{"id":4615,"date":"2009-09-17T07:34:40","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T11:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=4615"},"modified":"2009-09-17T07:34:40","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T11:34:40","slug":"living-the-goode-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2009\/09\/living-the-goode-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Living the 'Goode' Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Goode Family<\/em>, a half-hour comedy from Mike Judge that aired this summer, could be described as an animated version of the popular blog \u201cStuff White People Like.\u201d<\/a> Centering on the travails of a liberal-progressive family trying to minimize their carbon footprint and promote tolerance\u2014on a single academic income\u2014the show mocks its protagonists\u2019 blind spots, but still affirms their good intentions. It\u2019s a show that, in my opinion, could be enjoyed by liberals and conservatives alike. Yet <\/strong>The Goode Family<\/strong><\/em> has already been canceled by ABC, after its first, 13-season episode. Is it just that liberals can\u2019t laugh at themselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The comparative success of \u201cStuff White People Like\u201d might suggest otherwise. According to my informal study, most people who enjoy the blog seem to be within the target range of its satire: yuppie hipsters. The same is true of the knock-off (and, in my opinion, less funny) site \u201cStuff Christians Like\u201d<\/a>: Christians are the ones who read it. Let\u2019s face it: white people and Christians (and perhaps humans in general) like to be told about themselves, by themselves. There\u2019s something simultaneously comforting and bittersweet about having your foibles served up to you on a platter.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really know why The Goode Family<\/em> failed\u2014perhaps the target audience spends more time on the Internet than on TV these days, or perhaps summer isn\u2019t the best time for satire. I do know that, for me, the show hit the right balance between skewering hypocrisies and caring about its characters.<\/p>\n

Since most of you probably didn\u2019t meet the members of the family Goode, here\u2019s a quick introduction:<\/p>\n

Gerald\u2014the father, a community college administrator, clad in bicycling gear, who seeks to get in touch with his masculinity by joining a Native American drum circle.<\/p>\n

Helen\u2014the mother, who as far as we know has no career other than a brief stint with graffiti artistry, and who is involved in a constant war of competitive do-goodery with her friend Margo.<\/p>\n

Ubuntu\u2014the son, who was adopted from Africa because Helen and Gerald wanted to promote interracial understanding. When he arrived, they discovered he was South African (and white), but they still dress him in kinte cloth.<\/p>\n

Bliss\u2014the biological daughter, who responds with irony to most of her parents\u2019 earnest schemes.<\/p>\n

Che\u2014the family dog, who doesn\u2019t particularly appreciate being on a vegan diet.<\/p>\n

In the pilot episode of the show, the moment that hooked me was when Helen went shopping at \u201cOne Earth\u201d (a Whole Foods stand-in). The store\u2019s \u201cBig Board\u201d updates shoppers on how many acres of rainforest are being destroyed per minute, and it maintains a list of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d products. While Helen checks the board for the week\u2019s taboos, \u201cfarm-raised catfish\u201d switches back and forth from \u201cgood\u201d to \u201cbad.\u201d The moment satirizes the trendy nature of environmentalism lite, but it also encapsulates the difficulty many of us face in actually knowing what\u2019s best for the earth. We have so much access to information, so much of it seemingly contradictory, that many of us are paralyzed by it. Even if we know the good as far as an abstract principle, it\u2019s hard to know how to put it into practice in a way that doesn\u2019t lead to even worse unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

In the same scene, Helen takes her purchases to the checkout and experiences that \u201cWhole Paycheck\u201d element of organic shopping. Even worse, she discovers that she forgot her reusable shopping bags. The whole store turns to glare with disapproval as the cashier snarls, \u201cPaper . . . or plastic?\u201d Helen finally has a moment of inspiration and declares that she\u2019ll just carry everything with her own hands, since reusable bags are made in sweatshops anyway. The transaction not only skewers the secular Pharisaism that many of us fall into, but it also suggests that social peer pressure may not be the best way of bringing about change. (And, anecdotally, I do have to share that, in the women\u2019s bathroom of the flagship Whole Foods store in downtown Austin, you will find no paper towels. A sign will lecture you about why paper towels are evil. But you will be encouraged to take an antibacterial wipe on your way out. We environmental types may feel guilty about killing trees, but we\u2019re even more scared of bacteria.)<\/p>\n

As someone who feels that caring for the environment is one of our tasks as stewards of God\u2019s creation, I sometimes struggle to remember that guilt isn\u2019t always productive<\/strong> (ditto with guilt about poverty, homelessness, time spent in prayer, etc.). Without constant reminders of God\u2019s grace to me in weakness, I could easily get caught up in a competitive guilt cycle like the one in which Helen Goode finds herself. A show like The Goode Family <\/em>that reminds us of how fallible we are, despite our best intentions, can lessen the burden a little bit, without necessarily removing the responsibility. Whether or not we share the same principles as the Goodes, we can at least laugh with them, recognizing how often our attempts to do<\/em> good are both fueled by and thwarted by the desire to appear<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fox’s short-lived The Goode Family<\/i> finds environmentalists hilarious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1236,"featured_media":4720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,19],"tags":[1280],"class_list":["post-4615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-headline","category-television","tag-the-goode-family"],"yoast_head":"\nLiving the 'Goode' Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fox's short-lived The Goode Family finds environmentalists hilarious.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2009\/09\/living-the-goode-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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