I’m not an expert on 50s TV. In the “Riccardos” movie, they suggested the common approach when an actor got pregnant was to hide her growing belly behind furniture/baskets of laundry. I wonder if pregnant women as a visual gag happened AFTER Lucy’s pregnancy?
The reason it’s not cool to say something that’s bad “sucks” is that it has its roots in virulent homophobia. One of the major things that homophobes think they know about gay men is that they do oral on other men. And to them ('phobes) that’s a bad thing. So saying something sucks as a negative compares it to gay men implying that they are a negative thing as well.
I’ve read books to kids about the following: farts, butts, underwear, toilets, excrement, pee, and other things not coming to mind at the moment. Maybe those things aren’t inherently funny, but they’re kind of low hanging fruit. I also love Beavis and Butt-Head, but would not show it to students.
Sendak himself said they’re also meant to look like Hitler. (Which casts a whole new light on the “Mickey cake” scene…)
We need an etymologist here. Growing up, I thought “sucks” was short for “sucks farts”. I have to leave for the weekend in a minute and my Google Fu is weak. But, I have seen other Dopers post that same understanding.
That’s because I neglected to explain. I should have, because they’re just my personal terms. Sorry about that! First-string words would be the words considered obscene: ass, for instance. Second string would be the words that aren’t quite genteel but are in common public usage now: butt, bum, etc. Third string the ones you could have said to Aunt Bea at the Mayberry Missionaries Society: derrière, bottom, sitter, etc.
No, there were gags on I Love Lucy. They didn’t hide her behind props because there was no need: her pregnancy (even though they didn’t use the word) was part of the plot line. You just weren’t supposed to see more than a hint of baby bump, so Lucy wore voluminous smocks, long the style for pregnant women.
Here’s a short clip from the show.
I often say, “inhales bodaciously.”
As a kid, I thought it meant the part of the cartoon where a character suddenly morphs into a lollipop i.e., sucker, and back. I had no idea it was a bad word. Suddenly, when I was about 10 or 11, my mother started getting her back up about our use of the word and I was totally mystified.
In the Riccardos movie, the discussion took place right after she announced her pregnancy. They said the couldn’t mention or show it. If the movie is accurate in this respect, the gags you refer to followed Lucy/Desi’s refusal to go along - and paved the way for others.
Not even if he axes politely?
Back then, it was tabooooo to show, mention, or even give any hint of pregnancy on TV. Remember, Lucy decided to break that taboo, and it was totally scandalous at the time! It was also taboo to show them in bed together, and IIRC they broke that taboo also.
No, it was Mary Kay and Johnny in 1948.
Aha, that’s news to me. I had never heard of this.
Despite this, was it still considered scandalous when Lucy and Ricky followed in their footsteps?
Very few households had TV’s in 1948, so rules were more liberal: only 37,000 owned TV’s in a population of 145 million. By contrast, the I Love Lucy episode in which Little Ricky was born, had 144 million viewers out of a population of 163 million. Mary Kay and Johnny was a 15-minute show, aired at a time when TV censorship was in its infancy. The no-shared-beds policy wasn’t in place yet. Lucy and Desi of course got around it by pushing two twin beds together.
Arnaz and Ball were trailblazers in many ways. As has been said, the network execs didn’t want a pregnancy written into the storyline. Desi Arnaz, who was a superb businessman, wrote the following to Alfred Lyons, the Chairman of the Board of Philip Morris, the show’s chief advertiser:
“I guess it all comes down to you,” Arnaz wrote in his letter to Lyons. “You are the man who is paying the money for this show and I guess I will have to do whatever you decide. There’s only one thing I want to make certain that you understand. We have given you the number one show in the country and, up til now, the creative decisions have been in our hands. Your people are now telling us we cannot do this, so the only thing I want from you, if you agree with them, is that you must inform them that we will not accept them telling us what not to do unless, in the future, they will also tell us what to do.
At that point, and if this is your decision, we will cease to be responsible to you for the show being the number one show on television, and you will have to look to your people, to the network, and to the Biow Agency for that responsibility.
Thank you very much for all you have done for us in the past.
Almost immediately, the anti-baby cries died down. Years later, Arnaz found out that Lyons got the word out in a memo from England, which read,
‘To whom it may concern: Don’t f*** around with the Cuban! Signed, A.L.,'”
yeah… Not really buying that. That sounds more like a false etymology created afterwards.
when I grew up sucks was shorthand for “that sucks a dick” and therefor bad but when did I realize it had become common? when cartoon network who at the time was owned by the most liberal man on tv ted turner aired the infamous “ed edd n’ eddy” and during a first season episode the ring leader asked the other a question about " why don’t we try … (I forget what) and the smart one says no we cant do that cause of (I again forgot why) and the being leader eddy goes " well that just sucks"
Then a few weeks later the Disney all cartoon channel started a show called yin yang yo ! which proceeded to say the word 1-2 times an episode (the show was split into 2 episodes)
apparently after that, all bets were off and I even started hearing the word in normal tv shows …
Having last lived in America in the spring of 1990, I really can’t say what is common sense anymore, but as a teacher it kind of depends on the class. I have a third grade class I teach once a week which would go absolutely crazy about that book and would make them unable to focus for six weeks after. On stories like, it, you wish you could hear the whole story.
Even within a classroom, context matters. This was a “special occasion”, a read-aloud by a “special guest”. It was understood to be a fun time, a sort of brain-break. In this context, the AP is a sort of “fun uncle” role, making this sort of thing exactly appropriate. The fact that it’s just a little bit out of what would normally be done is what makes it thrilling, and gets kids excited about reading.
I suspect the Principal wanted the AP out for other reasons. It’s like the business world - if they love you they’ll keep you even if you bully, steal or harass. If they hate you, you’ll get fired for “Creating a hostile work environment by walking too loudly and intimidating Secretary Snowflake.”
My first thought is that he should have read the lyrics to I Want a New Duck instead. But then the ASPCA would be calling for his firing.