How T.V. Sitcoms Often Portray Men as Bumbling Idiots For the past 60 years television has had a powerful impact on all sides of life from our entertainment to forming stereotypes against people. Modern T.V. Situational Comedies portray men as clumsy fools. The Crazy Romantic Fool The Crazy romantic, the guy who does crazy things and looks like a fool trying to woo the girl. How I Met Your Mother is a Classic example of the crazy romantic as the narrator tells his kids of his adventures dating in his early life trying to find the right girl. However, along the way he has foolish moments of stupidity. Like in season 5 when he after eating a pizza he knows is probably bad, from a poor pizza place, he is inflicted with as he describes gut wrenching agonizing pain. The Big Bang Theory’s Leonard is a character who from episode 1 is in love with the girl who lives across the hall, Penny. This attraction is the driving force for the first few seasons and during which Leonard shows he is quite clumsy and foolish while trying to court Penny. When they are “beta testing their relationship” in season 5 Leonard shoots himself in the foot when Penny kisses him.T.V. shows use the romantic character as a comic relief and a driving force for the show. The Partying …show more content…
How I Met Your Mother character Barney Stinson is obsessed with girls so much so that he has learned goofy tricks like magic to woo them. He also at times just acts ridiculous and vacuous when confronted with a beautiful woman. An example of this is him getting alcohol thrown at his face in. The “bro” character is often portrayed as more collected than, say the romantics but they too are also subject to being slapped or beaten for their actions. So less of a bumbling idiot, but idiotic in their actions or attempts for what they were trying to
In the film Mean Girls, teenager Cady Heron was home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. When her family moves to the U.S., Cady finally gets a taste of public school and learns a vital lesson about the cruelty involved in the tightly knit cliques of high school. She eventually finds herself being drug into a group of “the worst people you will ever meet”, The Plastics; and soon realizes how they came to get their name.
McCarthy, Tyler. “Sitcom success a reflection of changing society.” Daily Campus. 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
The culture and society of the American South can be categorized into a variety of groups through stereotypes from outsiders, politicians, music and among other things. To help depict the American South, literature and films that we have watched in class such as Mandingo, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Color Purple, Gods Little Acre, Tomorrow, Jezebel, The Littlest Rebel and with special focus on O Brother Where Art Thou will help capture and reflect southern culture to those not accustomed to the ways of southern society.
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
On September 20, 1984 a show aired that changed the way we view gender roles on television. Television still perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes and in reflecting them TV reinforces them by presenting them as the norm (Chandler, 1). The Cosby Show, challenged the typical gender stereotyping of television, daring to go against the dominant social values of its time period. In its challenge of the dominant social view, the show redefined the portrayal of male and female roles in television. It redefined the gender role in the work place, in social expectations, and in household responsibilities. The Cosby Show supported Freidan in her view of “castigating the phony happy housewife heroine of the women’s magazines” (Douglas 136).
In American culture today, women continue the struggle of identifying what their roles in society are supposed to be. Our culture has been sending mixed messages to the modern day female, creating a sense of uneasiness to an already confusing and stressful world. Although women today are encouraged more than ever to be independent, educated, and successful, they are often times shamed for having done just that. Career driven females are frequently at risk of being labeled as bossy, unfeminine, or selfish for competing in many career paths that were once dominated by men. A popular medium in our culture such as television continues to have significant influences as to how people should aspire to live their lives. Viewers develop connections with relatable characters and to relationship dynamics displayed within their favorite shows. Fictional characters and relationships can ultimately influence a viewer’s fashion sense, social and political opinion, and attitude towards gender norms. Since the days of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie, where women were commonly portrayed as being the endearing mischievous housewife, television shows have evolved in order to reflect real life women who were becoming increasingly more independent, educated, and career oriented throughout the subsequent decades. New genres of television are introduced, such as the workplace comedy, where women are not only career oriented, but eventually transition into positions of power.
Directed by John Hughes, The Breakfast Club is a film that portrays the social conflicts students face during high school. Set in Shermer, Illinois five students attend detention on a Saturday and are required to write an essay about themselves and “who they think they are” (The Breakfast Club). Over the length of the day the five students, who are all extremely different, become closer. They become closer by talking, breaking the rules, and standing up for each other. By the end of the movie the students have written one essay breaking the stereotypes they fit in to. These stereotypes they have received are, the “athlete,” “princess,” “criminal,” “brain,” and “basket case.” According to Kathryn Feltey and Jean-Anne Sutherland, “when stereotypes
For many years, racial and ethnic stereotypes have been portrayed on multiple television programs. These stereotypes are still illustrated on a day-to-day basis even though times have changed. Racial or ethnic stereotypes should not be perpetuated on certain television programs. These stereotypes provide false information about groups, do not account for every person, allow older generations to influence younger generations, create tension between groups, and affect people in many ways.
Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations
In American society, gender stereotypes are highly discussed amongst individuals and stereotypes as a whole remain a central focus of art. Creatively, Rob Reiner addresses stereotypes in Reiner’s film Stand by Me by shedding light on multiple stereotypes. In a scene from Stand by Me entitled “Milk Money,” Chris, one of the main characters from the film, cries to Gordon because the school Chris attends holds the misconception about Chris stealing the milk money. Near the end of this scene, Chris says, “I guess I’m just a pussy, huh?” (find time). Chris’ inquiry raises questions about the use of the word “pussy” and its negative connotation. Throughout the film, Gordon, Chris, Vern, and Teddy, the main characters in the movie, frequently use terms to describe each other, which characterize the stereotypes in American culture. In Reiner’s movie, Reiner utilizes these four young boys to adeptly illustrate the manner in which boys and men should act. Additionally, Reiner employs the main characters in the film to display various stereotypes that society holds for both men and women. Reiner’s film shows that men have a preconceived and detrimental belief that showing emotion is a sign of femininity and therefore weakness because society sets unrealistic standards for men.
In this film we see many typical high school behaviors such as cliques, cattiness, and popularity (or lack there of) issues. Many scenes in this movie have an array of stereotypes. Sometimes they are clearly stated and others just seen through attitudes of the actors/actresses character. Also through out we follow the main clique “the plastics” and they have this image they have to uphold. Be perfect, skinny, the best at everything, and in sync with everything they do; or they wont uphold their status. I chose this film because I think it shows a lot of what we have learned in this course and how it is in real life. Clearly the film is exaggerated but much of
The classic network era is one of the most easily recognizable and distinct eras in television history. Both Bewitched and I Love Lucy were huge sitcoms that took up issues of gender representation and patriarchy in their programs through the representations of the main male and female characters of their respective series. While both of these series pushed boundaries when it came to the representation of women, in the end, the costuming of these men and women, how the main characters are introduced, and the domestic environment that the atmosphere takes place in, all serve to reinforce traditional gender norms and reveals that patriarchy is dependent on maintaining dominant ideas about masculinity and femininity.
Merriam-Webster defines Stereotype as, “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Cliff Notes defines Gender Stereotypes as, “generalizations about the gender attributes, differences, roles of individuals and/or groups.” Homer Simpson from the TV show “The Simpsons” he sometimes does set himself for living the American Dream, but in an funny and humor way of teasing it in a good way, not a bad way. According to IMDb, The Simpsons has been a running show since 1989 and half of the original cast is continuing to play their own character since its opening. The Simpsons has won a total of 157 awards which is incredible. It’s won awards from Primetime Emmy, Annie Awards, American Comedy Awards, and many more. The TV show “The Simpsons” relies on the character Homer Simpson and uses the gender stereotype for humor. This stereotype is
Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities. Stereotyping women is not only rampant in the adult world; it also flourishes in the kiddie universe as well.
Television comedies have been on the air for decades, and throughout this time many different shows have come and gone. Due to the dominance of these shows, comedies are one of the biggest draws on television. There are many different types of comedies, each with their own unique characteristics and features that differentiate them from others and lead to their popularity. Whether the show is a sketch comedy, sitcom, mockumentary or dramatic comedy, each utilizes different types of humour, locations, themes, and situations to appeal to the audience; which is likely why they are so popular today.