Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 72
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Popular Culture Review
concocts a potion containing olive oil and peanut butter, annong other
ingredients. Before long. Cliff has Theo chanting nonsensically over
the mixture, and the scene culminates with Q iff smearing Theo's face
with the "potion." Theo takes this rather humiliating experience
amazingly well; plus, he learns a lesson about keeping his girlfriend.
An earlier episode about Cliff’s birthday features Denise's attempt to
write a song for her school show. The first version of the song is a
typically bleak example of teen-age self-absorption, with recurring
images of darkness and loneliness. Q iff ridicules the song, refusing
completely to grant any legitin\acy to the emotions expressed. It is
impossible, the scene implies, for a Huxtable to be unhappy!
Realizing her "mistake," Denise authors a second song about her two
best friends—her parents. If "The Cosby Show" consciously presented
itself as a parental manual (and quotes from Cosby and Poussaint
would indicate that it did), it is reasonable to wonder how actual
preteens and teenagers would react to the Heathcliff Huxtable
method of fatherhood.
Nevertheless, Cliff is widely perceived as "the personification
of what fatherhood is supposed to mean at its conventional best"
(Downing 60), while Clair is presented as somehow less-than-perfect
(yet well above-average). This is evident immediately in the
opening musical sequences, which accord Clair the same position and
status as her children. Clair typically yells more often, loses her
temper more frequently, and is occasionally tempted to administer
unreasonable or harsh punishments on the children. C liffs role is
conunonly to calm Clair, to restrain her, and to reason with her; A
more serious example of misbehavior on the part of a young Huxtable
occurs when Vanessa and three girlfriends drive to a concert in
Baltimore without their parents' f)ermission. Q iff and Clair uncover
this ruse, and when Vanessa returns home, Clair embarks on an
extended tirade during which she literally screams in her daughter's
face, ordering Vanessa to "shut up" until the girl is in tears. Cliff, on
the other hand, remains calm and quiet. During the scene the
audience laughs with Cliff when he makes several humorous re
marks, and almost continuously at Clair's demeanor and lack of
control. Chrerall, Clair’s method of disciplining always seems more
firm, more serious, and more angry than her husband's, and it is never
as funny as Cliffs is. (It is undoubtedly more realistic, however.)
Qair's actions often betray certain gender stereotypes; she nags Cliff