After reading Richard Butsch's article, Ralph, Fred, Archie and Homer, we applied the reading in class on Monday. Why do we keep re-creating the white working class buffoon? When you bring up a show in conversation, such as Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens, the response you'll most likely receive is "Oh yea! That show is pretty funny!" Analyzing the shows further reveal that they revolve around the working class. Every situation that occurs revolves around the workplace. For example, we watched an episode of King of Queens in class. Carrie, Doug's wife and the female lead, asked Doug to come to her boss's apartment for a little party. Doug said he couldn't make it because he had work. Later on, Doug was able to make it, and started embarrassing Carrie at her workplace. The shows revolve around the couples' jobs and make it apart of every situation because they are in the working class.
Another important take away is that the main characters, usually a married couple, have a likeness to them too. Most of the time, the male protagonist is a heavier set man and has tendencies to act goofy. The wife of the male character is usually skinny and sarcastic. When the male character messes something up, it usually embarrasses the female. Just like Doug when at Carrie's boss's apartment.
These trends have been going on since The Honeymooners. It is pretty hard to abandon stereotypes in television series because viewers would not recognize new ones. So, the idea of the working class buffoon stays afloat.
No comments:
Post a Comment