The Bad Dads From Popular Culture Set the Bar Too Low for Real Fathers
Let’s raise the bar for ourselves
Think of a father figure from popular culture — who pops into your head?
It’s probably Homer Simpson, the world’s most famous fictional dad. Or maybe it’s his cartoon counterpart Peter Griffin, the cynical Al Bundy from Married With Children, clueless Ray Romano from Everybody Loves Raymond or the Modern Family manchild Phil Dunphy.
Let’s not even get started on Darth Vader.
The question is: why are all the father figures presented to us bad fathers in one way or another?
Of course, no parent is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, but most fathers we see on television run the gamut from thoughtless and lazy (if well-meaning) to downright negligent (and Homer Simpson has run across the entire spectrum during The Simpsons’ decades-long span on the air).
It’s no surprise that the examples I mentioned (Darth Vader aside) all come from comedies. It’s funnier to watch a hapless manchild screw up and then make amends all within a neat thirty minutes than it is to watch a perfect father know exactly what to say and do and make everything okay with a click of his fingers. I understand that.
