Enter Kevin James. We’d discovered that we liked the sitcom King of Queens one day while whiling away a hangover in front of the television. Then, much ashamed and trying to pass the whole thing off as a joke, we’d gone as far as to rent a season of it at the local video store. After watching almost an entire DVD’s worth of the fat man, we decided to take him to bed. There was still one episode left on the disc, and rather than stay up or save it until morning, my boyfriend suggested that we watch it on my laptop before falling asleep. We did just that, and a strange thing happened. He began talking. Not much, and certainly not often, but whenever Mr. James’s character Doug Heffernan did something that reminded him of himself, he’d give me a knowing nudge and wisely explain the motives for the TV stars’ actions. “See,” he’d say, “Men always think their own farts smell good.”
I didn’t agree with most of his pronouncements, especially the ones where he saw something of me in the character of the uptight and unpleasant wife, Carrie, but we laughed at the show’s jokes and by talking about the characters, we found that we were really talking about ourselves. “That is just what you do when you get mad,” he’d say as Carrie backed a meek looking Doug into a corner.”
“It is,” I agreed. “You should cower more next time. Act more the trodden husband a la Doug. Maybe I’ll feel sorry for you.”
We haven’t discovered any great truths about each other through these bedtime sitcoms. The characters of Doug and Carrie aren’t really much like us at all. But sometimes, if we stretch our imaginations, they act like us and reveal certain faults of our own. And because those faults are endearing on the show, every once in a while, we’ll find them endearing in each other. Doug and Carrie haven’t stemmed many fights between us, but there have been a few.
More importantly, we just enjoy it. Not every night, but about once or twice a week we bring the laptop in and tune in to Queens. We’re on our last season now, and only have ten episodes left to watch. I’m sad to say goodbye to Doug and Carrie, but I caught an episode of Scrubs the other night, and I’m thinking about giving Zach Braff a chance. He’d at least take up less room in the bed.
