Bends Your Back, Drives You Nuts, and Makes Your Boobs Droop

I've been meaning to follow up and comment on the SAHD segment that was on The Colbert Report, on Comedy Central, a couple of weeks ago.  No better time than the present to do that, seeing that I just flipped through the channels of television to find the movie "Mr. Mom" on, hence the title of this post.

I'm not a fan of the segment.  I have left comments about it here and other places.  I've had people agree with me on my comments and people that have told me to lighten up and have a laugh. 

I know the comedy of the program, I get it, I don't need people to explain the television show to me. 

There was something I just didn't like about the segment and I have been trying to figure out why I felt this way.  Then I found this post and realized what it is that bothers me.  It was too easy for them.  I mean, I don't need Stephen Colbert to make fun of or mock me and other stay at home dads that way, I can get that at a playground, grocery store, or my in-laws house any day of the week. 

If the segment would have been produced the original way it was planned, I would most likely still be on the floor with tears in my eyes from laughter.

"Our angle is more or less the following:

Stephen is astonished to learn about the existence of stay-at-home-dads. He believes that they are  economically oppressed, exploited workers. They rise early, clean, cook, perform child-care and household-management duties -- all for no money!  He wonders whether they should be paid a decent wage.

(And by the way, for Stephen, women who stay at home don’t need to get paid because they innately know to do this work, and they enjoy it to boot.)"

That would have been original.  That would have been funny.  That is what I expect from The Colbert Report and Comedy Central.  That would have pushed the envelope and lived up to what the show is about, not just repeating some stereotypes in a movie filmed in 1983.

I love my children, I enjoy my job, and I try to not let people bring me down about it.  I just think that it gets to a point where the media, any media, from local news reports to fake news shows, beats a dead horse. 

Here comes the cheese....this horse just happens to be my little pony.

Comments

[James]

Really? It pissed you off that much? Colbert is a master of satire and that segment was done more to make fun of society than it was to portray an injustice on SAHD's. I live in Austin (the group they made fun of)but do not know those guys personally. I am a SAHD/WAHD, and as a writer, I can see right through their funny business. Lighten up. People will still respect you as a father who is taking care of his kids.

James Grayson
www.quirkee.com

[HoorayForSaturday]

As I say above, I know the show and I too can see through the funny business. That is why I watch that show and The Daily Show, for some comedy in the day.
I just thought it was par for the course, but after seeing the original production notes I thought it would have been better if the segment was done the way originally planned.
That would have been making fun of SAHD's, and I think even more so, the people that buy into the stereotype portrayed in the segment that aired.

[Dan Boles]

HFS- thanks for having a brain. It's bad enough that we have to fight the plaguing "Mr Mom" stereotype and educate 99% of the world that we do have a set. Gee, how do they think we participated in the procreation of our kids in the first place?

But then for the guys in Austin to do us no favors and make us look like opressed idiots with no penis, and think it's FUNNY?! Or productive? Where's the value in that? I have a sense of humor about my role as a SAHD (check out http://babiesandbeer.blogspot.com). I get Colbert's show - I watch it often. And I understand that publicity is publicity, but come on!

If we ever want to be truly respected and revered not only as parents, but as men too, we have to stop feeding the stereotype.