Evil Media: King of Queens

I've been watching the King of Queens recently - I've missed many a show on its first run, but that's what syndication is for. I've never really cared for it... but I watch it to see just how offensive it really is.

It was and obviously is very popular. Doug Heffernen is an overweight IPS driver, his wife Carrie is a slender, very attractive woman who could probably have her pick, but as is the way in these shows, she's fine with tubby Doug. (Why is it we never see sitcoms with handsome men and tubby women to whom they're devoted?) Carrie is secretary to a law firm (or perhaps at this point in the episode I'm discussing below, she's secretary at a real estate firm, at any rate, she's employed).

Anyway, the episode I'm wathing this very minute is called "Queasy Rider." Doug wants to get a motorcyle, and his wife says, "No, you can't get it." No discussion, etc. She says this in front of his friends, he gets all embarrassed because they make emasculation jokes, and he gets the bike anyway.

And frankly, I'm with him. It's a running cliche that when two people get married, the woman is always a nag out to change the husband - you can't play golf this weekend, you can't buy a motorcylce, et al - and the husband always comes across as henpecked. And I'm like - the guy's got a job, if he can afford it he should get the motorcyle. Equally, if the woman can afford it, she can get a motorcycle!

Now, obviously, this is a sitcom, so things have to come out in a funny way. In this episode, turns out Doug doesn't actually like the bike - he gets rained on, people laugh at him, and he continually runs into the wall of the garage.

Meantime, Carrie and her father (an annoying man who lives in their basement) have a discussion. "I made him get rid of it because it was too dangerous."

And father says, "What's worse is someone resenting you forever for making them give up their dream."

So at that point Carrie gets a clue and goes back and buys the cycle for her hubby. But of course, Doug has to admit that he doesn't like the bike. So, they're going to return it (and she expects to get the same price she paid for it - like that ever happens!)

But...she does apologize to hubby... but not for ordering him around, but rather for making her "buzzer" sound, which he finds demeaning.

I've seen a few other episodes, and they're little better. In one, Doug and his friend Deacon find a sum of money - $5,000 I think it was. If he gives it to the wife, she'll just make him invest it, so instead, he and Deacon blow it all in one day and a variety of things - renting a Lamborghini, playing golf at a ritzy place, et al...

In other words, Doug is always really stupid, and Carrie is sensible but bossy, and Doug always finds ways of doing things behind her back. The 2000s version of I Love Lucy and other sitcoms where the ditzy wife was always trying to do stuff despite sensible hubby's adavice against it.

After two Kings of Queen's comes two Everybody Loves Raymond's, another show which I really despise. But I'll talk about that in a future entry.