King Of The Hill's Dale Gribble & 9 Other TV's Funniest Househusbands
As society has made more strides to dismantle gender normativity, TV has attempted to portray men in broader ranges, including fathers, husbands, and househusbands. TVshows are often reflective of the eras in which they air, so househusbands are still rare to find on television when compared to the ubiquitous representation of housewives. Still, the representations of househusbands on television are varied and complex. They are often amusing, as their break from gender normativity gives writers room to satirize and explore masculinity.
From the househusband who fails at caring for his kids, to the perfect father, househusbands remain wildly interesting characters that audiences love to laugh at.
10 Homer Simpsons (The Simpsons)
When Marge suffers a mental breakdown from being the primary and only caretaker of the family, she escapes on a vacation on her own, leaving Homer to take the reins as the sole caretaker. Bart and Lisa are sent to live with Aunt Patty and Selma, but Maggie is wise enough to protest her fate. Homer is chronically unable to take care of Maggie. He is late to her feeding time, he eats her food because it is delicious, and he accidentally squishes Maggie into the sofa when he sleeps on her.
Later, he uses a stapler to staple Maggie's diapers together and loses Maggie when she leaves the house in search of Marge.
9 Dale Gribble (King Of The Hill)
"So, I finally worked up the courage to ask Nancy for a raise in my allowance last night. It did not go well."
Dale loves to kill animals. As an exterminator, this makes him very good at his job. Unfortunately, he is also an obnoxious professional with no people skills, so Dale is often short of clients. As a result, Nancy is the sole breadwinner of the house and finances all of Dale's obsessive projects, including the time he tried to build a watchtower on his property. Dale does get a job as a customer service representative, but he soon moves up the rank sto manager when his ability to fire people without remorse is spotted. He quits his job once his family realizes they do not like him in that position.
8 Richard Watterson (The Amazing World Of Gumball)
Richard, a pink rabbit who loves butter, watching TV, and even more butter, is a fun-loving dad. Although he is portrayed as a goof who should not be allowed to take care of his children full-time, Richard actually knows what he is doing. In one episode where his wife, Nicole, stays home to take care of the children, the children overtake the house and cause massive chaos because she does not know how to actually handle them.
Richard is very emotionally mature, making him a perfectly capable househusband and father. There was one episode where he pretended to be a woman so that he can have a Golden Girls-like friendship with a group of women, but he was just lonely and wanted some friends of his own.
7 Patrick Star (SpongeBob SquarePants)
When SpongeBob and Patrick take in an orphaned clam, they become adoptive parents overnight. Although Patrick promises to take care of the baby as much as SpongeBob, he makes up a fictitious job, so that he can avoid his responsibilities. Patrick is TV's worst househusband because he goes to "work" to eat desserts, then comes home to SpongeBob and the baby, lying that he had a tough time at work and is too tired to take care of the baby clam.
Soon, SpongeBob is run haggard and almost suffers a mental breakdown because Patrick refuses to take care of his responsibilities.
6 Ronald "Mac" McDonalds (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia)
Mac and Dennis, two codependent best friends, buy a house in the suburbs. Frank warns them that they are "city scum," and can't hack it in the suburbs, but the two friends reject his advice. The men quickly fall into gendered roles, as Dennis encourages Mac to stay home to unpack their things and make their house look beautiful.
Mac cooks, cleans, and invites random strangers in to talk because he is lonely. He also begins to feel Dennis pulling away from him, so he follows Dennis to work and confronts him about not going to work as he promised. Dennis buys Mac a dog to keep him company at home, but Mac kills it from neglect. In the end, the two end up almost killing each other out of resentment.
5 Jeff Winger (American Dad)
Jeff is a free-spirited stoner who cannot hold down a job. Stan always disliked Jeff because he is too carefree about life. This is, of course, why Hayley married Jeff, because he is the antithesis of her father.
Hayley brings home the bacon, while Jeff often stays at home not doing much. In one episode, he took a job as Roger's cleaner, earning $50 a day, but Roger would follow him home, beat him up, and steal the money back. Jeff's primary function seems to be irritating Stan, getting stoned and collaborating with Roger on his many stupid adventures, like when they created a male strip agency.
4 Kevin Hart (Real Husbands Of Hollywood)
Real Husbands Of Hollywood was a parody of the ever-popular Real Housewives series. The show imagined what life would be like if a camera crew followed the husbands of influential screen actresses and musicians. Kevin Hart starred as the protagonist in a semi-autobiographical role. Although he is a father who is usually at home, Kevin is rarely shown with his children, preferring to leave them with his nanny. He was also proven to be a bad husband before his marriage ended in divorce.
The show makes fun of narcissistic and opportunistic husbands and fathers in Hollywood, and, of course, is packed full of comedians and actors like J.B. Smoove, Boris Kodjoe, Tiffany Haddish, and Kevin Hart himself.
3 Jake Morgendorffer (Daira)
The primary financial provider of the Morgendorffer household is Helen. She works as a high-priced, ambitious lawyer, while her husband struggles with his consultation business. As the series progresses, Jake takes on more of a househusband role after he loses clients, but Helen's career progressed.
Jake loves to try out new recipes that his family hates, as they would rather eat lasagna or pizza. He is also prone to anxiety attacks over the smallest things. He gets so worked up, that his eyes bulge out of their socket, which his daughters find hilarious. Jake's angry tirades are also hilarious for audiences who find humor in his existential troubles as a middle-class man with a seemingly perfect life from the outside.
2 Bernie Mac (The Bernie Mac Show)
As a stand-up comedian, Bernie Mac is able to spend time at home with his nephew and nieces while his wife works an office job. Bernie wages war against the kids daily, seeing them as annoying little people who are there to disturb his peace.
Despite his constant complaining about the kids, he clearly loves them—otherwise, he wouldn't have taken them in while his sister went to rehab. When he is not complaining about them eating his food like scavenging cockroaches or having to go to school for disciplinary issues, he is going on a fatherly tirade about how they wouldn't give him peace or leave him alone.
1 Chas Finster (Rugrats)
Rugrats was a very innovative show for its time. It broke gendered stereotypes about the role of men and women in families. Angelica, for example, had a workaholic mother who neglected her in the care of her father. In the same way, Chas has full-time care of his son, Chuckie, after his wife, Melinda passed away.
Chas is exactly like his son. He is very gentle, kind, and often easily-scared. Like Chuckie, he also has a lot of allergies and has asthma. His nerdiness is often made fun of, but Chas is still portrayed as a loving father and, later, husband.
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