# Wife Swap - tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764 "2003-10-21T20:55:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Herge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Herge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Herge)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/1 "2003-10-21T20:55:57Z")
Best episode yet, I think! Has the rod up Jude’s butt got a rod up its butt? I’ve never seen someone so analy retentive. After telling one of the kids not to “disrespect me” she then threatened to give her “a good hiding”. Her new rules about going to bed at 10pm and no snacks were never going to go down well. What a bitch! Her husband was not much better. All in all, I’d rather have been brought up in Belinda’s house than Jude’s. What did you think? ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/2 "2003-10-21T21:16:15Z")
I thought I was pretty well up-to-date on current cultural events, but… huh? 😕 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/3 "2003-10-21T21:40:00Z")
**Herge** , maybe if you listed your location, we could figure out what you are talking about. Is this some television show? In what country? ---
**Author:** ![Herge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Herge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Herge)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/4 "2003-10-21T21:48:14Z")
Sorry, its a British TV show in which too familys swap wives for a week. The new wives get to lay down their own rules, and fireworks normally ensue. Should have probably put that in the thread title, sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/5 "2003-10-22T01:45:32Z")
Wow, and I thought Dave Chappell was just kidding with “Trading Spouses!” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/6 "2003-10-22T02:04:39Z")
Wow! Is there much fucking? ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/7 "2003-10-22T07:43:46Z")
No, there isn’t. Its simply two women swap households. I didn’t watch the one that **Herge** is talking about, but I’ve caught a couple of the others. I thought the one last week, the one with Kellie and Maxine was interesting. There is no way at all I could have taken over Maxine’s household, the husband was just a selfish chauvanistic pig. Oh, and for the non-UK Dopers, [a link](http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/W/wife_swap/) . ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/8 "2003-10-22T12:58:45Z")
I, uh, thought this thread was about, well, something different…never mind…she’d never go for it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/9 "2003-10-22T14:22:54Z")
Most disappointing thread. EVER! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/10 "2003-10-22T15:07:30Z")
I thought Jude was a bit over the top, but Belinda’s house with _too_ laissez-faire. Kids shouldn’t have to make all their own decisions - they’re kids, they don’t have the necessary experience. And they obviously have no self-control, having tantrums like toddlers right in front of the TV cameras. They are going to have \*\*so \*\*much trouble in the real world (in fact, they probably already do at school). I read the Wifeswap website, and Jude and her family _have_ changed thanks to the programme - they have hamsters now, and the husband’s lightened up a bit. They were open to learning. Belinda, however, continues to think her childrearing style is perfect. Overall, I prefer the family that is open to change. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/11 "2003-10-22T15:14:30Z")
How come the wives get to lay down the rules? What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/12 "2003-10-22T15:26:53Z")
I hereby predict a zillion page views. Stand back, LOTR thread! This one’s coming! ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/13 "2003-10-22T15:54:22Z")
It’s a bit of an obvious reality-show set up. Get two families with very different outlooks and lifestyles, mix 'em up, then sit back and wait for the fighting to break out. Swapping the ‘wives’ is just a way of getting there. The scheme is that when the substitute wife arrives she has to follow the usual house rules. Then after a week, when she’s well and truly fed-up, she gets to introduce her own changes. It helps if you get a people who are set in their ways and aren’t shy about getting their point across. And the best bit is at the end when the wives meet for the first time. The claws are well out by that time. “Your house is a dump - your husband is a wimp - your children are louts - you’re a stuck up \*\*\*\*\* etc, etc” Totally cynical, gawp TV full of awful people. Hence; very successful. I’m sure Fox must have plans a US version. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/14 "2003-10-22T16:18:38Z")
[Otto] Man, That is just BLATANT false advertising![/Otto] ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/15 "2003-10-22T16:38:10Z")
How do I get my houshold on this show? I might actually have a clean house for a week! ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/16 "2003-10-22T19:49:10Z")
I think it’s a fun show to watch if you don’t take it too seriously, and it does feature some extraordinary characters. But on the whole I think the first series worked better, and not just because it was newer and the format was fresher. I think in this series the makers have tried too hard to find blatantly incompatible people and attitudes. But it’s still pretty rivetting telly, sometimes in a stare-at-the-screen-in-utter-disbelief sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-swap-tonight/208764/17 "2003-10-23T15:02:11Z")
I’m just sitting here laughing at all these obviously now horny blokes who mis-interpreted everything. 😃 As for the show, I think it was a couple of weeks back where this couple from Rochdale with goodness knows how many kids, living on benefits (and making a rather hefty amount out of it) swapped with a rather well heeled couple from Devon (I think), where the wife worked, they had two kids, and the husband did a lot of stuff around the house. Lizzie (the woman from Rochdale) decided that Emma’s husband (the other wife) was a wuss (or something equally degrading) because he cooked dinner at home, and did the ironing. Huh? And Lizzie’s husband, Mark was a total pig. Watching that show, I think I did just stare at the TV, slack jawed, in a kind of “I cannot believe what I am seeing and hearing” sort of way. But it is good. In a head shaking, shoot me if I ever behave like that, kind of way.