Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Everybody Loves Michael

I watch Everybody Loves Raymond pretty much every night. It is on TBS around the time I eat dinner. (when I eat...see previous posts)

I make remarks all the time about how defective their family is, how much of a doofus Ray is, how overbearing his father is, how much of a bitch Deborah can be, how nosy his mother is. The only one that doesn't really have a problem is Ray's brother, Robert. Well, except for the severe mental imbalances caused by the defective family.

Tonight there was an episode in which Deborah's parents came to visit, and the group went out to a four star restaurant to eat. Ray's parents didn't want to go because they "don't go to places like that." When they finally did get there, there was nothing but loud, boisterous complaining. The prices were too high, even though Deborah's parents were paying. There was no rye bread..."what would the restaurant do if someone Jewish came to eat?" There were too many glasses, five forks when they need only two, etc. It is as if the ides of a fine restaurant was completely alien.

This is a program that is a sitcom...a situation comedy...that is written in a specific way as to be funny. It is not supposed to reflect real life. Really, it is NOT. Truth is stranger than fiction.

This episode reminded me of the time my parents and I took my dad's parents on vacation with us to Nags Head, North Carolina. Nags Head is a great little town on route 12 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We used to vacation there quite often until it got really touristy. Anyhow, it used to be a great place to visit, and we would stay in a little place right on the ocean side beach.

The trip started off uneventfully. We arrived in the evening and got settled in. Then it started getting bad.

There was no coffee ready the next morning. When dad did get the coffee ready, it wasn't worthy of their consumption. "Oh, that is not very good coffee, oh, not good at all."

We went out to eat pretty much every night at some of the best restaurants in the town. Every restaurant was the same. "Oh, this isn't very good, is it? Not good at all. I don't like this, it is not good at all." This went on all week. Day in, day out.

There was one particularly great restaurant we ate at, I cannot recall the name, where I had the best stuffed grouper I have ever had. As I recall, dad had the lobster and steak and mom had a platter of scallops, clam strips and crab. It was at this restaurant that the most interesting part of this story happens.

The grandparents wanted rare hamburgers.

In North Carolina there is a health law that states that any ground meat must be cooked to well done and have an internal temperature of 160°. I don't know about you, but I like my ground meats (when I eat them, which is not often) to be well cooked. I don't really want to spend any more time in the hospital than necessary.

There was a lot of unhappiness at this wonderful dinner. The grandparents were very dissatisfied at this answer. "I've have never heard of anything like this before, no I have not." "I can't believe it, I am not happy at all." "Oh, this is terrible, I cannot eat overcooked meat like this, no I can't."

They did order the hamburgers, overcooked, at a seafood restaurant. And they complained, constantly, about not being able to get their rare hamburgers. For the rest of the week.

Dad babysat his parents often during this trip. Mother and I would swim in the ocean, walk on the beach, go shopping in town. We did it so we could get away from the complaining.

Everybody Loves Raymond isn't do far off the mark after all.

Addendum
This was the one and only time we vacationed with the grandparents. I should also add that 80% of the complaining was the grandmother. That is dad's step-mother.

Also, the reason we haven't been back to the Outer Banks is because of the tourists. You know who you are. You dingleberries with those obnoxious, idiotic oval "OBX" stickers on your gas-guzzling SUVs like it is some kind of foreign country. I was vacationing in the Outer Banks before it became popular. It is you, nasty tourist, that ruined the Outer Banks for all of us that don't do the touristy things. You should be ashamed.

2 comments:

Shari said...

I think that sitcoms work because they satirize situations people can relate to (as you experienced).

Everybody Loves Raymond was on in Japan for a very short time. I think they showed about 2 seasons before it vanished. Comedy is one of those things which just does not cross culture as well as drama and the only comedies I have seen a fair amount of in Japan are animated ones - The Simpsons and King of the Hill (though the latter is off the air here now).

I did watch almost all of Everybody Loves Raymond through other means a year or so ago. I couldn't believe how nasty Ray's wife was nor what a jerk Ray was and sometimes wondered if that was what some couples are really like (though the pettiness and attitudes of the parents, I could see). I guess it just goes to show that I couldn't relate to the marital problems they had, but I could relate to the parents. Lucky me on the marriage front! ;-)

badmoodguy (Бадмўдгуи) said...

I completely agree with you. There is no way, at least in my mind, that a family could be that defective.

But, as I said...truth is stranger than fiction. While they have their problems, it is funny and usually works out in the end, most families have real problems that are so much worse. Just look at Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer. I would venture to guess that it is all fake, but part of me has to believe it is real. The people that go on those shows are just too weird not to be. (Strange fact: Jerry Springer was once mayor of Cincinnati. No wonder that town has problems!)

I, for one, am very thankful that my parents are not overbearing and nosy like Ray's parents. In fact, I can't get my parents to come over unless I explicitly ask them to help with something. They never visit me...I end up having to go over to their place all the time. They say that it is because of the dogs, but I think they are just lazy. LOL!