Thursday, June 14, 2012

Modern Family

The variety of different character types in the show Modern Family makes it a hit comedy.  Almost every character has a foil to contradict each other. The show displays a family full of all different types of stereotypes. It is trying to portray the fact that traditional family is very hard to find now a days. Jay is the man of the house and his personality reflects that. He is a man’s man that doesn’t believe in showing his feelings or emotions. This is a foil to his son, Mitchell, who is homosexual. Jay cares a lot about how tough and rugged people view him as. In the episode Virgin Territory, Mitchell tells Jay’s co-workers that he didn’t actually hit a hole in one. Jay’s fake hole in one made him a legend in the office and established his dominance. Knowing that it was a bluff, Jay’s co-workers view him very differently. This was a huge blow to Jay’s ego.

            Another character that attributes to Jay’s comic effect is that he has a petite young South American wife who is much younger than him. His spicy wife Gloria supports his character because together they point out how Jay is the stereotypical old rich man in the family that chases a younger mate in order to compensate for his old deteriorating body. Gloria has son named Manny, he acts very mature for his age yet he is still babied by his mother. Jay sees fit to treat Manny as though he were a real man by being much tougher on him. Like when Jay tells Manny what he really thinks of his centerpiece project “Cards on the table, this is not your best work” You would think a father figure would support his wife’s son’s artistic views but Jay crushes Manny’s ideas relentlessly. All of these character’s help add to the comic effect of Jay on the show through their contradicting and stereotypical personalities

Switch

I am really glad I transfered to Norton High School. I was very questionable about my decision to come back to Norton at first. Adjusting back to a public school seemed like it would be impossible. I always kept in touch with my old friends but I thought I would be out of place coming back to school with them. I met tons of new people that made my adjustment so much easier. I had a majority of awesome teachers this year that made the year fun. Coach Currle really helped me get used to the school during the first month. Winning the TVL in basketball was great too. All in all, I feel like I made the right decision.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Old TV Shows

           The TV shows, “The Cosby Show” and “All in the Family” uniquely display socio-cultural problems while using comedy. The “Cosby Show” is based on the Huxtable family and focuses on Bill Cosby trying to teach his youngest son life lessons. The show was groundbreaking, as it was the first to profile an African-American family. Bill’s son believes he will still be rich whether he goes to college or not. Bill explains to his son that he will barely get by in life without a college degree. To show his son how, Bill uses Monopoly money and they argue about how much money he’ll end up with. In the show, “All in the Family”, Archie Bunker is an old, racist factory worker. He has a very short temper and is very easily irritated. He refuses to sell his house to an African-American real estate agent and claims he is a block buster. Also, when faced with a tough decision of who to fire at the factory, he chooses a Puerto Rican. Although he was the best worker, Archie couldn’t fire another white man. Although these shows were once a hit, they are very different from each other.