This is why women love the Three Stooges

[I wrote this twelve years ago then apparently got distracted and forgot to post it. Since we're still having the same silly conversations on the topic, I decided better late than never.]

 

I'll admit my first my first thought at reading this piece by Yahoo's Beth Greenfield was that the combination of tiny slivers of the lunatic fringe calling themselves movements and lazy journalists looking to make something out of nothing is bound to turn out badly, but then I gave it some more thought:

There’s a controversial new ad that’s gone viral this week, and a vocal group of men are up in arms about it, calling it “sexist.”

Yep, that’s right. This time it’s men who are being belittled to make people buy something: Samsung’s Evolution Kit, which transforms any Samsung television into a smart TV (though the specific product is really beside the point here).

The commercial was introduced last week on YouTube, where it had neared 10 million hits by Thursday afternoon. In it, a woman strolls into the living room to find her husband/boyfriend lying on the couch and watching TV. He’s a slovenly Neanderthal who’s burping, chewing food with his mouth open, grunting, and watching a moronic cartoon. Said wife sighs in disappointment, plugs the new Evolution Kit into the back of the TV, and then fantasizes about what a similar kit could do for her man—which is to turn him into a multitasking (though lobotomized) savior who bakes, cares for baby, paints the kitchen, waters plants, cleans, serves champagne, and plays the flute. But after the fantasy, we're brought back to the real husband sitting and farting on the couch.

Sound funny? Yeah, it is—even if it does rely on every tired male-female trope in the stereotype dictionary. Maybe it’s just always a relief to see men, rather than women (and their butts), as the butt of an advertising joke.

But plenty of guys are angry and offended, and have been sounding off online to let everyone know.

“Probably one of the most vile adverts I've ever seen. This isn't the normal IV drip of laughing at men; this is simply mainlining outright contempt,” wrote one critic in a Reddit “Men’s Rights” page thread on the ad. Another chimed in, “Pure filth. I've seen my fair share of 'men are morons' advertisements, but this one isn't even remotely subtle. The fact that the evolved husband is a brain dead slave to a woman just tops it off.” One man wondered if Samsung was “trying to alienate their primary consumer base,” while others called it “disgusting,” and “sexist,” and promised to boycott the company’s products altogether.

Fed-up men also took to Twitter, and made up much of the 1,500-plus commenters on YouTube. One wondered which “misanthropic, rabid feminist” came up with the concept, while another said he was, “tired of the double standard and depicting men as idiots in advertising.”

A Reddit “Men’s Rights” page isn't just some site for losers with too much time on their hands; it really is a great place to get a representative view of what men are thinking, particularly in this case.

I think I speak for all men when I say that we're tired of having feminists shove images images of loutish men down our throats. We've all been there. The moment the wife or girlfriend gets her hands on the remote, it's Three Stooges marathon for the rest of the night.

Men hate this sort of thing: guys acting like idiots, farting, taking shots to the groin. If you see a man in a movie theater watching Jackass III or the latest Adam Sandler picture, you can bet some feminist dragged him there.