As I've said before, one of the reasons that it made me uncomfortable as a kid is because Kevin Arnold was the same age as me but he was getting it on with the neighbour girl. I wasn't doing that. He was also interested in sex and whatnot and that makes for uncomfortable family viewing. I don't want my family thinking that I share Kevin's interest in what a vagina looks like, particularly as I didn't have such an interest.
But watching it again, I realised a couple of other aspects that rubbed me the wrong way.
Kevin liked his father and even though the father wasn't an affectionate guy, they still had a good relationship. My father had recently died. So it's uncomfortable. This guy wants to hang out with his father but I don't have that opportunity.
Another aspect that put me off the show was the maudlin nature of the show. Kevin says a lot of corny shit.
Let me give an example. The episode I saw was the one wherein Kevin gets a job as a golf caddy. So actually, this is another example of something that I wasn't doing but Kevin was. I wasn't working. I was like 13. Nobody's working at 13. But Kevin Arnold is. Kevin Arnold is making me look bad. He's a dick.
So he's a caddy. And as it happens, he's caddying for his father's boss. In another amazing coincidence, his father is also there, playing golf with his boss.
His boss is a Jew. That's a detail that I didn't pick up on as a kid. And this boss is an asshole but Jack just puts up with it because it's his boss and he wants to keep his job. So he says, "Whatever you say, (name of boss)" a few times during the episode.
On the 18th hole, the boss throws his golf club into the water hazard in a rage and tells Arnold to go get it. Arnold doesn't want to but he looks at his dad and says, "Whatever you say, (name of boss)".
It's corny. The whole thing is corny. In real life, Jack wouldn't say that once, never mind make it his catch phrase. And Kevin saying it is obviously an attempt to be sentimental. Here's Kevin learning how to be a toadie from his dad.
But the worst example is at the very end of the episode. Kevin and his father are walking past the cafe in the country club and he looks at the £10 bill that he got as a tip for being a caddy and he turns to his father and says, "Can I buy you lunch, dad?"
Come on. Who would say this? It's sappy sitcom dialogue. I didn't see even a hint of reality in that suggestion.
And Jack accepts. You see him in the very last scene, in silhouette, you see Jack refusing the check and the waitress giving it to his son. It's ridiculous.
In real life, assuming that somebody has such a sentimental child who will obviously grow up to be gay, the father would have said, "No, we have to get going." Or assuming that they did have time, he would have said, "Yeah, okay but you keep your money." He wouldn't go along with this cornball bullshit.
Man, I have a cold and my finger is swelling again. Maybe this finger thing is weather-related. Arthritis can also be affected by cold weather so it's quite possible that that's what I have. I get all the old man diseases.
My lady friend is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. She's only staying for three days. I told her that she could stay longer but she didn't want to. Last year, she was here after Christmas and into the New Year. I think that she was here two weeks once.
I had to rush and buy her some Christmas gifts. I got some expensive coffee and some hot chocolate from Whittier or whatever. And I got a little artistic highland cow brooch.
I got her jewelry last year too and she returned it but that was bad. It was a Scottish terrier pendant. She showed me what she got in exchange and it was much better. One was actually something that I wanted to get her but it was sold out at the time.
Not that this cow brooch is a panty dropper but I also have the coffee and hot chocolate to soften the blow.
I don't have to buy stuff for anyone else because my sister and niece aren't talking to me any more. Maybe my mother died. Could be anything. But I respect their decision. My mother would send me messages like, "Why aren't you talking to me?". Gee, maybe you enjoy watching me jerk off, you sick fuck. But personally, I don't need to know why. I don't even want to know why. You don't want to talk, that's your decision. I'm not here to guilt anyone.
It's like with these hideous women from online dating. They don't tell you why they're not talking to you any more, they just stop. I don't send them repeat messages, "Hey, why aren't you talking to me any more?" They just aren't interested, and that's that. A year from now when they're back in Vietnam, wearing one of those conical hats, and pulling a plow through a rice field because their malnourished donkey just died, maybe they'll see the error of their ways. But it's no business of mine. Not that I think my family will end up in Vietnam but you never know, I guess.
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