Married with Children

第一次聽到 “白（人）垃圾”這個詞，是從我的一位白人同學嘴裏，當時就愣住了，這麽BH。我不過是有興趣問問一個市區裏爵士樂的趕集，據說有音樂，有小攤，遊人如織，熱鬧。那位同學是當地的，就想問問什麽樣的人在那，結果看看他撇嘴吐出這麽一個詞，這位和著與這聚會有仇，嚇得我沒敢再問，去了也沒敢張揚。去了這麽一次，紅黃白黑綠色都有，到底怎麽樣的是”垃圾“呢？這個答案是在電視劇裏找到的。

Married with Children was the first US TV series impressed me when I came over to US. Broadcasted between 1987 to 1997, it is about a stereotypical “white trash” American family.  The description about the show (borrowed from imbd.com) says: “Al Bundy is a misanthropic women's shoe salesman with a miserable life. He hates his job, his wife Peggy is lazy, his son Bud is dysfunctional (especially with women), and his daughter Kelly is dimwitted and promiscuous.” The cast is excellent and the scripts are so admirable and reflected the best work from comedy screenwriters.  The show was nominated for many awards during the time.

 

The characters behaved so silly that they were hilarious. On the other hand, it is alarmingly true in all details here and there mirroring many people I met in life. All of us who immigrated to US with the blindly admiration of western culture or believed the whites being the best race, should watch the show to get back on the ground. Then you quickly realize that not all American are handsome, generous, smart and kind. They are mostly funny though. This show, after all, is a comedy.

 

When I watched the show back 15 years ago, I saw myself so often in “Amanda”, the character of the family friend and a neighbor. She thought she was totally above everyone and lacked the basic sense of humor, just to name two personal traits. Those, unfortunately, were so me at one time.  I am about Al and Peggy’s age now and my daughter about Kelly's age. I was reminded again how true the show could be in our life. I found my daughter’s pictures on her facebook site last week. Despite the fact she is a much smarter student than Kelly (well, Kelly is a blonde and my daughter  has100% asian face),  she had the exactly the signature look of Kelly, totally self absorbed and dumb with pretended innocence. 她自己覺得這照片美的冒泡，我都氣樂了。

 

I am wondering if any screenwriter is daring enough to break the political correctness and put the stereotypical Asian immigrant family on the screen as a comedy show. The father probably has no non-Chinese friends and is an invisible man at work. The mother probably has decorated the house with all the cheap crafts from China. Her only fun in life is to whip the kids to academic excellence. The family lives in an expensive large house without decent or even any real furniture. The kids are all skinny and wear glasses. They play piano despite the fact that they hate it totally. They all believe that they are americans. They go to Chinese sunday school to speak English with each other. Many of them favor blonde dolls or fancy about dating white girls. The entertainment has to be in Chinese. And the top three topics in any chinese parties are ivy leagues, stock and real estate. Oh yeah, there could be a very long long list of things that we feel OK doing in them daily but quite ridiculous when we watch them live on TV.