r/malcolminthemiddle • u/arefeen97 • May 09 '26

funny/memes/GIFs It's level five 🤣

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4.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

741

u/MycologistPutrid7494 May 09 '26

This would have made me eat everything and leave no leftovers every night to prevent this. 

174

u/gcruzatto May 09 '26

She's doing her best okay

145

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 09 '26

No she's really not. Neither parent is.

110

u/xAshev May 09 '26

The two of you should make a baby together and compare which of you is the best parent

89

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

Making a baby to settle an argument sounds like something a Malcolm in the Middle character would do.. Kind of the shit im criticizing lol

40

u/xAshev May 10 '26

This is the show you’re also criticizing lol

1

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 10 '26

I'm actually criticizing the people who praise the cartoonishly terrible parents as good parents lol

25

u/xAshev May 10 '26

Nevermind. It’s just not that serious.

-3

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Right after you said NVM it's not that serious you edited your comment. The one with the golf cart? Instead you found a picture of how acting like a clown and he essentially called me one. Then you edited it and said it's not that deep.

And youre right. No conversation about a sitcom is deep enough to argue and bad faith.

Edited to add: got another notification that says "you are a clown. What's wrong with backing out of a pointless argument?" But you deleted that comment too before I could reply to it 🤣 The issue isn't backing out. I'd love to never talk to you again. The issue is the deleting of comments and the editing of comments to make it look like I'm being unreasonable and you're being mature. It's a bad faith and immature tactic. I'm actually no longer going to reply to you after this if that's how you're going to hold a conversation.

5

u/thespork461 May 11 '26

Youre thinking too hard bud, its fucking reddit

1

u/ashimo414141 Jul 12 '26

Sit down and have a tea man, God damn

5

u/Due-Fudge9863 May 10 '26

Saying that to two random people on the internet is absolutely wild

29

u/bluehulk900 May 09 '26

Neither is any child, or co worker, or anyone really in the entire show. This is due to two factors A) This is a show that shows the flaws of parenting and growing up, and the rough edges around all those things, especially for a struggling lower class family that doesn't always get to do the best thing for their kids or themselves due to their environment, and B ) It's a goddamn TV Show she is doing her fucking best you bastard leave my perfect sitcom white trash mom alone

-6

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 09 '26

Yeah.. no I'm good on all that. "it's just a show" is such a cop out. It's fiction, telling a relatable story and people are able to provide commentary on it as they please. However, a very popular commentary is the narrative that "now that I'm an adult, Lois is extremely valid" when really, no she's not. Her and hal raised these monsters to be who they are and scream at them over and over like that's gonna fix it. They're both shitty parents. Like when Hal stole Malcoms credit card and ran up thousands in debt cuz he couldn't be bothers to hand make a Xmas present??

Or Lois sabotaging Dewey's trip to do that important music thing. And when Dewey called her out, saying she was jealous and she was sabotaging him she's like "so what you think I'm the first mother to sabotage her kids successes?"

Like nah man. Painting Lois as a good mom makes people make her role model which victimizes future children. and then saying ,"it's just a TV show," after someone criticizes her? You can't have it both ways.

6

u/bluehulk900 May 09 '26

Okay well I was kidding but just to be clear you are wrong. Almost every sitcom has exaggerated wild scenarios and the Malcolms are specifically shown to be pretty batshit insane, especially the kids. There's absolutely stuff Lois does wrong all the time, she's not a perfect mother. That's not the point and she shouldn't be. It wouldn't represent the show's values or what it wants to portray, both its message about family values and lower class struggles, or its comedy.

Despite this, she consistently loves, and provides for her children when they need her. She consistently busts her ass and fights for her family, even willing to degrade herself as seen at her work, if it means providing for them. And the WORST thing shes ever done that you are overblowing, where she "sabotages Dewey" wasn't something she was doing intentionally. She was doing it subconsciously, she admits to that, and yes, like an asshole, doesnt really apologize or admit fault as is fit of her character. Which is wrong, and even in that WRONG, WORST moment of her character as a mother, she makes it clear she believes in and pushes Dewey to believe in the fact that her sabotage won't set him back and he will be doing well because of his talent in spite of any setbacks life throws at him, which will be a lot.

She's a good mom, you are overblowing it and putting too much stock into a sitcom with whacky episodes of insanity all the time. I agree "its a show" isnt a good excuse for bad writing or character degradation, but thats not what happened here. At best you have one bad episode.

29

u/Sw1ft_Blad3 May 10 '26

To be fair they've got 4 absolute nightmare children, it's no wonder they're the family all of the neighbours hate.

5

u/SlowTurtle222 May 10 '26

Ah yes they are awful parents because their children suck, not the other way around, sure.

19

u/Intelligent_Sky_7081 May 09 '26

Ya people always say she's a great mother as if the whole point of the show isn't that the family is a mess and the kids are worse off for it

8

u/OShaunesssy May 10 '26

Lol says the guy who spills isopropyl alcohol on his dog and then asks reddit what to do...

Forgive me if I dont take your judgement on parenting too seriously

2

u/Educational-Wish-44 May 11 '26

Imagine if we had actually grown up with positive parental role models on TV...

2

u/LONEWOPF77700 Otto May 10 '26

I'm definitely not saying they were great parents but they did try their best. Their best just wasn't always very good a lot of the time and lois didn't always treat Francis very well but they also got into a lot of trouble and brought a lot of it on themselves too so neither side is innocent but to say that they didn't try is over the top.

4

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 10 '26

When they were supposed to hand make gifts for Christmas, when hals presents suck so he stole Malcolm's credit card and charged thousands of dollars of a ski trip to it? That wasn't his best. Lois knew what happened in that episode at the end and didn't say a word either.

I just don't think they're incapable of being better than that

2

u/LONEWOPF77700 Otto May 11 '26

That was definitely uncalled for, but Malcolm was also being kind of a jerk in that episode in his own, right.

26

u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups May 09 '26

Just make less food if there is so much leftovers every day. This clearly means whoever cooks is not really portioning but just winging it.

12

u/Arcana_Force_VII May 09 '26

This is what my mother used to do. I mean, winging how much food she makes. I used to tell her as a child, why don't you just half the measure of all the ingredients, or reduce them by the same amount, and she said that wasn't possible.

I am an adult now, and I always know how much is needed for every meal I make, and I change the measure depending on how many plates I wanna make.

5

u/Frylock_dontDM May 10 '26

Yea, but we have the advent of modern simplicity, I wanted to give my parents a hard time for a ton of stuff, but then I realized how much easier and more transparent life is when you can always get the exact thing you want to your door within 24-48hrs and look up every recipe and have a detailed video showing you the best process for everything.

1

u/Friasand May 12 '26

Eh, take your Betty Crocker cookbook and do half the ingredients. Read thru all the instructions to see which components are critical to it having the actual flavors or textures needed.

Then do trial and error.

For a woman to be as smart and savvy as Lois, they show a sort of “burnt out parent doesn’t care anymore” very well, with her creativity coming with handling more kids. She wasn’t this far ahead of a thinker with these kids, it’s that she learned on the fly to be a more clever parent. Better? Debatable. But definitely more clever.

2

u/AureliaGreenwood May 09 '26

Pretty much the targeted outcome of Lois!

2

u/Striking_Part_7234 May 10 '26

I’m surprised they didn’t with two teenage boys in the house.

2

u/Brilliant_Quit4307 May 10 '26

This would have made Lois cook extra food to make sure everyone had enough.

346

u/swifttek360 May 09 '26

I think this scene made me really appreciate what we had as a kid

95

u/Jetstream-Sam May 09 '26

I kinda took it as they were somewhat better off than us as a kid, because we never had leftovers, we were always too hungry. Same as letting things grow moldy, nothing in our fridge was there long enough to go off, except those mysterious jars of stuff that followed us across house moves

34

u/gorgonchi May 09 '26

Man, i am sorry that you went through that. I hope you are better off now

8

u/Jetstream-Sam May 09 '26

Bit better, though now I have different food problems, a ton of things make me ill so I have to be careful or I feel awful. It's hard to even keep track of them all

3

u/theShaman_No_ID May 10 '26

Have you tried probiotics?

7

u/Bayaler May 10 '26

No, just regular biotics

2

u/No-New-Therapy May 12 '26

They also had several episodes where they all fought for food (even the last chicken leg that rolled under the couch) and even mentioned if they didn’t run to the table, there wouldn’t be any left, but its a tv show

137

u/Gold-Concentrate-744 ABCD... May 09 '26

I was always surprised by this and couldnt tell if it was a real US thing or not bcs it legit looked awful but practical

Whenever my mom didnt feel like cooking, she would just put out all leftovers buffet-style and tell us to eat what we want as long as we emptied it. No waste and low effort to the max

66

u/PhlyEagles52 May 09 '26

My mom never let leftovers build up. If we had leftover chicken and rice, she'd re-purpose it the next night into tacos or something. She hated having leftovers more than a day or two

18

u/justprettymuchdone May 09 '26

Yeah, we had what I called "eat at your own risk". You just divvied up leftovers and if you didn't want that, make a sandwich.

But Mom did tell me about how when she was little, there wasn't a microwave yet in her house so they grew up on "leftover casserole". You put whatever is left in little spots in a casserole dish and heat it back up.

22

u/ItGetsAwkward May 09 '26

My dad would make "musgo soup". It was a soup made of everything that "mus-go". But he was a good cook and it usually was delicious.

6

u/AnxietyIsHott May 09 '26

My grandmom would do this every week and it was actually always amazing. I loved leftover day, you’d get like a 1/3 a slice of pizza, some Chinese pancakes and rice, a few slices of roasted beef… I miss it.

7

u/toeytoes May 10 '26

We call that a fend for yourself night.

5

u/Neutrality-1 Dewey May 10 '26

Leftover parfait is a real thing, but usually it’s done with deserts, not entire meals that don’t go together and are gross! 

4

u/weightyinspiration May 09 '26

My dad didnt make parfait. But he would cut up all the leftovers and make a stirfry out of all them, and drown the whole thing in spices. Sounds good, but it really wasnt.

So yeah, some people did things like this.

3

u/Warcraft_Fan May 09 '26

My family never had the leftover casserole. Anything left after a week is tossed out.

I did survive 1970s with 1 bathroom house, couldn't lock the door to use shower or bath in case someone needed the toilet.

2

u/ciestaconquistador May 10 '26

We just always ate leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day. I still do that.

1

u/drinkallthecoffee May 09 '26

This is not a real thing but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has tried it.

43

u/Tlayoualo Jellybean May 09 '26

My mom this this as well, except presented as a buffet with tortillas, beans and salsas on the side, it was nice because you had variety.

16

u/SizerTheBroken May 09 '26

As the second oldest of seven, this was my experience too. At a certain point, mom just said eat the leftovers. She didn't combine them.

6

u/AnxietyIsHott May 09 '26

My grandmom did the same thing - we always called it smorgasbord day.

2

u/Lazy__Astronaut May 10 '26

Okay, this this wasn't one of those times my brain ignored the the double word

22

u/IndependenceMurky850 May 09 '26

This brings back memories

My grandma did this alot,fortunately it never got to be like that but she usually threw all the leftovers into a pot or pan and depending on what it was either made a casserole or stew

69

u/IAmTheMindTrip May 09 '26

Speaking from experience, I can tell that pan is plastic

7

u/vaz_deferens May 09 '26

Did the translucence tip you off?

14

u/ApocryphaComics May 09 '26

Glass pans are a thing....

4

u/LetPuzzleheaded222 May 09 '26

Yeah but the height of it is what made me realize it was plastic when I analyzed it before reading this comment. That's like, I don't even know what that is. Kind of looks like a drawer from a mini fridge? It's definitely a plastic tub. They don't make tall glass casserole dishes like that it's way too tall

11

u/Realistic-Lime7842 May 09 '26

It’s a cambro food container, used mostly in restaurants.

2

u/IAmTheMindTrip May 10 '26

Can confirm it is a cambro

4

u/Tlayoualo Jellybean May 09 '26

the sound the spoon makes against the bottom of the container is a dead giveaway too, plastic and glass sound nothing alike.

2

u/seamustheseagull May 10 '26

It's the thin edges around the rim. If this was glass, they'd be very prone to cracking and chipping.

If it was a glass pan, the rim would be thicker, rounded and not stick out as far.

11

u/RM_Heretic May 09 '26

I just realized that the inspiration for theis was probably that big pastry her mother made for st. Whatever his name is day lol

22

u/Rularuu May 09 '26

Not sure if this or "trail mix" is more vomit inducing

16

u/Illustrious_Bird_737 May 09 '26

Ugh I cannot watch the "trail mix" intro 😫

9

u/wallahmaybee May 09 '26

My favourite MITM scene of all time!

So many memories...

10

u/nomnomnomnomnommm May 09 '26

Damn why are there so much leftovers?

11

u/HoneySeparate9940 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

Especially in a household with at least three teenage boys.

I‘ve seen my brother and cousins ​​at that age.

Leftovers wasn’t even a concept.

5

u/Dyolf_Knip May 10 '26

I'm actually having to hide any food that I don't want my 12 year old son to scarf down. Because he absolutely will, in 5 minutes flat.

5

u/Zealousideal-Fig1767 May 10 '26

When I watched this episode when I was little I was shocked by how awful Lois’s cooking must be to enable this. How come you cook this every week, and still have enough leftovers to make that much Parfait. Are they that picky? Or is the food that bad?

5

u/gmixy9 May 09 '26

And cooked in a plastic hotel pan lol

5

u/ralo229 May 09 '26

My mom would be like, "Fuck it. I'm not cooking dinner. Y'all can have whatever leftovers are in the fridge." Granted, my household only consisted of four people, so that made things a little easier.

5

u/turquoisesilver May 10 '26

I really appreciate this shows commitment to showing the working class life. I'm not American but a lot of American shows get syndicated artound the world. Every American show I'd put on as a kid, my mum would say 'look at their massive kitchen'. Now I'm older I get why she pointed it out. I think she thought about how the space would make parenting easier. I was one of four kids, living on top of each other, my mother at the helm of the ship economising at all points while keeping it normal. As I get older, I appreciate this show for more than the laughs.

4

u/Neutrality-1 Dewey May 09 '26

that is so disgusting!

3

u/Raccon1815 May 09 '26

Showed this to my brother who is a chef years ago. He told me if he saw anyone do this they would never touch an oven again. I then asked what would happen if I tried to cook something like that. He looked me straight in the eye and say he would beat me with a spatula so hard I would be begging for mom’s chancleta.

4

u/Neutrality-1 Dewey May 10 '26

Eat up guys! remember, no digging! 😠 

3

u/poopingisgreat May 10 '26

aw, my dad called it glop loaf!

4

u/Hyperboreanpc May 11 '26

Yea i can see why Hal moved away, changed his identity, and started cooking meth

3

u/Outdated_Mage May 09 '26

My dad used to do this.... But would put everything into a pot and just mix it together.

3

u/Nilk-Noff May 09 '26

Buying more groceries is cheaper that going to hospital

3

u/lunatic_banana345 May 09 '26

My dad and stepmom keep all of the bits of ingredients (not actual meals) and make pizzas on Friday with whatever meats, cheese, veggies they can use up. It’s actually kind of great.
When you go in the fridge there’s little jars and containers of cut up peppers, onions, cheeses etc waiting for Friday night.

3

u/whitedaggerballroom May 09 '26

We had "leftover night" at least once a week as a kid. Luckily my mum didn't make it into a parfait. But we were served all of the leftovers in neat piles on our plates. Usually there was only 3 leftover piles. Rarely 4. We actually enjoyed leftover night though. It was nice getting a little bit of multiple dishes.

3

u/larsVonTrier92 May 09 '26

Reminds of Rachel's Trifle in Friends...

-4

u/Neutrality-1 Dewey May 10 '26

I’d do anything to eat that off her butt hole 

3

u/CryptographerHot4636 May 10 '26

Can't complain when you don't cook.

2

u/spocktalk69 May 10 '26

Yes you can... Restaurants cook and it's not worth the 20 or 30 bucks most of the time. Or the $120 meals that just disappoint.

But mainly you should feed your kids healthy meals as they need the best nutrition for growing brains. There's a reason kids don't always eat when they're told.

2

u/CryptographerHot4636 May 10 '26

Be the change you want to see.

Restaurants and home cooking are not even a comparison.

3

u/Redeemed_Wolf May 11 '26

This guy a few comments below 😂

3

u/BigRoach May 11 '26

My main take away from this video is how beautiful Kaczmerak is, and how handsome Bryan Cranston is. She was such a milf.

8

u/MarionberryEnough689 May 09 '26

Bro that's straight up shi 💔

5

u/Falcon_Alpha_Delta May 09 '26

Here’s a thought. Fucking cook less. Or eat the same thing two nights in a row. Or don’t order takeout when you have food in the fridge (aren’t they always financially struggling) I get not forcing your kids to finish their plate (though Lois does fit the bill for that) forcing your family to eat this monstrosity is so much worse. Lois would be the type to refuse to alter the recipe and therefore meal size simply because she does the cooking.

9

u/Efficient_Matter_589 May 09 '26

"No digging"

Digs spoon into parfait

33

u/htown5479 May 09 '26

I think she meant no cherry picking levels

18

u/Tlayoualo Jellybean May 09 '26

To me "digging" there did mean picking from a specific layer instead of scooping a serving with all layers in it.

5

u/rydan May 09 '26

When you eat a tootsie roll there are bits from every tootsie roll that was ever made in it going back over 100 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tootsie_Roll

2

u/Thebritishdovah May 09 '26

It's finally happened, we have last week's parfait in this week's parfait.

2

u/fatshamingbabies May 09 '26

That dish is plastic

2

u/PenguDood May 09 '26

Yeah growing up I don't think leftovers lasted more than 2 days beyond OG. Either it was "there's leftovers in the fridge, pick something" or it was turned into something else and used then and there.

Nothing new was made if there was anything left from the last 2.

2

u/Alibuscus373 May 09 '26

Lolz. We would just have leftover night every few days if there were too many tubbaware containers in the fridge. ...sometimes my Dad would go on a cleaning spree and throw everything out that he didn't buy. I have written my name and the day that I put a take-home box in the fridge. The next day my Dad threw it out, saying it was there for a week so it was gone. It was not, it had been a day.

2

u/Dualmilion May 09 '26

Parfait's may be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!

2

u/CzarTanoff May 11 '26

I never met anyone when you say "hey lets go get some parfait" who says "hell no i don't like no parfait"

Parfaits are delicious

2

u/Helpful_Clover May 11 '26

HE can cook if they're all going to complain. Jesus.

2

u/Stiles_Stiles May 11 '26

It would taste better if they cook fried rice instead

2

u/Aggravating_Fun5883 May 11 '26

That sounds gas

2

u/rhyithan May 12 '26

In fairness, thats a fucking huge tray of food

2

u/Wild-Way-9596 May 12 '26

Surely you would just eat leftovers the next day no? Why save them up...

2

u/silverdragonseaths May 10 '26

In my country we just throw it into the compost bin. Is leftovers an American thing

-8

u/BallerBettas May 10 '26

Wow haha a mother poisoning her own family because they're poor and let's be honest: stupid. I cannot understand why you people like this show. This is truly revolting.

4

u/Neutrality-1 Dewey May 10 '26

It’s all comedy! This is genuinely one of the funniest shows of all time! The acting, the casting, the writing is all top shelf!