Upon reflection some tv shows and movies of "a certain time" don't hold up to scrutiny.
And there are reasons.
We've grown A LOT as a society and that means the art reflecting it has evolved too.
This can make us torn between where we are as people and the pull of our nostalgia.
It doesn't mean we can't watch but it's all through a new lens.
Redditor Fracassi_Fanboy wanted to discuss the comedy shows of the past and the parts of their stories that can make us cringe. So they asked everyone:
"What's a common element from 90s or 00s sitcoms that has aged poorly?"
For me so much of it is production quality.
Good Lord we have come a long way,.
No $$$ Woes
sex and the city friendship GIFGiphy"People living far beyond their means."
ITeechYoKidsArt
"Sex And The City comes into my mind."
dirrna
"Everyone but Carrie was suppose to be wealthy in that show."
Rehash
"Clip shows. I am doing a binge on Family Ties currently and they have about one clip show per year. Same premise every time: a visitor arrives and the family reminisces about previous episode."
"I hated these back then, and I completely skip them in the re-watch now."
Spire2000
"Clip shows are just a remnant of another era. People didn't regularly tape or rewatch shows that weren't in reruns, so they were a chance to revisit a pivotal scene or funny moment."
"Sometimes they were used to remind viewers of older plot points before they were brought up again. Sometimes episode production was delayed and they needed to put together an episode quickly/cheaply, or a show was nearing the end of its run and they wanted additional episodes for syndication."
mmss
Intimacy Issues
"Sex being portrayed as a currency the wife doles out when she needs something from the husband or to reward him for obeying her."
-gggggggggg-
"I wonder how much of this was pure tv show fiction and how much actually reflected peoples sex lives at the time because of how women's sexuality was handled back then?"
"Like I’m married now and my wife is nothing like these tv characters who apparently would opt out of ever having sex if possible. But maybe if she was born a few decades earlier she would’ve been raised to be ashamed of her own feelings and actually not enjoy sex. Who knows."
LeonidasSpacemanMD
Beauty Standards
"The 'ugly' years for the gorgeous main character are usually just the actor in a fat suit and fake braces. Bonus points for glasses."
theothers1988
"Shows will still do this with the 'ugly' or 'nerdy' characters who are still crazy good looking. Elena in 'One Day at a Time' is a beautiful woman, but ya know, glasses and a pony tail."
StocktonBSmalls
"New Girl did a very poor job of trying to make Zooey friggin' Deschanel 'nerdy' because she has glasses and dresses 'quirky.'"
"Her glasses don’t even have lenses in them after the first couple episodes, because they wanted to show off her giant Bambi eyes."
whosgoingtohawaii
Space Issues
Classic Film Room GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy"I don’t know if this fits into this category but... their nice bedrooms!! The kids rooms are always HUGE! And so greatly decorated. I used to draw floor plans for my dream room at age 6! Lol."
cowdog987
"Mostly this is because they have to have room for the cameras of course."
Frank_chevelle
Everybody's homes were really spacious. It's odd.
Not in NYC
Season 3 Victory Dance GIF by FriendsGiphy“'Broke' characters or middle-class ones having really nice homes/apartments/being clearly comfortable."
tatakatakashi
Malcolm in the Middle managed this the best. Them not having any money was a pretty critical component of the show, even when it wasn't part of the plot."
Neconomancer
Useless
"The incompetent dad. The dad is always portrayed as an idiot that can't do anything without the wife telling him how."
lilbittypp
"That's because most family sitcoms in the 1980s-2000s were set up as a star vehicle for the comedian playing the dad. And "goofy idiot" is an easy sell for laughs. Ray Romano and Tim Allen and Jim Belushi and Kevin James (just as a small example) already had established comic personas as brash buffoons, and their sitcoms were designed to showcase them."
"The wife characters were there to be foils for the husband's hijinks, just beautiful plot devices for the most part."
"Just like how on I Love Lucy, Lucy was the fumbling buffoon who made everything spiral out of control and Ricky was there to pick up the pieces- the show was designed to showcase her. And why in Roseanne, Roseanne was far more likely to f**k up and have to learn a lesson while Dan said 'I told you so.'"
"The show was based on Roseanne' self-deprecating comedy. Or why Fran Fine is constantly making insane choices and misunderstanding things, but Mr. Sheffield stays cool and collected- the show was called The Nanny, not The Rich Widower."
Adelaidey
Smile More
"The uptight, joyless mother."
GW2RNGR
"Smart, patient, gorgeous, and perfect wife with lazy, stupid, and fat husband. (Marge and Homer, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Tim Allen had two in Jill and his work husband Al)."
BaronCoop
The Worst
"Everybody Loves Raymond was every single thing that's wrong with that era of sitcom. Every. Single. Thing."
Sc1F1Sup3rM0m
"That show makes me rage. Justice for Debra!"
Hopeless_Ramentic
"I remember seeing a comment about this show recently that brought up the interesting point how everyone on Ray's side of the family was the problem (not just the mother) and that Debra was a saint for putting up with them lol."
Chromattix
Creepy
"The playboy character who makes elaborate schemes to get with women."
Timely-Ad-1588
"I think I saw a blog one time that described how several of Barney Stinson’s schemes to get laid qualified as sex crimes."
brettmbr
"I got into a discussion with some friends about creepy womanizers in sitcoms, mostly who was worse, Barney Stinson or Dennis from IASIP. I firmly believe that if Glenn Howerton Rob McElhenny played Barney everyone would look at the character way differently. But because it's NPH doing it, it's just considered wacky hijinks."
FlokiTrainer
Does she Fly?
Las Vegas Blessing GIF by SpiegelworldGiphy"I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve never seen a single nun in my life. But somehow they’re everywhere in old sitcoms."
FeweF8
Nuns are funny. Let's keep nuns and lose almost everything else.
"People of Reddit, what is the dumbest reason your (ex) partner gave for cheating?"
So Much For "Till Death do Us Part".
"'You are dying! Do you really want me alone when you are dead?'"
"I was fighting cancer."
"He also told me that I was disgusting and he felt gross touching me."
"Luckily, both types of cancer are out of my life."- Mr_BigDuck
You Could Have At Least Left A Message!
"'You didn't answer your phone, was I supposed to spend Saturday night alone?'"
"I was at work, and so were you, we worked together you f*cking moron."- sixesand7s
Love At First Sight... Or Not
"She met someone that she immediately saw herself marrying."
"A month after we broke up she moved across the country, got married, called me to tell me she made a mistake, got divorced, moved back home, got pregnant and then got married again."- Zarrush
Gonna Have To Do Better Than That...
"Her response once I caught her was that she was flat-out horny."
"But after I said that’s why you have a boyfriend it was kinda funny how she went dead silent."- PuzzleheadedFarm7417
Um...
"He said that he cheated on me because I wanted to have too much sex."
"More than 5 years later I still can't find any logic in that."- Etrixie
So Much For Commitment
"'It's not like we're married'."
"Apparently I can't expect respect from someone who goes from calling me 'love of my life' to blowing her high school shag toy when he comes back to town."- FortGeek
Cartoons Button GIF by NickelodeonGiphyIt Never Is...
“'It’s not what you think it is!'”
"After I walked in on them making out."
"While she was on his lap."
"Both without shirts."- MrSirChris
Two Whole Weeks...
"I couldn't have sex for two weeks so I could recover from surgery so she thought it wasn't cheating'."- Henchforhire
What The Actual...
"My ex-girlfriend said I forgot you were alive."
"For details, I wasn't in the military, I was at university."- Ali8ly
scared star wars GIF by Hyper RPGGiphyThat Only Makes It Worse
"It was his kid's mom so it didn't count."- kittenxx96
"In Sickness And In Health"...Oops!
“'I have needs for sex you aren’t helping me with!'"
"Said to me the day I get home from spending a week in the hospital with kidney failure (lupus)."- EndlesslyUnfinished
We Can Only "Open" Our Hearts So Much...
"Well, I know this guy that was convinced he was in an open relationship, except he forgot to let his girlfriend know.."
"She found out 7 years into the 'open relationship'."
"With multiple women, in 4 continents."
"Oh he also had a book where he'd categorize them."- ProfessionalSpite866
Episode 2 Player GIF by ABC NetworkGiphySanta? SANTA?!?!
"My serial cheater ex-once told me while in a fit of tears."
"'I can't stop cheating, I just have so many issues, my mom lied about Santa when I was a kid and it really f*cked me up'."
"'I don't think I can trust people because of it so I cheat'."- pastelflorist
No One Likes To Be Treated Like A Piece Of Meat...
“It’s like if you order the same subway sandwich for a year, eventually you’re gonna get bored of it."
"But you try another flavor and when you go back to the original one it’s better than you remembered'.”
"Felt not so good being compared to a 6 inch BLT tbh."- NucularOrchid
Oh, nothing, except commitment and fidelity...
"'She was prettier than you, what did you expect?'"
"We were engaged and had been dating for 3 years."- kathjoy
No doubt all these poor people are grateful for dodging the bullet that staying with these people would have been.
Even if it can't quite make up for the pain and embarrassment these experiences brought them.
Redditor InsertBurnsHere wanted to discuss the world's most unresolved issues, so they asked:
"What is the biggest unsolved mystery in human history?"
The mysteries that haunt me are all murder stories.
When will we find the killers?!
The Absconded
Bank Robbery Heist GIF by ADWEEKGiphy"Who was behind the Gardner Museum heist? Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art was taken, and we have little to no clue who was behind it, and none of the paintings have surfaced."
Stillwater215
The Linear Truth
"In 1893, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchased some ancient stones with mysterious inscriptions on them at a flea market in Athens. On a later trip to the excavations at Knossos on the island of Crete, he recognized one of the symbols from his stones and began a study of the engraved tablets being uncovered at various sites on the island."
"He discovered two different systems, which he called Linear A and Linear B. While Linear B was deciphered in the early 1950s (it turned out to represent an early form of Greek), Linear A, above, has still not been deciphered."
"There is an entire culture of information that predates much of our history, a window into ancient humanity that is simply locked away from us because we don't know how to read it."
Atamask
Exact Dates
"An active one in the archaeology world is the exact time frame of when humans made it to the Americas. The date keeps getting pushed back with more controversial discoveries that then just turn to evidence as they pile up. It’s a fascinating story to see unfold."
DocAuch22
"Yeah I like this one too, I think many of the traces of early settlement are likely submerged. Sea levels were much lower during the ice age and the majority of human settlements are along the coasts so a huge piece of our history is probably lying on the seafloor completely undisturbed and possibly well preserved."
who519
Monarchs
"So the Monarch Butterfly migrates to Mexico and back every year. During the year there are a full 4 generations of butterflies that live and die during the journey. Upon returning back from Mexico, the butterfly manages to find the same trees it's relative started out at despite never having been there."
MasonS98
Dark Energy
Loop Space GIF by xponentialdesignGiphy"We like to think we understand the universe and that physics is a well grounded discipline, and in some ways it is. However we have no idea what dark matter or dark energy is and yet we think it makes up 27% and 68% of the universe respectively."
Ok_Passenger_4202
The Universe is vast and scary, like the sea.
The End
Kimmy Schmidt Netflix GIF by Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtGiphy"The final words of the emperor Titus were 'I have but one regret'. We don't know and never will what that regret was."
Ayearinbooks
5000 BCE
"That most of human history is undocumented and we will never know our entire history as a species. We didn’t start recording our history until 5000 BCE, we do know we shifted to agrarian societies around 10,000 BCE but beyond that we have no idea what we were like as a species, we will never know the undocumented parts of our history that spans 10s of thousands of years."
"We are often baffled by the technological progress of our ancient ancestors, like those in SE Asia who must have been masters of the sea to have colonized the variety of islands there and sailed vast stretches of ocean to land on Australia and New Zealand."
"What is ironic is we currently have an immense amount of information about our world today and the limited documented history of our early days as a species but that is only a small fraction of our entire history."
patlaff91
How Big?
"I don't know about 'biggest,' but I always thought the Voynich Manuscript was very interesting. A huge book written in an unknown language or cipher that has never been translated or decoded with diagrams of plant species that don't exist. Lots of theories surrounding it, but no definitive answers as to the origins or the content."
AbortionSurvivor777
Who made it?
"Not sure if it's THE biggest mystery. But the Antikythera mechanism is pretty wild."
"Dated to at least 60BC, possibly as old as 200BC, it's as complex as clockworks that didn't show up until the 1400s, over a millennium later!"
"It's just such a strange technological anomaly. Who made it? What else did they make and why haven't we found more stuff as advanced?"
SmokedMessias
Magic Tins
Video Recycle GIF by Jenny LorenzoGiphy"Why did we all just globally decide that those blue Dutch cookie tins hold sewing supplies?"
MysteriousStaff3388
"They’re large enough to hold sewing scissors, along with other notions, and made of metal so that the scissors and needles can’t poke through them. Or at least that’s the consensus r/sewing seems to have come to."
butter_milk
My grandma had like 20 of those tins.
Good times.
Do you have any mysteries to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor onlyusemefeets wanted to hear about the worst of everyone's family, so they asked:
"When did you find out that someone in your family is evil?"
The Reddit community rose to the occasion to shed some light on their family skeletons.
Money Issues
Wild West Fighting GIF by Buyout FootageGiphy"When they ripped apart 3 generations of my family almost immediately after my dad died for a measly $37,000. He's a millionaire. That kinda money is pocket change to him."
Good Lord
"When my 11 year old cousin got cancer."
"Her mom and boyfriend were shooting up her pain medicine. My cousin was in so much pain, she told her Doctors. Thats when the doctors stopped giving her mom a prescription and the nurses dispensed her pain meds at the hospital. Unfortunately they could not keep track of medication while at home so they reported it."
"CPS removed her. She died shortly after in foster care. Parents were never charged."
dead-parrots
Death
"When my dad died of covid my Aunt tried to say she was entitled to some stuff of his since it belonged in the family. She even called a lawyer on us and it was big deal and my mom didn't need to deal with that trying to raise 3 kids on her own so f**k her. She still bothers us about stuff and all it is like plates and some pictures and some other things."
"Sunken Cost Fallacy"
"My brother's addiction has led to him spinning some ridiculous stories. I'm not sure if he is very convincing or if my father chooses to believe him because of some 'sunken cost fallacy,' or he genuinely refuses to give up. But my brother has told lies and stories about me and my siblings to the point that he's the only child who talks to my father anymore. He convinced my father that I forced him to do drugs."
"But I knew my brother was evil when scared away my sister with physical violence. Last month, he went missing for a weeks only to turn up after flipping his car high on pills. My father doesn't know it yet, but my mother is planning on leaving him because my father chooses my brother over her. No one can convince my father that he's enabling. No one can convince my brother to stop. Hard drugs really destroy entire families."
sleepypanda59
A New Family
Frustrated Skip Bayless GIFGiphy"When he purposely excluded his 4 year old son (from a previous relationship) from his wedding to his new spouse, deleted all photos of his son from his social media, and legally signed away all parental rights. He has since had 2 more kids with said new spouse."
FeminaCanadiana
How can parents act that way?
Failure...
"I don't know about evil, but my dad got remarried and has a kid and stepson with his new spouse. All of that would be fine if he didn't pretend that none of us (offspring from first marriage) exist so he can pretend this family is the first family and we never happened."
"Once this realization hit me, I stopped contacting him, and once I stopped putting in the effort, everything else dissipated. We haven't spoken at all. He does not care in the least. I honestly believe that he wishes we never even existed. He is a failure as a father and as a man."
Raindrops_On-Roses
Oh Brother
"When my husband's brother (1 of 5 siblings) said he couldn't make it to our house to plan their mother's funeral because he had to work. Meanwhile we found out he wasn't working because we caught him on ring doorbell entering the moms house to rifle through it while the rest of us were planning the funeral at my house."
Legitimate_Energy257
The End
"When my ex said 'you've been a godsend, I want a divorce.' I had taken time off from work to take care of her parents. She told me this right before her dad died, and she inherited. She found a boyfriend while I was with her parents. She got the house by declaring I had abandoned it. I was with her parents."
rollercoaster_5
Evil
Season 5 Nickelodeon GIFGiphy"When my dad tried to throw my 6 month old sister when he was drunk. That man is a monster in disguise"
iinattanii
So many people really need to be screened for their abilities to raise kids.