Depiction of Dads in Kids' TV Shows

My kids and I love Bluey. The show is such a treat that I always allow two episodes instead of one. Who am I kidding. The two episodes are for me.

For the three people on this planet who don't know it: Bluey is an anthropomorphic Australian cattle dog. She has a little sister, Bingo, and two parents, Bandit and Chilli. The creativity of these kids, and the way their parents guide them through sometimes even heartbreaking topics, makes the Heelers the poster child of a healthy family, if you ask me. Especially how Bandit treats his kids, and how he is treated by them. Outstanding. So outstanding, in fact, that I started wondering how dads were depicted in kids' entertainment before Bandit came along.

Short answer: badly.

Most of the time the father is a deadbeat loser who got kids by sheer luck and is tolerated by the rest of the family. The dad as the family joke is so common that I'm starting to think comedy writers have a collective problem with their own fathers. Some examples:

• Homer Jay Simpson of The Simpsons. Chaotic, lazy, strangled by his own son on a weekly basis. Okay, the other way round. Doh!
• Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig. Always the joke for his daughter, who calls him "Silly Daddy". In the German version it's even worse: "dummer Papa", which translates to "stupid Daddy". And she relentlessly mocks him for his weight. Daddy's big tummy. Nice. Thank you, Peppa. I'll be in the gym.
• Richard Watterson in The Amazing World of Gumball. A jobless idiot and the laughing stock of the family.
• Timmy's Dad in The Fairly OddParents (sigh!). He doesn't even get a name. He is just "Timmy's Dad", super naive, and escalates everything he touches into absurdity.
• Patrick's dad in The Patrick Star Show, the SpongeBob spin-off. Such an idiot it is hard to watch. And this is a show where the sponge is the smart one.
• Caillou's dad in Caillou. Barely able to live, let alone run a household. I'm waiting for the episode where he forgets to breathe.

Why do writers do this? My guess: the dad is an easy target for a laugh. Nobody complains, because he's just the dad. Now imagine the mom being the helpless idiot in all of these shows. Every single week. I'd like to see that outcry. Actually, no, I wouldn't.

And of course, making the parent look stupid makes the kids look smart and powerful. Cheap trick.

In my opinion, it's lazy writing. Bluey proves it. Bluey is smart, powerful, creative and wildly entertaining, without degrading or mocking a single member of the family. Bandit is the funniest character on that show, and the joke is never on him being a bad dad. The joke is on him being a dad who actually plays along.

Which is a lot harder to write. And a lot harder to be.

PS: Which TV dad made you cringe the most? Tell me in the comments. Homer doesn't count, he has suffered enough.