Bend over, Lucy. OMG I never saw this one! HOW HORRIBLE!

[shocolah]

I can't believe Ricky actually took Lucy over his knee and spanked her!!!!!! Even if it didn't hurt, the idea that a husband would take his wife and spank her is sick!!!! This is the ep where an elderly next door neighbor lady falls for the grocer. I'm sure you've all probably discussed this before, but this takes the cake AFAIC.
And this is the same episode that where the old lady says, "can you teach me how to attract the opposite sex?" Other things they've said on I Love Lucy are "divorce" and Lucy was drunk once....if this was back in the "dark ages" for tv, they sure did a lot of "modern" things as well as "caveman" things!

[Cashodeen]

Isn't that the absolutely worst! If I remember, this episode is not the only episode he spanks her. In the episode where she wants to move into the new apartment and buys all these toys, Ricky spanks her. It's either this episode or another one where she is yelling that she'll take, whatever it is she bought, back. Heck, maybe he spanked her three times in the show! I can't remember now. Even once is bad enough! Can't believe how things have changed.

[JaneTVFan]

Originally posted by Cashodeen
Isn't that the absolutely worst! If I remember, this episode is not the only episode he spanks her. In the episode where she wants to move into the new apartment and buys all these toys, Ricky spanks her. It's either this episode or another one where she is yelling that she'll take, whatever it is she bought, back. Heck, maybe he spanked her three times in the show! I can't remember now. Even once is bad enough! Can't believe how things have changed.

Why do people react so much about Ricky spanking Lucy in a couple episodes, but never raise an eyebrow about Lucy intending to slug Ricky in the head, but unknowingly hitting a dummy's head instead, or beating up on him when he's in bed asleep, or any of several other times throughout the series when Lucy hits Ricky? I agree it's disturbing seeing a man spanking his wife, even though it's done in jest. But isn't it just as bad seeing a woman strike her husband? Is this obvious double standard political correctness gone berserk?

[Cashodeen]

Originally posted by JaneTVFan

Why do people react so much about Ricky spanking Lucy in a couple episodes, but never raise an eyebrow about Lucy intending to slug Ricky in the head, but unknowingly hitting a dummy's head instead, or beating up on him when he's in bed asleep, or any of several other times throughout the series when Lucy hits Ricky? I agree it's disturbing seeing a man spanking his wife, even though it's done in jest. But isn't it just as bad seeing a woman strike her husband? Is this obvious double standard political correctness gone berserk?

Yes, hitting is hitting, and it's no good. But I still think Ricky's hitting was a bigger deal than Lucy's. He took her over his knee and spanked her for heaven sakes. Parents will spank their kids. I thought the action made it seem like she was some child. Lucy wailing on him wasn't cool either. All in all it's just "I Love Lucy" and it's all done comically, and is not a big thing. Them hitting each other wasn't exactly comical to me, but I certainly wasn't offended.

[Mickey]

Look, I know we've been here before, but it was the fifties, people! A husband spanking his wife, or pretending to, was an easy route to a quick laugh. ILL wasn't the only show to fall back on it, and it's quite obvious that there's no harm intended. When you watch old comedies, sometimes you're just going to run slap bang into old attitudes. Sometimes it's cringe worthy from a modern perspective, sometimes it adds more humour.

And like JaneTVFan says, why's it always the spanking that gets to people - scenes when he's quite obviously barely touching her, and it's obviously all a big joke? What about all the (numerous) scenes where she beats the living daylights out of him?! And that looks real.

[SPLAIN]

It IS amazing though the reaction that those scenes get, isn't it? People forget she ACTS like a CHILD, so he punishes her the way a parent would a disobedient child, and yes, it was the 50's and a COMEDY show.

[Cashodeen]

I totally understand what you guys are saying. But did you not read all that I wrote? I wanted to make clear that I know it is a comedy and it IS no big deal. "I Love Lucy" is one of my favorite shows for its type of comedy. Geesh, maybe I should not have started off my first post with "Isn't that the absolute worst!" Everyone I have ever talked with about this reacts the same way I do--we can't believe how times have changed. It is done comically but if I were to pick it apart in seriousness (which I obviously did--my bad), it is pretty disgraceful to spank anybody. But I'm not offended in the least. It is a humorous show all the way around. I grew up in a different time, but I still understand how the spanking was suppose to be interpreted. My last posts were suppose to reflect how some of us could interpret it now.

(And I didn't forget she acts like a child a lot of the time. I just didn't think Ricky should act like her father. It's all comedy, nonetheless!)

[JaneTVFan]

Nobody's jumping on you, but your post pretty well highlighted what we're talking about. It seems society in recent years has become conditioned to react negatively to certain things but not others that are equally bad. Someone sees a woman get hit, even if it's only a joke, and GASP! OMG! The same person sees a man get hit, even if it's for real, and they don't even bat an eye. Huge, modern, double standard.

As Claude noted, Ricky sometimes treated Lucy like a child because she *acted* like a child. That was the whole point of the show. By the same token, Alice Kramden would talk down to Ralph like a mother scolding a child because he whined and behaved like a spoiled kid. But nobody gets on her case about that.

Originally posted by Cashodeen
I totally understand what you guys are saying. But did you not read all that I wrote? I wanted to make clear that I know it is a comedy and it IS no big deal. "I Love Lucy" is one of my favorite shows for its type of comedy. Geesh, maybe I should not have started off my first post with "Isn't that the absolute worst!" Everyone I have ever talked with about this reacts the same way I do--we can't believe how times have changed. It is done comically but if I were to pick it apart in seriousness (which I obviously did--my bad), it is pretty disgraceful to spank anybody. But I'm not offended in the least. It is a humorous show all the way around. I grew up in a different time, but I still understand how the spanking was suppose to be interpreted. My last posts were suppose to reflect how some of us could interpret it now.

(And I didn't forget she acts like a child a lot of the time. I just didn't think Ricky should act like her father. It's all comedy, nonetheless!)

[Cashodeen]

That is a good example you gave about "The Honeymooners." I never have watched the show, but I knew about how Alice would talk to Kramden.

I won't get into details about the double standard, (I've spent far too much time picking ILL apart over, what was meant to be a humorous scene) but I completely agree there is a very noticable one.

Until it was mentioned in this thread, I forgot about how Lucy wailed on Ricky and attempted to hit him in the head once. But I remembered very well when he spanked her a couple times. Obviously, I have been guilty of the double standard as well.

Anyhow, I do enjoy reading everyone's thoughts, and I knew no one was picking on me. Everyone on this board seems very polite which is terrific.

[JaneTVFan]

A couple more thoughts on this issue, then I'll shut up. Think about those scenes on ILL where Lucy takes a pillow and starts beating the living daylights out of Ricky. Now try to imagine it's Ricky doing that to Lucy and with the same ferocity. If you really try to put that image in your head -- Ricky trying to beat the crap out of his wife with his pillow -- I'll bet it will come across as really disturbing, just as much as those spanking scenes. But you know what? When people see Lucy do that to Ricky, the next day they don't say, "OMG, did you see what Lucy did to Ricky last night?! That was the absolute worst!" And those occasions where Ricky's done something really bad and is practically groveling at Lucy's feet like a kid who's in trouble with his mother, nobody bats an eye. Again, I'm not picking on you or anybody for taking offense at Ricky's mistreatment of Lucy, but not the other way around. I'm guilty of it, too! But I'm trying to get a handle on things I understand where society has gone too far with its dos and don'ts.

We have been sooo conditioned over the last 20 years or so about what is acceptable and what isn't, what is funny and what is offensive. I think it's great that we as a society have become sensitive and aware of things that in the past were overlooked. But we've taken it too far. We have become a bunch of ridiculously thin-skinned, whining weenies. I remember being in Latin America and the people I was living with would poke fun at my accent. It could be annoying, but I knew they were really doing that because they wanted to have fun WITH me, because they liked me. But try poking fun at someone's accent in this country (the U.S.) and see what happens!

We used to have a sense of humor about ourselves, but now we don't. We as a society have practically lost our sense of humor. I think it's very important to know where to draw the line and see where "humor" is inappropriate. I think that line should be drawn at the point where humor is intended to degrade and humiliate. A lot of thngs on I LOVE LUCY society now tells us are not funny, but you have to look long and hard to find anything on that show that is intended to degrade and humiliate. For degradation and humilation, turn on Howard Stern! In today's politically overcorrect environment, I wish someone could explain how that show thrives while ILL gets criticized.

[Mickey]

You make some good points there, and of course it's an argument that's been going on for some time now. Political correctness was a reaction to things that needed to change, but of course we've now reached a point where many people wish that it hadn't gone quite so far! I don't think it's too widespread though. If you watch Mad About You for example, Jamie takes the Mick out of Paul's New York Jewish accent quite a few times, so it's not that everybody avoids those kinds of jokes. Certainly seems that way at times though!

[tdr]

At least Ricky actually had more reason to 'punish' Lucy in a humiliating way, as he did it because she was being nosy as well as derogatory and jealous simply because the new tenant was a beautiful blonde; then in the other ep it was because she wanted to move into a larger apartment and she bought a ridiculous quantity of large expensive toys, some of which the baby could not use for years. But Lucy tried to beat the stew out of Ricky because of a dream she had; this happened twice at least. And she tried to hit him because he did not want her along when he was to have lunch with Richard Widmark. Lucy is the prototype of a situation comedy character because she creates her own situations with her own eccentricities; so it seems Ricky not wanting her with them was justified.

When we watch these old classic shows, we get a lot of reminders o how what was acceptable as humor a few decades ago and is not allowed today. Besides the spanking and hitting in ILL, there is making fun of Ricky's accent, stereotyping him as a "hot blooded Latin," implying that women in general are gossipy, nosy, and outrageously jealous, that there is no friendship or association among the main characters with blacks, and only with Hispanics through Ricky, and the use of guns in that silly ep where they thought the new tenants were enemy agents. Probably no show today would have a comical drunk as a character, like Otis in the Andy Griffith Show, nor would smoking be allowed as in many old comedy shows.

[SPLAIN]

Now nobody take offence at this, but gimme the good ole days when we just laughed at these situations, and not analyse them to death, they wanted the audience to LAUGH so the writers wrote funny situations, imagine if they had thought back then that there would come a time where these situations would be deemed inappropriate. Political correctness has sucked the life out of comedy these days, in my opinion!

[Cashodeen]

Originally posted by SPLAIN
...Political correctness has sucked the life out of comedy these days, in my opinion!

Yeah, it really has. There isn't really a comedy out now that I care about, and it's been that way for a while. I watch tvland instead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Isn't that the absolute worst!" Ah, that line will forever be seared in my head as the worst thing I've written on sitcomsonline. I actually wish I could take it back because I was actually being so dramatic, and I knew it when I put it. You may not believe this now, but that post really was meant to be a joke, yet I did nothing to let anyone know it was done jokingly. Basically, I was being stupid for coming off a certain way. While I was writing it, I was actually remembering how when my dad and I watched an episode she was spanked it, we joked how nowadays it would be coined as "domestic violence" or "spousal abuse."

And really my next posts were out of sorts too, because I was taking the situation out of the comedy and analyzing it from a serious perspective (ie, the action of spanking to me is worse that hitting--while I pretty much feel that way in the real world, ILL should be left alone.)

I take full responsiblity for ridiculously going into the "political correctness" mode. Personally, I feel PC HAS gotten out of hand, and it continues to be flawed with double standards. In society it is worse if a husband hits his wife than if a wife hits her husband. I totally disagree with this and I think both are equally bad.

Yet, I took JaneTVFan's senerio of Ricky wailing on Lucy with a pillow. I actually forgot Lucy doing this in one episode, yet I am quite sure I would have remembered if Ricky had done it. Pretty rotten of me.

[JaneTVFan]

Originally posted by Cashodeen
Yet, I took JaneTVFan's senerio of Ricky wailing on Lucy with a pillow. I actually forgot Lucy doing this in one episode, yet I am quite sure I would have remembered if Ricky had done it. Pretty rotten of me.

No, it's not "rotten" of you, it's just human. I used that example because I think we ALL would react that way. Practically every person who has grown during the last three decades has been conditioned by society to accept these reverse double standards, just as previous generations accepted different kinds of double standards. I think at some point the pendulum will start to swing back the other way and eventually settle in the middle. At that point, people will look back at the year 2003 and question how people could have tolerated these anti-male double standards, among others.