Fat slobs with hot wives on TV

[Duke]

I've noticed a recent trend.

Flip through any sitcom and most commercials and you'll find that the husband of the show/commercial is typically an overweight, hardworking joe and his wife is *****y/naggy and decently hot.

What's going on with this?

Examples: King of Queens, George Lopez Show, and many many more.

This is also apparent in lots of commercials. Why not show a wife with a husband of similar fitness and attractiveness?

Something about this stinks of corporate and political agenda to me. Any theories for why the men are made to look like overweight slobs and STILL have decently attractive wives?

I think the only true representation of what being a fat slob gets you was in the show, "Roseanne." The husband in that show ended up with... Roseanne.

"Married with Children" was also decently representative.

So what's with the new rash of shows with guys who are 5s and wives who are 8s ??

 

[XSilverStarboyX]

I notice this all the time. I think its funny how he can be the biggest fattest slob ever but the woman looks the same way she did when she was in highschool

 

[backbreaker]

Work with me here:

The average american guy is fat

If I am the avg american guy and I am trying to get "away from life" by chilling in front of my TV, I don't want to be reminded that I am a fat ****ing failure that is avg.

I guess it gives the average guy, or guys that are aspiring to be average, "hope" that if you do what avg guys do, suck up to your qusi-hot wife, you can life in sitcom world as well

I think that's why I like the sopranos so much. Yeah, Tony is fat, but he's a freakin MAN. And although his wife is attractive, she isn't a model or anything... it's more like real life... to a certain extent of course.

Also... No one wants to watch a show with unattractive women.. no matter how good the show is.

You would think that hey, let's just get 2 attractive people? But then, it wouldn't be accurate to how the world really is, because frankly, most americans aren't very attractive

 

[Duke]

Yeah that's exactly what I'm talking about.

What's the agenda at work in portraying the couples like this?

 

[backbreaker]

Well, the media is usually within direct corelation to how society is viewed by it's populas.

meaning, It's not like it's secret black hand molding the country how they wish it to be precieved... they put on TV what pays the bills.. and apparantly fat slobs with hot wifes pays the bills.

First I would say, the majority of TV is watched by women. That's the way it supposed to be.

Come to think of it, I don't know one guy that just sits in home, and flips channels all night long. I mean, we all have our shows that somehow we figure are good, but that's it. For me it's the sopranos, Bill Mahr and Law and order.. and hell, I download those from the internet (commercial free baby!)

I would play a video game (which I don't have time for, but if I did) before I just sit down in front of a TV and start flipping channels.. getting off topic.

However, but I don't know one woman that loves nothing more than to sit in front of the TV in her PJ's, with the biggest bowl of ice cream, watching TV.

One girl I know doesn't even have CABLE and will sit in front of the TV all day long.

So TV, besides the ESPN network of channels, is pretty much geared towards women viewers.

The most successful sitcoms are thoose that relate to their viewers.

If there was a sitcom of Bill Gates, making jokes about him "misplacing" 5 million dollars, his wife getting lost in the middle of nowhere in a Gulfstram Jet between Hawaii and Redmond, or any other thing that rich people would find funny but the average person would be like "yeah right", it wouldn't have a very long shelf life.

That's why Cheers, Married With children (my fav, even though I was young) and Friends (spit) are so successful.

Bars are popular places for people of age to hang out, and alot goes on there.. Married with children represents the perfect "HS couple"... 20 years later. Hot Cheerleader, HS FB Star. Friends..well.. NY is filled with AFC's that will chase women for 8 years

It's a catch-22.

You can't put on a TV show that shows the way things SHOULD be and it be wildly successful because it doesn't afflect the worlds reality

And

Guys watch too much TV and it seems these are the only role models out there

There are ways to break this never ending cycle.

Even though I was an AFC for the most part, I was lucky enough to have my dad, who as I got older, sit me aside and tought me the way things should be...

however, my dad will **** anythnig that walks (tried to have sex with my ex twice), so everything he says is geard towards ****ing as many women as possible. However, his groundwork is soundproof. He knew how women react to certain things, why they do what they do, and what their place should be in life. He just doesn't have a clue when it comes to LTR's... and to show how depleated the pool of real men are, I had to pull my best friend off to the side of a club one day, not too long ago, about 3 months ago... because he was dancing with my step mom and didn't know it. She's 31, he's 45. In all honesty.. if she wasn't my step mom... But she is, so that's that

Back to the subject at hand.

I will make sure I show my kid, if I am lucky enough to have a son, the things I have learned in my life. I will start at an early age.

The only reason kids/guys soak up info from the TV is because most parents don't give a damn or don't know how to talk to their kids, and the ones that do are so damn clueless

 

[LIME!]

The trend has been going on a long time since the honeymooners. Maybe fatness in men is "funny." It helps the self-esteem of men but also women (the more important demographic for sitcoms). The women are so hot yet what did it get them? Married to some fat moron.

 

[backbreaker]

To point to an example... I love the history channel. I mean LOVE it. I am a history freak.

However, something funny has happened over the last 4-6 months. The history channel... for the most part, stopped doing the whole history thing.

It's not because they ran out of **** to talk about. It's because the avg joe doesn't give a **** about what happend 1000's of years ago, but he wants to see cool cars and neat guns.

In the last month, I have seen all of 1 program that has anythnig to do with history come on the HISTORY channel. And it had to do with the Irish Mob.

So basically all guys give a **** about is the mob, guns and cars. Which is why we live in a fat, slobbish, stupid society

 

[Duke]

Good points all around.

I've noticed that on the history channel as well.

It's interesting LIME! brought up the honey-mooners because just now when I was talking to my friend over the phone, he brought that up too, so I guess it's not a recent trend.

I think Tony Soprano is a realistic example because while he IS fat and bald, he is anything but an AFC. He lives life how he wants and is a great example of a modern-day "alpha male." On the other hand, the guy from King of Queens is not only fat, but his wife walks all over him and he's stuck working a job for a moving company or something. No goals, no ambitions. YET his wife is a lot more attractive than he is.

I suppose this is a case of media reflecting "idealisms" in order to sell its products.

If they show a handsome, successful entrepreneur with a hot wife, the average joes that make up the television viewing populace would sneer and try to find the next show about "cool guns and cars."

It might also be psychologically less disturbing to the average married couples who watch this show. When the couples watch together, the man can believe the fantasy that he COULD have gotten a hotter wife, but chose his current one. The delusion for the man is "I have choice with women!"
Thus he feels happy, so he stays tuned in.

The woman of the couple thinks the same thing. "My average man could have gotten a hotter woman, but he chose me because I am special."

So they both feel good and continue watching so that companies can run their commercials for cingular phone plans, SUVs with cup-holders, and Geico insurance.

Well, it's a theory anyway. There are probably more reasons, but at the root of it, TV stations want the viewers to keep watching and not challenge the fragile (and mediocre) realities and beliefs of its viewers.

 

[Flabbergasped?]

The Learning Channel now has shows like "What not to Wear" and "Plastic Surgery: Life under the Knife". I remember when it had documentaries on marine biology. Simply put, Americans aren't interested in anything realistic and intelligent.

 

[backbreaker]

TLC... I ment to get on that.

At least you can present Cars in a historical manner.

WHAT THE **** DOES WHAT NOT TO WEAR HAVE TO DO WITH LEARNING!

I can just see the execs at TLC now.

Ex: (drunken).. fvck it. I mean.. no body watches our channel.. why watch us when you can watch the history channel or the discovery channel.. hell I watch the discovery channel more than I watch our bull**** ass TV channel

Just put some b!tches remaking some houses and some sweet kick ass cars and something exploding or some **** like that on TV from here on out

 

[So Many Ways]

I thought I was the only one who noticed that trend. My roommate and I have made into a running joke about the fat comedian with the hot wife.

Here are some more:
The Bernie Mac show, Bernie is fat and his wife is hot
That show with the guy that plays George Castanza, don't remember the name of it
Jim Belushi, I think that's his name, had a sitcom where he had a hot wife and he's a fat tub of lard himself.
I know there are other ones as well. The George Lopez show is pretty obvious, although George has lost some weight.

It's just TV, I don't take it all that seriously. Also notice that everyone in TV has large houses, condos or apartments?

 

[backbreaker]

well.. bernie mac is rich

 

[Yotsuya-san]

The Learning Channel now has shows like "What not to Wear" and "Plastic Surgery: Life under the Knife". I remember when it had documentaries on marine biology. Simply put, Americans aren't interested in anything realistic and intelligent.

Yeah, sad that even the so-called Learning channel has sunk to crap like that. But at least we still have the Discovery and History Channel.
and of course PBS,The first bastion of intelligent TV, still going strong after forty years.
Speaking of Marine Biology, I can hardly wait for the new Costeau (his son?)show that starts next month.

 

[Visceral]

If TV was realistic then it would be either so boring or so depressing that no-one would watch it.