarely on Homer’s shoulders.
As they walk out to the car, Homer and Bart see the dog they bet on being abandoned by its owner. Homer relates to the dog’s best effort coming up short and decides to take it home. And, ironically, in getting a dog for his family, Homer has unwittingly provided a better Christmas than material possessions would have allowed. Homer saves the day.
Again, the gags in this first episode of The Simpsons aren’t that Homer is some stupid fuck ignoring his children and eating crayons- instead, Homer is a father who feels a sense of leadership and responsibility to his family; to provide for them the best life possible. His wife and children may not fully understand it, and his in-laws may not appreciate it, but Homer understands his duty and will continue to do so whether his efforts are appreciated or not.
Avertus 5y ago
Patriarchy: from Latin pater "father" + Greek arche "power, authority"
Now you know what feminists meant when they want to destroy the patriarchy
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NormalAndy 5y ago
Homer is a blue pill slob though right? The tragedy is that he so often ‘pulls a homer’ - which is the misguided dream of so many effort free blue pill lifestyles.
monsieurhire2 5y ago
It's television, so they are aiming for the lowest common denominator. They did market research and determined endless pop culture references and cartoonish (it IS a cartoon) surrealism would attract a wider audience than trying to do a nuanced satire.
Ultimately, the Simpsons is about making money for the creators at the audience's expense. The Simpsons routine mocks the family for even owning a television and using it as a baby sitter, with the inappropriate, disturbing shows that glorify sadism: Krusty the Klown and Itchy and Scratchy, not to mention McBain. Every institution is skewered: the school, the work-place, local politics, organized crime, the local bar, the media, etc.
I think that what you say is true, but that you are better served when you examine IRL actors portraying emasculated, effeminate, disposable men, and that is extends FAR beyond the incompetent dad archetype, and into most portrayals of men in modern civilian life.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have portrayals of male police officers, military figures, and power brokers, as vicious amoral killers, but that's historically accurate, so... life imitating art or art imitating life?
Also, Patti and Selma hate Homer for a number of reasons:
They are older than Marge, yet they never married, and must live together and work for a living, also they are less attractive than Marge;
They are essentially invisible to Homer, because they are so unattractive; Homer finds them to be minor irritant, but is mostly indifferent to their abuse, because in his eyes, they have NO value; their own lives are punishment enough for them, and he barely thinks about them unless he comes face to face with them, and they KNOW this, and are bitter about it. They have sour grapes syndrome, in that they want a man, but never got one.
Crixusgannicus 5y ago
Dude. Pretty much 95% of all MSM programming(and PROGRAMMING is EXACTLY what it is) since the 60s has been dedicated to the proposition that the American man, ESPECIALLY husbands and fathers are "some stupid fucks".
Only maybe 5% are about Alphas. Either pure Alphas (I'm looking at you Don Draper) but they are supposed to be objects of derision (despite them moistening the panties of female viewers), or kinda humorous but mostly "harmless" Alphas like Magnum.
yomo86 5y ago
Never compare yourself to fiction. Be a man. Fiction is for women and children. There is no greater compliment than having a kid say but my dad is different than those loons on TV.
WinjetRed 5y ago
The medias war on dads is unacceptable.
politeAndLevelHed 5y ago
It isn't just on dads.
A few decades ago it became unacceptable for boys to excel in the STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) subjects and there has been intense focus on ensuring women get better results even if it means bringing down boys' marks in the process.
Which I find almost comical because boys who excel at STEM at school are usually on the end of some heavy physical beatings by boys who mostly rank each other on strength.
So you're now finding that weak boys are being physically assaulted by stronger boys, and they're being mentally punished by women who think it is unacceptable for a boy to be able to differentiate and integrate.
I do believe this multi-decade push to retard boys is showing considerable success - and yet feminists haven't stopped to congratulate themselves, the rhetoric is only getting stronger - too many boys in STEM! Must create female-only clubs to inspire girls in technology! No more men in STEM!
King_Neptune07 5y ago
Also whenever you see a flash forward of Bart, he's usually a loser and Lisa is portrayed as being an executive or the President even.
ReturnsOver 5y ago
I'm a finance major and this year a school sanctioned/funded "Women in Management Society" was allowed to operate.
Boys are literally prohibited from joining this club and the most twisted part of this crock in my opinion is that the school invites male CEO's of regional companies and lower level executives of major corps to come in and talk to the girls, and as you probably guessed it ... it's all males. Who are now put in the weird position of probably understanding the dichotomy of being a male and going to present to a womyn in mgmt student club but if they point it out and decline the invite....SEXIST MISOGYNIST
They had a networking/speaker event one night across the hallway from a class of mine so I literally walked in and the girls at the desk (who knew my name somehow?) tell me "lmao Returns what are you doingggg here ahahahahah, this is for girls only"
At that moment I knew what had to be done, and I exposed these morons for their idiocy by twisting everything that 2018 has to offer to their ears
"oh...Katie...I identify as a girl though"
"um haha okay Returns nice try"
"no no like... fine I'll tell you, I began hormone therapy 2 months ago, the "results" just haven't manifested yet, so I'm gonna go into your event now, it is 2018 after all, gender is a construct"
"........uh, uhm, like, ugh, okay, I don't really believe you but like uhm like fine"
"... this entire organization is pathetic and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves lmao (I audibly chortle)"
"see I knew there was no way you would've done that"
Then I turned a 180 and went to class, and Katie's friend sitting beside her at the registration desk slid into my DMs later that night
This society is fucking absurd, no way I'm bringing kids into it in 2028 years when it's bad enough as is now. Sad
Auwardamn 5y ago
This is all academia bullshit and it filters its way out in professional industry. Sure, you’ll have to fight for a job through the idiotic HR folks guarding the job, but once you get in through the door anywhere, it becomes true competition again.
You’ll find very quickly that the
womengirls who were ushered through for nothing other than diversity numbers sink very quickly because they either 1) don’t like the work anyways (and all the congratulations and attention they were getting for “succeeding” are gone because no one cares that you did your job correctly) or 2) they aren’t even capable of doing the work correctly because they were never capable to begin with. When it comes to a job, I really don’t care what your genitalia is, I care if you can perform. Penis, vagina, or a surgically mutilated version of either, idgaf. I care if you can objectively perform. If you can’t, you will naturally be replaced by those who can.Hang in there bud, it gets better and things fall into their natural order eventually. There aren’t very many femnazis in actual industry.
SteveStJohn 5y ago
Not true. They are held up by corrupt organizations that promoted in the first place.
Auwardamn 5y ago
You and I clearly work in very different industries and with very different organizations.
maxrp 5y ago
STEM industry like you describe quicky becomes a conveyer belt of failures, and management gets more desperate they promote the useless to one side to be "reportees" or "admins" and get guys to do the heavy lifting and all nighters to deliver. Effectively women sit easy on the bench with equal pay. Note I don't say guys are not useless but they usually get fired if they don't deliver. Theres always a bitch fest of maddness going on among the girls, forming clicks and getting each other thrown off the project regardless if they deserved it or not, and why majority of girls prefer working with guys only.
grandmasbroach 5y ago
Can confirm. I work in a sales type position. I am also ALWAYS number one and provide more in the way of monetary profit for the organization than anyone but my immediate boss, the director. Still, there are HR SJWs who make just as much as me, six figures mind you, and detract value from the organization as far as I can tell. I bring the place about a million a year in new and sustained accounts, and get around ten percent of that depending on a myriad of complicated commissions and bonuses. I'm always under the gun trying to hit quotas and hit bonuses. It can be really stressful. My mornings consist of listening to them drink coffee and talk about whatever bullshit they're doing outside of work or hear about the latest office gossip about other people, all the while wishing they would just shut the fuck up so I can concentrate and get my work done.
It's fucked up. We could just bring on a bunch of people like me, fire off all those idiots and in theory make a shit ton more money. The problem with that is, the SJWs have infected everything so bad we would get a lawsuit against us for discrimination. Or, we would get slammed in the media so bad for being misogynistic and other people and places won't want our services no matter how good it is. Now, in my department there is competition and lazy, stupid people don't make it because they don't hit their quotas. I just think it is fucked up that I have to perform and produce or find something else to do. While these lazy fucks can drink coffee and chat for half the day and only do anything when we hire new people or some other sjw gets their panties in a twist. Then it's time for some good ol reprogramming via forced classes Clockwork Orange style. You will submit to the political correctness or be banished! Seriously though, it's fucked up.
whittlingman 5y ago
How are they getting six-figures, those sound like 40-80k jobs at least unless, the one person is the Head of HR, the rest of HR shouldn't be making six figures or you live somewhere like NYC or SF.
grandmasbroach 5y ago
I do live in an area like that. It was exaggerated to make a point, but I still think it holds more true than not.
whittlingman 5y ago
It certainly applies to the concept that while the salaries may not be the same, the work effort required can certainly be very different between jobs in the same office.
Women do gravitate towards less strenuous HR positions, rather than challenging sales positions.
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King_Neptune07 5y ago
I don't think with the Simpsons is a war on dads. I think the Simpsons as originally conceived sought to use hyperbole with Homer.
Like they were mocking that trope of the fat, lazy dad by exaggerating it to its extreme if that makes sense.
DigitalDragonSlayer 5y ago
What a great analysis and perspective.
Question: at what season did The Simpsons take a turn for the worse?
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adam-l Endorsed Contributor 5y ago
I actually think that Big Bang Theory is one of the most RP mainstream shows out there. I haven't seen many others that dare make humor at the expense of women.
Regarding men, it gives "Betas" the chance to see themselves and their predicament from the outside, potentially giving them the insight to decide to opt-out.
The "fantasy of the writers" about women's fidelity etc I see as necessary concessions in order to have a hugely popular mainstream show. Sometimes you have to contend yourself with making only a few dents in the system's armour, instead of bringing it all down...
ChiTownBob 5y ago
I never watched this show, but how is this show RP?
Imperator_Red 5y ago
And given that women ruin everything, once any institution begins catering to their interests, it becomes ruined. I was watching some stupid show with my gf and her roommate and there was a ridiculous plot hole that I pointed out. They agreed that it was a big hole but said they hadn't noticed. I then said, "Girls don't really care about the plot. They just want to watch the TV and feeeeeeeeeeel things." I thought my gf was going to argue, but she just shrugged and said, "that's kind of true."
destraht 5y ago
Ugh. Of course I know the basic layout of that show but that is a pretty poor one to have wasted time getting into at depth. It has an exceedingly simple layout with nerd indulgences overlayed for humor. It seems that there are relationship writers and then tech writers. So its a "Jordy! Tech the tech, they're teching us!". That is a really crappy way to waste time. At least with Star Trek there is something larger than relationships and "tech" happening. I've seen common women watching Big Bang Theory and that should say something.
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UnfriendlySoloutions 5y ago
I dont watch past season 13. There are a few good ones after that but even those are a bit difficult to watch.
LastRevision 5y ago
I can always find something to laugh at in any episode, but notice the first few seasons presented actual stories with themes and morals, and not just OMG ZANY hijinks.
Shadowthrice 5y ago
Yes the Simpsons has devolved into popular man-hating. There was some subtlety to All in the Family and Married with Children and Family Guy too, but they just provide convenient punching bags to depict men as misogynist buffoons who deserve whatever hatred our culture sends their way.
ProudFeministMom 5y ago
I think Married...With Children handled it better than the others, although this may be just because it's an older show. The entire family was dysfunctional and it's not like they hid that. Al got plenty of digs in at Peg for stupid things she did, like being irresponsible with money, being unable/unwilling to cook, and not caring about the rest of the family when fortune smiled upon her.
One of the few shows from that time period that's still watchable today.
0io- 5y ago
Married with Children seems like Al is getting laid and he basically DGAF all the time. Wife Peggy is pretty hot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?=LESGWIeeEyk Daughter is a slut. He's certainly not much of a Beta Bux working a crappy job for minimum wage. The joke was more that the girls/women in the house are sluts who look pretty but can't cook. Al is always bitching that there's no food in the refrigerator, but never that he can't get laid (unless I remember it wrong...) This clip is pretty funny and some bluepill youtube snowflake thinks it implies rape when it just implies that Al takes the opportunity to initiate.
Captain_Quick 5y ago
I look at Married. . .With Children as being a warning.
throwabcdaway3 5y ago
How is that related to sexual strategy.
Oh yeah, its not. GTFO and stop watching too mucv TV
S-Blaze 5y ago
Lol kid this world is a puzzle and there you are anxious to get your sausage wet. You've got a long way to go for now.
LastRevision 5y ago
Lol, go post on the PUA sub
EP13 5y ago
The Mods are gonna take this down, but it's a good post. Sometimes, our best efforts are underappreciated and successful.
LastRevision 5y ago
If I may speak on that before it's (possibly) taken down- this is a post reflecting on the writing of a television show and how the direction of the writing has changed as the show went on, and less about "red pill lessons from analyzing a fictional character."
The writers were informed by the larger cultural push to equate men to dog shit, which hit the turbo accelerator in the early-1990s.
Imperator_Red 5y ago
Why do you think they're going to take it down? We're allowed to comment on cultural issues presented in fiction. You just can't say, "remember how Vince got that one girl in Entourage - try to emulate that scene."
CrazyHorseInvincible 5y ago
PortWine99 5y ago
post is very good. it shouldn’t be removed. Probably no other place will allow it, and it belongs here
poopidydoopscoop 5y ago
I don't see where else it belongs. The red pill is all about challenging the rules and norms, right? Leave it, this post would have changed my life at 19-21
Althoughw 5y ago
This mod. I like it.
LastRevision 5y ago
That's how I roll, baby.
CrazyHorseInvincible 5y ago
Which was precisely my point, although some of the young bros here seem to have a problem with reading comprehension.
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diffdedbed 5y ago
I thought it was they despised Homer because they were jealous of Marge having a family and a husband while they were both miserable together.
destraht 5y ago
I had Matt Groening's Childhood is Hell. He is no stranger to dysfunctional families.
LastRevision 5y ago
It could be- but that is implied, if anything.
ZachMeadows 5y ago
Going through all the comments, I no longer wonder why I don't watch series for more than 2-3 seasons... I can't stand the stupidity/hypocrisy in it...
Although I really liked The Shield and Breaking Bad. Those were the shit.
VasiliyZaitzev 5y ago
For all that dads do - keeping food on the table, a roof over everyone's head, the light and heat on - you know what they get for it?
At supper, they get the big piece of chicken.
(Hat Tip: Chris Rock)
Proto_Sigma 5y ago
And women don't want to give them the big piece of chicken! Who the fuck are you to take the big piece of chicken?
King_Neptune07 5y ago
You ever watch Boardwalk Empire? There's a scene where gangster Chalky White has a dinner for his daughter's Fiancè, an educated black doctor.
The wife is being kind of pretentious at dinner and kind of puts Chalky down for being uncultured. Chalky gets really pissed off and storms out because his hard work, and illegal, dangerous work even, is what put the food on the table and the roof over their heads.
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redpillcad 5y ago
Wives and kids can't possibly appreciate the sacrifices and efforts a man makes when creating a stable home where kids grow and thrive.
If you do choose this path you best be doing it for yourself because you won't get any pats on the back from outsiders nor the people who benefit. Looking for anything but internal gratification means you are Homer Simpon
Truedemocracy4 5y ago
It's because women are raised to complain and be heard, while men are taught to suck it up. It's why anyone talking about men's issues are laughed at, and women take priority. If you're a woman in the west and live like you're a victim you truly are brainwashed
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mutageno 5y ago
From Matt Groening wiki:
Yes, that Evergreen College.
RedDeadlift 5y ago
This is an eye opening analysis. The ineptness of fathers portrayed in modern media today is one of the top reasons that I refuse to have and raise children in the west. Why break my back working long hours to be not only unappreciated, but ridiculed and potentially enslaved if my wife decides to leave. If the culture in the west was similar to 30+ years ago, I would marry and have children. But not today, hell no.
NormalAndy 5y ago
The aim is to prevent people having kids- period.
TheStoicCrane 5y ago
Soft core population control. They're not even trying to hide it now. In Disney Superhero movies pop control has even become a central theme.
VasiliyZaitzev 5y ago
The stock characters are: the beautiful, together, hyper-achieving mom, the precocious kid, and the dopey, ignoramus father who is a danger to himself and others.
good_guy_submitter 5y ago
Bluepill as fuck m8. Just a different shade of blue.
Sparky159 5y ago
That seems almost like a black pill my dude. Blue pill would be to just accept it. To end your family line and destroy your family name is the blackest of pills
IRunYourRiver 5y ago
This is a central theme in No More Mr Nice Guy. The trap isn't society per se, but rather your acceptance of the model of modern manhood. The larger game is that this mindfuck is a sort of grand shit test. The men who can see through it are, by definition, fitter. It's the next stage in the evolution of human sexuality.
IvyExcess 5y ago
Expand on this idea please
IRunYourRiver 5y ago
What is the motivation behind the creation of a BP philosophy that emasculates men and puts the marital contract on a shaky foundation? It is objectively worse for kids and for women. Is it done out of spite or hatred or victimology? I don't believe so. I think it is done as a filter against socially inept men who allow media to dictate their reality. This allows sexual selection to occur on the basis of communication and social intelligence rather than pure physical attributes. Being able to understand language and social signals on multiple levels are valuable traits in the modern world. Our job, then, is not to play the victim but to learn how to respond properly.
scissor_me_timbers00 5y ago
It’s fucking disgusting. Once you understand red pill and also understand how crucial fathers are to a healthy social fabric and civilization, it’s truly nauseating to observe how much our culture self righteously denigrates fatherhood.
Auwardamn 5y ago
It’s pretty sad to see men just laugh along with it too. It truly is a brainwashing.
scissor_me_timbers00 5y ago
I mean, there’s degrees of it too. The 80s-90s Simpsons and sitcoms were pretty genuinely funny and didn’t seem like they had this smug snotty feminist vibe to them. Like home improvement or everybody loves Raymond or family guy. They weren’t too bad.
Nowadays it’s the ads. This is the shit that boils my blood. All the advertising nowadays is pure feminist propaganda. And it has this snotty attitude to it. Marketing departments are loaded to the gills with progressives, feminists and cucks. Just another bastion of the church of leftism.
Ads today are the truly subversive. Little skits with these totally spineless pussy husbands.
Tombert_Williams 5y ago
I recently saw a commercial-I can’t even remember what the fuck the product was. It was showing this montage of people each striving hard at their chosen fields of endeavor. It was intended to stir feelings of excellence, inspiration and triumph. The thing that caught my eye was that in the rapid succession of images, it showed a dude practicing his ballet immediately followed by a chick with boxing gloves working a punching bag. It was so quick it was almost subliminal. WTF. Cucking society at a blink and you’ll miss it pace.
scissor_me_timbers00 5y ago
I don’t think that one is so much intended to humiliate. That one is more about “fighting gender stereotypes”. They want to make it seem normal and mainstream that women do boxing and men do ballet. Of course theres a small minority of men and women who take up these hobbies. And that’s fine. It’s not like there’s some movement to restrict men from ballet and women from boxing classes. But these fucking marketing department activists think that unless it’s 50/50 all around then it’s a sign of the oppressive patriarchy. They think they’re doing gods work.
Tombert_Williams 5y ago
I bristle at all attempts at thought control by the puppet masters, even when the objective is nominally meritorious.
The message in the commercial was not meant to humiliate because it was not meant to be noticed. It was meant to bypass your conscious thought process and, through repetition, change your thoughts without you being aware.
Incel9876 5y ago
Only decent show you listed was Home Improvement, and even then, the wife and the marriage and the show go down the drain in the later seasons, after she goes back for her degree in psychology. Even by the 80s, most TV was poison, and by mid 90s, most movies as well. In fact, going as far back as Andy Griffith, you could see how the fix was in, to marry Andy off to the teacher who was all about her career, rather than any one of the hotties that he used to date or have pursue him.
Nicolas0631 5y ago
Ask yourself who is the coolest of the main characters in the serie ? Bart ! The guy act like a bad boy.
Bart has no obligations, he doesn't have to ever achieve anything. So he is cool. What ever completely stupid or retarded thing he is doing can be seen as being cool, free, outcome independance and confidence.
Homer is married with childs so he has to provides for the whole familly. When he goes on to do things for himself everybody paint him as a careless looser and when he tries to do great things for is familly, everybody paint him as a stupid looser.
When you think about it, Bart will become Homer the day he get married with kids.
MoDuReddit 5y ago
There's an episode with that.
Meterus 5y ago
So, when does Marge start screwing Moe? :(
rationalthought314 5y ago
The foolish husband trope was similar to kid movies where the kids are smart and the adults mostly clueless if not absolutely stupid. It was a way to make women viewers feel special about themselves like the kids watching those movies. Over time it morphed into a father who was either entirely useless or in other genres a complete abusive scumbag. We are no longer comfortable with having a decent father figure. He's like a Jeeves who has to be saved by his Wooster wife without whom he'd be completely lost.
In real life more men have become better off getting rid of the negative weight of their nagging wife, a wife who these is just as likely not to cook and clean while cheating on the side. That type of wife is rarely seen in our fiction for some reason...
lux_7 5y ago
Yeah, never really got big into the Simpsons. That family felt like a glorification of mediocrity.
TheDevilsAdvokaat 5y ago
Men are constantly being presented as fools and losers in the media, while women are being presented as clever hard working achievers.
In the Simpsons, Homer is an idiot. Bart is a naughty idiot. Lisa and Marge and Maggie are all clever and hard working.
Look at "Final space" - a new cartoon. About the best thing you can say about Gary is, his heart is in the right place. He's loyal and foolhardy - kind of like a dog. He's also an idiot. Meanwhile, the girl he is constantly drooling over, Quin, is presented as a clever achiever.
Look at "archer" - Lana is the best spy, Mallory runs the entire business, archer gets things done but is an idiot who lucks into success most of the time , Cyril is just a general idiot and loser.
This happens in advertising too. You'll constantly see men being belittled and women being praised.
Once the industry decided there was more money in pandering to women, they relentlessly portrayed women as successful and hardworking and men as bumbling idiots.
In reality it is men who are still running society - not because we are "privileged" but because it is men who are repairing things, designing things, maintaining things, building things. The few women who do get involved in these sort of areas are usually so rare they are held up as exemplars and then quietly retired when they later fuck up massively (For example designing a modest bridge that still manages to fall down, or acting as "police" and getting their partners killed while they cower inside a police car.)
It takes an enormous kind of cultural doublethink to be surrounded by a reality in which it is men who are the capable, hard working ones (and yes, this is still our reality) and women who are the bumbling, live-life-on-easy-mode gender and to present things the opposite way in the media and yet somehow the West does this. The fact that women never complain about or notice this discrepancy shows they are complacent about their privilege and that they have unrealistic estimations of themselves (Decades of false praise from women's magazines haven't helped this. "You're wonderful - you're a woman" "Why he isn't good enough for you" etc etc)
In return men are becoming increasingly disillusioned with their lot (This is literally what "taking a red pill" is about; stripping away illusion)
Some men are even deciding to walk away all together from the deal society is offering them (MGTOW)
The media had a big hand in all of this, yet the media could not continually misrepresent the truth about men and woman and society without the government's help - indeed it has become almost illegal to say anything negative about women; while it seems men are "fair game" for being made fun of.
Whereas you can understand why the media portray us negatively - it's about money, and that is the ONLY thing they care about - why is it that the government is also happy to misrepresent men? This I've never quite understood...
Is it that they genuinely believe the feminist propaganda? Is it because there are so many women now in government that they are unable to be countered? Are they unaware of or unconcerned about the effect of generations of men disillusioned by decades of being misrepresented in the media, cheated in court, sexually discriminated against in education and employment?
S-Blaze 5y ago
Money is just a bait for the 9.9% though. The 0.1% above it do it for control and power, an idiocracy easy to control.
redpill-visceral 5y ago
I dont know also. But if you check kids shows, many of them follow the same pattern, like Pepa Pig, what make me really concerned about the values this kids are growing to. Even some adults shows like Rick and Morty have the same perspective.
TheDevilsAdvokaat 5y ago
Yep. I was actually going to mention Rick and Morty but decided I was mentioning too many cartoons....but yeah same pattern; dad's an absolute loser and mum has all the brains.
[deleted] 5y ago
The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park.
But I actually really like Randy Marsh. I'm not saying he dgaf. Its actually that he puts himself at the top.
-Getting huge enough balls that he need a wheel barrow.
-Beating up baseball dads at games.
-Blowing a load to hand drawn internet.
He's fun and his frame is just at another level. And oddly that's something I have respect for just because the older I get the more jaded I get.
To me, it just ain't fun being a Debby Downer or PC. I think sometimes people get the idea you gotta be right or fit in or control what other people ought to be to get some respect. Randy Marsh don't fit in, he got my respect.
To others he might just sound silly but whatever. Novelty attracts. No one gives a shit about Marge except for her hairdo. People care about Homer cause he goes Doh.
People don't give a shit about Meg. They care about Stewie and Fat Man because they do new things. Their frame is stronger.
But when we take them serious in the framework of what an ideal dad should be, they all seem lame. But they're not to me. The perfect dad is a boring dad, one with probably a closet fantasy. The great father figure all do their own shit.
Hell, if I dress up like a girl and play Lorde and I don't get all "real" self-conscious about it, then I probably just made it in life. I'll take Randy over Sharon and Kyle any day.
Quick edit- I don't even think Randy got bitches. And it doesn't even matter.
If I was really smart, I'll say that if all these cartoons make us reflect about how we should be because of the degenerating and novel shit they put in front of us... then maybe deep inside we already know these are only shows because in reality we are much better than that. Real men are suppose to be respected and not needy. If there's anything that's true about these cartoon is that these characters are so aloof sometimes they don't seem needy. And that's a good thing.
Proto_Sigma 5y ago
Another Gem from this episode.
Patty: It's so typical of the big doofus to spoil it all.
Lisa: What Aunt Patty?
Patty: Oh, nothing dear. I'm just trashing your father.
Lisa: Well I wish you wouldn't, because, aside from the fact that he has the same frailties as all human beings, he's the only father I have. Therefore he is my model of manhood, and my estimation of him will govern the prospects of my adult relationships. So I hope you bear in mind that any knock at him is a knock at me, and I am far too young to defend myself against such onslaughts.
Patty:Mhhhmmm. Go watch your cartoon show dear.
SoulRebel99 5y ago
Great analysis of declining appreciation of fatherhood.
loz333 5y ago
This is a great analysis. Media Studies students would do well to read this and consider how the narratives on gender have evolved over the past 25 years. Like many shifts it happened over years, and I don't think it was deliberate either - they just saw the potential for slapstick humour with Homer and ran with it without ever really considering the impact on his value as a father. Then they had to expand to him going on crazy adventures as all they ran out of 'normal' family life situations to write about. And then eventually, he became the #1 representation in popular culture of an idiot Dad who has no clue about anything. If I were to write what you've written, I'd expand upon those ideas on how they ended up pushing Homer into this corner with writing the show for 25 years. If they'd actually considered ending The Simpsons after 7 seasons that could have been different.
Interested if anyone knows of an example of a show where the mother figure is a total screw-up?
estrogenmilk 5y ago
Mr's Mcfly from back to the future comes to mind being unhappy then changing once marty is sent back in time
politeAndLevelHed 5y ago
A number of shows have the mother portrayed as a drunk, such as:
Or overly controlling:
loz333 5y ago
Well, with Raymond I guess it's the Italian-American thing... Italian women definitely live up to the stereotype of being firey and strong-willed in my experience. But seems that they're very much the exceptions.
mallardcove Endorsed Contributor 5y ago
Family Guy was the same way.
ozenmacher 5y ago
Men are replaceable, always have been and always will. With the push towards fempowerment and “you go girl!”, a convenient enemy needed to be made. Best thing is to idgaf and live your life the way you want to do it. It is all men have left in the western world.
Brutal13 5y ago
IDGAF and abundance mentality. It’s enough to live the way you want
[deleted] 5y ago
[deleted]
LastRevision 5y ago
Thank you, brother.
justtenofusinhere 5y ago
The first few years of the Simpsons were truly subversive in this regard. The underlying narrative for Homer wasn't just that he couldn't pull off what he was trying to do, but that what he was trying to do, could never succeed in meeting his expectations.
Homer wasn't just failing to meet his own ideas, he has no idea and no direction. You are exactly right in that he was just trying to meet expectations he took from earlier tv tropes. But the reason it was never enough was because even if completed successfully, it would never be enough. Homer/men weren't being wage slaves because they thought it would make women happy, they were being wage slaves because they had no other idea of what they should be doing. Marge, and sisters, weren't disappointed because he could never pull it off, they were disappointed, because he was clueless and just didn't get it.
Even then, the late 80's, radical understanding of the flaws of "traditional" gender roles and cliche's could be found. Later, when Simpsons took off and became a cultural phenomenon, that truth was supplanted by pre-digested tripe and making Homer idiotic instead of someone who just doesn't get it.
destraht 5y ago
Its understandable to have just not gotten it 25 years ago but its become increasingly pathetic each year since. So perhaps the core concept of a guy who just doesn't get it isn't even believable for the writers anymore and so he simple has to be a moron, since he isn't a SJW. As the reality of the situation has become lower hanging fruit there has to be a reason why someone would work against their own interest. Thus a moron.
Auvergnat 5y ago
It’d be interesting to figure out when the shift in Homer’s character occurred. And why it did. Did they realise that episodes were funnier with a retarded version of the character? Did they just ride on the slowly spreading meme of the retarded patriarch or did they actually create it?
[deleted] 5y ago
[--removed--]
destraht 5y ago
I wonder though if a show in its 15th year or so just attracts a lower quality writer or less of the unrealized genius types. Would you rather take your chances being one of the hidden writers who made The Simpsons great from year 17-19 or blowing it out on a new show and getting top billing? For a very long time now I think that "wrote for the Simpsons for five years" sounds like the career move of someone wanted to coast.
ex_addict_bro 5y ago
Mate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cET_hHd8gzI
Tripletag 5y ago
You could also interpret Homer bringing home the dog as a moral lesson that all of his previous attempts to provide his family the perfect Christmas were sought in the superficial. Christmas lights and expensive presents are all materialistic thin veneers that are meant to be dwarfed by the feeling of togetherness and warmth during the coldest nights of the year. Bringing home the dog is essentially tasking his family with the collective responsibility of caring for a pet. How odd that accepting burden could cause such joy, right?
I will agree with OP, however, in his analysis of these sitcom format shows where the father is always an inconsiderate, emotionally stunted fool. Its part and parcel of the current political landscape that demonizes and ridicules traditional masculinity. My personal touch of nuance to this reading, however, is that on a personal level I feel the foolishness of the male figures can be vindicated through their absorption of a moral lesson. Which is often the case, except in the most cynical of shows.
This makes sense to me, as perfection is boring entertainment. The Simpsons, Married with Children, According to Jim and even Friends (I'm European, so I'm not an expert on some of the lesser known shows) are funny because the characters aren't beacons of shining virtue meant to be emulated, quite the opposite. They're imperfect, petty, stupid, the full spectrum of human negativity. Yet they often still awkwardly try to do good, to be a little bit better at the end of every episode and are therefore far more relatable to the audience than any image of perfection could ever be.
Homer Simpson is a Holy Fool, worthy of respect, precisely because he's a Fool. A Fool in the sense that he is trying to navigate a life that is stacked against him, but still tries to do it as best as he can with as much simple morality as he can muster up.
reluctantly_red 5y ago
That episode is still my favorite. I never fell off the roof but my first attempt at putting Christmas lights on the house I'd just bought for 60K the same year this episode first aired didn't end much better.
TheTrenTrannyTrain 5y ago
Very good analysis. I haven't watched The Simpsons in years, but I do remember the 1st episode, your writing has brought out things that I have overlooked. Thank you.
chiltonsquire 5y ago
Bob's burgers reverses this
archaeopter 5y ago
It is far easier to make jokes about one dimensional stereotypes (Homer as total buffoon) than to create humor around a multi-dimensional character (Homer in the first season or two). The writers went for the easy humor after the first few seasons and the characters on The Simpsons devolved into cardboard thin stereotypes. It's not just Homer - every character on the show did.
Hollywood writing is generally really lazy writing. It's when the writers actually go the extra step that viewers get generally compelling characters.
The issue, I think, is that the nature of the generic "dad" character has changed over the years from "straight man leader of the family" to "buffoon." Shows that relied on "straight man leader of the family" stereotypes back in the day were just as hackneyed in their own way as shows that rely on the "buffoon" stereotype today. Both are just sources for lazy writing and cheap gags. Shows that manage to go beyond that are the ones that succeed, and this article nails why The Simpsons was so beloved in the early seasons and viewed as crap now - it went from great writing to lazy writing.
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peaceful_strong_man 5y ago
Songs about mom vs dad. Being inspired by mom vs dad for celebrities and in songs. One of the songs most played on the radio right now is "High Hopes" by Panic At The Disco. They keep repeating "Momma said."