Archie Bunker... The Wise.

Was looking around YT for some gun control vids and Archie popped up. I just couldn't ignore what the wise Sage Bunker had to say about GC and well I was not disappointed...... Enjoy.

reply to post by BlastedCaddy


Unfortunately, the point of the Archie Bunker character was not intended to get a conservative perspective across. It was a form of ridicule to the conservative perspective.

Bunker was supposed to represent the fuddy duddy 'old guard' that was obsolete and passe. If you watch the show carefully (even in this video), Archie will always say something, it is presented as being ignorant and ridiculous, then enters his enlightened son in law and daughter to make his views look silly.

We can use this video as an example. He is defending the right to own guns, it is surrounded by laughter, and then here comes his son in law to set him straight (although the video cuts off there).

His character was only a device to make such beliefs seem silly.

I always enjoyed that show! You can still catch re-runs today.
Thanks for the laugh!

And, at the end of the episode, some guys who saw him on TV rob him and the others at gunpoint. Of course, Archie concluded that, if he had had a gun, the guy wouldn't have been able to rob him. When it's pointed out that, then, they both could've been dead, he replies, "But at least I'd still have my money!"

Even on fictional TV shows, the gun control argument goes in circles.

reply to post by AshleyD
While it's true that the Archie character was used to make old conservative viewpoints look stupid, sometimes he inadvertantly made good points. I watched the show as a teenager and again with my wife years later. She's 23 years younger than me so it was fun to see her discover 'All in the Family' for herself. She always calls it "The Wigglin' Miller" because that's what she thought the line 'Boy the way Glenn Miller played" in the theme song said.

Wow, the minute I read that I knew what ya were on about... Great points. I was just amused at what appears to be the same rhetoric 30 plus years later.

Archie was not wise. He was the epitome of all things ignorant and bigoted. He was a character created to show just how awful and stupid and silly, bigotry, hatred and racism really are...

It was a tool used to allow for discussion about these sensitive subjects... It allowed for us to laugh and even played a small part in the healing process between each race... Though sure we still have a long way to go before race relations are fully well...

But look, as I said, Archie was NOT wise... He was an idiot and the way he was presented helped to make it okay to talk about and laugh about such idiots and to come together and rise against the Archie Bunkers of the world in hope of having a better tomorrow.


I leave you with a few more " wise words" from Archie Bunker...

Listen to those and then decide... Do you really think that character is wise? I sure don't.






Archie Bunker.... The bigoted, prejudice moron, designed to be a symbol of everything wrong in this country.