I never really put much thought into this aspect of television until my brother brought up the topic. Since then I've been paying more close attention, and I gotta say there's definitely something to this.
Generally speaking, men (especially dads) on television are being portrayed as buffoons.
This is particularly evident in TV comedies. Usually, there's the stereotypical father figure of today: a bumbling, dim-witted character who cannot survive without the wife, who the is smarter, more grounded one in the relationship, and also the boss. Shows like Outnumbered, Malcolm in the Middle, Jimmy Neutron (loved that show), and Everybody Loves Raymond reinforce the "doofus dad" stereotype. The dad is often times outsmarted by the children or, even worse, is just as immature as the children, leaving the mother to serve as the only real parent of the house (looking at you Modern Family).
Commercials aren't much better. They usually involve the standard "TV ad dad" who will most likely make some poor decision or just ruin everything by trying to help at all. I get so sick of those where the mom comes home from work and and the dad is failing miserably in the kitchen, and they're like "well, at least you have Clorox!" Also, there's one where a dad resorts to dipping his sons' feet in some sort of drywall resin to substitute socks, and the mom just tosses him some no-slip Hanes or whatever.
I get it. Stupidity is hilarious, and it will never stop being hilarious. You will never have a comedy TV show without some person playing the stupid character. It just pisses me off that it's mainly reserved for men. You see almost NO commercials or TV shows with a main character woman acting foolish or being stupid. They're often depicted as the pencil pushing, responsible, overworked, intelligent individuals that make the whole thing work.
I mean, can you imagine the absolute shit storm that would ensue if the roles were reversed? If we painted women as fools as much as we do men? People would be shouting sexism left and right. But suddenly because it's men it's alright?
This just really aggravates me, and I guess I needed to vent about it. I'm interested if you guys have any thoughts you want to add.