‘Today is my daughter’s kindergarten recital: BOOOORING!!!’: Michael Ian Black, comedians tackle fatherhood

From laid off workers turned full-time dads to Jeremy Adam Smith’s thought provoking new book, “The Daddy Shift,” there has been a lot of press lately about the changing role of fatherhood in America. (Some of it right here, even!)

The commentary is serious and asks us to consider a lot of important biological, political, and social questions: What are the benefits and drawbacks of more flexible gender roles? How does increased parental involvement affect a father’s relationship with his children and his partner? What does more involved fatherhood mean for society in general?

Michael Ian Black: father, sexy beast via Wikipedia

In their own, special way (sometimes very “special,” indeed, see video above) comedians are adding their two cents–or rather, 140 character Tweets–to the conversation.

Take Michael Ian Black, the comedian/writer/actor of Stella fame and star of Comedy Central’s new show “Michael and Michael Have Issues.”

By following Michael Ian Black on Twitter, you’ll learn that he’s 37-years-old and that his humor is pretty collegiate (“Humping might be the best word ever invented to describe humping.”). Soon, though, you’ll also learn that Mr. Black is married (“Per my wife’s request, did a little mulching this morning. She ignored my request to leave me the fuck alone”), has kids (“This weekend, attempting to set a new personal best of consecutive time spent ignoring my children”), attends important events in his children’s lives (“Today is my daughter’s kindergarten recital: BOOOORING!!!”), and even does laundry (“To psych myself up before doing laundry last night, I said, ‘Let’s rock-n-roll!’ followed by a single hand clap. Best laundry ever).

At face value, Mr. Black says some pretty terrifying things about his marriage:

Mother’s Day plans for tomorrow: wake up early w/ kids, make wife breakfast in bed, visit mistress.

And his children:

My son’s finger is infected, which is an opportunity for him to learn a new word: “lanced.”

And life in general:

Made a campfire with the kids: fantasized about the fire getting out of control and destroying everything. Then ate s’mores.

Comedic value aside (single hand clap! lanced!), I think his tweets show that family is important to him and that he’s a pretty involved parent. Think I’m reading too much into it? Consider this gem:

I say so few things sincerely, but I thought I would say: I love my wife. We have two amazing kids. We’re happy. The rest is just bullshit.

Michael Ian Black—family life role model. Who knew?

- Liz