Punch in the Face Meme

[dlgood]

Gakked from my Flist: Five fictional characters I'd like to punch in the face...

1. Brandon Walsh - There was something irritating and insufferable about any number of the 90210 characters. But for whatever reason, Brandon is the one I'd actually want to punch. Maybe it's Jason Priestly's hair. I'm not sure.


2. Dr. Sean McNamara - Pretty much every character on Nip/Tuck is a bastard. Christian is a giant dick. And Matt is a sociopath. But Sean's the one I most frequently want to smack. Probably because, watching the show, he's the character I expect something of and despite how f'ed up Troy is, Sean seems like the character that has no soul.


3. Alf - When I was a kid, I thought this show was really awesome. I've since caught re-runs and seen the commercials. And whoa boy do I wanna punch that stupid f@!$ing puppet.


4. Monroe Ficus - It's not like I have some hate on for the "Wacky Neighbor" character. Usually, I like these characters. But man, I never liked Monroe. Really, what the heck was that dude wearing that he made George Michael's Wham! outfits look ordinary. But in any case, for me, Too Close For Comfort would have been better with more Cosmic Cow and less Jim J. Bullock. Monroe!


5. Al Bundy - Al's crass and obnoxious, though he's pathetic and miserable way that makes him somewhat sympathetic despite it all. And I want to punch him. Really, it's not personal. It's just this - Ed O'Neill - as Al, makes this face that, as he's getting punched and he's going to just turn his head, wobble, and collapse into an unconscious heap. It's a tremendous bit of physical comedy. And if I have to punch him in the face to get it, well then so be it...

Comments

[ann1962]

You need not worry ;-)

I think I was in high school. I so knew the actor was gay and if I remember right he came out quite some time after the show ended. But they played his straight and I wondered why they used an actor who was so seemingly gay. I wonder how intentional this might have been. Now I am thinking with a title like Two Close for Comfort what they were implying. He was the wacky neighbour, and I always assumed they meant only the neighbour aspects, but now I wonder.

Ok, I just googled. http://www.meredy.com/cosmiccow/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Close_for_Comfort A transvestite neighbour died in the first episode allowing the daughters to be nearby. He wore a sock puppet when he created his cow comic hero. Hiding behind a mask of sorts. Oooh, maybe there is more here. They were located in San Fransisco. I wonder if Monroe was the evolution from Jack Tripper, someone straight acting gay, to someone gay acting straight. Social commentary about letting the gay out of the closet in slow Hollywood terms.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

For a show I haven't watched since I was nine, you are making me think it was actually a little bit deeper than the dopey sitcom I assumed it was in my memories of it...

Getting over fears.

[ann1962]

The 70's, early 80's tv shows in retrospect were doing much more daring things than TV is doing now. All in the Family blows me away now, absolutely amazed with what they got away with. MASH. Even Three's Company, for all of the talk of the jiggle shows put gay people in a good light. Was faked, but maybe that is all the American public could take at the time. Even the Waltons and Little House on the Prairie tackled issues of the day. In some ways the last two shows I list are a little dated because of that, and the contrast between the time portrayed and the issues they dealt with. The others not so much. The cultural shift from the 60's I think resonated for the next 10 years or so. I am constantly amazed on reruns. Now I actually want to watch To close for Comfort after this conversation. Mostly I just remember Ted Knight wearing university sweatshirts long before Bill Cosby started that on his show. And one of the best things I ever heard about The Bill Cosby show, and I don't know if it is correct or not, but it said basically that the Bill Cosby show taught the American Public that they didn't need to be scared of black people. I wonder if the disconnect was so large because of the separate cultures, that maybe there was a grain of truth in that.

Re: Getting over fears.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting thing to look at...

Cosby certainly wasn't the first show with black people in it. There were shows like the Jeffersons, Good Times, and What's Happening. The big thing, though, is that the Huxtable family of the Cosby show were portrayed as a middle class family that didn't feel surprised or out of place to be middle class or upper middle class. And nobody in the show's universe was surprised to see them there.

With the other shows, it still had the inner sense communicated that black people were poor, and black people with wealth... well that was something "special". Cosby had the good economic situation and a strong family, and it was totally taken for granted as a normal thing. And it was a mainstream show instead of a niche show.