About twenty years ago when this episode aired, computers were really only used to type papers or do some mathematical and even play games. There was no internet yet. We very behind back then if you had a computer. The computer in this episode becomes virtually useless. The Bundys decide or maybe Peggy and the kids decide to get a computer. With help from the neighbors, Steve and Marcy, they get an expensive computer even then for $2,100 because few families had computers back then before it was a necessity. While the kids could use the computer to type reports for school, Al hates it and Peggy has it more for decoration than to use. Finally, Al has enough of the computer or maybe the computer has enough of him.
3 Reviews
Useless, Underpowered, and Impotent -- like You.
rmax30482324 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This is the episode in which his family and neighbors talk Al into shelling out $2100 for a computer, over which Marcy rhapsodizes. "It's got 30 megabytes of memory." Twenty-one hundred dollars 25 years ago for 30 MBs. That's your free market at work for you, folks.
Lamentably, no one knows how to use it. When Al insists something be done with the computer (which has begun to talk to him and insult him), Peggy buys a hat rack and perches a pink cap on top of it.
Kelly, who has the best lines in this episode, complains that she can't get the computer to help her with this stupid report she must write on "Moby Dick," so she has to ask Al a question.
Al: "What's the question?" Kelly: "Call WHO Ishmael?" She's stumped by the novels' first line -- "Call me Ishmael." She next enlists Bud's help. Has he ever heard of Ishmael? "From Moby Dick? Yeah, it's a classic tale of whaling by Herman Melville. What do you need to know?" Kelly: "What happens." Bud spins her a wild and phantasmal tale that has Moby Dick chatting with Ishmael and the two of them wind up singing the theme from "Mr. Ed." In the end, Al is enraged by the computer's belittling of him and smashes it with a sledgehammer. I think the writers overlooked an opportunity for an amusing parody of "2001: A Space Oddysey" here. The PC should have begun to sound like the soul of reason. "Listen, Al, I can see you're upset about this and I honestly believe you should take time to think this over." But never mind. It's more than saved by the rest of the gags.
Lamentably, no one knows how to use it. When Al insists something be done with the computer (which has begun to talk to him and insult him), Peggy buys a hat rack and perches a pink cap on top of it.
Kelly, who has the best lines in this episode, complains that she can't get the computer to help her with this stupid report she must write on "Moby Dick," so she has to ask Al a question.
Al: "What's the question?" Kelly: "Call WHO Ishmael?" She's stumped by the novels' first line -- "Call me Ishmael." She next enlists Bud's help. Has he ever heard of Ishmael? "From Moby Dick? Yeah, it's a classic tale of whaling by Herman Melville. What do you need to know?" Kelly: "What happens." Bud spins her a wild and phantasmal tale that has Moby Dick chatting with Ishmael and the two of them wind up singing the theme from "Mr. Ed." In the end, Al is enraged by the computer's belittling of him and smashes it with a sledgehammer. I think the writers overlooked an opportunity for an amusing parody of "2001: A Space Oddysey" here. The PC should have begun to sound like the soul of reason. "Listen, Al, I can see you're upset about this and I honestly believe you should take time to think this over." But never mind. It's more than saved by the rest of the gags.
The Bundys enter the computer age.
BA_Harrison30 September 2022
Bud wants a computer, but Al says 'no'. Peggy, on the other hand, says 'yes', and so, with help from Steve and Marcy, she buys a $2100 system, with an incredible 40Mb hard-disk and 7Mb of RAM.
Of course, no-one in the Bundy family knows how to operate the machine (or even turn it on), and it quickly gathers dust, taunting Al with its imminent obselescence. Eventually Al shows the computer who is boss with his trusty sledgehammer.
Al is a luddite, but it's true that, in 1989, an expensive home computer would have been a total waste of money for most people. Limited processing power, a dial-up modem boasting speeds of up to 9.6kb, and a maximum 1024 x 768 screen resolution: it's not like it would have been of much use other than as a word processor, for keeping accounts, or for playing basic games.
Maybe Al was waiting for a system that could genuinely meet his needs. But I doubt it. Al's simply not a computer kind of person.
Of course, no-one in the Bundy family knows how to operate the machine (or even turn it on), and it quickly gathers dust, taunting Al with its imminent obselescence. Eventually Al shows the computer who is boss with his trusty sledgehammer.
Al is a luddite, but it's true that, in 1989, an expensive home computer would have been a total waste of money for most people. Limited processing power, a dial-up modem boasting speeds of up to 9.6kb, and a maximum 1024 x 768 screen resolution: it's not like it would have been of much use other than as a word processor, for keeping accounts, or for playing basic games.
Maybe Al was waiting for a system that could genuinely meet his needs. But I doubt it. Al's simply not a computer kind of person.
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