Men Behaving Badly

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Re-watching the series on Netflix because I remember enjoying it from watching it first time round.

My God it’s awful. I know it’s of it’s time but people can’t have felt like it was ok to behave like that in the 90s? It wasn’t that long ago!

The views of women given by Tony and Gary. Tony stalking, checking up on, manipulating Deborah and she still hangs round with him!

Gary and Dorothy cheating on each other, treating each other like crap, no respect for each other and they stay together. He’s a man in his 30s who won’t live with her because he still wants to live with his friend and act single while keeping her hanging round.

The women aren’t completely innocent either, Debs exploiting how Tony feels about her to get him to do stupid stuff. Dorothy having an affair then going back to Gary when it doesn’t work out.

AIBU to think if they were on Mumsnet they’d be told to ltb! Anyone have any other series they’ve revisited and been really disappointed with?

Yeah, it's dated badly.

There's an episode where Tony's taking photos of Deb while she's working out.

I feel like this about a lot of TV shows and how humour has changed. It’s crazy! Sometimes I do feel like political correctness has gone too far but sometimes I feel like everyone was just vile years ago 🤔

I watched episodes of little Britain recently and felt like a program like this wouldn’t be allowed now and that’s not nearly as old as men behaving badly. Same goes for things like Harry Enfield and chums etc!

Tbh I found it rather silly and tedious the first time round so wouldn't be watching it again.

The whole point of it though, was that it was meant to be completely over the top and ridiculous. It wasn't meant to be a reflection of real life.

You're overthinking something that really doesn't bear analysis.

You're overthinking something that really doesn't bear analysis.

This exactly. It wasn't a documentary or anything.

I completely agree with everyone.
I think it's worth remembering though, It was very of its time and it was only ever meant to reflect the worst attitudes of the era.

I remember men back then thinking Gary and Tony were like heroes, "they're just like us" etc. But Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey only ever played them as horrible losers tho.

It was a fave of ours in the 90s....yes it has dated... But what I think is important is just what losers they were.... Their antics mainly had them looking like fools....

They're supposed to be shitty people, that's the whole point of it. It's literally in the title of the show.

I love how dated it is, it reminds me of the time but it definitely wouldn’t work now!

But they’re not losers really though are they... Dorothy stays with Gary and Deborah ends up getting together with Tony despite everything they’ve done to each other...

I thought it was hilarious at the time but it doesn't stand up to repeated viewings now. It's not offensive, it's just tiresomely puerile. I wonder if I've just changed my views because I was a teenager back then and I no longer think knob jokes are especially amusing. It's not as if that sort of comedy isn't made any more - look at Not Going Out, if you can bear to...

The wedding episode was really funny though, also the one with Mr Spong and the Captain's log.

Oh it’s just fun!

I also used to think this was funny (I was also a teenager then!) but it’s pretty shit actually. Just boring juvenile toss.
I saw 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps rerun on Gold recently. Even shitter.

That's the point of comedy though: it exaggerates stereotypes to create funny situations.

Plus, you can't judge something from a different time period by today's societal values. It's like saying certain historical books are racist and should be banned.

Don't think anyone's talking about banning anything, just discussing shows we thought were funny back in the day but are disappointed with on rewatching them. Anyway, it was only 20-odd years ago. I don't think the "different time, different values" argument really holds up as an excuse for lazy sexism.

I totally agree that MBB is lazy sexism, but that was acceptable back then. I'm not saying that it is/was right, but as a society we develop and learn and today something like MBB wouldn't make it on to TV. And that is fab. It shows we are moving on as a society.

That said, it remains relevant to the time it was in despite the fact we now view it with today's values. And if we judged every historical TV show (especially sitcoms) with today's values there would be very little to repeat.

back then it was only the 90s! Way to make me feel ancient... during the 90s there was a massive backlash against the feminism of the 70s and 80s, which was epitomised by that whole lad culture of FHM and Loaded, and MBB was a big part of that. I don't think it was "acceptable" really so much as knowingly retrograde - it was all done with half an eye on annoying what used to be called the "wimmin's libbers". They knew it was sexist.

There's plenty of older sitcoms that aren't shown any more because the attitudes towards race are no longer acceptable, like Love Thy Neighbour, Mind Your Language, and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. There's an episode of Fawlty Towers which is rarely repeated without editing because the Major uses the N-word. Sometimes we do judge the past by today's standards and decide it's not OK. I think MBB is relatively mild, really, more puerile and tiresome than offensive. I'm not bothered if it's available to watch, I just don't enjoy it as I used to.