Editing Archie Bunker (section)

==Character traits==

Archie has a gruff, overbearing demeanor, largely defined by his [[bigotry]] toward a diverse group of individuals: [[African American|blacks]], Hispanics, "[[Communism|Commies]]", Freemasons, gays, women, hippies, Jews, Asians, Catholics, "[[Women's liberation movement|women's libbers]]", and Polish–Americans are frequent targets of his barbs. He refers to his son-in-law Michael as "Meathead" and a "dumb Polack" and to blacks as "colored” (a politically correct term during the time of his upbringing, but one that was becoming increasingly outdated and offensive during the show's airing); in earlier episodes, it is noted that he previously called blacks "coons"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Ella |title=Prime-Time Families: Television Culture in Post-War America |date=1989 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-91124-6 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvFQLmtOJYwC&pg=PA67 }}</ref> prior to Gloria's marriage to Michael.{{fact|date=December 2023}} As the show progresses, it becomes evident that Archie's prejudice is not motivated by malice but is rather a combination of the era and environment in which he was raised and a generalized [[misanthropy]].{{fact|date=December 2023}} Archie himself is depicted as a striving, loving father, and basically decent man; nevertheless, he is ill-tempered and frequently tells his long-suffering wife [[Edith Bunker|Edith]] to stifle herself. Series creator Norman Lear admitted this is how his father treated Lear's mother.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cowan |first1=Geoffrey |title=See No Evil |date=1980 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-25411-7 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ONKnx6JA0IC&pg=PA24 }}</ref>

Archie "turned the [[angry white male]] into a cultural icon", according to [[CBS News]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Farewell, Archie |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/farewell-archie/ |work=CBC News |date=21 June 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224124743/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/farewell-archie/ |archive-date=24 February 2021 }}</ref> After the end of the second season taping, O'Connor said, paraphrasing [[James Baldwin]], "The American white man is trapped by his own cultural history. He doesn't know what to do about it."<ref name="Hano1972">{{cite news |last1=Hano |first1=Arnold |title=Can Archie Bunker Give Bigotry A Bad Name? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/12/archives/can-archie-bunker-give-bigotry-a-bad-name-archie-bunker-and-bigotry.html |work=The New York Times |date=12 March 1972 }}</ref> O'Connor goes on to say:

<blockquote>Archie's dilemma is coping with a world that is changing in front of him. He doesn't know what to do, except to lose his temper, mouth his poisons, look elsewhere to fix the blame for his own discomfort. He isn't a totally evil man. He's shrewd. But he won't get to the root of his problem, because the root of his problem is himself, and he doesn't know it. That is the dilemma of Archie Bunker.<ref name=Hano1972/></blockquote>

As the series progressed, Archie mellowed somewhat, albeit often out of necessity. In one episode, he expresses revulsion for a [[Ku Klux Klan]]-like organization which he accidentally joins.<ref>"Archie and the KKK", Parts I and II</ref> On another occasion, when asked to speak at the funeral of his friend Stretch Cunningham ([[James Cromwell]]), Archie—surprised to learn that his friend was Jewish—overcomes his initial discomfort and delivers a moving eulogy, wearing a [[yarmulke]], and closing with a heartfelt "[[shalom]]". In 1978, the character became the guardian of Edith's stepcousin Floyd's nine-year-old daughter, Stephanie ([[Danielle Brisebois]]) and came to accept her Jewish faith, even buying her a [[Star of David]] pendant.<ref>Episode 197</ref>

Archie was also known for his frequent [[malapropism]]s and [[spoonerism]]s. For example, he refers to Edith's [[gynecologist]] as a "groinacologist" and to Catholic priests who go around sprinkling "[[incest]]" ([[incense]]) on their congregation, whereas he referred to incest itself as "committing 'insects' in the family". Archie repeatedly called President [[Richard M. Nixon]] "Richard E. Nixon". By the show's second season, these had become dubbed "Bunkerisms", "Archie Bunkerisms", or simply "Archie-isms".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosa |first1=Alfred F. |last2=Eschholz |first2=Paul A. |title=Bunkerisms: Archie's Suppository Remarks in All in the Family |journal=The Journal of Popular Culture |date=September 1972 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=271–278 |doi=10.1111/j.0022-3840.1972.0602_271.x }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/archie+bunkerism |title=Archie-bunker {{!}} Define Archie-bunker at Dictionary.com |access-date=October 5, 2012 |archive-date=January 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116113559/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/archie+bunkerism |url-status=live }}</ref>

O'Connor was Irish Catholic, and Norman Lear modeled the character on his Jewish father, but Bunker's own ethnicity is never explicitly stated, other than identifying him as a [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASP]]; over the course of the series, he mocks or belittles not just most minorities (including blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, and Asians), but also most white ethnic groups as well.

Archie, a Christian belonging to the Episcopal Church, often misquotes the Bible. He takes pride in being religious, although he rarely attends church services and constantly mispronounces the name of his minister, Reverend Felcher, as "Reverend Fletcher". (When Edith inevitably corrects him, he dismisses the error with "Whatever".)

He is a compulsive gambler, who, in earlier years, frequently lost his entire weekly paycheck in poker games, as related by Edith in the Season{{nbsp}}4 episode "Archie the Gambler"; he quit only when Edith threatened to leave him, taking then three-year old Gloria with her.