In Defense Of 'Cavemen'

[Brian Damage]

I suspect most reasonable people would agree that television really didn't need a comedy based on the Geico cavemen commercials. Sure, they're funny and distinctive. But so were the commercials featuring "Baby Bob," and we know what happened to that show.

So if critics want to argue that the show is pointless or simply a lame attempt to cash in on a familiar set of characters, then I'm all in agreement.

But if you've been reading any of the early reviews of the new ABC comedy "Cavemen," you haven't been reading much about the insanity of the idea. Instead, you're reading a lot of complaints about the way the early version of the pilot used racial stereotypes as a punchline. Some critics have went as far as to argue the show itself is racist, kind of an "Amos And Andy" in bearded form.

That argument, my friends, is nuts. And here's why.

First, let's look at the concept of the show. If you sat down and attempted to figure out a way to make a show about cavemen who live in modern day society work, you would quickly come to the same conclusion as the producers of "Cavemen." The only way to make sense of the concept is to look at how this minority would be treated. And quickly, that turns to racial stereotypes.

Now a lot of the arguments have been from people who saw the pilot, and read whatever prejudices they have into what they saw on the screen. They heard jokes about sexual prowess, laziness and crime, and saw it all as a shot at African Americans, or Hispanics. Critics argue that the pilot used the stereotypes as racist shorthand. It was all a way to appeal to the worst instincts of the viewers, and get in some subtle digs at various minorities.

But that knee-jerk reaction proves the premise of "Cavemen." The absurdity of racism is that it deals in the worst stereotypes. It's not really believable that all black men are sexual dynamos, or that all white people can't dance, or that all Spanish-speaking immigrants work as janitors. But you hear those type of jokes all the time, and it isn't until you see them applied in an entirely new surrounding that you're reminded of just how absurd they are.

While the pilot of "Cavemen" isn't consistent in its tone, it does try and approach racism in that way. But poking fun of the stereotypes, it gets laughs not by repeating the falsehoods, but by holding them up for the absurdities that they are.

There's another side of this controversy that deserves some focus, and it's a much more depressing one for me.

The sad truth is that a goofball comedy such as "Cavemen" is just about the only way that racism or other similar social issues can be explored in a scripted television show in today's hypersensitive environment. It would be impossible to get a show like "All In The Family" on the air in 2007, and that fact limits our ability to deal with racism and stereotypes in a rational, true-to-life fashion. The only option is to apply that racist behavior to a fictional situation, one so far removed from reality that the writers are safe to explore the behavior they would have to shy away from in a more realistic series.

I'm not claiming that "Cavemen" is going to be any classic of television comedy. Like every other TV critic, I haven't seen a final version of the pilot. But I'm hopeful that the producers are able to find the right tone for the writing, and that ABC doesn't write it off too early.

There's no much downside for giving "Cavemen" the chance to work. At worst, it'll be just another one of the fall shows that will crash and burn by November. But the upside is that if the show does succeed, viewers will end up with a show that is both funny and thought-provoking.

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