4 ms·
And the women were also weak, whiny, indifferent or overzealous-- Everyone is flawed on that show, even ol' Painty Can Ned.
by Frondo 10y ago
And the women were also weak, whiny, indifferent or overzealous--
Everyone is flawed on that show, even ol' Painty Can Ned.
- mikeash 10y agoThere are some flattering male characters, too. Smithers is loyal, smart, ultra-competent, and his only real (albeit gigantic) flaw is being utterly blinded by love. Doctor Hibbert finds humor in unfortunate situations and is sometimes a bit of a mercenary, but he's highly competent and generally kind. Apu is a successful and extremely hard-working businessman whose catchphrase involves being polite to his customers, although he also tends to screw them over. Most of the male (and female) characters are ridiculous, because the show is fundamentally about ridiculous people. But that's not the only kind of character they have.
- asgardiator 10y agoSmithers is literally the archetypal sycophant.
- mikeash 10y agoI don't think that's true. A sycophant is motivated by the desire for advancement, and is typically insincere. Smithers is sincere and motivated by love, which makes him much more interesting.
- jonathankoren 10y agoApu is a stereotype. Now granted, he's on a show filled with stereotypes, and he's not always portrayed negatively, but he is still a stereotype. (In all honesty, sitcoms are all filled with stereotypes.) Smithers in the archetypical yes-man. Dr. Hibbert isn't so much a stereotype as much as a parody of Dr Huxtable.
- nerfhammer 10y agoEven if they had their own flaws, Lisa and Marge being morally superior to Homer and Bart is a long-running premise of the show.
- acqq 10y ago> morally superior I'd say, totally superior, this was in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_to_the_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_to_the_Future "Lisa has become the (first female) President of the United States and tries to get the country out of financial trouble." And I don't consider that "morality" was the major aspect of Lisa's superiority.
- SerpentJoe 10y agoBart becomes chief justice of the Supreme Court in the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie".
- strictnein 10y agoAnd Maggie
- rtpg 10y agoI guess so? Marge and Lisa both have major ticks/obsessions that kick in, just like the other two. When the plot is about Home and Bart, the other two play counterpoint. But the opposite is true. Homer just ends up getting the main role so often that we assume that to be the default state of the universe.