• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    an Australian TV anchor decided to keep wearing the same suit and see how long it took people to notice.

    There’s a running joke in sitcoms, particularly with B-list characters, where a kid breaks into their house and finds a closet full of the same identical outfit over and over again. I know the Simpsons did it with Principle Skinner. I’m pretty sure Save By The Bell did it with Principle Belding. There was some 80s pod-person movie that used the trope as well.

    There’s also a classic joke about groomsmen all dressing the same during a wedding, so if anything happens to the groom you just have the whole crew slide over to the right and keep on trucking.

    I vaguely remember some Econ joke about guys being a fungible commodity.

    None of these are intended to be complimentary.

    it would overwhelmingly be women who criticized other women for wearing the same clothes

    Definitely different standards. Although I’ve found this tends to take hold as women get older and start climbing the workforce ladder. You’ll find plenty of college girls (particularly during exam time) who give absolutely zero shits about their appearance. Also, when women are unemployed.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      There’s a running joke in sitcoms, particularly with B-list characters, where a kid breaks into their house and finds a closet full of the same identical outfit over and over again.

      More true for cartoons than sitcoms. Rosanne actually fought with the producers on her show to have her characters reuse outfits. She hated how supposedly working class characters on TV somehow never wore the same outfit twice. She even had some pieces of clothing get handed down to the younger actors when the older ones outgrew them. It’s a shame she became a right-wing loon, because she was one of the few people to make a realistic sitcom about working class people (only other one I can think of is Malcolm in the Middle).

      • nomous@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        It’s really hard to overstate how different Rosanne was when it first aired. They had money problems, they’d yell at their kids sometimes, they weren’t perfect. They were a “normal” family on TV that people could relate to.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Not only did they have money problems, but they absolutely affected the family. There wasn’t the “money isn’t really important” message at the end of the episodes so many shows go with. Money’s extremely important - especially when you don’t have it.

          Being working-class was hard, and it had an impact in every aspect of their lives.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          It’s also really hard to explain that Roseanne used to be what appeared to be a sane and reasonable person with good ideas.

      • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        because she was one of the few people to make a realistic sitcom about working class people (only other one I can think of is Malcolm in the Middle).

        in the middle also did a fantastic job at this and i think better in some respects compared to malcom in the middle.

        i also grieved when roseanne’s lunacy caused the show to end the 2nd time; i had identified with the show in it’s earlier run because the characters were expecting their electricity to be cut at the same time we expected it growing up in my own home and it felt like my tv home since then. i’m glad the connor’s are a thing.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      I associate it with cartoons. Bart Simpson has been wearing the same orange shirt and blue shorts for 30 years now. I remember an episode of Doug where you see his closet and it’s like twelve identical sets of white shirt, green sweatervest, tan shorts.

      • angrystego@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        The female characters in the Simosons wear the same clothes all the time as well, now that I think about it.