"Mr. Sandler did not invent the archetype of the overgrown man-child, which has been around at least since the silent era. ... Nor has Mr. Sandler been alone, over the past 15 years or so, in turning male infantile aggression into the basis of a lucrative and long-running movie career. His rivals and confreres have included Jim Carrey, Jack Black and Will Ferrell — all of them different physical and temperamental types, but all of them committed to a brazen and unyielding refusal of maturity."
Add to this list the television comedies Seinfeld, Friends, Everyone Loves Raymond, and most recently, King of Queens. I had wondered about the provenance of this archetype, and the exact nature of the thing that so repulsed me about those shows, until this essay put a name to the phenomenon.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
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