The bullying itself was okay, within limits. It's a comedy. There's always going to be the bumbling straight man in comedies and Jerry did, well, bumble frequently. The times it started to bother me were:
1) when it was completely uncharacteristic -- Chris, for instance, would play along even if he wasn't actively cruel, which struck me as completely out-of-character. Ditto for Leslie. Even Andy had a couple moments. None of those seemed like the type of people who would stoop to that sort of thing. Andy might do or say something because he's not overly bright, doesn't think things through, and is easily influenced. The other two -- Leslie, who's passionately loyal to the people she works with and Chris, who started out in the series with very firm ideas about proper treatment of coworkers and subordinates -- just rang false to me. The only character I don't recall ever saying or doing something that belittled Jerry was Ann, which means an awful lot of the characters were given jokes that really didn't get funnier with numbers;
and
2) when Tom did it. As the show went on, I started to despise Tom almost solely because his treatment of Jerry made him seem like a vile and self-serving person. The others could be mean, but Tom was actively and deliberately cruel. It's just not funny when you can hear the malice behind the words. I could live with the inane swagger, and I didn't even care that much about Jerry, but Tom's behavior revealed a really horrible human being underneath it all, someone who attacked and belittled weaker people because he could get away with it. It got to the point that I simply didn't want to see him on the screen in any capacity. If they were going for comedy, they forgot that it takes some redeeming features to get the audience to forgive a character's flaws, and Tom seemed to have none. April was nasty too, but at least she grew and developed into a three-dimensional character. Also, unlike Tom, she was willing to go after people more powerful than her. She might have been cruel, but she wasn't so much a bully as just in deep need of therapy.
reply
share
Zanza8
9 years ago
You make a good point. Chris was so upbeat and positive and he didn't really get swayed by other people, so it was weird when he was mean to Jerry. I don't know about Leslie...she would get so laser focused on what she was doing that at times she was thoughtless to everyone. I mean, this is a woman who got in a poop bag fight with kids. Andy, though, Andy was so sweet and lovable that it always makes me feel a little sick when he takes a swipe at Jerry. As to April, I totally agree. She was equally mean to everyone but she did change quite a lot. And I did like Tom at first but after a while it seemed like being cruel to Jerry was his favorite hobby. One moment I always liked was when Tom was harassing Jerry about losing that little horse and Ron yelled that it was Tom's fault and he wasn't going to get out of it by blaming Jerry for something he did. A straight man is one thing, a scapegoat is another. I read somewhere that even the actors were somewhat uncomfortable with the Jerry bullying and would apologize to Jim O'Heir and he would tell them they weren't being mean to him, they were being mean to Jerry.
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/
reply
share
GreyHunter
9 years ago
That's a good point about Leslie. For all her virtues, she can be somewhat thoughtless when she's focused on a goal.
The incident where Tom let out Little Sebastian was the exact episode I was thinking of when I realized I really didn't like Tom any more. Strangely, that was also the first episode where I noticed Ron could be mean to Jerry too, making a snide remark about Jerry eating some carnival food right after tearing into Tom when there was no need to do so -- Jerry didn't abandon Little Sebastian, he left Tom to watch him. Nothing wrong with getting food, especially since Ron would actually totally approve of a person exercising his or her God-given right to eat high fat sugary food. But, you know, Ron's Ron. He's blunt and speaks his mind, which is part of his charm.
reply
share
Zanza8
9 years ago
Yeah, I didn't care for Ron taking a swipe at Jerry but he did stand up for him first and he did lay the blame for the horse getting lost at Tom's door. And I don't think Ron usually picks on Jerry, does he? I could be getting that wrong, I know he's said some mean things about Jerry to the audience, but he doesn't usually join in the Jerry-bashing. And you're right, Ron would have no problem going to get food himself, and if he wanted meat or other kinds of meat, he would have left Lil Sebastian to get a steak.
Tom...he's just over the top with Jerry. But he does things like that to everyone. Remember when he shot Ron and he was letting Leslie take the blame? As to Leslie, she's kind of hard on everyone. She's completely incapable of realizing Tom is an American and she keeps calling him a Libyan. Not that there's anything wrong with Libya but I don't like that. An American should be recognized as such.
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/
reply
share