The Answer to the eternal Munster's question

E

eurenix

CAGiversary!
"If Herman is a Frankenstein monster, and Lily is a vampire, why is Eddie a wolfboy?"

Well, first of all, Eddie isn't just a wolfboy, he's a vampire/wolfboy.

As to where the werewolf comes from, you have to remeber Herman is made up of dead body parts. Obviously, his testicles came from a werewolf. Or Lily is a cheating whore. Whichever.
 
[quote name='sblymnlcrymnl']One doesn't necessarily preclude the other. It could easily be both.[/QUOTE]

True, but only one is the answer to the question. If Herman is the father, it doesn't matter if Lily is shagging Shaggy Dog, the reason would be Hermans testicles get especially hairy once a month.
 
I guess we'll never no without a DNA test, which only raises further questions. For example, does Herman have seperate DNA for each body part or has it all somehow fused into "Herman" DNA?
 
Or Eddie got bitten by a werewolf when he was a kid. That seems like a likely possibility to me.
 
[quote name='Drocket']Or Eddie got bitten by a werewolf when he was a kid. That seems like a likely possibility to me.[/QUOTE]
Too true. I did think of that, but it wasn't nearly as fun as the other possibilities.
 
[quote name='Lizard Axe']He's adopted.[/QUOTE]

Bingo!

DNA testing would likely produce a variety of matches for Herman but not a one of them indicating him as Eddie's parent.

Vampire reproduction is questionable. Since they recruit like a communicable disease rather than produce offspring, at least in most interpretations, it's likely nobody in the Munster household has a direct genetic relation to each other. Not evena species in common for some of them. Lily's relation to Grandpa Munster is vague. She might simply have been turned by someone who was previously turned by Grandpa, thus the sort of patrilineal connection without childbirth.

Combine that with Herman's status as an entirely manufactured being and the couple seeking to start a family may have viewed surrogate parentage as having great appeal, since both Herman and Lily come from backgrounds where you literally get to pick your children. Or Eddie might have just been a convenience. In 1953 (drawing from Butch Patrick's year of birth) there was still immense stigma attached to illegitimacy. A woman who had conceived by a werewolf outside of marriage (or was a knocked up lycanthrope herself) was extremely likely to 'go away' to an out of state relative's home for a few months and return after losing most of her pregnancy weight. This in reality meant she was sent to a facility that specialized in such young women with adoptive parents or an orphanage waiting.

So, new genetic line of descent means a Munster child could be most anything, even a mundane like Marilyn.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Bingo!

DNA testing would likely produce a variety of matches for Herman but not a one of them indicating him as Eddie's parent.

Vampire reproduction is questionable. Since they recruit like a communicable disease rather than produce offspring, at least in most interpretations, it's likely nobody in the Munster household has a direct genetic relation to each other. Not evena species in common for some of them. Lily's relation to Grandpa Munster is vague. She might simply have been turned by someone who was previously turned by Grandpa, thus the sort of patrilineal connection without childbirth.

Combine that with Herman's status as an entirely manufactured being and the couple seeking to start a family may have viewed surrogate parentage as having great appeal, since both Herman and Lily come from backgrounds where you literally get to pick your children. Or Eddie might have just been a convenience. In 1953 (drawing from Butch Patrick's year of birth) there was still immense stigma attached to illegitimacy. A woman who had conceived by a werewolf outside of marriage (or was a knocked up lycanthrope herself) was extremely likely to 'go away' to an out of state relative's home for a few months and return after losing most of her pregnancy weight. This in reality meant she was sent to a facility that specialized in such young women with adoptive parents or an orphanage waiting.

So, new genetic line of descent means a Munster child could be most anything, even a mundane like Marilyn.[/QUOTE]

http://www.tvtome.com/Munsters/season1.html

Look at episode 4. Clearly at least Herman and Grandpa believe in vampire reproduction. While they might be able to trick Herman with "Didn't you notice I was pregnant for nine months you clod!?", I doubt Grandpa would be quite so easily fooled. But I love the whole "Home for lycanthropily(sp?) disgraced young women" concept.

[quote name='Drocket']Or Eddie got bitten by a werewolf when he was a kid. That seems like a likely possibility to me.[/QUOTE]

So I thought on this a little more, and I kind of like it. As we kow, the Munsters view their monstrous traits as attractive, so they might have intentionally exposed Eddie to Lycanthropy as their version of cosmetic surgery. I like the evilness of this idea.
 
[quote name='eurenix']http://www.tvtome.com/Munsters/season1.html

Look at episode 4. Clearly at least Herman and Grandpa believe in vampire reproduction. While they might be able to trick Herman with "Didn't you notice I was pregnant for nine months you clod!?", I doubt Grandpa would be quite so easily fooled. But I love the whole "Home for lycanthropily(sp?) disgraced young women" concept.


[/QUOTE]

Let us not forget that Grandpa is hopelessly senile ( raising an issue about vampire longevity but perhaps he was already a lot cause when turned) and Herman is, putting it mildly, a retard. Between them they no doubt share any number of cherished beliefs based entirely in fantasy.

Some of it is denial of what passes for their lives. Consider the problems of how a female vampire would gestate a non-vampiric fetus. Supposing she wasn't simply barren as a rule, just keeping her body temperature at a level to allow conception and sustain that through birth would be a difficult undertaking. Almost on a par with the reproductive trials detailed by Larry Niven in 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.' http://www.larryniven.org/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.htm

It helps if you have necrophiliac tendencies, which would be perfectly understandable in an entity like Herman. It also helps if you're prospective undead subject is a young Yvonne DeCarlo. She was 42 when the Munsters first started but since Eddie was 11 at that point then she may have looked like this when she first met Herman: http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/yvonnedecarlo.html

OTOH, that puts us back in the realm of vampiric aging. Alternatively, she was turned at 42 and has had the same appearance throughout her relationship with Herman. This raises the question whether she was pre-menopausal on top of whether becoming a vampire doesn't render the reproductive plumbing inert as part of changing to a different species with a completely different reproductive technique. Assuming she was still capable of reproduction int he mammalian mode, can she do this with a human rather than another vampire? Even a composite human like Herman presumably produces conventional sperm, also presumably carrying the specific DNA of his testes' original owner.

Now then, we have another problem. Can Herman not be shooting blanks after his gonad have spent who knows how long in an inert decompositional state before collective ressurection as part of Herman? Can Lily produce a viable egg at her advanced age and becoming a vampire adding insult to injury? If these obstacles are not insurmountable, we can expect that switching on the electric mattress pad is the opening gesture of foreplay in the Munster budoir.

A large number of congenital defects have been found to increase in frequency as the parents age. Most of these produce cognitive retardation but can also be seen in a variety of physical deformities. These can include misformed or oversized ears, a recessed jaw making the upper canine overly prominent, and excessive hair growth. We start to see a set of symptoms that describe the Munster offspring. Poor Eddie appears to have evaded any severe retardation but this might only be an illusion caused by the cognitive shortcomings of his parents and other family members.
 
Herman is a Frankenstein's monster, which means he's made up of different parts from all different people. Through freak happenstance, he managed to get the Wolfman's genitals. It's really just common sense here people...
 
This is the kind of hilarious dialogue I need to get my day started. I have been laughing my butt off. What makes it so funny is that all of the theories are so well thought out, it sounds like a Mensa round table discussion.
 
"When Eddie decides to run away from home, Herman employs a little child psychology, which naturally backfires. Various circumstances eventually lead to Herman's getting involved with a dancing bear."

Why aren't there any more shows like this on TV?
 
[quote name='Drocket']Or Eddie got bitten by a werewolf when he was a kid. That seems like a likely possibility to me.[/QUOTE]

Come on. Haven't you seen Underworld? No one can survive both a bite by a vampire and a werewolf. The monsters don't mix.
 
[quote name='eurenix']So I thought on this a little more, and I kind of like it. As we kow, the Munsters view their monstrous traits as attractive, so they might have intentionally exposed Eddie to Lycanthropy as their version of cosmetic surgery. I like the evilness of this idea.[/QUOTE]
I rather doubt that they'd do something like that intentionally. Otherwise, they'd 'help' Marilyn out too (and since she seems to believe that she's unattractive, she'd almost certainly go along with it.) I find it a lot more likely that Herman went out and bought a werewolf as a pet for Eddie (almost certainly without discussing it with Lily, I'm sure.) Eddie got bit, they got rid of the werewolf and got a safer pet for Eddie - good old Spot.
 
[quote name='Tromack']Come on. Haven't you seen Underworld? No one can survive both a bite by a vampire and a werewolf. The monsters don't mix.[/QUOTE]
Nobody can survive a BITE from a vampire and a werewolf, but what about somebody BORN a vampire? If Eddie is in fact Lily's genetic offspring (not even worrying about whether the father was Herman or not), then eddie was never actually bitten by a vampire. He is, in fact, only half-vampire (unless his father was also a vampire), which would explain why he only appears to be half-wolfman.
 
[quote name='Tromack']Come on. Haven't you seen Underworld? No one can survive both a bite by a vampire and a werewolf. The monsters don't mix.[/QUOTE]

It's like that song by Loverboy.
 
[quote name='Drocket']I rather doubt that they'd do something like that intentionally. Otherwise, they'd 'help' Marilyn out too (and since she seems to believe that she's unattractive, she'd almost certainly go along with it.) I find it a lot more likely that Herman went out and bought a werewolf as a pet for Eddie (almost certainly without discussing it with Lily, I'm sure.) Eddie got bit, they got rid of the werewolf and got a safer pet for Eddie - good old Spot.[/QUOTE]

Going with the assumtion that the Munsters are, in almost every way, a normal and healthy family (please, no attacks on the healthy part, I am aware most of the family IS undead), I will admit this to be a far more likely possibility, but what I liked about the idea was that there was something truly monstrous in the Munster clan, an evil more sinister for it's everyday quality.

As to why they wouldn't do it to Marilyn, it could be they didn't feel they had the right to make that decision for her. She was their niece after all, not their daughter. Marilyn might not have done it herself for any number of reasons. God only knows their are many people who fell themselves to be extremely unattractive that would never consent to cosmetic surgery.

I would propose another sinister qualtity to the Munsters. Spousal abuse. Just because it was not the husband doing the hitting does not make it any less of abuse. I can't be certain though, since I don't actually remember Lily hitting Herman, just one hazy memory of her chasing Herman with a frying pan. Of course, many shows at that time, and before, had some of this going on, although it was usually the husband being abusive.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Let us not forget that Grandpa is hopelessly senile ( raising an issue about vampire longevity but perhaps he was already a lot cause when turned) and Herman is, putting it mildly, a retard. Between them they no doubt share any number of cherished beliefs based entirely in fantasy.

Some of it is denial of what passes for their lives. Consider the problems of how a female vampire would gestate a non-vampiric fetus. Supposing she wasn't simply barren as a rule, just keeping her body temperature at a level to allow conception and sustain that through birth would be a difficult undertaking. Almost on a par with the reproductive trials detailed by Larry Niven in 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.' http://www.larryniven.org/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.htm

It helps if you have necrophiliac tendencies, which would be perfectly understandable in an entity like Herman. It also helps if you're prospective undead subject is a young Yvonne DeCarlo. She was 42 when the Munsters first started but since Eddie was 11 at that point then she may have looked like this when she first met Herman: http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/yvonnedecarlo.html

OTOH, that puts us back in the realm of vampiric aging. Alternatively, she was turned at 42 and has had the same appearance throughout her relationship with Herman. This raises the question whether she was pre-menopausal on top of whether becoming a vampire doesn't render the reproductive plumbing inert as part of changing to a different species with a completely different reproductive technique. Assuming she was still capable of reproduction int he mammalian mode, can she do this with a human rather than another vampire? Even a composite human like Herman presumably produces conventional sperm, also presumably carrying the specific DNA of his testes' original owner.

Now then, we have another problem. Can Herman not be shooting blanks after his gonad have spent who knows how long in an inert decompositional state before collective ressurection as part of Herman? Can Lily produce a viable egg at her advanced age and becoming a vampire adding insult to injury? If these obstacles are not insurmountable, we can expect that switching on the electric mattress pad is the opening gesture of foreplay in the Munster budoir.

A large number of congenital defects have been found to increase in frequency as the parents age. Most of these produce cognitive retardation but can also be seen in a variety of physical deformities. These can include misformed or oversized ears, a recessed jaw making the upper canine overly prominent, and excessive hair growth. We start to see a set of symptoms that describe the Munster offspring. Poor Eddie appears to have evaded any severe retardation but this might only be an illusion caused by the cognitive shortcomings of his parents and other family members.[/QUOTE]

Should I be impressed, or horrified? :? :lol:
 
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