#stan smith
make the street smell like flowers.
white widow, fuck fame.
I’m passionate about cartoons, especially adult animation, so I decided to examine another cartoon trope.
Unlike the previous post, I don’t think the problems of this trope solely belong to the fans. The problem I have with Rick and Morty, BoJack Horseman, and Mad Men was with the fans, I thought the writing and characters was sophisticated and had an important and subversive message. Not so with the three above.
To be clear: it’s okay to enjoy these shows. I enjoy these shows and still watch them all the time. Family Guy least of all, but that’s because of how much it’s declined in quality, not because it’s offensive to me.
That being said, the trope we’re examining is the careless, selfish, bumbling patriarch. This usually comes along with the attractive, nagging, neglected, wife character.
The three characters listed above, Peter Griffin, Homer Simpson, and Stan Smith are all examples of this. The Simpsons is one of the first animated tv shows to use this trope, and Family Guy was largely based on the model of the Simpsons. American Dad, another similar Seth MacFarlane show came shortly after.
The problem with this trope is it does a massive disservice to both women and men.
The male characters in all three shows are consistently portrayed as being incapable of doing basic things like simple household tasks, they’re also stupid and reckless, unless the plot demands otherwise. The nagging wife is usually portrayed as smarter, although Francine Smith alternates between being smarter than Stan and so stupid she’s almost comatose as the plot dictates.
The problem with this is it persists in the idea that men need to be taken care of by women, that men go out and have adventures and work and do crazy things and in most episodes the women mind the home and clean up after their husband’s antics.
Granted part of this is a commentary on the problems with the nuclear family, but unlike many other subversive animated shows, the themes are not central to the story telling in a way that makes the message clear. The only character that significantly grows and changes for the better of these three is Stan. From season one to present he’s changed significantly and become less openly selfish and reckless than Peter or Homer.
If you watch season one of family guy or the Simpsons, you find a much more understated version of the character than in current episodes, they’ve gotten worse over time, likely because the writers have gotten bored, and because to keep the shock value going, the characters have to be more and more outlandish. Although don’t get me wrong, Stan constantly does appalling things.
The characters are also more believably connected to their families earlier on, as the shows progress, both Peter and Homer treat their wives and children worse and worse, but are still portrayed as lovable. At the end of every episode, all is forgiven, and the following week the abuse continues.
In family guy especially, in some episodes there’s straight up domestic violence from one party or the other, and the emotional abuse Peter directs towards Lois makes it clear it’s a show that hates its characters. Something similar happens in later episodes of the Simpsons.
In the current season Marge and Homer’s marriage is more in shambles than ever before and yet it drags on. They even tease us with divorce and rather than follow through, similar to the plot for Brian’s death in family guy, it was a bait and switch to make us think the show would change, significantly, permanently, only for them to go back on it so they can keep their tired formula as it is. And it gives us the same message about the characters. People can’t change.
This doesn’t work well with the formula of ending each episode on lovable buffoon learning a lesson, because the forgiveness at the end of the episode feels increasingly hollow, and the lesson learned, immediately forgotten.
While for some, these are “just” TV shows that shouldn’t be analyzed too closely, I personally think it’s important to be critical of the things we like and the media we consume.
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