The Comedy of the American Dream

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Recommended: Changes to the American family in the past 100 years

The Comedy of the American Dream

In the early 1950s, the American dream was the nation's common heartbeat. Citizens longed for the ?ideal? family; most hid their shortcomings. The nuclear family included a mother, father, two children and a pet, all residing in suburbia, USA. Fathers were the breadwinners, and mothers stayed home, cooked, and cared for the kids. Each family included a boy and a girl, the former who always parted his hair to the side and the latter who always wore pigtails. The nation was convinced that if one worked hard enough, he or she could earn enough money to support the family and have plenty of professional satisfaction. Everyone sat down to dinner together nightly, and discussed his/her day, and innocence abounded?even pregnancy was considered a racy subject. But during the last fifty years, Americans realized that their dream of a perfect life was unrealistic, as the film Pleasantville depicts. Comic entertainment, such as The Simpsons and American Beauty, followed suit?deposing the American dream became the most relevant form of humor in America.

In Pleasantville (1998), Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play siblings who are trapped in a dysfunctional turn-of-the-millenium family. Maguire?s character deals with the situation by obsessively watching Pleasantville, a black-and-white rerun from the 1950s in which the American dream directed the script. Witherspoon?s character deals with her life by turning to a 1990s distraction: sex. The two are accidentally zapped into the television show by means of a magic remote. They are thrust into the roles of David and Mary Sue Parker, and they begin to make the most of their hiatus?Maguire blends into his role, while Witherspoon begins to teach ...

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...ks SKG, 1999.

Blair, Walter. ?The Requisites for American Humor.? 1937. What?s So Funny? Humor in American Culture. Ed.

Nancy A. Walker. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998. 91-105.

Claro, Christopher and Julie Klam. Comedy Central: The Essential Guide to Comedy. New York: Boulevard

Books, 1997.

Happy Days. American Broadcasting Company, 1974-84.

Haweis, H. R. ?American Humorists in 1882.? 1882. What?s So Funny? Humor in American Culture. Ed. Nancy

Walker. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998. 79-81.

I Love Lucy. Columbia Broadcasting System, 1951-61.

Pleasantville. Dir. Gary Roos. Perf. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. New Line Cinema, 1998.

Rubin, Louis D., Jr. ?The Great American Joke.? 1973. What?s So Funny? Humor in American Culture. Ed.

Nancy Walker. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998. 107-119.

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