From the new book FIFTY SHADES OF TRAILER PARK BOYS: TPB in the Great Comedic Traditions, available everywhere now!
Julian, Ricky & Bubbles in the Tradition of Freudian Psychology
Like many comedic heroes, Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Ricky (Robb Wells) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) are everyday men. They’re in the working class or lower, relatively uneducated, indulgent of liquor and drugs, sex and pornography and other vices. This puts them squarely in various comedic traditions, but primarily they represent the average person; who struggles to overcome and often fails, despite enough small triumphs to inspire their next efforts. For they always try again, they never back down in the face of adversaries who possess everything they lack; education, money, social graces and haughty attractiveness. From the Three Stooges to Larry the Cable Guy, the struggle of the slobs against the snobs has been and remains a central theme to many comedic traditions.
And TPB is the very epitome of that comedic ethos.
But more than merely being everyday men, they are everyman in another respect; Julian, Ricky and Bubbles collectively present us with a complete human psychological profile. They are three separate parts which combine to make a distinct object separate from the parts. In this case, the whole is nothing other than Dr. Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche; the ego, the id and the superego.
Freud’s model describes the ego, the id and the superego (roughly) this way:
The ego is the component of personality responsible for dealing with reality, governing the impulses of the id, weighing actions and consequences, expressing itself in a manner which is socially acceptable. The ego is reality based.
The id accounts for primitive, instinctive behaviors. The id is driven by the pleasure principle and strives for immediate gratification. The id is impulse based.
The superego is the last to develop among the three in a fully developed psyche. The superego accounts for a sense of right and wrong and presents guidelines for making judgements. The superego is conscience based.
Among the Trailer Park Boys, Julian represents the group’s ego. It is Julian who constantly tries to pull Ricky (the id) back from the edges of excess. It is Julian who strives to see the world as it is and to rise to its standards, by one semi-legitimate means or another.
Ricky represents the id. Always wanting to spend whatever cash is on hand, quick to get drunk, buy presents for others and otherwise indulge himself; he is all pleasure principle, the pure id in human form.
Mike Smith’s Bubbles is the perfect representation of the superego. Bubbles is the moral center between these two dissimilar criminal types. Bubbles is the only one of the three who is not primarily a professional criminal. He scavenges shopping carts, repairs them and resells them to the same malls he took them from, this is true. But he also offers a service, a craft, and business-to-business delivery. But when Ricky is considering a marital proposal from Barb Lahey (Shelley Thompson), Julian urges against it for practical reasons. She could take half of Ricky’s positions if it doesn’t work out, Julian explains, and much of that stuff (including a big stash of dope and, ultimately, ownership of the entire trailer park) belongs to Julian and Bubbles as much as to Ricky. The perfect answer of ego to id. But it is Bubbles who adds that one should marry for love, not convenience, and this is the voice of the superego.
In another episode, Ricky is using his daughter Trinity (Jeanna Harrison) and her elementary-school friends to steal barbeques under Canada’s Youth Justice Act which prevents children from being sent to adult penal facilities. Julian is frustrated that this will bring unwanted attention to their other criminal activities. But Bubbles is outraged at the moral culpability of Ricky’s using children in his dangerous scheme, let alone his own daughter.
In the 2004 Christmas Special, Dear Santa Claus, Go F**K Yourself! Julian, Ricky and Bubbles stand in front of the church before midnight mass. Ricky (the id) is selling grams of hash and marijuana to members of the Sunnyvale community as they pass. He promises that, “The sermon makes a lot more sense if you’re stoned!”
Julian snaps at him, “Ricky, you can’t sell dope in front of a church on Christmas Eve, it’s disrespectful. These are my customers!” Julian is always practical, always dealing with society in a manner that will ensure his survival; always the ego.
And it is Bubbles as the superego who has to explain how morally wrong it is to stand in front of a church on Christmas Eve selling dope.
And consider how these characters interrelate on a more primal level: Id Ricky goes to ego Julian for guidance throughout the series; ego Julian goes to superego Bubbles for guidance; the superego in turn urges ego Julian to control id Ricky. It is a three-way symbiosis in the spirit if not to the letter of Freud’s model.
For the id, the governing principle is pleasure; for the ego, it is social expedience; and for the superego, it is moral awareness. In short they are desire, restraint and the morality which results from the one meeting the other. Perhaps in no other modern work of fiction do we see such a clear illustration of this concept than in Trailer Park Boys. A look at how Julian, Ricky and Bubbles fit into the tradition of the comedic trio may shed some light on that subject.
Julian, Ricky & Bubbles in the Tradition of Freudian Psychology
Like many comedic heroes, Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Ricky (Robb Wells) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) are everyday men. They’re in the working class or lower, relatively uneducated, indulgent of liquor and drugs, sex and pornography and other vices. This puts them squarely in various comedic traditions, but primarily they represent the average person; who struggles to overcome and often fails, despite enough small triumphs to inspire their next efforts. For they always try again, they never back down in the face of adversaries who possess everything they lack; education, money, social graces and haughty attractiveness. From the Three Stooges to Larry the Cable Guy, the struggle of the slobs against the snobs has been and remains a central theme to many comedic traditions.
And TPB is the very epitome of that comedic ethos.
But more than merely being everyday men, they are everyman in another respect; Julian, Ricky and Bubbles collectively present us with a complete human psychological profile. They are three separate parts which combine to make a distinct object separate from the parts. In this case, the whole is nothing other than Dr. Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche; the ego, the id and the superego.
Freud’s model describes the ego, the id and the superego (roughly) this way:
The ego is the component of personality responsible for dealing with reality, governing the impulses of the id, weighing actions and consequences, expressing itself in a manner which is socially acceptable. The ego is reality based.
The id accounts for primitive, instinctive behaviors. The id is driven by the pleasure principle and strives for immediate gratification. The id is impulse based.
The superego is the last to develop among the three in a fully developed psyche. The superego accounts for a sense of right and wrong and presents guidelines for making judgements. The superego is conscience based.
Among the Trailer Park Boys, Julian represents the group’s ego. It is Julian who constantly tries to pull Ricky (the id) back from the edges of excess. It is Julian who strives to see the world as it is and to rise to its standards, by one semi-legitimate means or another.
Ricky represents the id. Always wanting to spend whatever cash is on hand, quick to get drunk, buy presents for others and otherwise indulge himself; he is all pleasure principle, the pure id in human form.
Mike Smith’s Bubbles is the perfect representation of the superego. Bubbles is the moral center between these two dissimilar criminal types. Bubbles is the only one of the three who is not primarily a professional criminal. He scavenges shopping carts, repairs them and resells them to the same malls he took them from, this is true. But he also offers a service, a craft, and business-to-business delivery. But when Ricky is considering a marital proposal from Barb Lahey (Shelley Thompson), Julian urges against it for practical reasons. She could take half of Ricky’s positions if it doesn’t work out, Julian explains, and much of that stuff (including a big stash of dope and, ultimately, ownership of the entire trailer park) belongs to Julian and Bubbles as much as to Ricky. The perfect answer of ego to id. But it is Bubbles who adds that one should marry for love, not convenience, and this is the voice of the superego.
In another episode, Ricky is using his daughter Trinity (Jeanna Harrison) and her elementary-school friends to steal barbeques under Canada’s Youth Justice Act which prevents children from being sent to adult penal facilities. Julian is frustrated that this will bring unwanted attention to their other criminal activities. But Bubbles is outraged at the moral culpability of Ricky’s using children in his dangerous scheme, let alone his own daughter.
In the 2004 Christmas Special, Dear Santa Claus, Go F**K Yourself! Julian, Ricky and Bubbles stand in front of the church before midnight mass. Ricky (the id) is selling grams of hash and marijuana to members of the Sunnyvale community as they pass. He promises that, “The sermon makes a lot more sense if you’re stoned!”
Julian snaps at him, “Ricky, you can’t sell dope in front of a church on Christmas Eve, it’s disrespectful. These are my customers!” Julian is always practical, always dealing with society in a manner that will ensure his survival; always the ego.
And it is Bubbles as the superego who has to explain how morally wrong it is to stand in front of a church on Christmas Eve selling dope.
And consider how these characters interrelate on a more primal level: Id Ricky goes to ego Julian for guidance throughout the series; ego Julian goes to superego Bubbles for guidance; the superego in turn urges ego Julian to control id Ricky. It is a three-way symbiosis in the spirit if not to the letter of Freud’s model.
For the id, the governing principle is pleasure; for the ego, it is social expedience; and for the superego, it is moral awareness. In short they are desire, restraint and the morality which results from the one meeting the other. Perhaps in no other modern work of fiction do we see such a clear illustration of this concept than in Trailer Park Boys. A look at how Julian, Ricky and Bubbles fit into the tradition of the comedic trio may shed some light on that subject.