Kevin can f himself offers insight into the stereotypical family sitcom

We talked a lot in the last episode about the series & its correlation with real-world elements but didn’t have to chance to talk about its commentary on the typical family sitcom. & boy, does it have a lot to say on that particular topic.

So the whole refined wife & uncouth husband trope in sitcoms is nothing new. In fact, historians have traced it all the way back to the honeymooners in the 50’s with ralph kramden always threatening to punch his wife but why has that become the norm in so many series over the years from the honeymooners to king of queens? I actually did some digging on this & could not find anything but presumably it just boils down to gender stereotypes. It’s just the most common societal perception: men tend to be a bit more oafish while women appear to have a few more notches on their maturity belt.

of course, not every sitcom religiously adheres to these antiquated tropes: i mean green acres had a depiction of a husband who (while a bit of a hothead) was never intentionally disrespectful of his wife. He may have been a bad farmer but at least he was a good husband. Going back a bit further, i love lucy also was a depiction of a pretty healthy marriage (at least vis a vis the titular couple). but overall, you can’t deny the portrayal of most marriages in sitcoms over the years has been less than ideal. & maybe that’s kind of the point. i mean after all, men & women are quite different; it’s highly illogical that they would see eye to eye on almost every issue but it does feel like even in the modern day, we still don’t have a lot of depictions of healthy marriages.

I mean peter & lois both deserve to be in prison by now, homer & marge should’ve divorced a long time ago & they never revealed how donna died but I have no doubt there was foul play involved (which is basically an inverse of kevin can f himself if she succeeded). Speaking of which, the fact that they not only lied about why she was let go from the show & never even provided an explanation on how she died is just such lazy writing & pretty much deserving of cancellation.

But despite the perpetuating of this trope, it makes you step back & wonder why a girl would marry a guy they can’t stand all that much. I mean we all make mistakes, sure, but you’d think at some point they would finally wise up & divorce them (assuming he’s set in his ways & incapable of change or growth, of course). Now, sure, maybe some of them stick it out for the kids but at a certain point, you got to think about your own well-being. Not that sitcoms always have to be realistic (in fact, many are the furthest thing from it) but I think it’s important to have healthy marriage representation on tv as well.

I’m just saying for once, don’t be afraid to color outside the lines. Let’s see a sitcom where the wife always making fart jokes & scratching herself while the husband is cooking dinner while listing to beethoven, bach or whoever. The format they had worked for a long time but nothing lasts forever. It’s time to reinvent the contemporary family sitcom. Only then will we be able to continue enjoying quality tv for many years to come.