My nephew and I was watching an old episode of the Honeymooners (me and my husband love TV Land) and good ol' Ralph Cramden made is iconic threat to Alice. My 10 yo nephew asked me what did that mean and I told him it was a metaphor Ralph used for beating his wife. My nephew said to me that, that sounded horrible. I told him just to relax because it was just a joke. He said to me that Ralph looked angry and it didn't seem like a joke and that his teacher said that it is never OK to joke about hitting your wife. He told me that his teacher even once told the entire class that if daddy ever even joked about hurting mommy they should tell the school counselor right away.
So I explained to him that this show was a very very old show. That back in the time it was made it was more acceptable for a man to hit his wife. He asked me why was hitting some one funny back then. That's when I told him the humor was not in Ralph hitting Alice. I went further to explain that I believed that it was implied that Ralph never actually ever hit Alice. I told him also back then people generally accepted (wrongly) that men were smarter then women. The humor in the show was that Alice was actually very very intelligent and crafty at the same time extremely attractive. Ralph in the other hand was dimwitted, easily duped and rather goofy looking. Therefor the humor was that a man was constantly outsmarted by his wife to the point if frustration that all he could do is make idle threats of beating her. I also explained to him that it was implied by much of the context of the show that even though Ralph constantly threatened to beat Alice, he both loved her too much and was actually too scared to actually do so.
Is what I told my nephew correct? I would love to hear from some older people who remember that program about my assessment if the show.
So I explained to him that this show was a very very old show. That back in the time it was made it was more acceptable for a man to hit his wife. He asked me why was hitting some one funny back then. That's when I told him the humor was not in Ralph hitting Alice. I went further to explain that I believed that it was implied that Ralph never actually ever hit Alice. I told him also back then people generally accepted (wrongly) that men were smarter then women. The humor in the show was that Alice was actually very very intelligent and crafty at the same time extremely attractive. Ralph in the other hand was dimwitted, easily duped and rather goofy looking. Therefor the humor was that a man was constantly outsmarted by his wife to the point if frustration that all he could do is make idle threats of beating her. I also explained to him that it was implied by much of the context of the show that even though Ralph constantly threatened to beat Alice, he both loved her too much and was actually too scared to actually do so.
Is what I told my nephew correct? I would love to hear from some older people who remember that program about my assessment if the show.
