Posted on 02/17/2005 1:26:35 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
In this PC age of advertising, there is one group who can still be made the butt of jokes with total impunity: middle-aged white guys.
The latest installment was on display in a commercial I just caught. A befuddled guy is sitting on the couch, fiddling with the TV remote. His roughly 11-year old daughter enters, and he tells her he can't seem to switch to a given channel.
"Of course not," she curtly informs him, "it's been blocked." She goes on to inform the ignoramus that most channels can be blocked via the remote or by calling the cable company.
He asks whether channels can be unblocked, and once again she condescendingly explains they can, then snidely adds:
"But you're going to have to get Mom's permission."
He calls out for his wife. She enters, and he imploringly asks her if he can watch the channel. She glances at the screen, gives a curt "No!" then exits.
Another day in the life of Bumbling, Stumbling White Guy.
Yes, yes, I know: "don't be so touchy. I thought it was funny. Chill out. Relax." etc. Look, I have no problem if this was an equal-opportunity thing. But it does bug me that if the tables were turned cries of outrage would echo throughout the land.
PC ping to the Today Show ping list.
I barely watch tv, and since I know in real life that white men are not dumb, I don't take it personally.
It's not the insult I take personally - it's the hypocrisy. The people who make these ads would never dream of using anything but a white guy as the butt of their humor.
If this was reversed those militant feminists would be all over it but because it's a guy and a white guy at that, no one cares.
You are so right - this trend has been bothering me for several years - the Wonder Bread ad where the husband dances around like a little kid and his wife has to remind him that he needs the car keys, the ad where the husband is so dumb he goes out in the pouring rain and his wife has to remind him to use an umbrella. My "womyn" accquaintances come right out and say that it is "payback time". They think that because women were made to look stupid in the 50s & 60s that it is only fair that they do the same thing to white males. My answer to them is "Two wrongs don't make a right". They don't care.
I hate the Dell commercial with the guy acting like a total moron while his wife is waiting outside...........
Exactly.
It's funny.
Adds and shows like this are funny.
But they are overdone. Men are always portrayed as big stupid babies.
Very true! I've noticed the plethora of "dumb dads" in entertainment lately, and I hardly even watch TV. Still, it's hard not to notice the pattern: Al Bundy, Homer Simpson, and going back a few years, we have the likes of Ralph Kramden and Fred Flintstone. Don't get me wrong - at least in the first two cases, I find the characters and their shows hysterical. But imagine the reaction of the PC police if Peg, Marge, Alice and Wilma were the dumb, incompetent clods.
The only class of people in America with no special protection laws is the WHAM.
White, heterosexual, able-bodied, male.
Everyone else has special protections written into law.
I agree. I think it may be a general man thing, because I notice the same commercials on BET. For some reason, sex and man bashing sells.
We aren't dumb. Errr, uhmmm, Errrr...if you say so, cy.
:)
Yeah, same here... kinda like that dope playin music on his Dell Computer falling off an end-table. It is good for a laugh. I guess it is kind of a bite, the hypocrisy of it, but people today need to lighten the hell up.
Big news! Women spend most of the household income, actually, so the advertisers are taking advantage of their general contempt for "hubby." Nothing new there. Similar ads have been around since TV got started.
"Dufus Dad" is the most common role in advertising, unless you're selling beer or pickup trucks.
The dullard was probably a Evangelical Christian, no doubt... Anything in the background giving away the fact he lived in the South? KKK Hood? Confederate flag?
Do I gather that on BET the hapless males black?
LOL!
There are a LOT of those type ads.
You know it's getting bad when your wife notices and starts commenting about it, like mine did.
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