The Goode Family
Maybe you have heard about the new animated comedy featured on ABC in the US about a family of ‘do-gooders’ - vegans and environmentalists who live in a solar-powered, rain-water collecting home with their (evidently starved) vegan dog and adopted son. Here’s one of the promos:
Joshua Catcher of the Discerning Brute had some strong words to say about the first episode of the show. He writes:
This show is like all the meat-heads and bullies I’ve encountered growing up. These bullies mock the ’smart kids’ and the ‘do-gooders’ because it’s easy and it makes them feel better about not doing squat. Being lazy and careless is easy, especially if you can poke holes in straw-men, and dismiss others who are not apathetic as being deprived, crazy hippies.
Outside of the pinatas he’s helped create for this show, Mike Judge’s belief that do-gooders motivation is simply guilt, is a childish failure to understand the very real ecological, economic, and political crises we face. In other words, most activists know there is more at stake than their own feelings.
It has much less to do with the “opinions” of tree-huggers, and much more to do with the fact that they see real problems and they act to solve them, as opposed to those who would simply ridicule them for being proactive because they themselves feel powerless and dumb.
My impression of the show was that it often did not directly mock veganism in its first few episodes as being inherently wrong or ludicrous, aside from the vegan dog gag. Instead, it made some half-hearted jokes about their drive to do good, and along whatever storyline it was happening to follow.
I would have to agree with Joshua’s points, although I will say that it can be good for a movement to be able to laugh at itself when the humour is good-natured. But is the Goode Family all in ‘good fun’? I am not sure, but I do know that many viewers will relish the chance to laugh at vegans and hybrid-drivers. At this time of environmental upheaval, making fun of some of the best solutions individuals can take on in their home to do what they can for the planet could do more harm than good.
No Comments Yet