Who the heck laughs at someone being a nurse?
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vestdennis — 12 years ago(September 17, 2013 09:07 PM)
Nurses can make excellent salaries, depending on their level of experience, location & who their employer is. But the reason they made fun of Focker was b/c he could have easily went ahead & gotten his M.D.
Yes, there are a growing number of male nurses but most guys still think of them as women. Besides, that wasn't the only thing they made fun of him for. -
sleepylegion — 10 years ago(March 11, 2016 01:43 PM)
"one of the most sought-after, highly respected, grueling professions in modern society."
I'm gonna stop you there. There's a reason "male nurse" was a joke that occurred in this film, a film written, produced, directed, tested, consumed and enjoyed by people in modern society, and it's not because nursing is one of the most highly respected professions around. Not that it shouldn't be.
If a person were to analyze a bunch of jokes, many times it involves a twist on an expectation, or a widely contrasting juxtaposition. If I'm at a fancy tea party and I expel flatulence, I have just made comedy. If I, a male, say I'm a nurse, when 99% of modern society, even
sixteen
years after this movie's release, continues to picture a woman 100% of all the times they hear the word "nurse", I have just made comedy. (Just now, here in the year 2016, I did an image search for "nurse" on the still popular "Google" website and counted 30 pictures before a man appeared, then counted to 49 before there was another.)
Now, in the prior examples I'm presuming that comedy is still comedy if no one laughs, but often laughter depends on the audience's familiarity with the comedy technique, or the subject of the comedy. I guessed above that 99% of society thinks males and nursing is an odd juxtapositionlikewise, my guess for the percentage of society that's complaining/agreeing that the male nurse joke wasn't funny or is embarrassingly out of date is whatever percentage of the population is a nurse, knows a male nurse, or works in the medical field (but isn't a doctor, because apparently plenty of them too find male nurses funny). 1 percent? Sure. Sounds good.
Since it is likely true, as established in this and many other threads, that males nursing is becoming more acceptedprobably at about the same rate gays are increasingly accepted,
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I might guess, with no implication intendedwe can maybe assume that 10 or 20 years ago, if a person had Googled "nurse", he would've had to look through 100 pictures before he found one of a man. Is there possibly a modern counterpart? How about "woman plumber"? Google "plumber", there are no women in sight. If you said, to a group, "My wife is a plumber," you might get a few raised eyebrows and a surprised chuckle. Put it in a comedy film, where the audience is encouraged to laugh, and of course they're going to. Well99.99999 of them will. The female plumbers' husbands will to turn to their wives and say, "What is this, 2008? Fire up imdb!"
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**Note too that just because gays re widely accepted doesn't mean we don't still joke about them like crazy.]
Well, I hope my response has been helpful, because it took all noon. PS: OP, I hope your name isn't a crack at the way the Japanese say their L's, because I find that sort of humor antiquated and immature.
www.selfnegatingface.blogspot.com -
RoadSideAssistance — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 03:25 PM)
$100K in 2000?
I think you're a little off base there. It didn't imply he worked for a major hospital, but even then the high end nurses (ER/Triage) only make like $70K a year. Yes their benefits are great, but they're not making the 6 figure salaries the doctors are. -
cheapfrill — 9 years ago(December 03, 2016 05:08 PM)
RE: Making 6 figures as a nurse. These days it's routine for any RN who's willing to put in the hours. One full-time job plus 1-3 overtime shifts and you're there. Personally, I've slid by working part-time most of my life and still saved enough to retire at age 58. And even in the year 2000 I can't imagine any MD balking at the notion of a male nurse. (which I am, BTW.)
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lucas-07722 — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 12:57 AM)
That little exchange - the arrogance of the doctors and Stiller's character sheepishly accepting his insult - really irks me to no end.
That's the entire point though. Greg Focker's personality is that he's modest and avoids confrontation (until the anger boils up). And he would be even more sheepish being around Pam's family for the first time.
Also, Jack and Dr. Bob and Dr. Larry are meant to be a bit arrogant. I mean many people would poke fun at a man being a nurse, being that it's typically thought of a woman-dominated position people respect the position and know that it pays well and still make light-hearted jokes about it, that's normal. But the entire fun of these characters is that they're boastful and presumptuous, so they go over the top and rub it in.