We grew up with expectations that were never real or attainable.

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He was out of shape - but not considered unathletic… there is a reason everyone cheered whenever Al went shirtless on the show. He was supposed to be the “every-man”… an athlete that fell from grace and just is feeling the pressures of life.

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Sisyphuss5MinBreak@reddit

That clip is almost unwatchable because they are busting out the laugh track every 5-10 seconds. Crazy how much our watching preferences have changed over the years.

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MoiraBrownsMoleRats@reddit

There were many instances where Al fat-shamed quite large people…

It was literally a central part of who he was as a character.

Which was the point. Al was, in a lot of ways, an "every-man" who a lot of people could relate to. But he was also, explicitly, not a particularly good person. Al was bitter, spiteful, and at least outwardly misogynistic. With that said, we sometimes got moments where the facade dropped and Al was simply a loving husband and father who put his own family ahead of himself. For all the outward bitterness, when push came to shove the dude loved and was unflappably loyal to his wife.

But damn did he hate fat women simply for existing.

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Oahu_Red@reddit

My fav episode is the Sam Kennison It’s A Wonderful Life parody. Al finds a renewed purpose to live once he sees how happy is family would have been if he never existed lol.

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Mugwumpjizzum1@reddit

Always loved how he was willing to leave Peg for Marcy's gay cousin. He also makes a Bruce Jenner joke in another episode lmao!

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Chance-Yesterday1338@reddit

Yeah he voiced a lot of pretty harsh thoughts and was definitely depicted as kind of a jerk a lot of the time. It was kind of necessary though given he was pretty constantly the butt of the joke and racked up loss after loss in life. Watching a character get screwed over is funnier if they're just getting their comeuppance which was often the case for Al.

He did have to be written to at least sometimes stick up for Peggy and his kids though because otherwise he'd be kind of an irredeemable creep that the audience would probably hate. Usually when he did this was the only times his family showed him affection or appreciation too.

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Lou_Garoup@reddit

He regularly turned down sex from a stacked, long legged red head. I never understood that.

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TimeCookie8361@reddit

Supported a house, kids, and a trophy wife working at pretty much a Payless shoe store.

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blackhorse15A@reddit

It's a running theme that they have nothing to eat - they literally eat dog food at times. They are constantly broke. Al is constantly struggling with money. There is a whole episode where Al has to stay at a gas station for a day to work off his bill because they couldn't pay.

They likely bought the house years before and now are struggling just to make the basic payments with nothing left for the rest of a budget.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ggozng/comment/fq4tb9n/

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SoCalChrisW@reddit

It's a running theme that they have nothing to eat

They had plenty of toaster shakin's

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My-username-is-this@reddit

And they use the dust in the cups to make hot chocolate

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Feeling-Low7183@reddit

And Tangwiches. Al just couldn't figure out that he was supposed to pinch the bottom so the Tang wouldn't fall out.

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MyAnklesAreRingaDing@reddit

I thought it was toaster fixinqs.

I don't see many women getting super excited when their house husband performs chores once in a blue moon.

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Bobby_Marks3@reddit

Because the show is a satire of the typical TV sitcom family:

Dad should be a horndog. Actually isn't, and the wife is.
Blue-collar worker should work an admirable job. Actually doesn't, he sells women's shoes.
Wife should be a good homemaker. Actually isn't, can't cook or clean but really wants that sex.
Kids should be good-natured but struggle with difficult moral quandries. Actually are total monsters, pimps, AND whores.
Family always complains about money, but also always has money, but also can't spend it responsibly enough to "have" money.

I think the real answer here is that it was not in style at that time to portray a happy couple that had a healthy sex life.

The show was actually a reaction to and antithesis of the sappy happy family comedies that were popular at the time. The working title of the MWC was even "Not the Cosbys". The whole point of the show was to feature an edgy and dysfunctional family.

There's also the running theme that Peggy represents the death of Al's high school promise. He saw himself as a football star and ladies man, and knocking up and marrying Peggy was the end of all that, and he resents her for it.

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ILookLikeKristoff@reddit

I think it's this. He's portrayed as someone who isn't very happy with where he's at in life and seems to (somewhat indirectly) blame his wife and kids for it.

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Koss424@reddit

can.... you blame him?

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Worldly-Fishing-880@reddit

Fair, but I also can't think of any comedies from this period where the dad actually wanted to fuck the mom.

The one exception is the Griswalds from National Lampoon

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Gina_the_Alien@reddit

Fresh Prince of Bel Air definitely had a few episodes where Phil and Aunt Viv got busy off screen. I remember because I was a young kid and wondered how he didn’t crush him.

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dontbajerk@reddit

Fresh Prince has well rounded characters and real drama too. Watched a few episodes recently, it's an excellent show, better than I remembered. Avoids a lot of cliches in a good way too.

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Merusk@reddit

Fair, but I also can't think of any comedies from this period where the dad actually wanted to fuck the mom.

The Simpsons
Home Improvement
Roseanne
Family Matters
Mad About You
Step by Step
Boy Meets World
Coach
Sister, Sister
Grace Under Fire

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capincus@reddit

Full House

Ew bro she was dead!

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Merusk@reddit

I was thinking Uncle Jesse & Becky, specifically here.

hedwaterboy@reddit

You must not have been funny.

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RegressToTheMean@reddit

Yeah, man, I feel you. My wife ended up giving me a copy of The Adonis Complex years and years ago.

I started reading it and I was like, "Huh, I do that...and that...and that...Shit!"

It was really eye opening for me

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aamygdaloidal@reddit

The context of the post is in the 80’s. It was definitely okay to shame fat women and they felt ashamed. Men felt entitled to be fat if they were because they didn’t need to be attractive.

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KitchenNazi@reddit

Those men probably felt awful and had to pretend it was no big deal because the fat insults were constant. Didn’t matter where - public / friends / work - it was the go to insult.

Women would get it less and way, way, way less to their face. Fat guys just had to take it.

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ebmfreak@reddit

Unless I’m mistaken - I grew up in that period and my story takes place over that exact same time period. 1986-1996

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DarkScorpion48@reddit

It’s was not socially acceptable. It was expected

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Busy-Dig8619@reddit

>Nobody really shames fat men, because fat is an acceptable bodyshape for men

spssky@reddit

People not going to get this Sunny reference lol

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Mcbadguy@reddit

gif

Id talk trash behind your back, but Ive only got a half tank of gas!

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Invalid_Uername@reddit

"Come Penelope, let's go somewhere where they treat us with respect!"

"Try the moon you'll weigh less there"

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lanregeous@reddit

“I need shoes 😡😡”

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Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit

Woman: "How dare you say that to my face"

Al: "Well I'd say it behind your back but I only have half a tank of gas."

Many, many, many, instances. Basically anytime you saw Al at work it was to make fat jokes, it was part of the show's regular formula.

I love that aspect of it, Al makes fun of fat people, but the fact that he has a smoking hot wife at home that he ignores tells you all that is about how he feels inside and not really about fat people. He uses fat people as an outlet to vent his frustrations about his life, he does the same with his kids too.

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azucarleta@reddit

She calls him a "Birthday 'roid" like hemorrhoid? lol

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Separate-Succotash11@reddit

Isn’t that the episode where Homer gets fat so he can work from home?

Hey I gotta movie for you, Fatty.... "A fridge too far".

That line always cracks me up

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MechanicalGodzilla@reddit

And I’m surprised that for once Dad’s butt prevented the release of toxic gas!

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This-Author-362@reddit

Vent Gas?

Yep, for most people, 230 is obese.

Ahh you're right.

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BugEquivalents@reddit

gif

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MY-SECRET-REDDIT@reddit

I think I'm nearing Homer's physicality. I need to reconsidered my life.

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Ineedavodka2019@reddit

The simpsons are also not poor. They have a 4 bedroom house with 2-4 bathrooms. Thats definitely not how I remember poor.

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Goddamnpassword@reddit

The entire Grimes episode is basically how ridiculous homers life is including his home/car situation on a single income. That’s in season 8.

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The_Autarch@reddit

He's an engineer at a nuclear plant. That's gotta be a six-figure salary, which would have been plenty for a decent house in a small town in the 90s.

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Mist_Rising@reddit

He's an engineer at a nuclear plant. That's gotta be a six-figure salary

He may have the title of engineer but he's notably the only one without a degree or anything relavant. No he got his job at the Plant because Homer sabotaged the union for Burns in return for it.

Burns, being Burns, uses the lack of union to stomp all over everyone. He can underpay Homer because Homer can't get a job of nearly the same level since he's a fraud essentially. Also Burns is criminally horrible. And horribly criminal.

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Sgt_Colon@reddit

No he got his job at the Plant because Homer sabotaged the union vote for Burns.

Why he got his job has never been consistent with multiple explanations going back to season 1, although, unless this is some NuSimpsons, this certainly isn't one of them with Last exit to Springfield seeing the union retain their benefits only on condition that Homer steps down as president and references to the union at the plant cropping up in later seasons.

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Sgt_Colon@reddit

That's gotta be a six-figure salary, which would have been plenty for a decent house in a small town in the 90s.

It isn't.

He's an unqualified patsy for Mr Burn's insanely unsafe nuclear plant.

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old_namewasnt_best@reddit

RIP Grimey.

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Ineedavodka2019@reddit

You I’ve seen it. Multiple times.

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Perdendosi@reddit

Upper-lower-middle class.

They do have a larger home but it's in a small town whose only major, thriving industry is the nuclear plant. In the 80s or 90s something like that was close to achievable on a one-income household.

They have two cars, but one of them is chronically dented.

Everyone really only wears one set of clothing. AFAIK only one TV.

Lots of stuff stolen from the Flanderses.

I feel like a lot of folks talk about this show without ever having watched it, at least, not recently.

Yes, they have a house. But they’re flat broke. Like, no food in the house, trashy kinda broke. Their insurmountable debt and shitty living condition is a pretty common and very open running gag.

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uggghhhggghhh@reddit

I feel like that's kinda the point of the post, no? He was considered fat and poor but he's in better shape than most people now both physically and financially. Sure, they couldn't afford any nice things and were definitely trashy but they owned a house that a working class person couldn't even DREAM of in 2025.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

Exactly. I remember the joke about how they would eat the crumbs and burnt pieces of toast in the toaster.

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cocktailhelpnz@reddit

Yes you dolt. That’s the point of this post. The post is saying that while the Bundy’s were definitely struggling and their characters were built around that, WE ARE ALL STRUGGLING EVEN MORE NOW.

Imagine being so thick as to not understand the intention was to compare how much better they were doing than many people in 2025.

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glaciology@reddit

Why is it that anyone who calls someone a “dolt” is always so insufferable?

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cocktailhelpnz@reddit

Happens to you a lot, eh?

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Rebelrebel83@reddit

Seriously. And in the earlier seasons it’s implied that it’s Al’s childhood home and his parents left it to him. He mentions things like being told off by his mother as a kid “in that very same kitchen”. It’s never explicitly said but makes sense that he would inherit it.

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BrashPop@reddit

MWC is one of those shows that so many of us watched as kids and then never revisited again and it’s always so obvious when people say stuff like “well they couldn’t make them seem TOO poor, it would have been depressing!”

This is any tv show. They always have a home at least twice what they could afford.

My favorite is the Hallmark Christmas movies. Those folks basically don't work and have brand new huge homes

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fuuture_mike@reddit

My dad was an auto mechanic at a Detroit area Ford dealership in the 80’s/90’s. We lived in a 4 bed 2.5 bath home in an upper middle class Detroit suburb. No way that is possible today. I have a bachelors in engineering with a good 20+ year career. Director of engineering—comfortable and stable middle management. My parents were able to afford a lake cottage Up North. I can’t come close.

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FUSe@reddit

The population in 1980 was 225 million.

The population in 2025 is 340 million.

Its more than that. Zoning is a huge problem. But so are more restrictive building codes that, although well meaning, make it very expensive to build affordable housing, leading to developers building expensive housing.

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SMATCHET999@reddit

That makes sense, I live in Illinois and every house looks like that in middle class suburbs, just it looks like it’s a step above middle class.

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throwmamadownthewell@reddit

That's the cost of a 400 sqft microapartment here.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

Can you look it up on zwilow?

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UndoxxableOhioan@reddit

The house is 641 Castlewood Ln, in Deerfield, Illinois. Zillow estimates it at $493,133.

He has a Grammy, alone the royalties should be enough to pay for his house.

There probably isn't much money coming in from it. The whole Be Sharps seems to exist in some weird time vortex that despite being bigger than the Beatles and being only two years prior almost immediately vanishes from the cultural radar; not so much deader than disco than having damnatio memoriae invoked upon it.

That's if he didn't screw himself with the contract; there's been several jokes in passing to him signing away rights like healthcare in the triple bypass episode or in brother can you spare two dimes. It'd be perfectly in keeping with his character to have sold the rights to royalties for literal peanuts.

School custodians may be better paid than you think... And people sometimes have other sources of income.

Round_Ad_1952@reddit

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I have heard rumors for decades that the actor is gay and closeted. I don't know if it is true or not?

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BoomerSoonerFUT@reddit

Be a hell of a deep closet. He’s been married to the same woman for 39 years and they have two kids.

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Round_Ad_1952@reddit

IDK. Doesn't matter if the actor is gay, Al isn't.

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One-Earth9294@reddit

Still had a crappy car, though.

Because Peggy is a horrible human wrapped up in a pretty bow, and he knows it.

sorrymizzjackson@reddit

Love microcenter. I’ve bought my last two computers from them and they’ve been exactly what I’m looking for. I don’t know shit about fancy computers. The last one I got lasted 13 years though. It still worked, but it was a might sketchy sometimes. We only upgraded due to the tariff issues.

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ikeif@reddit

Seconded. I went in with a list, and their sales guy talked me down to cheaper options that would be more effective.

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HauntedTrailer@reddit

I worked at Radio Shack in the late 90's. Minimum wage with commission (may have been minimum wage or commission...whichever was higher...can't remember now). But I was easily making $14 to $20 an hour most weeks and I wasn't even in a mall location. Two people that worked at a mall in my district were making low 6 figures a year. I was the nerd though, so I had a lot of return customers buying stuff like resistors and capacitors, small stuff, when the real money was in selling satellite TV and cell phone subscriptions.

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rwj212@reddit

buying stuff like resistors and capacitors

If he bought it in the late 60s or early 70's before his first kid and had family help with the down payment...

He graduated high school in 1966. Inflation was high in the 70s.

RaindropsAndCrickets@reddit

Yes, his life sucked so badly!

He has a job that somehow allowed him to afford a very large house and a car and support himself and 3 others (four of you included the season where he and Peggy suddenly had another child)

He was married to his high school sweetheart who was always wanted to be intimidate with him

He had two healthy teenaged children who he got to see regularly

depressed_popoto@reddit

Dan and Rosanne Conner were considered poor too and they had a three bedroom, two bath house with a garage and basement.

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Tough_Box8329@reddit

He's out of shape, balding, ugly in the face with a huge bulbous nose set on goofy looking eyes.

And he is house-poor, which is a real thing that homeowners go through when they can't afford to be having a mortgage.

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dubbelo8@reddit

It is starting to look like they portrayed middle class life and office jobs on TV as miserable experiences to keep the poor from ambitions.

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FormerWrap1552@reddit

Actually not much has changed. Al Bundy wasn't portrayed as poor. He was portrayed as someone who has a house, family, but not enough money or time to enjoy it or life while being in debt.

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steveonthegreenbike@reddit

I have a Polk High hoodie on right now.

In 1966, Al Bundy scored four touchdowns in a single game while playing for the Polk High School Panthers in the 1966 city championship game versus Andrew Johnson High School, including the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds against his old nemesis, Bubba "Spare Tire" Dixon .

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Altezza447@reddit

Don't forget he did it all working at a shoe store for women

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SomeKindofTreeWizard@reddit

They were real.

They were attainable.

Mugwumpjizzum1@reddit

The show was written as a complete parody of sitcoms. The Bundys living next door to bankers, Steve and Marcy Rhodes, despite being a shoe salesman is part of the joke.

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PhysicsStock2247@reddit

Neither of my parents had college degrees and both worked blue collar jobs (postal clerk and waitress). They purchased a 4-bedroom 3 bath house in their 20s back in 1982 with their own money. If they had the same jobs today in this housing market they’d be lucky to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

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geriatric_spartanII@reddit

The MwC house in the opening intro was last listed at $493,133. Google says Peggy Bundy was a housewife, fast food worker, waitress, and organizing cosmetic parties. Manager at my local shore store makes $16 per hour.

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MeringueNatural6283@reddit

If you're going to talk about if the expectations were reasonable on a 30 year old show, you can't talk about how much that house costs today.

Back then 50% of all jokes were 'husbands and wives hate each other'

That has since lessened in modern times as fewer people are married.

Probably because comedy made it look like a miserable slog lol.

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rebelangel@reddit

Well, Boomers were miserable in their marriages because society forced them to get married young and start having kids right away, just like their parents. That’s why so much Boomer humor is based around hating your spouse. Us younger generations saw how unhappy our parents were, so we put off marriage until we were older (if we got married at all) and found someone we loved being with, and if it didn’t work out, well, we’re more likely to get a divorce than try to stick it out in a terrible marriage with someone we can’t stand. That’s why “Wife bad” isn’t funny anymore and doesn’t make sense to younger generations, because, after all, why would you stay married to someone hate when you can just get a divorce?

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-JimmyTheHand-@reddit

That’s why “Wife bad” isn’t funny anymore and doesn’t make sense to younger generations

I think as comedy wife bad is pretty stale but I think it will make sense to every generation because marriage will just always be like that, 2 people who are having to compromise to live in the same space and getting up each other's asses. I don't think the fact people get divorced more often these days means they won't understand the wife bad trope.

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rebelangel@reddit

No, the “Wife Bad” stuff is way more than people having to compromise. It’s a husband literally saying he hates his wife.

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-JimmyTheHand-@reddit

I know, I'm just saying where that kind of stuff comes from. "The ol ball and chain, the old lady back at home," these are all sentiments that are still used, it's not exclusive to boomers.

You don't have to literally hate your spouse to laugh at spouse hating comedy.

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rebelangel@reddit

“Aaaal, let’s have seeeeex!”

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Sad_Egg_5176@reddit

“Uh, no Peg.”

Flushes toilet

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bgva@reddit

(laugh track hoots and hollers)

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Sad_Egg_5176@reddit

“Alllll, let’s have seeeex.”

“Uh, no Peg.”

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Odd-Ad-8369@reddit

That’s bs. We all said the same thing back then when watching it. “How a shoe guy have that house”

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Twotricx@reddit

He also had a job he hated and slacked at. Yet he was never fired or the place never closed down. And the whole family of 4 was able to comfortably live of it.

Al Bundy was selling shoes starting pretty much right after graduating high school. It's stated in the show that every sale earned him 10% commission. He would have been 24 when Kelly was born and likely bought the house around then in 1972.

Savings-Market4000@reddit

Everyone IRL knew that Al couldn't afford that house while working as a shoe salesman in the mall. I thought it was explained that he and Peggy stole it from one of her family members. Had the guy institutionalized while they were declared POA or legal guardians or something like that.

I don’t remember him being seen as either fat or poor. He was working class with a lot of debt but they weren’t broke.

Any_Psychology_8113@reddit

He afforded that house with a shoe salesman salary too. Things have changed:(

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averyfinefellow@reddit

I ever thought of them as poor. Al was more.of an unfulfilled loser.

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MassiveHistorian1562@reddit

Did you even watch it? I never once heard him being referred to as fat, nor poor. He was as average as one could be, but not fat or poor.

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Right?! She’s an absolute smokeshow.

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Reckless_Waifu@reddit

Most sitcom settings are above average, even today and I think the reasons are you need a reasonably large and clean setting to shoot at and making fun of actual poor people's lives is considered bad taste.

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ibentmyworkie@reddit

And he was ridiculed for having a hot wife who wanted to have sex all the time 🫤

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LusciousofBorg@reddit

Yeah seriously! I remember the show making jokes that she always had to use a vibrator and needed new batteries. Seriously? Even as a kid I thought that was a weird way to shame a woman. Like, she's hot and horny and wants to get banged by her husband. Okaaay?

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WallySprks@reddit

Yeah seriously! Why wouldn’t he have sex with her?!?

She was a complete turn off to him. Her looks lost their appeal. Nagging, lazy, do nothing, ungrateful, horrible mother, talks bad about her husband who provides everything for the family. Money grubbing, schemer who takes advantage of everyone.

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LawfulnessLow781@reddit

Like the episode of Simpsons where Frank grimes calls Homers house a mansion and acted like he lived like a king… it’s just perspective lol.

Exactly - sure, they were the nuclear family with a house, car, two kids and dog - but they’re were living under the poverty line in an old crumbling house, a car that barely ran, they all hated each other most of the time, and had no food in the house. The joke isn’t “ha Al is actually doing great!”, it’s “Even people who would on the surface appear to have a good life can be flat broke deadbeats with shitty family dynamics, and YOU live NEXT DOOR to them!!”

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Rude_Man_Who_Shushes@reddit

I think his general look is better described as “given up on life”

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BoboliBurt@reddit

The house was in Deerfield Illinois I believe- over by what was Wilmot JRHS and elementary (now Caruso) on Castlewood

breachednotbroken@reddit

In the early seasons of the Simpsons, homer was obese, even going on disability for being fat, he weighed 260.

RedneckThinker@reddit

I think the Bundy's live in my neighborhood! Maybe it's me?!

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azucarleta@reddit

If they are made to look too poor, it could come off as depressing. Also, i suspect viewers want to see themselves in their shows -- to an extent -- and nobody wants to look in the mirror at how poor retailer worker with two kids and a wife with no income, nobody wants to see that. It will make them feel bad.

The "every man" can't be too depressing, in a comedy. Call it comedic license.

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