The thing that made Archie tolerable, if not sort of likable, is that while he qualifies as a bigot it doesn’t seem malicious on his part; he honestly doesn’t realize when he says something stupid or offensive and doesn’t understand why people get upset with him.
For example, if he needs a lawyer he’ll look for a Jewish name in the phone book because one of the many, many stereotypes he’s bought into is that Jews make great lawyers. I forget how the scene went and I can’t find it on YouTube right now. But anyway, when somebody (probably Mike) objected to that characterization, Archie was surprised; after all, he was saying something GOOD about Jews, right? What was the problem?
Which is not to say that he isn’t a total asshole sometimes. But the rest of the time he’s just clueless.
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Ah, the kiss that seared racist flesh. 🙂
What a show.
Magnificent.
You know, I never got to see “All in the Family” but this and the last video made me a big fan.
An all-time classic.
The thing that made Archie tolerable, if not sort of likable, is that while he qualifies as a bigot it doesn’t seem malicious on his part; he honestly doesn’t realize when he says something stupid or offensive and doesn’t understand why people get upset with him.
For example, if he needs a lawyer he’ll look for a Jewish name in the phone book because one of the many, many stereotypes he’s bought into is that Jews make great lawyers. I forget how the scene went and I can’t find it on YouTube right now. But anyway, when somebody (probably Mike) objected to that characterization, Archie was surprised; after all, he was saying something GOOD about Jews, right? What was the problem?
Which is not to say that he isn’t a total asshole sometimes. But the rest of the time he’s just clueless.