Standard Fifties Father: Difference between revisions

[[File:FF_4865FF 4865.png|frame|[[Father Knows Best|He knows best]].]]

[[Seen It a Million Times|You know this man, and can recognize him on sight.]] The [['''Standard Fifties Father]]''' was born in a small town in the US Mid-West. His parents were farmers of some sort, or perhaps his father was a druggist. A veteran, he put himself through college (possibly through the G.I. Bill) and is now a white-collar professional... unless he's a doctor or the owner of his own store (pharmacy, shoe store, grocery, etc.).

The [['''Standard Fifties Father]]''' is solid, dependable, and responsible. He's [[Happily Married]] to his wife, who he met [[High School Sweethearts|when they were both teenagers]]. And if the love he gives his children is slightly distant, it is no less heartfelt for being so. He's an upstanding citizen who rarely swears or drinks to excess, [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking|if he smokes he]] [[Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe|smokes a pipe]], and attends a regular "bowling night" with his friends. He wears a shirt and tie with dress pants and a cardigan during the day (even while he cuts the lawn on Saturday morning) and sleeps in sensible cotton pajamas. He's buttoned-down, calm, wise, and thoughtful. Only two things can rattle him: [[Panicky Expectant Father|his wife going into labor]], or his wife deciding that she wants a job.

When played straight, the [['''Standard Fifties Father]]''''s primary function is to offer object lessons and moral instructions to the various members of his family. When [[Played for Laughs]], he's the butt of jokes and the perfect example of dorkishness. When played [[Darker and Edgier]], he's often the male version of a [[Stepford Smiler]], hiding his neuroses, insecurities, and other issues behind the fatherly facade. Note that he is pretty much never played straight anymore, as part of the ongoing violent backlash against everything from the era.

* The Nuclear Family was a supervillain team who fought [[Batman and the Outsiders]]. They were robots programmed to act like the stereotypical 1950s Dad, Mom, Son, Teenage Son (Biff), and Daughter -- withDaughter—with super-powers, of course.

* Mr. Fantastic has played a Standard Fifties Father pretty straight since his conception (Although [[Fantastic Four]] #1 was release 1961.) and after marrying his college-sweetheart. "Wives should be kissed — and not heard!" indeed. Modern interpretations make him more subtly--andsubtly—and egalitarianly--condescendingegalitarianly—condescending. So while his [[Doctor Doom|archnemisis]] is mocked for being medieval, he is merely Rockwellian.

* Played with in ''[[Homestuck]]''. At first, Mr. Egbert appears to be one of these -- athese—a caring, pipe-smoking, hat-wearing, sensible man -- albeitman—albeit with a bizarre passion for harlequins that convinces his son John that the elder Egbert is a street performer. And then it turns out that he's secretly a.) {{spoiler|a perfectly ordinary businessman whose apparent harlequin fixation is in fact an attempt to support John's [[Tomato in the Mirror|subconscious love of clowns]]}} and b.) {{spoiler|a superhumanly strong [[Papa Wolf]] capable of taking out enormous monsters with his bare hands.}}

* [[Big Bad|Father]] from ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' looks like a living silhouette of one, complete with pipe. He's sort of an unusual example, since his children are adopted, [[Brainwashed]] [[Creepy Child|Creepy Children]]ren and [[Kill It with Fire|he can breathe fire]].