Grannies Gone Wild #39

Joe has watched "Grannies Gone Wild" 35 times so far this summer. Watch the episode HERE.

 

Two separate but related jokes, both spouting from the same subject source, both respectively hinging on the specific choice of one specific word used. Let's get dental.

Joke #9: Referencing the gingivitis video.

Specific wording: "You don't think dentists help people? Yeah, guess it's time to show you the gingivitis video again!"

With crucial wording bolded: "You don't think dentists help people? Yeah, guess it's time to show you the gingivitis video again!"

 

Discussion: There is a less funny version of this joke that goes something like, "You don't think dentists help people? I guess I should show you a gingivitis video!" But what's specifically funny about what Brock says is the implication that there is a specific gingivitis video that he is referring to, and that he has already made Cheyenne (and probably Jake and Scarlett too) watch the video.

It's 2005, so already we're trending a little too early for online videos, so I'm thinking this is a VHS affair. I also don't think that Brock is showing his kids this video post-divorce, and if we are assuming that he breaks up with Reba and gets together with BJ in or around the pilot episode (wait, are we assuming this? or did those events happen pre-series?), then maybe he's showing the kids "the gingivitis video" around 2000 at the latest. Probably more like the '90s. Definitely a VHS tape.

I suppose the word "gingivitis" is in itself pretty funny. Like, it's a disease, but it sounds like a fancy spice one might use in a Hungarian dish or something. I could see the word alone carrying the load in a one-liner. I'm just saying that the specifics of Brock's implication that he has already forced dental knowledge onto his children is the actual funny part. Not even to mention the fact that, up until this point, Cheyenne wanted to become a dentist herself, so obviously the VHS tapes made some kind of impression on her.

Joke #11: Brock's speech that he will fight deadly gum disease. and win.

Specific wording: "And after that, I am gonna go to the office, where I will help people fight deadly gum disease... and win!"

With crucial wording bolded: "And after that, I am gonna go to the office, where I will help people fight deadly gum disease... and win!"

 

Discussion: This definitely builds off of the previous gingivitis joke, but adds another layer. You know how I said that the word "gingivitis" sounds funny, just as a word? Well, now Brock is clarifying that this silly word is not just a disease, but a deadly disease. The humor is derived from the tension between how serious Brock is taking it and how everyone else is taking it (see also: "glorified toothbrush").

I mean, to the dentally uneducated, it sounds like an exaggeration, right? My first question about this joke (okay, fine, my like 945th question) was: wait, is gingivitis actually deadly? The answer, as it appears after some extremely cursory googling, is that YES, gingivitis can be deadly under some circumstances.

Gingivitis is a gum disease, just as Brock describes in his pre-exit hollering. And if you think about it, it makes sense that the gums are intimately connected to the cardiovascular system, what with all the blood flowing through the gums and into (around?) the teeth or at least the tooth cavities (requisite reiteration that my research was obscenely cursory). So it tracks that if your gums are infected, then maybe that infection is going to have a pathway to your heart. Right? It's not that gingivitis is a death sentence, but one thing can definitely lead to another.

And weirdly, this can be funny too. It's like when your friends tells you not to laugh and you can't stop laughing because they told you not to laugh. Gingivitis is not funny and should not be taken lightly, but because Brock is so huffy about it and is yelling about it in a Texas doorway right before he gets road head from his second wife on the way to the courthouse, it BECOMES funny and you can't HELP but take it lightly.

Wait, what "gingivitis video"?

I didn't find any videos that satisfy all the criteria, but here are some that meet at least one of the criteria for possible videos that Brock showed his children.

This video feels right in spirit (i.e. it's educational) but there's no way it was made before like 2013 at the earliest:

These videos were definitely made in the '90s (by Pixar! directed by sexual abuser John Lasseter!), and while they are slightly informative, they are definitely commercials for a product that happens to treat gingivitis, among other diseases:

And this feels like the closest in terms of what Brock might actually show his kids (it's made by the American Dental Association), but it wasn't made until 2005. True, this episode aired on (and ostensibly takes place on) November 11, 2005, so technically Brock could've shown his kids the video earlier in the year, and he wouldn't be a liar when he said "again." But it does feel unlikely that he'd be showing his 20-something daughter a gingivitis video while she's raising her child with her husband at Brock's ex-wife's house (on top of the fact that I assume his middle child, Scarlett, has been on the lam for most of the year, and so when would he have the opportunity to show her the video?):

 

Regardless, I am cursed for the rest of my life to think about Brock Hart and his goddamn gingivitis video every single time I go to the dentist for a teeth cleaning for the rest of my wretched life.