The Bimbo

Most sitcoms star middle class people who live lives similar to those watching them. You don’t see much representation for upper and lower classes because it isn’t what viewers are comfortable with. When sitcom characters do encounter members of the other classes, like in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode, “The Bimbo”, the resulting portrayals are extremely stereotypical and destructive. From watching shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, viewers get the impression that all upper class people are stuck up.
The first and most obvious example is in the upper class themselves. These wealthy college professors are all very smart, but look down on everyone else. In the episode, they call the police in because of a robbery, but very quickly, viewers realize that they have no respect for Captain Holt and Detective Jake Peralta. They are not cooperative in the detectives’ efforts to help them because they believe that Holt and Jake are not capable of solving the mystery. The professors even insult them when a janitor found a clue, saying, “Perhaps you might want to hire Randy, or Randy, you could hire them. It seems like you all have basically the same skill set.” These interactions give viewers the impression that wealthy people are stuck up because they do not respect anyone else. They appear petty and rude, which is not a true portrayal of many upper class people, but it appears to be a popular one in the media.
The second way this message is sent is through the professors’ relationship with Captain Holt. Holt is married to one of the professors, and although he is the smartest person in the precinct, Kevin’s colleagues look down on him as a bimbo. They make fun of him for messing up the names of obscure historical figures or forgetting the plots of extremely old books. When Jake questions how they can think Holt is so stupid, Holt says, “Among Kevin’s peers, I’m a Jake” before telling Jake that Jake would be the Hitchcock, who is an extremely dumb and unpleasant character, of the upper class. They way the professors treat Holt make him feel self conscious and think that he is not worthy to be married to Kevin. The way the members of the upper class treat Holt, an extremely smart and educated man, makes the viewers feel like they are bullies who only care about themselves, and look down on others, no matter how smart they really are.
Ultimately, this aspect of the show puts us farther into the cave because viewers think that all upper class people think they are better than everyone else. This could make the middle and lower class resentful and distrustful of wealthy people. Portrayals like this are part of the reason there is conflict between classes. Lower classes feel that the upper classes are selfish and stuck up, and upper class people think that lower class people are uneducated. In the end, we need more portrayals of all the good wealthy people who use their wealth to help others, in order to help reverse the negative effects the media has had on our opinions.
