The All in the Family episode Gloria and the Riddle aired in October 1972. Gloria asked the following riddle: A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies, and the boy is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. In the operating room, the surgeon looks at the boy and says, “I can’t operate on this boy; he’s my son.” Who is the surgeon?”

Archie, Edith, and Mike are completely stumped. Archie’s chauvinistic brain scrambles for wild explanations, even wondering if the surgeon was the boy’s stepfather or a priest. Archie takes the riddle down to his friends at the bar, and they can’t figure it out either. Eventually, it is Edith who solves the riddle, stating the obvious answer that completely evaded the men – the surgeon is the boy’s mother.

The episode served as a satire of ingrained societal biases. Because everyone failed to connect the word surgeon with a female, their chauvinism is exposed.

Ask that riddle today and a 10-year-old will immediately answer “the mother.”........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)