Stan vs. The Addams Family
I fucking love The Addams Family — I don’t really care much if you disagree. It’s probably the funniest “classic” sitcom of all time, and it’s pretty hard to beat Green Acres and The Dick Van Dyke Show. It only lasted two seasons, but it’s one of those shows I could watch repeatedly and not get sick of. This is either a testament to its quality or a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder — you decide! I actually wish it had lasted longer, because if you watch the episodes in order, the writers just go batshit insane; most episodes barely have a story and are full of Monty Python-esque absurdity. As much of a story guy as I am, I love that kind of humor when it’s done well, but I also acknowledge this is probably the main reason for the show’s ratings decline and cancellation.
Although I’d never really cite it as a conscious influence, I noticed something kind of crazy. Recently, TV Land has wedged random marathons onto the schedule (usually they only air it once on Saturday and Sunday), so I had a shitload of Addams Family episodes on the TiVo this week. I watched them at the same time I went through my fake band blog to spruce up old entries, and I realized what a big impact it’s had.
The past several months featured an epic story arc in which Girth discovers he fathered an illegitimate child. It might be the family dynamic that caused me to notice the similarities…there’s nothing really outright ripped off, except the general premise of many jokes. On The Addams Family, about 80% of the jokes are based on the idea that the family has their own version of reality that is pretty much at odds with the rest of the world. That’s the foundation of many jokes on the Abysmal blog, as well. Not all of them — probably not even a majority — but enough for me to take notice and reconsider the impact this show has had on me.
This post might contain the most Addams Family-derivative joke I stumbled across:
As I reached the storeroom, the sound of her voice wafted through the semi-open door. I paused to listen to her unfiltered advice: “Slow down, chica, just think about it: you’re gonna get flabby, your tits are gonna sag, you’re gonna be looser than Jessica Martin—”“That bitch!” the unknown girl snapped.
“You need to just terminate this pregnancy now. It’ll solve all your problems with Tommy, and you’ll keep that tight-ass body you’ve worked so hard on.”
“I’ll do it!”
I nodded with approval, even though I knew Renal couldn’t see me. She gave the exact same advice I would have—remarkably mature for a girl of her age.
(I guess I should also offer some backstory: shortly before finding out about this daughter, Girth founded a sham children’s charity to launder money he stole from some Nigerians during the band’s European tour last summer. When he started taking heat for something so flagrantly illegal, he decided to set up shop in the storeroom of an abortion clinic in Studio City, where he has his daughter and wife dispense advice to the teen girls who visit the clinic. Perhaps I should also mention that 90% of my reason for keeping the Abysmal blog has to do with letting me get all the truly weird shit out of my system, so I can write something fairly normal — at the very least, not alienating — when I do “real” writing.)
That’s a classic Addams Family structuring: part one, she gives horrible, shallow advice; part two, the recipient of said bad advice agrees*; part three, the classic reversal — rather than feeling shock and horror, Girth feels proud and believes this is a sign of his daughter’s maturity.
So there you have it: in addition to blatant theft from NewsRadio, The Simpsons, and Arrested Development (and some would argue This Is Spinal Tap and Tenacious D, though I have to disagree since I’ve consciously distanced myself from similarities to them), there’s also unconscious theft from The Addams Family. But hey, there’s some originality there, too! I don’t recall the Arrested Development episode where they have to break out of an 18th-century French jail. Although I’m pretty sure that was a MacGyver episode. Dammit!
*On The Addams Family, people usually have two reasons for going along with the Addamses: either they’re callously trying to get something out of the family, only to reach a breaking point and run away by the end of the episode, or they don’t fully understand the extent of the family’s weirdness and think they’re joking or being idiomatic or something.
Posted by Stan on April 19, 2008 3:37 PM | Permalink | Creative Works! | Digg It
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