KOTH worked because everyone was an utter moron. But they were sympathetic utter morons and were portrayed with compassion.
Beavis & Butthead, and I’d say Office Space as well, worked because they really tapped into what made Gen X tick at the time. The characters were identifiable even though they were far from sympathetic. B&B were latchkey kids raised on TV and OS was about discovering that the system is stacked against you.
This Goode Family.… I’ve never watched it and the copyright owner in the above link has blocked in here in South Korea. And I don’t give enough of a shit to track it down. But the Google shows me nothing identifiable nor sympathetic in the characters or situation. It reads like someone animated the more idiotic parts of Reddit.
Having watched several episodes back when it was on – I was very hopeful it’d be a gentle, playful ribbing of liberals and as sympathetic as KotH – it felt more like Mike Judge spent a week hanging out at Whole Foods, juice bars, and raw food restaurants, wrote down the most lefty-liberal-hippie things he heard, and made a show about how he imagined those peoples lives would be like. There’s some clever funny stuff there, but it’s not sympathetic. The characters are so ridiculously well meaning that they inevitably cause pain and destruction to everyone around them. It’s the opposite of compassion.
i feel King of the Hill took the lessons of The Simpsons and translated it to Texas: on the surface it’s a cast of hilarious, simple people, but every so often he would blindside you with some deep, touching moment or heartbreaking character development. over the course of the series, you really came to love all the characters for different reasons, even though it’s just an animated show.
Yea, I’ve got empathy for Cotton, because his life was so hard. But, that doesn’t mean I’d want to be around him. I’ll be over here drinking beer with Dale, because I love crazy ass conspiracy theories.
yeah, i wouldn’t want to hang with Cotton for any length of time. i think i’d prefer beers with Hank, Bill, or Peggy. and yeah, Dale’s conspiracy theories would be a hoot to hear him expound on.
I tried watching the first season of Archer but it just seemed to be another rich asshole in a funny costume punching petty criminals in the face…with arrows.
Am I missing something or did reading Marshall Law comics ruin me for the rest of the superhero genre?
If you hate Arrow, chances are you’ll love Archer. It’s about a spoiled rich kid punching bad guys in the face… while everyone else cracks jokes about what an asshole he is.
Decades is bingeing the Alfred Hitchcock Hour this weekend, and I just saw a marvelously disturbing episode from 1964 called “The Jar.”
Look at the credits!
Director: Norman Lloyd
Writer: James Bridges, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Cast:
Pat Buttram
Collin Wilcox Paxton
William Marshall
Jane Darwell
Carl Benton Reid
James Best
George Lindsey
Jocelyn Brando
Slim Pickens
Billy Barty
The story is that Pat Buttram buys a jar from Billy Barty at a carnival. The contents are mysterious. Pat Buttram becomes famous in his small town because of his jar. Everyone sees its contents as something different and it tends to make people very emotional. Then things start to get strange.
The jar and its contents is a marvelous prop. It appears to contain something like a head with hair on it, but not quite.
And let’s talk about George Lindsey. I saw him in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents some time ago in which he played a “heavy.” I found him to be very convincing and threatening in that role. Here, in this program, he plays a small-town simpleton and he has a monologue where he describes an episode from his past that will destroy you. In short, he is more than just “Goober,” he has range! He can act.