Dolts & Dullards

I was in Wal-Mart over the weekend and chanced upon a special DVD series of classic movies and TV shows. Often the word 'classic' is simply sales jargon designed to sell old crap that wouldn't otherwise move off the shelves, but I took a look at the DVDs anyway. I ended up buying six of them at the princely sum of $1.37 Canadian dollars each.

Amazing.

Several of the DVDs are of The Adventures Ozzie and Harriet TV show and of the Danny Thomas series Make Room for Daddy. I remember seeing these shows back in the 1950s and 1960s and I wanted to see if they had stood the test of time and whether they were as good as I remembered them.

I haven't seen all of the episodes yet, but I enjoyed what I have seen so far. In today's episodic TV, it is fashionable to portray adult males as dolts and dullards, barely able to function were it not for the wives and girlfriends who somehow manage to keep them from stepping off the curb of life. In contrast, the shows of yesteryear mostly portrayed fathers as responsible and likable human beings.

I can take a joke. I have been known to poke fun at myself. I know I am imperfect. I also know that imperfection is not unique to the male of the human species. I'm getting rather tired of having every male portrayed as an incompetent buffoon. I think it's time to turn the tables and start laughing at women again.

Let's not stop at blonde jokes. Let's dig up every nasty stereotype that has ever existed about women and make TV shows portraying women like that.

Actually, why bother? Men have nothing to prove. Most of us don't have inferiority complexes and we don't have to elevate ourselves by denigrating women.

Isn't it nice to take the high road?