I don’t remember when the shrinking between generations started happening in sitcoms. But the most obvious icon of this phenomena was Gary Coleman in Different Strokes. For that show there was the excuse that the parent wasn’t a blood parent to Gary Coleman’s character with the father being white and Gary Coleman being black. But, as per usual, Gary Coleman grew up to be much shorter than his parent as portrayed on that show.
Now some may say this phenomena is just that Hollywood picks short kids so they look younger than they actually are so the older kid can play younger with better acting ability. Blah, blah blah.
But if this were true, that means that Hollywood only employs tall adults and wee kids. Look, here they’ve managed to piss of both the tall and the small. Hollywood couldn’t possibly do this.
But even in a modern family sitcom – like Modern Family, all the kids as they’ve grown up are still considerably smaller than their parents.
No, no, it must simply mean that the average American family is really getting shorter, generation by generation.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened in the past. Suits of armour from the middle ages nowadays only fit the smallest men. It is believed that average height back then was about half a foot shorter.
The accepted reason for this change in height was that the people of the middle ages had poorer nutrition than we do today.
So I think we are shrinking again because of poor nutrition. Today a large apple costs about $1. Bad for you cake things made specifically for kids’ lunches cost about 50 cents. Nutrition is getting worse in many parts of North America than it was a generation ago.
Thanks for alerting us to the problem, Hollywood. Now if we could just go back to healthier, more expensive foods we would gain back that lost height.
If we don’t, our males will once again be able to fit into those middle age suits of armor. Well that is if they make them with bulging stomach plates.
