Father's Day is here. So how to celebrate? Turns out that sitting down with dad to watch a few episodes of nearly any television show featuring a blue-collar, working-class father may not be the best option.
According to a new study, blue-collar fathers from these shows are more times than not portrayed as "kind of bumbling" and "incapable," said Jessica Troilo, the study's author and an assistant professors of child development and family studies at West Virginia University
"Analysis of 13 fathers from 12 recent TV sitcoms and their 699 interactions with their minor children showed that working-class fathers continued to be depicted less positively than middle-class dads," said Troilo, according to The Washington Times.
The study, "Stay Tuned: Portrayals of Fathers to Come," was published by Psychology earlier this month.
The research also found, depending on the different networks presenting the shows, fathers had different personalities. ABC, the CW and cable shows had the most friendly dad characters, while CBS was most likely "to have snarky dads," wrote The Times.
The father-child interactions don't differ based on race or ethnicity but do depend on the family's economic class and marital status. It was also found "heterosexual dads were much more likely to say hurtful things to their children than the one gay father in the study, whose parenting skills were depicted as nearly perfect," wrote BizPac on the study.
Though this isn't a new trend, it is something that is becoming more widespread, as more shows choose to portray fathers as bumbling idiots who do less to help their children than do harm, as reported by Deseret News National.
SEE MORE: In defense of 'dad jokes'
"It's not hard to find. If you watch TV, then you've most likely witnessed the portrayal of the modern-day husband and father as lazy, incompetent and stupid," the article said.
Unfortunately, these negative portrayals of fathers could be putting a real dent in the positive past portrayal of capable and hard-working fathers in TV programs.
"Previous research has shown that the 'patriotic' and 'heroic' images of working-class fathers — i.e., the men who rebuilt America after the Great Depression and World War II — have been replaced by images of immature buffoons and schemers who need constant rescuing by their competent wives," wrote The Times.
The changing trend dates back to shows such as Fred Flintstone in "The Flintstones" and Archie Bunker in "All in the Family," where the mother knows how to best run a working-class household, said Troilo. Even though the father figure played by John Goodman in "Roseanne" from the late 1980s was an "emotional anchor" for the family, he didn't seem to make much of an impact on the industry, in the long-run, Troilo said.
Dads as jokes are not only found on television, but across the Internet as well. There are memes, Instagram accounts and Tumblr blogs about dads and the many crazy things they do, according to The Verge.
“This interest isn’t exactly positive: Dad is often the butt of the joke, portrayed as a middle-aged, out-of-touch person with a severe lack of awareness or personal style,” wrote The Verge.
“Instead of being thought of as a part of a family unit or as a supportive parent … many of the characteristics that make someone good at being a parent — frugality, responsibility, selflessness — have become punch lines for an entire generation when it comes to talking about dad."
Not everyone feels that this increasingly popular treatment of dad is fair. In another recent study conducted by Visiting Angels, 52 percent of adult children reported they feel they take their dad for granted and 44 percent feel their dads don't get as much as they deserve on Father's Day.
Although the media frequently make dads out to be incapable, all might not be lost. Three out of four adult children surveyed by Visiting Angels said they plan to visit their dad on Father's Day because they love him and want to spend time with him, want to set a good example for their children and don't get much time to see him otherwise.
Related links:
17 dads with killer dances moves
Dads with dark sides: Bill Cosby is the latest TV father to fall
16 snapchats from dads that'll help you redefine parenting
Email: mmorgan@deseretnews.com, Twitter: @mandy_morg