The Proud Family

"It is what it is! "

It was a pretty entertaining show, but I hated how hard it pushed Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male .

edited 6th Sep '12 7:55:32 PM by Topazan

It did? I thought they just liked abusing Oscar.

I guess. Call it what you like, but I did not find it funny at all, and it made what was otherwise a decent show almost unwatchable for me.

I agree. I couldn't stand how Oscar was abused all the time by Trudy and especially Suga Mama, and they were Karma Houdini jerkasses! The secne that infuriated me the most was the wrestling episode at the end when Trudy just attacks Oscar for something that wasn't even his fault.

I don't know, Oscar really annoyed me so I didn't mind his abuse. Most of the time he was overeacting way too much whenever Penny was just hanging out with someone,he got my nerves. And what about Papi? He pretty much insulted Sugar Mama on a regular basis!

edited 7th Sep '12 7:15:25 PM by FFmax

The show will always be memorable as the one with the evil ashy people. Beyond that I kind of think fondly of it but really don't know why, as I don't remember much about it.

Never saw this Matrix-Music downloading thing, but I do remember it used that weather reporter as a stand in for The Devil, the baseball episode and that Ink Suit Actress Kyla was in another show my cousin watched. edit:One On One?

edited 9th Sep '12 10:26:08 AM by Cider

The weatherman was Al Roker

The main reason why this show is hated is because of the Unfortunate Implications it had when it tried to tackle race issues head on

Unfortunate Implications?

@ 31

Well Oscar did deserve at least some of the abuse he got since he wasn't that innocent either. He did get on my nerves when he always tried to keep Penny from dating boys. Papi was a bigger jerkass than Oscar since he always insulted Suga Mama in almost every episode he appeared in.

And one more thing, Wizard Kelly ,along with Dijonay, Lacienega, and the talking baby are considered scrappies to me since they always acted like jerks and never got punished for it (well except for Dijonay and Lacienega, who got theirs every once in a while)

Oscar had his flaws, but he wasn't abusive, especially not to Trudy, so I don't think he "deserved" to be abused. The fact that he was a negative sitcom "bumbling dad" stereotype made it worse, not better for me. Either way, I think the show would have been much better without this dynamic.

IIRC, Papi insulting Suga Mama was an unfunny running gag, but it wasn't really abuse since he only did it because she couldn't understand him.

Like I said though, it was overall a pretty good show, and I'm glad some of you enjoyed it more than I did.

It sounds like one of those traditional cases where the wife's Women Are Wiser gimmick comes off as a liability for them to get away with anything because their spouse is a Bumbling Dad whose always meant to be wrong.

Similarly, Homer, Peter and Stan are terrible imbecilic people, but it doesn't justify Marge, Lois and Francine, who are often only a smidgeon sounder than them, to always have a pedestal and never get called out for being equally abusive, hypocritical jerks.

edited 9th Sep '12 1:12:14 PM by Psi001

Yeah, sounds about right. The Proud Family was way more egregious than those shows, though.

I guess that's why the other characters don't bother me as much. They may have gotten away with a lot, but they weren't portrayed as always right the way Trudy and to a lesser extent Suga Mama were. Dijonay could be a thoughtless Jerkass, and Lacienega was a Rich Bitch, but they were supposed to be seen that way. Wizard Kelly was basically an antagonist. I always thought the way he used his money and power to bully the Prouds with impunity was some kind of social commentary.

edited 9th Sep '12 1:38:11 PM by Topazan

The only "joke" I hated was when Wizard Kelly and a few kept on bringing back the time when Oscar missed the shot at at the basketball game. Oscar may have been a jerkass at times, but the other characters weren't saints themselves, heck even Penny had her moments when she was a Jerkass. I guess the writers wanted to teach kids morals, even if it did involve making at least everyone jerkasses and abusing Oscar.

And about the double standard abuse that Oscar got do you think anyone would even want to continue watching the show if the abuse Oscar got was reversed?

I think the show did at least occasionally Lampshade the Hypocritical Humor of it all and that Trudy was a jerk in how she treated him, just she still got away with it. YMMV whether spotlighting the fact the character is a Jerk Sue makes it better or worse.

edited 9th Sep '12 8:50:03 PM by Psi001

Did they? Can you give any examples?

I think some are listed on Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male page.

edited 9th Sep '12 8:48:25 PM by Psi001

I don't see any. Here's the entry on The Proud Family:

The Proud Family. Oscar is beaten up, sometimes twice an episode, and usually by his wife or mother. Most of the times it's because he flirts with other women, which is wrong, but if Trudy ever flirts with another man and Oscar says something about it, he is portrayed as over-reacting. One particulary Egregious example from one episode: Trudy makes a joke about leaving Oscar for Denzel Washington. Everyone laughs. Oscar makes a joke about leaving her for Halle Berry. Trudy and Penny glare at him before Trudy drops his foot, which was bandaged after an earlier accident.

Remember that Penny is the show's protagonist. While flawed, she's the one the audience is supposed to identify with.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:07:42 PM by Topazan

Never mind then. That was me going by a secondary source for that one rather than what I had seen of the show (hense "I think").

The whole 'abuse is funny if a girl is hurting a boy' schtick is hard to utilize without utilizing that hypocritical standard. It tends to work better with Henpecked Husband scenarios since it goes by the fact that the woman actually is an unsympathetic jerk, even if not to the extent if she was male (eg. Looney Tunes shorts such as His Bitter Half, which are pretty funny in execution). When you're trying to buy that character off as likeable however it's hard to get around the hypocrisy.

This is a key reason so many Tsundres in animes are so polarizing. The character is often designed to be loveable despite often shown heavily assaulting and intimidating some poor shmuck for very petty reasons or even just because of their horrible temper. Even without the gender concern, that's high order bullying.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:20:22 PM by Psi001

And its the reason why I hate them. Seriously, why are certain concepts so difficult for people to realize and understand?

It was an okay show early on, but then it just got too surreal and the teenage characters' dialogue became too laden with slang terms that I doubt anyone in the real world would ever use with a straight face. And, yes, the double standards bugged me a lot, too.

Although I discussed this before, the only problem I had with this show was the frequent Karma Houdini's (Talking Baby, Suga Mama, Wizard Kelly) who never got punished while Oscar never get away with anything. This sends the wrong message to viewers, saying its okay for you to do bad and for someone to suffer as long as someone takes the cake.

edited 20th Sep '12 8:39:40 PM by MsCC93

I don't know, don't a lot of adult animated shows have karma houdinis? Granted, Proud family is for kids and adults, but still...

Most of said shows gain similar critism over it though.