uncles of uncles?

[zero zero nine]

I've noticed this trend... started with the ducks... uncle scrooge was Donald Duck's uncle, who was the uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie... and now Jackie Chan, with his uncle, and him being the uncle of Jade...

All of this begs the question...

What's up with their parents?

[Danielle]

Originally posted by zero zero nine
I've noticed this trend... started with the ducks... uncle scrooge was Donald Duck's uncle, who was the uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie... and now Jackie Chan, with his uncle, and him being the uncle of Jade...

All of this begs the question...

What's up with their parents?


Knowing TV.....did you notice how many kids on TV have single or no parents? That's probably the case.

[Stinky Cat]

wow! i never noticed that! cool!

[Failure]

Well for JChan, Jade's parents sent her to America from China cuz she was being bad (in school, I think). Umm, hmm, I guess that's not neccessarily good parenting.

[optimal321]

Yeah, they do seem to leave things out like that...

But what about Goofy and his son Max? Where's the mom/wife? Max sure wasn't adopted.

[Calhoun07]

There is one possibility, but it involves telling a joke about Mickey Mouse divorcing Minnie Mouse and I can't tell it on a PG board! :D

[The Dork Knight]

Originally posted by calhoun07
There is one possibility, but it involves telling a joke about Mickey Mouse divorcing Minnie Mouse and I can't tell it on a PG board! :D

PM me the joke!

[Joe Tully]

It's an old gimmick that's often used so those wacky dads can deal with the wacky kids without stereotypically serious mom interfering. The dads just aren't technically the "dad," they're the uncle. That way they usually don't have to bother answering the question of "What happened to Mommy?"

These single dad sitcoms plagued the airwaves in the 80s. See My Two Dads, Full House, and others that my mind has erased from memory for my own safety.

Popeye's nephews Pup-eye, Pip-eye, Peep-eye and Poop-eye were the first copy of Donald. Fleischer Studios figured that if 3 nephews worked for Disney, 4 nephews would work for them.

And no, that's not why he's called Poop-eye.

[Maxie Zeus]

I always figured the uncle-relation was there to avoid the question of cartoon characters having s-x.

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by Maxie Zeus
I always figured the uncle-relation was there to avoid the question of cartoon characters having s-x.

Hmm...you're probably right, Maxie. Though I'm sure that the uncle bit has been used in plenty of sitcoms too. The only TV uncle I can think of is Bub/Charley from My Three Sons, and they had a dad too.

There was also that Family Affair show from way back, in which the kids were taken care of by Mr. French. I don't know much about that though, I didn't think that it looked too good.

[kiddiesunshine]

wait....if scrooge is donald's uncle, how can huey, duey and luey be both of their nephews? for that to work, wouldn't scrooge and donald have to be brothers?

[DR. BELCH]

Scrooge would be the boys' great-uncle...and Jackie's uncle would be Jade's. If you think that's confusing, both my mother and her aunt (my great-aunt) are named "Annie".
Which begs the query of what Uncle's first name is. Would it be a Chinese name, or would he have Americanized it after living here for some twenty or so years?

[kiddiesunshine]

no , not confusing at all. i just didn't think of the "great" factor. but no one mention that.