I mean its a series where he reveiws 90's sitcoms I asusme he will eventually get there. I wonder if the horniness of the Nanny still plays out well through today's viewpoint instead of just nostalgia goggles for those goddamn amazing outfits.
RE: 36:50 as a gay boy in the 90s I can say that wasn't exclusive to girls, my dad used to watch Home Improvement because he liked Tim Allen's comedy, I used to watch it because Randy was my first crush.
As a bi nonbinary person I still don’t really understand how I felt about JTT but I liked him and I really liked Randy. Even though my family thought I was a girl at the time they still always compared me to Randy cause we had a lot in common.
@@johnpeters5987 I’m not sure how you can be so certain about the opinions of “the lord” when the earliest accounts of the New Testament we have don’t appear till nearly 70 years later IN GREECE! Imagine if the only sources we had for the life of George Washington were written in Spanish...during the 19th century... by Mexicans I certainly wouldn’t be going around proclaiming I knew for certain what the first President believed.
@@yonatanbeer3475 clearly it's not clear, owing to the fact that I clearly don't have an ornithology degree to be able to say clearly what the physical appearance of the smol picture of the smol bird 🐦 is, clearly. Savvy?
@Daniel Martinez, while I had had "had," had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the original poster. Surly, you can see this, as clearly as you may presume that you can't. 🕵️♂️👀
When you talked about the theoretical principles behind slapstick humor, I immediately thought of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". In IASIP, the brunt of the slapstick humor is derived from Dee, the only female character in the gang, getting hurt and I wonder if the show creators did this on purpose as their show is meant to satirize typical sitcoms. Great video!
They did a whole episode of satirizing domestic violence and pedófila in sitcoms. I forgot what episode but it's the one where they spy on Charlie's and Macs mom's.
I fucking love always sunny for this exact reason, all characters are bad people and they're all treated the same, Dee and Dennis are both "progressive" charlie is uh, charlie, and Frank and Mac are both conservatives but none of them are automatically good or bad because of this.
@@cryptid-king I always considered Dee and particularly Dennis to be way worse than Mac or Charlie. Dennis seems so mean-spirited at times, while Mac and Charlie are just dumbasses who don't really understand the world around them. Frank is just chaotic evil :P
They are Probably Just Trying to write a funny Show and You do that By Playing to Your Strengths. Dee is Probably good at Slapstick, it's Funny so they write to her ability. If You're a Comedian And You Write To Be provocative, inspirational,or To advocate A Cause or Ideology You're Shit is Probably not Funny. It's Not easy, and I don't think They are exploring The depths Of Dee's character as it relates to Comedy as An A Cultural Force when They Put her in a brace and Make Her Date a "tard" Don't Think They wrote Dayman As a Me too Anthem Either.
I think, at its best, Home Improvement is less pro-patriarchy and more about negotiating a soft landing for conservatives adjusting to a more progressive world. That's a worthy project - there's still cause for issue with the terms of negotiations, you can certainly get bad takes there.
@@thebrutusmars I haven't seen the full series, only the first 4 or so seasons, but I didn't get that feeling. Allen's character is very overtly right, but those aspects of his character often are shown to be wrong and he needs to change in order to connect with his family.
ChibiFighter I grew up watching Home Improvement when it aired and it’s still unironically one of my favorite shows, and a lot of that has to do with her performance.
I used to love this show as a kid. This is great work, man. I posit that Tims dad faked his death, assumed the "Wilson Wilson" persona and kept looking after his son.
And never forgave his brother for selling the original hot rod. But then Tim's dad couldn't really comment, having just put his family through a pointless trauma all so he could... reinvent himself as a modern sage.... possibly because Tim was the only son who needed his guidance into adulthood. But also maybe because Tims brothers were lost causes and Tim wasn't. Here you have a man who feels he's failed his son to such an extent that he completely sheds his whole identity and rebuilds who he is from the ground up as the exact person he feels his son needs. All in an attempt to mitigate the damage he feels he inflicted on his son and worries he will one day see in his grandchildren. But Tim knows his own father's face. So this new man the Tailer patriarch invents must have his face obscured. He spends his time in the garden, waiting for a time where Tim needs his advise, trying to ignore his fatherly instincts, trying to ignore that voice in his head that screams at him to tell his son the truth. To ask for forgiveness. But how can such a thing be forgiven? Faking ones death is a one way street. Even of Tim can get passed the pain his father caused him... what about the pain he caused his mother? What about his brothers? Tim would be justified in cutting him out forever. Then what would he have? He grows to hate his new persona. He hadn't anticipated the depersonalisation; he starts to forget who he was before he took on this new identity. He sees flashes of a happy marriage and a happy life that no longer belong to him when he blinks. He has no roots here. No friends. Just a son who would hate him if he showed his face. This isn't his house. These aren't his clothes... these things belong to Wilson. He stands in the bathroom every day, after dispensing his advice, staring at himself in the mirror. "Who are you Wilson Wilson? Why did you steal my golden years?" I like it. Little dark but good.
Gotta say though, that Wilson gag was sooooo effective because back then you couldn't just google what somebody looked like. I remember being so blown away when I finally saw the actor years later lol.
In the 90s my dad was a brown skinned immigrant man with a woodworking shop and undiagnosed autism, who was slowly becoming more and more religious. His favorite sitcom was Family Matters (I think he related to Steve Urkel) but his second favorite was Home Improvement. I was his only biological child, a girl, would watch him watching Home Improvement, studying his reactions to this house filled with boys. It was such a quiet repetitive ritual..... So mundane....that I never really thought about how this show shaped him. It definitely did.
Home Improvement Didn't Shape anyone, and You Sat There as a Child watching a Mudane Show to see Your father's Reactions. Its Not A Ritual, it's Not Majic, Your dad was Just Being Entertained. Why You're dad's Skin Color and origin even relevant to what You Said, or Your Gender for that Matter. It's almost Like You Can't Help But Be racist.
@@timsayre8321 dude... Why are you replying hatefully to so many people? You're belittling and demeaning people for sharing their thoughts and insights and experiences- literally the entire purpose of the comment section. What's truly ironic is that you can't even manage first grade spelling, grammar, and punctuation, yet you're angrily and hatefully insisting that it's everyone else who is wrong. Dunning-Kruger Syndrome in full effect here. I don't know why you're so bitter and hateful, but I hope things get better for you.
@@timsayre8321 If your spelling is that atrocious, please don't say anything. Not only is your argument insane, it really adds to the cringe with the hideous grammar. I don't care if English is your 54th language, spare yourself the embarrassment.
Word lol I was legit just thinking the same thing when I thought back to the Roseanne essay 👍 Stuff I either never cared to watch or actively avoided but I still enjoyed the run down a lot.
Same. I never cared for any of the shows Jose has done cause for a Black family in the US 90s Mayo sitcom #367546732 got...tiring when there started to be slightly more diverse options available. Thus I missed a lot of the other possible readings of shows so it's actually interesting to see them and Jose does a good job at it.
@@ThexDynastxQueen Then you missed out on alot of shows because of white people being in it lol. Maybe it's just me but i love any and all shows that are entertaining. I can enjoy Martin and Frasier, Seinfeld and Living Single etc. But I guess not everyone can be diverse and versatile like me.
Well if you don't care about this classic show Idk man lol but I would suggest if you finally have an interest watch it and enjoy. It's a very funny show with heart and a great cast.
Personally, I feel like a better use for Wilson would have been if he was written as a figment of Tim's imagination. A reflection of Tim's subconscious trying to give him deeper insight into himself. Just a thought
that would mean that tim had all the info wilson has given him over the years already in his head which seems unlikely since tim isn't the academic type
When I was a young adult watching this in a conservative household, I always thought Wilson was trying to nudge Tim in a more progressive direction by relating to him on his own terms. Now I'm pretty sure that, if that's true, it's too subtle for anybody stuck in old gender norms.
That's the way I always saw Wilson too. He brings up "manly history" to speak Tim's language but he usually advises him to consider Jill's side of things and be less stuck in his macho ways. Though, like most "wise" TV characters how well the writers pull that off depends on the episode.
that's the vibe i got from the examples given here tbh? this works extremely well when talking to men who buy into gender roles to some extent. i don't know if the audience is supposed to be persuaded, or if the writers were, in lieu of tim allen's conservatism, dropping advice in a way to people who interact with men like allen's character. you can't go in swinging against deeply held beliefs, you chip away and attempt to make a greek statue out of a square block of marble, if you'll excuse the metaphor
@@goober69er Totally agree. I think Jose did Wilson dirty with this interpretation. It was like he was attacking the intellectual argument of traditional masculinity itself through a Wilson strawman. Like an easy punching bag to beat out his frustration of patriarchy on. Honestly it was a little irritating watching him beat up on poor Wilson like that when I always thought that Wilson was one of the most progressive, empathic and helpful elements of that show.
Ok im really into a far left person watching media that resonates with a more conservative audience without like.... looking down on it thats an interesting perceptive that I dont think ive seen befor outside of the metatext for King of the Hill
@@BobardeZanzibar Judge may not be left leaning, i dont really know, but king of the hill is hugely apolitical with meta criticisms of politics in general. EX: how Hank can't bring himself to vote for Bush because of his handshake, making fun of the masculine identity that Hank associates with the GOP while not actually making fun of the politics involved in the election. Luanne even contemplates voting for a communist because she finds him attractive. The show is making fun the ways the characters themselves are shallow in what they actually look for in their politics.
The ending is perfect, the home represents their marriage, and them carrying the house with them means the marriage will stay strong. The point the show had been trying to make was that men and women should work side by side as equals, so them reaching a middle ground is very fitting.
That is all media. Nothing is perfect, there is good and bad in most media. I might have had to admit that some good is only as much as a single line or joke, or episode in an entire series, but even the worst of shows has a win or two in the run. And what you might see as perfect surely has a joke or a scene or an episode that the fans of it will tell you, "Yeah, just skip that one, it's the show's worst". Jose is only doing what should be considered normal, it's the folks who CAN'T do what he is doing here that scare the hell out of me.
I challenge him to do atlas shrugged. My mom was obsessed with rand and made me read the whole thing, did it twice in fact, even got the pleasure of writing essays singing praise for her shitty ass-sniffing scholarship program competition. Was brainwashed well and good, didn't help dad also passed on rush Limbaughs every word. Got radicalized within like 2 yr of moving out and talking to...anyone else. Anyway, yea. My challenge: try to read that 1100 pg waste of trees, cover to cover. Feel your eyes trying to crawl into your head as she describes in excruciating detail every one of her capitalist lady wet dreams in all their hard, manly, *whisper* Aryan glory. The absolute deluge of sneering smugness phlegming out of every word for sure has some kind of biohazardous effect on your neurons. Meanwhile, the slightest glimmer of non-boot-licking thought that, against all odds, arises within what can only very marginally be called "characters", it is immediately brutally stomped out as the 1 dimensional cardboard cutout is subjected to ayn's hilariously pathetic revenge porn. And every unbearable scene is delivered with the subtlety of a looneytool anvil falling on one of those depressing windchime mall kiosks. Cause god forbid the current reader briefly awake from their open eyed hibernation to form a single concious thought. And then, just as you begin to see the the light at the end of the colon, when there's just a stack of pages to endure, that's when then you hit it. 34,000 words. One single unbroken fucking speech, essentialy ayn rands full personal manifesto, as thinly veiled as possible. Dozens upon dozens of pages summed up entirely in "capitalism good. anything else is dum. we told you so, haha, enjoy dying soyboys". The smugness spikes to chernobyl levels of holier than thou. Your soul withers as you scrape your corneas across thousands of dense text blocks. It is the absolute worst propaganda can be: boring. I still shudder at the memory. Just read daylight atheisms blog, they impressively roast and break down every chapter. Save yourself. It's too late for me
He's real stilupid with miniscule understanding of political science trying to pass himself off as someone who knows everything but sound cringe worthy at his best....
Upon re-watch I really love your comment about how having daughters can sometimes give men the opportunity to explore more sides of themselves. It reminded me of when I was a little girl and I would play hairstylist with my dad putting a dozen or so tiny hair ties. clips and bows until his hair looked pretty. He never complained, in fact he played into it. He wanted to be that stereotypical MANS-man but when it came to my sister and I we could get him to drop that act completely as see a soft and compassionate father.
Nice video. Home Improvement isn't by any means a groundbreaking masterpiece but I appreciate what it's trying to do. Tim is a very conventionally masculine guy whose masculinity is neither a flaw nor a strength, in and of itself; conflicts arise when it's not suitable to a specific situation. Jill is a very smart, forward-thinking woman who also has blindspots that cause friction with her husband and family. Even Wilson and Al have well-rounded personalities that bely how simple they seem at first glance. It's a very smart show in ways that are probably easier to appreciate in hindsight than at the time (particularly given how obnoxious Allen's current show is).
XNaturalPhenomenonX -- Home Improvement was about Tim "evolving." What could be further from a grunting, tool-using ape of a father than a childless first wave feminist intellectual who's fascinated by the 'wisdom' of primitive cultures? Wilson's sort of the embodiment of an evolutionary dead end - he's more advanced in some ways, but he's probably not passing on his genes to the next generation. All he has to pass on are the "mental tools" he's discovered along the way so that younger, more capable hands can use them. But that's the price you pay when you're so smart you delay gratification until it's too late to have kids.
@@AudioGAWD It is a similar story when one is born with a disabled body and a highly-capable mind, due to ableism and the poverty it all but guarantees such a person. This is not an endorsement of incel bullshit.
First Married with Children now this classic! Great vid, man. I hope you'll eventually get into the great black shows from the 90's like Fresh Prince, Martin, Living Single, The Steve Harvey Show, Sister, Sister, Moesha, Family Matters etc. I feel like those shows could always use more love and attention too.
I love how Tim Allen basically swaps everything from Home Improvement when doing Last Man Standing. In Home Improvement he has Patricia Richardson as his wife, with Nancy Travis as her friend, and him and Patricia have 3 sons. In Last Man Standing Tim and Nancy are married with Patricia as her friend, and him and Nancy have 3 daughters.
Well I kinda has. The Industrial revolution was the biggest change since agriculture. It gives us everything we have now and lifted billions out of poverty once it was regulated but ultimately it slowly eroded meaning in our lives. It has moved the survival game into our minds and made existentialism a concern of the many.
"lifted billions out of poverty" oh for the love of god... (no) - also the rest of what you typed was masking giberish. We were not living 'the survival game' for MANY years before it. (by many, I mean like, man hundreds at least)
@@xBINARYGODx I'm not sure you truly understand what their saying or give it much of thought to understand. Especially in the way you came at them about their survival comment. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with what they're saying. What I am saying is that you came at them so aggressively and arrogantly even though you gave no insight to your opinion against what he said and come off seeming to not really understand what the person said. If this is how you communicate, I'm sure you are a very pleasant person to be around if people don't agree with your point of view. So before you attack me can you first explain why you think this person is wrong and what he said and then commence your continued aggressive reply to what I've said to you. It would be nice if I'm wrong about that but we will see if you reply, my BINARYGOD Patriot.
I can't believe how much I enjoy these breakdowns of sitcoms I've never seen from decades ago. Your scripts are so incredibly good and detailed. Thanks for all your hard work, I can't wait for whatever you do next.
I'm disappointed you didn't go into more depth on Tim's drug distribution conviction. He's spoken alot publicly about "personal accountability", despite recieving a severely reduced sentence by having others take responsibility for his crime (the mandatory minimum was 20 years and he recieved 2 for becoming an informant).
I really thought you were going to launch into a theory about how Wilson is actually a ghost or just Tim's projecting his own daddy issues onto the empty house next door and I'm vaguely disappointed it didn't go that way
My dad always watched this show when I was a kid, and he really idolized Tim Allen. He regularly quoted the show and behaved a lot like Allen's character, to the point that when I see Allen's face, I think of my father, it's like my brain sees them as the same person. Thinking about that, I'm kinda glad I'm trans (ftm). Had I grown up as a boy, I might have bought into this view of masculinity myself. Still, I sometimes find myself longing for a childhood of repairing old cars with my dad, as stupid as it sounds. But that would have been at the exclusion of a childhood of playing with Barbies and playing princess in my mum's wedding dress. If I ever have children, I'll try to make sure I give them both options and more, regardless of their gender.
Very wise, I will try to do the same. I'm a cis woman, and while I never had disphoria, I did notice this stupid unneccesairy gender divide as a child. I read a lot of books back in the day and they way boys and girls got portrayed in those was very traditionnal. I remember being confused about this message of 'boys and girls are very different' because I was a tomboy and alligned much more with the way the boys were discribed. Children should not be pressed into molds, they should be given options =)
I feel the same way. I am glad I had the childhood experiences I did but I also wish my dad played sports with me and all that jazz He did buy me my first suit for homecoming and that was really cool of him, he doesn't quite get how I feel but he doesn't try to enforce gender roles on me 💙
Interesting. My father was very old world, I mean he was literally a part of the “silent generation”, but often engaged with me in traditionally male activities. In fact he enthusiastically taught me mechanics, chess (though I suck at both lol) and seemed particularly proud of my interest in sports. And he idolised traditional masculine portrayals like that of John Wayne. He was a weird mix of very progressive and very traditional, but never expected any different from me just because I was a girl.
My dad was never around. I grew up without a father figure as a boy. This left me very directionless and even in the 90's I was considering that I was a girl or somehow was meant to be a girl. The more I explored this concept I eventually came to realization that I was agender(there wasn't really a word for it then that I knew of) and truly believed at that point that gender was entirely a man made construction or implications and rules based on your sex( even though there are more types of biological sex then the supposed two genders. I still am a firm believer in this like almost 20 years later. I really believe these concepts are hurting our society deeply. They are dividing us and I think it has created a environment of hostility just based on the fact of an "other" and constantly media trying to show us how different we are. Both sides of this war are hurting. We need to let go of gender.
the work you put in these videos is pretty amazing. really appreciate the time you take on these. it is nice to see high quality content being produced. cheers!
Irongullet -- That is what "obsolete" means. And in some ways that's where I hope the show winds up going. All LOST or Game of Thrones final season implosion. You can't win a race by running in place. And if everyone else has to pry and chisel just to make you move an inch, eventually they're just going to walk around you.
@@Grizabeebles Its exactly like running in place, you'd just get tired and frustrated for not making progress. But its not the people passing you that are the problem.
Irongullet -- Some of those folks running in place think they're doing everything the way they're supposed to. They just haven't looked down at their feet and noticed the quicksand yet. Always give someone the chance to surprise you. You almost always will be.
Aww man, 1:03... That's a wonderfully talented actor named Danny Zorn that I went to highschool with. One of the funniest and most talented people I knew. He struggled with depression and left this Earth about 10 years ago. Sorry if this is a bummer comment. Good video as always, I was just caught off-guard by that... :)
Really late reply here, but thank you for highlighting him. Depression is a monster and often we cannot slay it. I'm so sorry he left this world. I pray he's at peace.
Could you check the time stamp where your friend appeared? I wanted to see him, but the timestamp you gave was during a section that featured Tim Allen.
I feel like most sit coms have a troublemaker and a problem solver. Tim is the troublemaker, like Archie Bunker or Barney Fife, so most of his antics are to make a fool of himself. Jill is the problem solver, so she doesn't get an identity out of solving Tim's problems. It's a problem with the conventions of sitcoms, as well as gender.
Except of course, other wives in sitcoms (who were not the main attraction) got mor range with their characters even if they did a lot of fixing (and the actor who played here was very disappointed they kept her character restricted).
While that would certainly be true today, it was seen as completely normal for a husband to strike their wife and children when slapstick was at the height of its popularity. That being said, violence within the home and without were viewed VERY differently, and comedic violence might've been seen as damaging to a woman's social and aesthetic value.
I was just thinking the same thing, females are not in slapstick because it looks like domestic violence. Imagine a male character making a smart-ass comment to his wife which provokes her to pick up a rolling pin and act like she's about to whack him over the head, funny s*** right? Now imagine a female character making a smart-ass comment and provoking her husband to take off his belt and act like he's about to whip her, doesn't sound as funny does it?
Look up the Japanese (live-action) show Nodame Cantabile. Plenty of the jokes are the male main character violently rejecting the female main character's advances or abusing her when she's annoying (three stooges style). It's pretty wild.
Would you ever consider doing one of these for Malcolm in the middle? Just curious. These are really great, and that is the sitcom that has always meant the most to me, so I had to ask. Either way, I adore these videos. They are absolutely amazing and a great look into the sitcoms and the window they give us to the past/the times they came out.
I'll add a third to this! I'm wondering what kind of meta-narrative about classism and gender can be unfolded, because whole I did always relate to the show, I never really tried to dissect it through that lens completely.
When they were trying to negotiate for more seasons and refused to pay Jill more, iirc the writers also suggested making Tim a widow. Tim's stance was either with Jill or no more show. Shows can't go one forever. And 8 years was a good run.
What a shock. The man known for padding out his shitty "manly man feel threatened by the womens" stand-up routine with inane caveman grunts has an incredibly shallow grasp on politics.
Didn’t All in the Family have a trans/crossdresser as a close member of the show’s main family? The person gets killed due to bigotry, and it’s a big moment of the show. It begs the question: just because “a show is old” doesn’t mean it couldn’t have highlighted more complex things, right?
Yeah, and because it was the 70s the identification of that character is hard to pinpoint in modern language, but I'm under the impression the character wasn't trans, but was a crossdresser who was just comfortable being referred to as male or female. Some of the humor comes from Edith constantly switching pronouns when she's referring to the character ("she took off his wig"). Archie's super uncomfortable at first, but then he and the audience learns that just because their new acquaintance is, um, unusual, it doesn't mean they're any less of a person.
@@FrenkTheJoy Edith is truly the heart of that show. She quite often acts as some combination of Archie's conscience and his "guiding light" who helps him grow, as a person.
I love hearing you talk about the sitcoms of my childhood and unpacking them. I didn't really watch Home Improvement, but my mother loved it. I remember her not wanting to be disturbed while the finale aired. I'd love to hear you talk about Boy Meets World, if you are interested. It was very formative to me, but I'd like to see another perspective.
35:40 was so subtly and genuinely delivered I started laughing like ten seconds later and had to go back, I love your delivery and narration style, I also appreciate mentioning that this show was definitely stuck in its time when it came to exploring gender beyond male and female. I was never lost on what you were talking about, the script was extremely thought out, I am glad this ended up on my recommended
This is the lefty video I have waited for my whole life... this show was such a big part of my upbringing. As a small kid, the arrrrrgh thing really appealed to me. Tim Allen reminded me of the dads at Boy Scouts. I never understood then how stereotypes were reinforced on that show yet at the same time, much like Rosanne, even though Tim was conservative, they allowed some breathing room for other points of view... as opposed to girl meets world’s episode on communism for example, Home Improvement, like Tim, had some hidden depth behind all the arrrrrrrrgh
The Rosanne show was not conservative, not even close. Even the new one, while giving a voice to the sort of people to Vote for Trump, is not conservative. Do people really suck this bad at media literacy.
@@Littlespooby Basically, Cory failed his daughter and two other students because "even when you get everything right, under 'commonism' you are all the same, and are therefore average" then splits the A+ into thirds as some sort of smug gotcha. Then these 12 y/o's, now epically owned by an adult, agree communism sucks and the episode ends with them saluting the flag.
But basically it was not particularly funny, and oversimplified life's problems and even the battle of the sexes. We liked it when we were younger because it was comfortable and didn't in any way uncomfortably expand our minds. Something can be completely apolitical and yet strikingly authentic as for example Everybody Loves Raymond. Home Improvement wasn't that either. It's a show that changed nothing. And the fallout was that Tim Allen continued to have a career whereas some of the more talented actors on the show didn't. Nothing good came out of it except our false memories of a simpler(and therefore) better time
Wilson was originally supposed to be revealed to have been a ghost or something by the end of the series. Given how he seems to be one at times, it makes more sense when to take that into account, but not by much.
Going through all of your old videos. They are great. I grew up in the 90s and you are picking apart so many things from my childhood and its kind of crazy but enjoyable
I don't know if many other Aussies liked this show, but I loved it. Married with children and home improvement were my favourite sitcoms, I never grew up with them, but found them later on in life and got hooked on the styles of comedy both portray. Peace and great work on this video
Another Aussie here! This show is one of the shows I'd watch with my dad and two older brothers whilst eating dinner. As well as other shows like The Simpsons and Married With Children.
In high school I was at Taco Bell when the oldest kid walked in with a limo driver. He stood there as if expecting to be mobbed or something, but everyone just kept eating and he slowly turned around and ordered.
Nice video as usual. It's fun to take a look back at old shows I liked in the day and see them analyzed through a more thoughtful perspective. Gotta say, though, I think the biggest revelation of this video is how Wilson was secretly a creeper. I never noticed it at the time, and wonder why they would have him in scenes where he's simply in the background without any lines. That's terrifying.
Wtf Nick? Can't a random shady guy follow another mans family around peacefully while constantly dressed like a modern day ninja of the shadows??? He aint hurting anyone. Let the creep creep lol. I gotta say though... That fact that we never really noticed his creeping in the past... Just goes to prove he is quite the master of his creeping craft. That dude doesn't fuck around.
It's called Home Improvement. Not Home Solution. It's an ongoing evolution. This was one of the few shows my family watched together before they divorced as a kid, and the last thing I saw with my Father before he passed from cancer. Bitter sweet memories.
This is one of the best video essays on a sitcom ever. Thank you very much. Grew up with this show and without a father the tropes always resonated with me in that seemingly deep way but never appreciated both the problematic aspects along with the glimmers of growth. Amazing video.
Great video! Please do one of these for scrubs :) I always loved how scrubs portrayed manhood. When I first watched it being 15 or sth, it surprised me in many ways. I liked how JD is not the typical masculine man and still the protagonist of a wildly beloved sitcom. Fav scene was when JD pushes his scooter and tries to find a radio channel and when he finds a channel talking about sports, he is disgusted by it :D And it showed that affection between heterosexual men is nothing to be ashamed of. It shaped me quite a bit I think, but I also think that it probably had some questionable things as well. I should watch it again as an adult. But a video about this would be super cool, José :)
Another homerun for Jose Conseco here. I do love the Simpsons parody of home improvement where tim hots up a ride on mower but accidentally reverses and kills Wilson. But even though I was never able to really connect with home improvement there is one moment from it that makes me laugh. The part where tim and the granite guy communicate with grunts with subtitles provided for the audience. I greatly appreciate the inclusion of that gag. Other than that it never made me LOL.
This is a wonderful video, especially in my situation. When I was younger (like elementary or early middle School) this was always the show me and my father would watch, and along with my father essentially being Tim Taylor, shaped my views growing up. My views are much more to the left of these early views, while my father has gone on to being a mid 50's working class MAGA guy. This show reminds me of simpler times, when the world felt more cut and dry and I saw my father more than once a year. With this video, showing the way Tim Taylor works, you've helped me understand my father works a little better, thank you
The episodes about Jill's hysterectomy were incredibly memorable to me. I was only in middle school at the time, and I haven't seen it since, but in my memory it was a very frank depiction/discussion about menopause and womanhood.
Interesting... You would think that a dad having daughters would be a good thing. You would likely have less in common with them since you're the opposite sex so that means more time to spend on my cars or video games or whatever lol. Guy stuff... But no... Daughters are harder typically...
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 The interpretation I've seen is that men with sons often feel a stronger responsibility to be a father figure and are therefore more reluctant to leave. There's some logic to it, I suppose. Still a pretty awful thing to hear as a woman with only sisters. My own father is great and we're really close, but I feel sorry for the girls who grow up without a dad, because they just weren't as invested in them as they would've been if they were sons, apparently.
Some guys check out totally of the parenting responsibilities if they have girls. From the very start they assume their wife has the major responsibility in parenting because she's a woman and changing diapers and singing a kid to sleep is just supposed to be in our nature. But at least if the kid is a boy they will feel they have to play some role as the kid's masculine rolemodel, to show him how to do "boy things" and how to "act like a man" once in a while.
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 You aren't less obligated to spend time with your daughter just because you don't have a lot in common with them, what the fuck
Soyborne. Born, made, and undone by the soy. my dad doesn’t spend a lot of time with me, but he tries so hard to bond with me over similar interests. we end up talking about true crime most of the time, and he took to recommending me joaquin phoenix movies after i saw joker and said he was good in it. i’ve known so many dads who still spend time with and bond over common interests with their daughters, because that’s what good dads do. it’s so disgusting to say it’s great that men have daughters so they don’t have to spend time, y’know, parenting their children.
This show had a MASSIVE impact on how I viewed myself and what masculinity should be. Tim was the absolute antithesis of a quality person- he was dumb, overconfident and under capable, oblivious to empathy or good reasoning. On the other hand you had Al who SHOULD have been the lead of Tool Time if it were an actual show about competent workers who was an emotional, kind, friendly man unashamed of how he cared for others while also being well dressed, well spoken, and knowledgeable about his field. And Wilson was always willing to help his neighbor no matter how many times he absolutely missed the point while being an absolute fountain of multicultural knowledge. Thanks to this show, my concept of what a man should be was knowledgeable, caring, patient, helpful, kind. And despite the fact that Tim was the one with the 'American dream' of a big house, wife, kids, and a career he also stood as everything I knew I didn't want to be. If being a good man was going to leave me like Al and Wilson, alone most of the time and looked down on by a person more ape than human who got everything the world tells us we need to be happy, I would be just fine with that. The issue we get with Wilson and his 'bad takes' is how often he is speaking from 'throughout history', 'in x civilization from centuries ago and another culture', 'in this one century where things are very different than they are now'. Sometimes he is directly saying 'we should be more like these old ways', and those old ways weren't necessarily good for the people who lived back then either. We can take much of it as 'the past is past and you can try to emulate it, or you can define yourself by the present or the future'. There come times when learning the lessons of the past means accepting that they were wrong and we have the ability to be better than them.
I wonder if the parents of Zach and Taran were jealous because Jonathan Taylor Thomas was getting more screen time and better lines. Although, he did have it all. He was cute and had good comic timing and a great sense of delivering his lines in a sarcastic manner.
Love your vids. I was an adult when all these shows aired and I loved them. I always thought it was a funny play on words that Tim's show is Tool Time about Tools and Tim himself could be considered a 'tool'. It's fun to look back and remember the times and what was going on and these shows were a big part of people's lives.
I feel like Home Improvement is the easiest way to explain my father's thoughts on masculinity and feminism and what he taught my older brothers and me, being the only daughter.
ok so, now I think the real question is, when are you going to make a one-hour video essay on The Nanny?
Nivia Yes!!
We need to see Boy Meets World before that. ;)
Nivia this x1000
THIS
I mean its a series where he reveiws 90's sitcoms I asusme he will eventually get there. I wonder if the horniness of the Nanny still plays out well through today's viewpoint instead of just nostalgia goggles for those goddamn amazing outfits.
RE: 36:50 as a gay boy in the 90s I can say that wasn't exclusive to girls, my dad used to watch Home Improvement because he liked Tim Allen's comedy, I used to watch it because Randy was my first crush.
Holy shit same! Was mad for Randy
im so glad i wasn't the only one thinking this at this point because its the ONLY reason i watched home improvement
+
He was definitely a source of some very confusing feelings when I was growing up.
As a bi nonbinary person I still don’t really understand how I felt about JTT but I liked him and I really liked Randy. Even though my family thought I was a girl at the time they still always compared me to Randy cause we had a lot in common.
As a lesbian I'm pretty sure my entire wardrobe is based off of Tim Allen's on this show
Ya but the real question is, can you do the grunt 😂
And Tool Time is the name of your toy-box.
🤣
@@johnpeters5987 I hope someday you'll realize, nobody cares what you think!
@@johnpeters5987 I’m not sure how you can be so certain about the opinions of “the lord” when the earliest accounts of the New Testament we have don’t appear till nearly 70 years later IN GREECE! Imagine if the only sources we had for the life of George Washington were written in Spanish...during the 19th century... by Mexicans
I certainly wouldn’t be going around proclaiming I knew for certain what the first President believed.
*jose desperately attempting to grunt despite being a smol bird*
Jose held back his grunt so hard, he pooped out this epic video from hundreds of feet in the air.
the scolding call of a titmouse is very harsh, and alarming (I'm guessing a titmouse based on profile pic).
@@jasonwhiteside5517 it's very clearly a blue Jay
@@yonatanbeer3475 clearly it's not clear, owing to the fact that I clearly don't have an ornithology degree to be able to say clearly what the physical appearance of the smol picture of the smol bird 🐦 is, clearly. Savvy?
@Daniel Martinez, while I had had "had," had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the original poster. Surly, you can see this, as clearly as you may presume that you can't. 🕵️♂️👀
When you talked about the theoretical principles behind slapstick humor, I immediately thought of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". In IASIP, the brunt of the slapstick humor is derived from Dee, the only female character in the gang, getting hurt and I wonder if the show creators did this on purpose as their show is meant to satirize typical sitcoms. Great video!
They did a whole episode of satirizing domestic violence and pedófila in sitcoms. I forgot what episode but it's the one where they spy on Charlie's and Macs mom's.
@@JC-jd1us Old Lady House, that one was fantastic.
I fucking love always sunny for this exact reason, all characters are bad people and they're all treated the same, Dee and Dennis are both "progressive" charlie is uh, charlie, and Frank and Mac are both conservatives but none of them are automatically good or bad because of this.
@@cryptid-king I always considered Dee and particularly Dennis to be way worse than Mac or Charlie. Dennis seems so mean-spirited at times, while Mac and Charlie are just dumbasses who don't really understand the world around them.
Frank is just chaotic evil :P
They are Probably Just Trying to write a funny Show and You do that By Playing to Your Strengths. Dee is Probably good at Slapstick, it's Funny so they write to her ability. If You're a Comedian And You Write To Be provocative, inspirational,or To advocate A Cause or Ideology You're Shit is Probably not Funny. It's Not easy, and I don't think They are exploring The depths Of Dee's character as it relates to Comedy as An A Cultural Force when They Put her in a brace and Make Her Date a "tard"
Don't Think They wrote Dayman As a Me too Anthem Either.
I think, at its best, Home Improvement is less pro-patriarchy and more about negotiating a soft landing for conservatives adjusting to a more progressive world. That's a worthy project - there's still cause for issue with the terms of negotiations, you can certainly get bad takes there.
I like that.
Then came Last Man Standing and screw up everything
@@margheritadellavalletheyel6775 last man standing makes fun of both sides if you actually watch the show
mel on
As someone who’s watched the show, I’ve always felt way more of a conservative slant, Tim Allen style.
@@thebrutusmars I haven't seen the full series, only the first 4 or so seasons, but I didn't get that feeling. Allen's character is very overtly right, but those aspects of his character often are shown to be wrong and he needs to change in order to connect with his family.
Thank you so much for these sitcom overviews also Patricia Richardson is so fucking underrated and I hate that her career went nowhere
ChibiFighter I grew up watching Home Improvement when it aired and it’s still unironically one of my favorite shows, and a lot of that has to do with her performance.
I saw her in a musical version of Cruel Intentions. It was kind of a silly part but she gave it her all.
She was in the last 2 seasons of the West Wing, and she was really good in it.
She would have been an AMAZING voice actress for animated shows. Her voice is iconic.
But still, being a lead in a massive hit like Home Improvement is a level of success 99.9% of actors never get and would kill to have.
Tim: "Bad stuff happens to me all the time."
Randy: "Yeah, but you cause it."😂
I used to love this show as a kid. This is great work, man.
I posit that Tims dad faked his death, assumed the "Wilson Wilson" persona and kept looking after his son.
And never forgave his brother for selling the original hot rod. But then Tim's dad couldn't really comment, having just put his family through a pointless trauma all so he could... reinvent himself as a modern sage.... possibly because Tim was the only son who needed his guidance into adulthood. But also maybe because Tims brothers were lost causes and Tim wasn't. Here you have a man who feels he's failed his son to such an extent that he completely sheds his whole identity and rebuilds who he is from the ground up as the exact person he feels his son needs. All in an attempt to mitigate the damage he feels he inflicted on his son and worries he will one day see in his grandchildren.
But Tim knows his own father's face. So this new man the Tailer patriarch invents must have his face obscured. He spends his time in the garden, waiting for a time where Tim needs his advise, trying to ignore his fatherly instincts, trying to ignore that voice in his head that screams at him to tell his son the truth. To ask for forgiveness. But how can such a thing be forgiven? Faking ones death is a one way street. Even of Tim can get passed the pain his father caused him... what about the pain he caused his mother? What about his brothers? Tim would be justified in cutting him out forever. Then what would he have? He grows to hate his new persona. He hadn't anticipated the depersonalisation; he starts to forget who he was before he took on this new identity. He sees flashes of a happy marriage and a happy life that no longer belong to him when he blinks. He has no roots here. No friends. Just a son who would hate him if he showed his face. This isn't his house. These aren't his clothes... these things belong to Wilson. He stands in the bathroom every day, after dispensing his advice, staring at himself in the mirror. "Who are you Wilson Wilson? Why did you steal my golden years?"
I like it. Little dark but good.
Gotta say though, that Wilson gag was sooooo effective because back then you couldn't just google what somebody looked like. I remember being so blown away when I finally saw the actor years later lol.
In the 90s my dad was a brown skinned immigrant man with a woodworking shop and undiagnosed autism, who was slowly becoming more and more religious. His favorite sitcom was Family Matters (I think he related to Steve Urkel) but his second favorite was Home Improvement. I was his only biological child, a girl, would watch him watching Home Improvement, studying his reactions to this house filled with boys. It was such a quiet repetitive ritual..... So mundane....that I never really thought about how this show shaped him. It definitely did.
@ I'm pretty positive that she's considered that. She's pretty close to the project, you know.
Home Improvement Didn't Shape anyone, and You Sat There as a Child watching a Mudane Show to see Your father's Reactions. Its Not A Ritual, it's Not Majic, Your dad was Just Being Entertained. Why You're dad's Skin Color and origin even relevant to what You Said, or Your Gender for that Matter. It's almost Like You Can't Help But Be racist.
@@timsayre8321 dude... Why are you replying hatefully to so many people? You're belittling and demeaning people for sharing their thoughts and insights and experiences- literally the entire purpose of the comment section.
What's truly ironic is that you can't even manage first grade spelling, grammar, and punctuation, yet you're angrily and hatefully insisting that it's everyone else who is wrong. Dunning-Kruger Syndrome in full effect here. I don't know why you're so bitter and hateful, but I hope things get better for you.
@@timsayre8321 If your spelling is that atrocious, please don't say anything. Not only is your argument insane, it really adds to the cringe with the hideous grammar. I don't care if English is your 54th language, spare yourself the embarrassment.
@@ennuiblue4295 what did they say
I swear you make shows I don't care about so interesting
Word lol I was legit just thinking the same thing when I thought back to the Roseanne essay 👍 Stuff I either never cared to watch or actively avoided but I still enjoyed the run down a lot.
Same. I never cared for any of the shows Jose has done cause for a Black family in the US 90s Mayo sitcom #367546732 got...tiring when there started to be slightly more diverse options available. Thus I missed a lot of the other possible readings of shows so it's actually interesting to see them and Jose does a good job at it.
@@ThexDynastxQueen Then you missed out on alot of shows because of white people being in it lol. Maybe it's just me but i love any and all shows that are entertaining. I can enjoy Martin and Frasier, Seinfeld and Living Single etc. But I guess not everyone can be diverse and versatile like me.
Well if you don't care about this classic show Idk man lol but I would suggest if you finally have an interest watch it and enjoy. It's a very funny show with heart and a great cast.
@@kendallrivers1119That must be great to feel you can be represented in TV so easily. You missed their point entirely and made it about you.
Personally, I feel like a better use for Wilson would have been if he was written as a figment of Tim's imagination. A reflection of Tim's subconscious trying to give him deeper insight into himself. Just a thought
That would be consistent with him always being in the background.
I don't know, he's a pretty beloved character. I can't imagine people being okay with him getting the Snufflupagus treatment.
Tim would have to actually know who the philosophers Wilson constantly named namedrops for hlthat to make sense, though.
Nah, it's an urban setting in an ordinary world. What more appropriate than a talking skull in a fishing hat across the fence.
that would mean that tim had all the info wilson has given him over the years already in his head which seems unlikely since tim isn't the academic type
What I‘m getting from this video is that Patricia Richardson is pretty amazing.
Amazingly arrogant, sure
I’m glad she stood up for her character being more than a pretty face to look at it
@@johnnythewalrusin what world?
When I was a young adult watching this in a conservative household, I always thought Wilson was trying to nudge Tim in a more progressive direction by relating to him on his own terms. Now I'm pretty sure that, if that's true, it's too subtle for anybody stuck in old gender norms.
Sooo...summon the attack femboys? :3
That's the way I always saw Wilson too. He brings up "manly history" to speak Tim's language but he usually advises him to consider Jill's side of things and be less stuck in his macho ways. Though, like most "wise" TV characters how well the writers pull that off depends on the episode.
Agreed I don’t think jose had a very good take on this. I think jose has let some of his own political bias get in the way of analyzing Wilson.
that's the vibe i got from the examples given here tbh?
this works extremely well when talking to men who buy into gender roles to some extent. i don't know if the audience is supposed to be persuaded, or if the writers were, in lieu of tim allen's conservatism, dropping advice in a way to people who interact with men like allen's character. you can't go in swinging against deeply held beliefs, you chip away and attempt to make a greek statue out of a square block of marble, if you'll excuse the metaphor
@@goober69er Totally agree. I think Jose did Wilson dirty with this interpretation. It was like he was attacking the intellectual argument of traditional masculinity itself through a Wilson strawman. Like an easy punching bag to beat out his frustration of patriarchy on. Honestly it was a little irritating watching him beat up on poor Wilson like that when I always thought that Wilson was one of the most progressive, empathic and helpful elements of that show.
"Peaked at #2" is the best description of that show I've ever seen.
"Peaked at #2" - not unlike masculinity itself!
Waiting for the whiners to take the bait...
Yeah, Bob Vila always beat them.
@@DrZaius3141 2 years later and they still haven’t
@@DrZaius3141 4 years later and they still haven’t
Ok im really into a far left person watching media that resonates with a more conservative audience without like.... looking down on it
thats an interesting perceptive that I dont think ive seen befor outside of the metatext for King of the Hill
Mike Judge and his writers aren't far left though.
@@BobardeZanzibar yeah lmao theres a literal mike judge ad for alex jones
@@BobardeZanzibar Judge may not be left leaning, i dont really know, but king of the hill is hugely apolitical with meta criticisms of politics in general. EX: how Hank can't bring himself to vote for Bush because of his handshake, making fun of the masculine identity that Hank associates with the GOP while not actually making fun of the politics involved in the election. Luanne even contemplates voting for a communist because she finds him attractive. The show is making fun the ways the characters themselves are shallow in what they actually look for in their politics.
Mike Judge is alright, I tell you hwut
@@sethsturwold5551 Judge is a Libertarian I'm fairly sure.
The ending is perfect, the home represents their marriage, and them carrying the house with them means the marriage will stay strong. The point the show had been trying to make was that men and women should work side by side as equals, so them reaching a middle ground is very fitting.
I thought “Breaking Brad” was a GREAT pun! Good job!
not relevant, but that is an excellent profile pic.
I’ve also maybe seen a particular type of video with that title 👀
36:47 “If you were a girl in the 90s, it’s pretty likely you had a crush on this boy.”
*thirty-year-old gay men have entered the chat*
José is a real one. I appreciate your ability to see the good elements of media that can otherwise be flawed.
That is all media. Nothing is perfect, there is good and bad in most media. I might have had to admit that some good is only as much as a single line or joke, or episode in an entire series, but even the worst of shows has a win or two in the run. And what you might see as perfect surely has a joke or a scene or an episode that the fans of it will tell you, "Yeah, just skip that one, it's the show's worst". Jose is only doing what should be considered normal, it's the folks who CAN'T do what he is doing here that scare the hell out of me.
I challenge him to do atlas shrugged. My mom was obsessed with rand and made me read the whole thing, did it twice in fact, even got the pleasure of writing essays singing praise for her shitty ass-sniffing scholarship program competition. Was brainwashed well and good, didn't help dad also passed on rush Limbaughs every word. Got radicalized within like 2 yr of moving out and talking to...anyone else. Anyway, yea.
My challenge: try to read that 1100 pg waste of trees, cover to cover. Feel your eyes trying to crawl into your head as she describes in excruciating detail every one of her capitalist lady wet dreams in all their hard, manly, *whisper* Aryan glory. The absolute deluge of sneering smugness phlegming out of every word for sure has some kind of biohazardous effect on your neurons. Meanwhile, the slightest glimmer of non-boot-licking thought that, against all odds, arises within what can only very marginally be called "characters", it is immediately brutally stomped out as the 1 dimensional cardboard cutout is subjected to ayn's hilariously pathetic revenge porn. And every unbearable scene is delivered with the subtlety of a looneytool anvil falling on one of those depressing windchime mall kiosks. Cause god forbid the current reader briefly awake from their open eyed hibernation to form a single concious thought. And then, just as you begin to see the the light at the end of the colon, when there's just a stack of pages to endure, that's when then you hit it. 34,000 words. One single unbroken fucking speech, essentialy ayn rands full personal manifesto, as thinly veiled as possible. Dozens upon dozens of pages summed up entirely in "capitalism good. anything else is dum. we told you so, haha, enjoy dying soyboys". The smugness spikes to chernobyl levels of holier than thou. Your soul withers as you scrape your corneas across thousands of dense text blocks. It is the absolute worst propaganda can be: boring.
I still shudder at the memory. Just read daylight atheisms blog, they impressively roast and break down every chapter.
Save yourself. It's too late for me
He's real stilupid with miniscule understanding of political science trying to pass himself off as someone who knows everything but sound cringe worthy at his best....
Upon re-watch I really love your comment about how having daughters can sometimes give men the opportunity to explore more sides of themselves. It reminded me of when I was a little girl and I would play hairstylist with my dad putting a dozen or so tiny hair ties. clips and bows until his hair looked pretty. He never complained, in fact he played into it. He wanted to be that stereotypical MANS-man but when it came to my sister and I we could get him to drop that act completely as see a soft and compassionate father.
I have a much older sister and her boyfriends that stuck around for awhile let me do that too. My dad was bald so it never came up with him.
Nice video. Home Improvement isn't by any means a groundbreaking masterpiece but I appreciate what it's trying to do. Tim is a very conventionally masculine guy whose masculinity is neither a flaw nor a strength, in and of itself; conflicts arise when it's not suitable to a specific situation. Jill is a very smart, forward-thinking woman who also has blindspots that cause friction with her husband and family. Even Wilson and Al have well-rounded personalities that bely how simple they seem at first glance. It's a very smart show in ways that are probably easier to appreciate in hindsight than at the time (particularly given how obnoxious Allen's current show is).
Brad’s hair crime.
Big time, and its not the only one. 90s flavored oof city
I always interpreted Wilson as being the eclectic philosopher type. I think he was meant to produce good moral advice. Consistency be damned.
XNaturalPhenomenonX -- Home Improvement was about Tim "evolving."
What could be further from a grunting, tool-using ape of a father than a childless first wave feminist intellectual who's fascinated by the 'wisdom' of primitive cultures?
Wilson's sort of the embodiment of an evolutionary dead end - he's more advanced in some ways, but he's probably not passing on his genes to the next generation. All he has to pass on are the "mental tools" he's discovered along the way so that younger, more capable hands can use them.
But that's the price you pay when you're so smart you delay gratification until it's too late to have kids.
@@Grizabeebles I read all of that but that last part...man.
@@AudioGAWD It is a similar story when one is born with a disabled body and a highly-capable mind, due to ableism and the poverty it all but guarantees such a person. This is not an endorsement of incel bullshit.
He was a stalker tho...
First Married with Children now this classic! Great vid, man. I hope you'll eventually get into the great black shows from the 90's like Fresh Prince, Martin, Living Single, The Steve Harvey Show, Sister, Sister, Moesha, Family Matters etc. I feel like those shows could always use more love and attention too.
A video about The Fresh Prince of Bel Air went up last night!
ruclips.net/video/DaLT_91UnRE/видео.html
Just a few hours ago I was like "Wow, I could really use a new José video". Lovely, that conincidence is on my side, this once :D
I love how Tim Allen basically swaps everything from Home Improvement when doing Last Man Standing. In Home Improvement he has Patricia Richardson as his wife, with Nancy Travis as her friend, and him and Patricia have 3 sons. In Last Man Standing Tim and Nancy are married with Patricia as her friend, and him and Nancy have 3 daughters.
When was Nancy Travis in Home Improvement?
I was watching that clip of Nancy Travis and thinking “where do I know her from!?” Lol
That's as creative as he gets
Nancy Travis was never on Home Improvement...
Nancy was not on home improvement
Mr. Wilson really out here saying “The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.”
yeah, crazy!
We all know it was the start of our greatness.
@@dumbdumber7203 It’s also a quote from the Unabomber’s Manifesto. You can read it online, it’s very well thought through.
Well I kinda has. The Industrial revolution was the biggest change since agriculture. It gives us everything we have now and lifted billions out of poverty once it was regulated but ultimately it slowly eroded meaning in our lives. It has moved the survival game into our minds and made existentialism a concern of the many.
"lifted billions out of poverty" oh for the love of god... (no) - also the rest of what you typed was masking giberish. We were not living 'the survival game' for MANY years before it. (by many, I mean like, man hundreds at least)
@@xBINARYGODx I'm not sure you truly understand what their saying or give it much of thought to understand. Especially in the way you came at them about their survival comment. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with what they're saying. What I am saying is that you came at them so aggressively and arrogantly even though you gave no insight to your opinion against what he said and come off seeming to not really understand what the person said. If this is how you communicate, I'm sure you are a very pleasant person to be around if people don't agree with your point of view. So before you attack me can you first explain why you think this person is wrong and what he said and then commence your continued aggressive reply to what I've said to you. It would be nice if I'm wrong about that but we will see if you reply, my BINARYGOD Patriot.
I can't believe how much I enjoy these breakdowns of sitcoms I've never seen from decades ago. Your scripts are so incredibly good and detailed. Thanks for all your hard work, I can't wait for whatever you do next.
Tim had to basically raise his younger siblings so that impacts his view on fatherhood.
So Tim is Brock?
I'm disappointed you didn't go into more depth on Tim's drug distribution conviction. He's spoken alot publicly about "personal accountability", despite recieving a severely reduced sentence by having others take responsibility for his crime (the mandatory minimum was 20 years and he recieved 2 for becoming an informant).
Wow, he sounds like a classic conservative.
Humans can hold multiple personalities. They can be kind and hardworking, while also cowardice and malicious. Its what gives us super strength.
@@TapDat52K super strength? like stopping falling planes? like superman does it? gimme that
@@TapDat52K so far it's only given me a headache
@@harrystyles7466 LoooLs
I really thought you were going to launch into a theory about how Wilson is actually a ghost or just Tim's projecting his own daddy issues onto the empty house next door and I'm vaguely disappointed it didn't go that way
My dad always watched this show when I was a kid, and he really idolized Tim Allen. He regularly quoted the show and behaved a lot like Allen's character, to the point that when I see Allen's face, I think of my father, it's like my brain sees them as the same person.
Thinking about that, I'm kinda glad I'm trans (ftm). Had I grown up as a boy, I might have bought into this view of masculinity myself. Still, I sometimes find myself longing for a childhood of repairing old cars with my dad, as stupid as it sounds. But that would have been at the exclusion of a childhood of playing with Barbies and playing princess in my mum's wedding dress. If I ever have children, I'll try to make sure I give them both options and more, regardless of their gender.
Very wise, I will try to do the same. I'm a cis woman, and while I never had disphoria, I did notice this stupid unneccesairy gender divide as a child. I read a lot of books back in the day and they way boys and girls got portrayed in those was very traditionnal. I remember being confused about this message of 'boys and girls are very different' because I was a tomboy and alligned much more with the way the boys were discribed. Children should not be pressed into molds, they should be given options =)
@loliquatsch LOL! Mystery solved! Actually, I probably watched more Barbie movies than episodes of Home Improvement XD
I feel the same way. I am glad I had the childhood experiences I did but I also wish my dad played sports with me and all that jazz
He did buy me my first suit for homecoming and that was really cool of him, he doesn't quite get how I feel but he doesn't try to enforce gender roles on me 💙
Interesting. My father was very old world, I mean he was literally a part of the “silent generation”, but often engaged with me in traditionally male activities.
In fact he enthusiastically taught me mechanics, chess (though I suck at both lol) and seemed particularly proud of my interest in sports.
And he idolised traditional masculine portrayals like that of John Wayne. He was a weird mix of very progressive and very traditional, but never expected any different from me just because I was a girl.
My dad was never around. I grew up without a father figure as a boy. This left me very directionless and even in the 90's I was considering that I was a girl or somehow was meant to be a girl.
The more I explored this concept I eventually came to realization that I was agender(there wasn't really a word for it then that I knew of) and truly believed at that point that gender was entirely a man made construction or implications and rules based on your sex( even though there are more types of biological sex then the supposed two genders.
I still am a firm believer in this like almost 20 years later.
I really believe these concepts are hurting our society deeply.
They are dividing us and I think it has created a environment of hostility just based on the fact of an "other" and constantly media trying to show us how different we are.
Both sides of this war are hurting.
We need to let go of gender.
Watching a review about "Home Improvement" is a real nostalgia trip
Red Stick Same, I practically grew up watching that show. I cried all over again during the analysis on Randy’s cancer scare episode.
the work you put in these videos is pretty amazing. really appreciate the time you take on these. it is nice to see high quality content being produced. cheers!
Unfortunately Tim Allen has taken a turn into a reactionary anti sjw attitude like a lot of stand ups.
Irongullet -- "rage, rage against the dying of the light..."?
@@Grizabeebles He cant accept the fact that the world he grew up in and wants has evolved into somthing new. Hes failing to adapt.
Irongullet -- That is what "obsolete" means.
And in some ways that's where I hope the show winds up going. All LOST or Game of Thrones final season implosion. You can't win a race by running in place. And if everyone else has to pry and chisel just to make you move an inch, eventually they're just going to walk around you.
@@Grizabeebles Its exactly like running in place, you'd just get tired and frustrated for not making progress. But its not the people passing you that are the problem.
Irongullet -- Some of those folks running in place think they're doing everything the way they're supposed to. They just haven't looked down at their feet and noticed the quicksand yet.
Always give someone the chance to surprise you. You almost always will be.
Aww man, 1:03... That's a wonderfully talented actor named Danny Zorn that I went to highschool with. One of the funniest and most talented people I knew. He struggled with depression and left this Earth about 10 years ago. Sorry if this is a bummer comment. Good video as always, I was just caught off-guard by that... :)
Really late reply here, but thank you for highlighting him. Depression is a monster and often we cannot slay it. I'm so sorry he left this world. I pray he's at peace.
Could you check the time stamp where your friend appeared? I wanted to see him, but the timestamp you gave was during a section that featured Tim Allen.
@@commbir5148 They meant 1:03:03 , he's the producer who had been shown earlier and is back to offer Tim his show back
The hell you on man, Wilson's takes are always great.
The German title was ''Hör mal wer da hämmert'' Which means ''Listen who's hammering''.....I'm just gonna leave that here.
Oddly enough,when I record them,they put the German title cards,despite them being the English versions!
I feel like most sit coms have a troublemaker and a problem solver. Tim is the troublemaker, like Archie Bunker or Barney Fife, so most of his antics are to make a fool of himself. Jill is the problem solver, so she doesn't get an identity out of solving Tim's problems. It's a problem with the conventions of sitcoms, as well as gender.
yeah.
Except of course, other wives in sitcoms (who were not the main attraction) got mor range with their characters even if they did a lot of fixing (and the actor who played here was very disappointed they kept her character restricted).
I wonder if another reason for a lack of female slapstick is that the imagery would invoke uncomfortable comparisons to domestic violence?
While that would certainly be true today, it was seen as completely normal for a husband to strike their wife and children when slapstick was at the height of its popularity. That being said, violence within the home and without were viewed VERY differently, and comedic violence might've been seen as damaging to a woman's social and aesthetic value.
I was just thinking the same thing, females are not in slapstick because it looks like domestic violence.
Imagine a male character making a smart-ass comment to his wife which provokes her to pick up a rolling pin and act like she's about to whack him over the head, funny s*** right? Now imagine a female character making a smart-ass comment and provoking her husband to take off his belt and act like he's about to whip her, doesn't sound as funny does it?
Look up the Japanese (live-action) show Nodame Cantabile. Plenty of the jokes are the male main character violently rejecting the female main character's advances or abusing her when she's annoying (three stooges style). It's pretty wild.
Would you ever consider doing one of these for Malcolm in the middle? Just curious. These are really great, and that is the sitcom that has always meant the most to me, so I had to ask. Either way, I adore these videos. They are absolutely amazing and a great look into the sitcoms and the window they give us to the past/the times they came out.
Yes, I second this! That show was my childhood!
I'll add a third to this! I'm wondering what kind of meta-narrative about classism and gender can be unfolded, because whole I did always relate to the show, I never really tried to dissect it through that lens completely.
Malcolm in the middle was the first show where identified with the family, the were neither upper middle class not in the thick of poverty
@@shruglifecomedy5709 same honestly. As a kid, I really identified with Malcom.
This aged well
I spent more time watching this video than I did watching this show throughout my entire childhood. You're 2/2.
When they were trying to negotiate for more seasons and refused to pay Jill more, iirc the writers also suggested making Tim a widow. Tim's stance was either with Jill or no more show.
Shows can't go one forever. And 8 years was a good run.
I like the real-life name of Jill’s mother’s wife, Polly Holiday. Such a lovely name.
She played Flo on the TV show Alice.
I’m kinda disappointed that Tim Allen takes so called “PC Culture” seriously because he is a republican
I thought you were going to say comedian. Silly me.
Yeah. I kind of enjoyed HI at the time, but Last Man Standing is insufferable.
What a shock. The man known for padding out his shitty "manly man feel threatened by the womens" stand-up routine with inane caveman grunts has an incredibly shallow grasp on politics.
Tim Allens my fav anarchist, tho.
He recently asked why he couldn't say the N word on The View (I think it was)
I'm loving your takes on old 90s sitcoms that I myself never watched but was vaguely aware of when they were on TV.
Didn’t All in the Family have a trans/crossdresser as a close member of the show’s main family? The person gets killed due to bigotry, and it’s a big moment of the show. It begs the question: just because “a show is old” doesn’t mean it couldn’t have highlighted more complex things, right?
She was a friend of Archie's.
Matt Baume did some great videos on the episodes with her, and does great videos about queer representation in sitcoms altogether.
Yeah, and because it was the 70s the identification of that character is hard to pinpoint in modern language, but I'm under the impression the character wasn't trans, but was a crossdresser who was just comfortable being referred to as male or female. Some of the humor comes from Edith constantly switching pronouns when she's referring to the character ("she took off his wig"). Archie's super uncomfortable at first, but then he and the audience learns that just because their new acquaintance is, um, unusual, it doesn't mean they're any less of a person.
@@FrenkTheJoy Edith is truly the heart of that show.
She quite often acts as some combination of Archie's conscience and his "guiding light" who helps him grow, as a person.
I love hearing you talk about the sitcoms of my childhood and unpacking them. I didn't really watch Home Improvement, but my mother loved it. I remember her not wanting to be disturbed while the finale aired. I'd love to hear you talk about Boy Meets World, if you are interested. It was very formative to me, but I'd like to see another perspective.
I love that Cory's mum is Jill's best friend.
35:40 was so subtly and genuinely delivered I started laughing like ten seconds later and had to go back, I love your delivery and narration style, I also appreciate mentioning that this show was definitely stuck in its time when it came to exploring gender beyond male and female. I was never lost on what you were talking about, the script was extremely thought out, I am glad this ended up on my recommended
This is the lefty video I have waited for my whole life... this show was such a big part of my upbringing. As a small kid, the arrrrrgh thing really appealed to me. Tim Allen reminded me of the dads at Boy Scouts. I never understood then how stereotypes were reinforced on that show yet at the same time, much like Rosanne, even though Tim was conservative, they allowed some breathing room for other points of view... as opposed to girl meets world’s episode on communism for example, Home Improvement, like Tim, had some hidden depth behind all the arrrrrrrrgh
"girl meets world’s episode on communism" I'm sorry what now??
The Rosanne show was not conservative, not even close. Even the new one, while giving a voice to the sort of people to Vote for Trump, is not conservative.
Do people really suck this bad at media literacy.
@@Littlespooby Basically, Cory failed his daughter and two other students because "even when you get everything right, under 'commonism' you are all the same, and are therefore average" then splits the A+ into thirds as some sort of smug gotcha.
Then these 12 y/o's, now epically owned by an adult, agree communism sucks and the episode ends with them saluting the flag.
@@xBINARYGODx read it again, it wasn’t said Rosanne was conservative, it clearly states Tim was
But basically it was not particularly funny, and oversimplified life's problems and even the battle of the sexes. We liked it when we were younger because it was comfortable and didn't in any way uncomfortably expand our minds. Something can be completely apolitical and yet strikingly authentic as for example Everybody Loves Raymond. Home Improvement wasn't that either. It's a show that changed nothing. And the fallout was that Tim Allen continued to have a career whereas some of the more talented actors on the show didn't. Nothing good came out of it except our false memories of a simpler(and therefore) better time
Carol Burnett is probably one of the biggest examples of slapstick, also Lucille Ball
This Wilson character is about the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen
I was not prepared for how angry the eldest son's hairstyles are making me.
I don’t buy that Wilson was “stalking” the family. I think of it more as kind of an eccentric “guardian angel” on Earth.
It's a joke lmao.
Very little American sitcom made it to be Quebec, I'm pretty glad that José tell me more about them.
I forgot just how much I've always loved Jill's voice. I could listen to her for days
Seeing Hindeman’s face is jarring like seeing an actor after they’ve gotten bad plastic surgery
Thanks!
Wilson was originally supposed to be revealed to have been a ghost or something by the end of the series. Given how he seems to be one at times, it makes more sense when to take that into account, but not by much.
What?? How
i always thought wilson is an imagination of Tim. That is why I was so confused from that episode where he gets a love intrest...
IIRC Tim Allen originally planned for Wilson to be revealed as a ghost in the finale, which would have been WILD
Nice insight on how raising all boys resulted in Tim creating a masculine feedback loop.
Going through all of your old videos. They are great. I grew up in the 90s and you are picking apart so many things from my childhood and its kind of crazy but enjoyable
I don't know if many other Aussies liked this show, but I loved it. Married with children and home improvement were my favourite sitcoms, I never grew up with them, but found them later on in life and got hooked on the styles of comedy both portray. Peace and great work on this video
Another Aussie here! This show is one of the shows I'd watch with my dad and two older brothers whilst eating dinner. As well as other shows like The Simpsons and Married With Children.
In high school I was at Taco Bell when the oldest kid walked in with a limo driver. He stood there as if expecting to be mobbed or something, but everyone just kept eating and he slowly turned around and ordered.
Nice video as usual. It's fun to take a look back at old shows I liked in the day and see them analyzed through a more thoughtful perspective. Gotta say, though, I think the biggest revelation of this video is how Wilson was secretly a creeper. I never noticed it at the time, and wonder why they would have him in scenes where he's simply in the background without any lines. That's terrifying.
Wtf Nick? Can't a random shady guy follow another mans family around peacefully while constantly dressed like a modern day ninja of the shadows??? He aint hurting anyone. Let the creep creep lol.
I gotta say though... That fact that we never really noticed his creeping in the past... Just goes to prove he is quite the master of his creeping craft. That dude doesn't fuck around.
what pride flag is that
@@bjornnielsen7613 O fuck Im pretty sure that's the p*do one
It's called Home Improvement. Not Home Solution. It's an ongoing evolution. This was one of the few shows my family watched together before they divorced as a kid, and the last thing I saw with my Father before he passed from cancer. Bitter sweet memories.
so what you're saying is Home Improvement was the inspiration for fight club
This is one of the best video essays on a sitcom ever. Thank you very much. Grew up with this show and without a father the tropes always resonated with me in that seemingly
deep way but never appreciated both the problematic aspects along with the glimmers of growth. Amazing video.
23:44 I wait for you to review KING OF THE HILL
I'm good on that. I don't want to see how he'd take such a good show and see it as offensive
Does anybody else remember believing the rumor as a kid that Wilsons actor had horrible facial deformities and that's why they never showed his face?
Why was I suggested a year old Sargon of Akkad video in the suggested? Yuck.
Anyways great video, really nailed the vibe of the show.
I’ve done that to Thoughty2 and I still got suggested it later. Clicked it again and haven’t seen it again yet thankfully.
I understand that these videos probably take you a very long time to make, but damn, i love them!
The MC Hammer jokes did not disappoint.
You crush these videos and sum up these classic shows in a great way...thank you bro
I think the one time Wilson isn’t obscured by a fence, he wore clown makeup
He also wore skeleton make up (he came from a Día de los Muertos party).
Andrew Ollmann Ah nice, so twice we saw him unobscured, he just wore make up.
Great video! Please do one of these for scrubs :) I always loved how scrubs portrayed manhood. When I first watched it being 15 or sth, it surprised me in many ways. I liked how JD is not the typical masculine man and still the protagonist of a wildly beloved sitcom. Fav scene was when JD pushes his scooter and tries to find a radio channel and when he finds a channel talking about sports, he is disgusted by it :D And it showed that affection between heterosexual men is nothing to be ashamed of. It shaped me quite a bit I think, but I also think that it probably had some questionable things as well. I should watch it again as an adult. But a video about this would be super cool, José :)
This show was a huge part of my childhood and I loved your reading of it.
I've been binging these videos. These are so great and I hope you make more!
Another homerun for Jose Conseco here. I do love the Simpsons parody of home improvement where tim hots up a ride on mower but accidentally reverses and kills Wilson. But even though I was never able to really connect with home improvement there is one moment from it that makes me laugh. The part where tim and the granite guy communicate with grunts with subtitles provided for the audience. I greatly appreciate the inclusion of that gag. Other than that it never made me LOL.
This is a wonderful video, especially in my situation. When I was younger (like elementary or early middle School) this was always the show me and my father would watch, and along with my father essentially being Tim Taylor, shaped my views growing up. My views are much more to the left of these early views, while my father has gone on to being a mid 50's working class MAGA guy. This show reminds me of simpler times, when the world felt more cut and dry and I saw my father more than once a year. With this video, showing the way Tim Taylor works, you've helped me understand my father works a little better, thank you
The episodes about Jill's hysterectomy were incredibly memorable to me. I was only in middle school at the time, and I haven't seen it since, but in my memory it was a very frank depiction/discussion about menopause and womanhood.
Same that Stick with me too
You know, I really enjoy watching you just pick apart and analyze shows I've literally never watched
There's actually research showing that men are more likely to leave their families if they have daugthers, probably for exactly the reason at 26:43 :(
Interesting... You would think that a dad having daughters would be a good thing. You would likely have less in common with them since you're the opposite sex so that means more time to spend on my cars or video games or whatever lol. Guy stuff...
But no... Daughters are harder typically...
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 The interpretation I've seen is that men with sons often feel a stronger responsibility to be a father figure and are therefore more reluctant to leave. There's some logic to it, I suppose. Still a pretty awful thing to hear as a woman with only sisters. My own father is great and we're really close, but I feel sorry for the girls who grow up without a dad, because they just weren't as invested in them as they would've been if they were sons, apparently.
Some guys check out totally of the parenting responsibilities if they have girls. From the very start they assume their wife has the major responsibility in parenting because she's a woman and changing diapers and singing a kid to sleep is just supposed to be in our nature. But at least if the kid is a boy they will feel they have to play some role as the kid's masculine rolemodel, to show him how to do "boy things" and how to "act like a man" once in a while.
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 You aren't less obligated to spend time with your daughter just because you don't have a lot in common with them, what the fuck
Soyborne. Born, made, and undone by the soy. my dad doesn’t spend a lot of time with me, but he tries so hard to bond with me over similar interests. we end up talking about true crime most of the time, and he took to recommending me joaquin phoenix movies after i saw joker and said he was good in it.
i’ve known so many dads who still spend time with and bond over common interests with their daughters, because that’s what good dads do. it’s so disgusting to say it’s great that men have daughters so they don’t have to spend time, y’know, parenting their children.
Stop, hammer time?
I love what you do. Please do this for the show "Designing Women." I think you would find it very interesting.
This show had a MASSIVE impact on how I viewed myself and what masculinity should be. Tim was the absolute antithesis of a quality person- he was dumb, overconfident and under capable, oblivious to empathy or good reasoning. On the other hand you had Al who SHOULD have been the lead of Tool Time if it were an actual show about competent workers who was an emotional, kind, friendly man unashamed of how he cared for others while also being well dressed, well spoken, and knowledgeable about his field. And Wilson was always willing to help his neighbor no matter how many times he absolutely missed the point while being an absolute fountain of multicultural knowledge.
Thanks to this show, my concept of what a man should be was knowledgeable, caring, patient, helpful, kind. And despite the fact that Tim was the one with the 'American dream' of a big house, wife, kids, and a career he also stood as everything I knew I didn't want to be. If being a good man was going to leave me like Al and Wilson, alone most of the time and looked down on by a person more ape than human who got everything the world tells us we need to be happy, I would be just fine with that.
The issue we get with Wilson and his 'bad takes' is how often he is speaking from 'throughout history', 'in x civilization from centuries ago and another culture', 'in this one century where things are very different than they are now'. Sometimes he is directly saying 'we should be more like these old ways', and those old ways weren't necessarily good for the people who lived back then either. We can take much of it as 'the past is past and you can try to emulate it, or you can define yourself by the present or the future'. There come times when learning the lessons of the past means accepting that they were wrong and we have the ability to be better than them.
First time I listen to someone critique that a show doesn't have enough "THE MESSAGE"
I wonder if the parents of Zach and Taran were jealous because Jonathan Taylor Thomas was getting more screen time and better lines. Although, he did have it all. He was cute and had good comic timing and a great sense of delivering his lines in a sarcastic manner.
Love your vids. I was an adult when all these shows aired and I loved them. I always thought it was a funny play on words that Tim's show is Tool Time about Tools and Tim himself could be considered a 'tool'. It's fun to look back and remember the times and what was going on and these shows were a big part of people's lives.
Pamela Anderson Lee, i had no idea that she was in this show. I have watched this show from the very beginning .
36:35 Randy wait for your freaken cue! You're supposed to be a professional!
I love these hour/hour and a half long video my guy!!!
These are done so well!
I feel like Home Improvement is the easiest way to explain my father's thoughts on masculinity and feminism and what he taught my older brothers and me, being the only daughter.
Watching this as a 90s kid that grew up with Tim Allen in almost everything.
I know this will probably get lost but does anyone remember Grace Under Fire?
Yes, I do. I had a thing for Nadine growing up.
@@Robstafarian same (on both counts)
I would add the injuries Tim gets are symbolic of his masculinity being knocked down a peg every time he wants more power
True. A pretty literal representation of the self-destructive aspect of letting his male pride be above caution and foresight.
This is perfect. I just ran smack into a coworker's rant about Tim Allen's temporary loss of his show for five minutes in TWENTY SEVENTEEN.
Can we agree that this show is much better than his next show, Last Man Standing?