Parentification As a Punchline

About this episode

The episode discusses how the show Roseanne normalized parentification and childhood trauma through comedy.

Before the debut of Roseanne, television shows depicted children without parents as a tragedy. But the Conners made light of the parentification of their children, even when the situation was objectively grim. The general theme of the show was "putting the fun in dysfunctional", which meant normalizing a lack of boundaries. Each one of the Conner kids display the long-term impact of parentification, but because it's viewed in a comedic light, viewers aren't invited to examine the damage. And the normalization of making parentification a punchline can be seen in many subsequent television shows. For example, Gilmore Girls - created by Roseanne writer Amy Sherman-Palladino - was a case study of parentification if there ever was one, but audiences viewed the toxic dynamic as endearing and amusing. Parents projecting their issues onto their children and treating them as contemporaries was such a regular occurrence at that point that no one thought to criticize it (until much later). In this episode, Diana and JR talk about some of the ways the show Roseanne made childhood trauma fodder for laugh-track comedy and how the person Roseanne did the same in her standup and with her other…

People in this episode

Host: Diana Krach

Guest: JR

Topics covered

• parentification
• comedy
• childhood trauma
• television analysis
• dysfunctional families

Keywords

• parentification
• Roseanne
• Gilmore Girls
• childhood trauma
• comedy
• dysfunctional families
• television

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Roseanne, Gilmore Girls

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