# Dr. Phil doesn't really care about kids **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 15, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241 "2016-04-15T02:23:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/21 "2016-04-16T17:30:12Z")
Dr. Phil is apparently enough of a dick to have merited [a page on Dickipedia](http://web.archive.org/web/20110821032621/http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Dr._Phil_McGraw), back when that was a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/22 "2016-04-16T20:11:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Dr. Oz? Unfortunately, yes. ☹ My dad was watching Rachel Ray once (he’s addicted to cooking shows) She was making chili, and one of the ingredients was _ranch dressing_. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/23 "2016-04-17T04:21:09Z")
As stupid as that sounds, what’re you going to do on a cooking show after seven trillion episodes if not something weird? How hard is it to make a good chili? It’s not. A show on how to make an ordinary, tasty chili would be like a show about how to breathe. Throw in some ranch dressing or aspirin or whatever else makes the chili weird and at least you have a show. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/24 "2016-04-17T05:33:46Z")
Bear in mind that Dr. Phil is a Son of Oprah, just like Dr. Oz. Says something about Oprah. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/25 "2016-04-17T08:41:06Z")
Who watches this hairless little prick? Seriously. What is the demographic of those who listens to this quack? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/26 "2016-04-17T11:34:36Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > You may disapprove of Dr. Phil and his methods, and I’m certainly not sticking up for him. I agree he’s a charlatan. But he has a Ph. D. from the University of North Texas, so he is entitled to call himself and to be referred to as “Doctor.” Maybe in the technical sense, but he let his medical license lapse (on purpose) just for entertainment. Specifically (from what I heard) so he’s now not a mandatory reporter. For example, when he’s doing a show, a 17 year old can say ‘then my mom hit me right in the eye’ and he’s not required to get the police/CPS involved. If he still held his medical license, again in this example, he’d risk losing it for not reporting child abuse. I’m sure there’s other reasons he let it lapse, but that’s the one that I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/27 "2016-04-17T22:28:05Z")
A big TV star doesn’t really care about all the problems of the people on his show? This is shocking news, I feel totally disillusioned. Why, it’s almost as if the whole thing were simply entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/28 "2016-04-18T00:29:26Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > How about a nice game of chess instead? Damn, you beat me to it. \* Is this about my grades?\* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/29 "2016-04-18T11:45:01Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Who watches this hairless little prick? Seriously. What is the demographic of those who listens to this quack? Remember Jerry Springer? Been watching Donald Trump? Never ever forget: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public–H.L. Mencken That said, Dr. Phil is a scummy little money-grubber who should be shot by trebuchet across the border into N. Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/30 "2016-04-18T16:32:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > John Edward was the phony psychic. John Edwards was the politician who imploded his career by trying to cover up his extra-martial love child. > > Both should be marooned somewhere, but the former has a stronger thematic link to Dr. Phil. Thank you. I thought they were both John Edwards. But the psychic is coming to Albany soon (saw a billboard) and I am so irritated that people will probably pack the house. Also “phony psychic?” But you repeat yourself. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/31 "2016-04-23T00:06:54Z")
It’s refreshing for someone to not care about kids. What did kids ever do for Dr. Phil? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/32 "2016-04-24T00:23:19Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Maybe in the technical sense, but he let his medical license lapse (on purpose) just for entertainment. Specifically (from what I heard) so he’s now not a mandatory reporter. > > For example, when he’s doing a show, a 17 year old can say ‘then my mom hit me right in the eye’ and he’s not required to get the police/CPS involved. If he still held his medical license, again in this example, he’d risk losing it for not reporting child abuse. > > I’m sure there’s other reasons he let it lapse, but that’s the one that I’ve heard. He was licensed as a psychologist, not a physician. But I’m sure that giving up his license had nothing to do with being a mandatory reporter - he may have said he was mandated , but in fact most states ( and California is one of them ) require mandated reporters to report abuse/neglect involving children who “come before them in their professional capacity”. The children on the show are not before him in his professional capacity, as he is not practicing clinical psychology on the show. He most likely gave up the license simply because he didn’t need it and maintaining it was some sort of burden ( continuing education or something) ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/33 "2016-04-25T16:50:08Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Remember Jerry Springer? My **ex** -husband made a list of potential baby names for our son (now 12) while watching Jerry Springer. After my vetoing every single one of them he sprung a somewhat normal ( not common, but classic) name. I went for it. I wasn’t especially planning to pick that name, but I like it and it sure beats having to tell my son his name came from Springer. Or my favourite, not from Springer, name. “Let’s call the baby E.Z.\* No name, just initials. _ **The best part is it works for a boy or a girl!** _” :eek: \*We are Canadian. So it would have been “E. Zed” once he started school. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/34 "2016-04-25T17:59:13Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > “Let’s call the baby E.Z.\* No name, just initials. _ **The best part is it works for a boy or a girl!** _” :eek: Sure, works great for a teenage girl, with all the other ‘growing up’ issues, to be named ‘easy’, right? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/35 "2016-04-25T18:21:31Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Sure, works great for a teenage girl, with all the other ‘growing up’ issues, to be named ‘easy’, right? 😛 One would think so, but when you add this: [QUOTE=Mona Lisa Simpson’s Ex Husband.] Dude, See, if you think that, you are just creating that future. I feel sorry for you if your brain works that way. Dude.\* [/QUOTE] And also: [QUOTE=Mona Lisa Simpson’s Ex Husband.] Middle name? No, not Robert. No way. People will call him Booby. [/QUOTE] one cannot be sure what works for whom. Actually being married to him didn’t work for me very well either. My ex husband is an ex for a reason. Arguably he would be a much better “my never husband” but I got a really cool kid out of the deal. Also an awesome mother in law; we are better friends now than when I was married. \*At no time during our marriage, pregnant or not, or even after our marriage have I ever been a Dude ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/36 "2016-04-25T18:24:13Z")
Oh and not to hijack the thread anymore than it already has, Dr Phil always seems kinda skeevy to me. Like an acquaintance of your dad that sees you every few years in your teens and comments “Wow, you’ve gotten bigger since I saw you last.” The one you say “My eyes are up here and I’ve been 5’4 since I was 13.” ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/37 "2016-04-25T18:35:57Z")
Man, fuck Dr. Phil. Fuck Oprah too. How they can live with themselves I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/38 "2016-04-26T20:39:34Z")
Speaking of Oprah, this always makes me laugh: [Comedian Bill Burr calling out Oprah on her holier-than-thou attitude.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YL04v-J5U) “Didn’t she used to interview midgets who want to bang their mailman’s boyfriend?..She stood on the heads of those little people for five years!” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/39 "2016-04-26T23:58:58Z")
I’m more offended by the abject stupidity of daytime TV than I am a TV host’s depraved indifference towards children. One of my most dreadful intelligence insulting experiences occurred when I was waiting for car repairs at a dealership. They had the TV on in the lounge. I was leaning my head back to sleep, and somehow a wandering salesman interpreted that as a desire to have the volume increased. So, I got to experience the Jenny Jones show in a semiconscious state. It was a show about bad hair. Yes, that’s right, bad hair. It was nightmarish. They featured twin 10-year old girls who had long kinky curly hair. They had them wave their arms up and down slowly like they were monsters. They made it look like a Godzilla movie with people running and screaming with the girls projected to large size in the background, waving their arms and otherwise not moving. The insipid cohost was acting the role of the onsite reporter and saying shit like “Breaking news! The bad hair twins have gotten loose! I repeat they’ve gotten loose! Everybody run for your lives!” Then they went back to Jenny: “Beyaaaaaad Hyaaaaaaair can reeeeeeally be your worst nightmeaaaaaair! Don’t you just hate beyaaaaaad hyaaaaair?” I think that’s a worse experience than living in a moldy house with a hoarder. It sure felt like 14 years. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241/40 "2016-04-28T17:27:05Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Speaking of Oprah, this always makes me laugh: [Comedian Bill Burr calling out Oprah on her holier-than-thou attitude.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YL04v-J5U) “Didn’t she used to interview midgets who want to bang their mailman’s boyfriend?..She stood on the heads of those little people for five years!” Aside from the midgets, she also had a woman on the show who promoted the Blood Libel, that Jews ritually sacrifice babies. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/n7QXz6hDtxI/hqdefault.jpg "Vicki Devil Worship - 1st May 1989 Oprah Winfrey Show Interview With A Jewish Woman") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7QXz6hDtxI) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-phil-doesnt-really-care-about-kids/752241.md?page=1)