The Doofus Dad

NY Times ^ | June 18, 2005 | JOHN TIERNEY

[neverdem]

One evening, after watching Homer Simpson wreck the family car at a monster-truck rally and plunge on a skateboard into Springfield Gorge, my 6-year-old son asked me, "Why are dads on TV so dumb?"

Having grown up with the omniscient fathers on "Leave It to Beaver" and "My Three Sons," I wanted to give a bemused yet authoritative answer, chuckling wisely as I explained the ways of the world. But this question left me feeling more like Homer Simpson.

Where did we fathers go wrong? We spend twice as much time with our kids as we did two decades ago, but on television we're oblivious ("Jimmy Neutron"), troubled ("The Sopranos"), deranged ("Malcolm in the Middle") and generally incompetent ("Everybody Loves Raymond"). Even if Dad has a good job, like the star of "Home Improvement," at home he's forever making messes that must be straightened out by Mom.

There have always been some bumbling fathers like Dagwood Bumstead and Fred Flintstone, but now they're the norm. A study by the National Fatherhood Initiative found that fathers are eight times more likely than mothers to be portrayed negatively on network television.

Ward Cleaver has been replaced by a stock character known in the trade as Doofus Dad. Explaining this change isn't easy, but if Ward were still around, he could puff his pipe and offer several theories.

The most obvious is that the television audience has splintered along gender lines, and sitcoms are now a female domain. Four out of five viewers of network sitcoms are women, and they apparently like to see Mom smarter than Dad.

[Capriole]

It's because feminists are trying to take over the world. They want to emasculate men in order to empower themselves, and laughing at them as incompetent does that more successfully than any number of legal decisions. Persuade the children that fathers are useless, helpless, unintelligent, and not worth listening to, and within a generation or two they won't pay even the least attention to what men have to contribute. Then the entire universe can be run by feminists.

[martin_fierro]

Devolution of Dad

[Paul Atreides]

The most obvious is that the television audience has splintered along gender lines, and sitcoms are now a female domain. Four out of five viewers of network sitcoms are women, and they apparently like to see Mom smarter than Dad.

The blame rests with feminazis. I don't recall the 50s sitcom mothers ever being treated as idiots.

[Kozak]

The reason is so that all those armies of kids out there WITHOUT a Dad, and all those women who made it so can feel unthreatened. After all if he's just a bumbling idiot, hey who needs one?

[Tribune7]

It's because the males of Hollywood aren't really interested in being dads nor do they think it's all that important.

[TheOtherOne]

very nice.

[neverdem]

LOL! How did you find that?

[The Westerner]

Agreed. Feminism caused this. Also contributing to its power was the anti-authority cult among the youth of the '60s. The art world just picked it up by osmosis. Hollywood doesn't run the world...just reacts to its dominant intellectual trends...which are started in the universities.

[Paul Atreides]

That reminds me: have you seen the commercials for the new Willy Wonka or Wonky Willy or whatever movie, starring Johnny Depp? He looks like Michael Jackson.

[Hank Rearden]

The male in commercials is always the idiot as well.

[Paul Atreides]

Have you seen the one of the dad attempting to build his kid a tree house, only to make a bumbling mess of it? It's an advertisement for minivans.

[BradyLS]

Good question. When I see "dumb TV dad" behaviour on the tube, I always ask myself, "Okay, now I wanna see the scene where the brilliant TV mom looks at the idiot TV dad and says to herself, 'Damn! I GOTTA have that man!' "

[sten]

The reasons for this are simple social engineering. The push was to promote the less masculine role model, dumbing down and neutering anything that shows an ounce of complete self reliance. Women role models, although improved over their 50s counter parts, are in the end still susceptible to physical violence. Ever wonder why big dogs and guns are always shown in a negative light? so the population will disarm themselves and leave themselves defenseless. Add a dose of paranoia thanks to the evening news and you have a general outcry for more government based protection.

As for the profiles of the people watching television... what crap. Sitcoms are not for women. That would imply men to not like to laugh. It would take a special kind of stupid to believe that spin. In reality, men probably stopped tuning in as they grew more and more disenchanted with being called 'stupid', 'incompetent', 'racist', 'homosexual', 'homophobe', 'women beaters', 'drunks', and 'deadbeats' .. to name just a few of the standard roles the men (and often times white men) are shown to play.

[Paul Atreides]

Another trend that I have noticed in advertising is how parents are portrayed, in terms of the child's education. Mom is shown taking an active interest in the child's education, while Dad is off in the back, as a casual observer. I know that many mothers are concerned about their childrens education, but so are the fathers.

[Zarro]

The male in commercials is always the idiot as well.

No kidding. I hate that commercial where the dad goes to the kitchen to make a meal for him and his son. Cue the Twilight Zone music as the dad panics, overcome by pots, pan and stove. He somehow manages to cook a couple of microwave hot dogs, though, so they don't starve.

Lame.

[Yosemitest]

So ... what about "Secondhand Lions"?

[Terpfen]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Family Guy or American Dad yet.

[Khurkris]

"I'll tell you what..."

[rmlew]

BS.
This is simply part of the culture war. Men are the opressor class and cannot speak up for themselves.

We are whipped dogs. We work, we get smacked around by the media, punished if we respond, and we still lick the hand with the stick in the hope of getting scraps in our new society.