r/malcolminthemiddle • u/CrysisRequiem • Mar 19 '24
General discussion Is the joke here that cat's DID indeed eat her face? Or that Hal is gullible and just believes Dewey?
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u/thingsfallapart89 Mar 19 '24
I think she died of cancer suddenly.
In the pilot episode, after Malcolm was tested they’re having dinner & Lois wants to talk to them all, Hal says quietly, “I thought we werent gonna mention
Then this episode happens only a few after the pilot. Poor woman probably died from it moving faster than doctors thought or maybe she fell after growing lightheaded & hit her head. Regardless she wasn’t found until after her cats got hungry enough
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u/soldierpallaton Mar 19 '24
Not sure if it's the intended joke but
So I've always taken it as Aunt Helen having been a crazy, reclusive cat lady who died in her home and no one found her until the point where her various cats ate her face.
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u/KatetCadet Mar 19 '24
Mortician was on Their Von and confirmed, cats will go to town. He mentioned he straight up saw a cat that ate the entire owners head, bone and all.
Dogs apparently will leave you alone longer, some won't touch you others would eventually give in.
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u/jimmiejamm Mar 19 '24
As a vet tech, I once met a cat who had eaten its dead owner’s face. The dead guy’s brother brought the cat in. He’d found his brother several days dead in his home and the cat eating his nose. He wanted to get the cat a check up to make sure it was alright. Nice cat.
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u/rayshmayshmay Mar 19 '24
Question: If I died in my apartment like a rat in a cage
Would the neighbors smell the corpse before the cat ate my face?
Aesop Rock - Dorks
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u/Airspirit26 Mar 19 '24
Every time I watch this episode I make my cats promise to not eat my face
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u/7yearlurkernowposter Mar 19 '24
You don't find it sort of comforting that your cats will get fed after you die?
It's not a permanent solution but I always liked how they will have some sustenance before my corpse is found and they get moved.→ More replies (4)
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u/BingBongtheArcher19 Mar 19 '24
Francis thinks Dewey doesn't know what he's talking about so asks for a parent to get a better explanation. Instead, Hal just repeats the same thing Dewey says and then tells Francis basically if you want more info you need to ask Dewey.
So how did she die? Cats ate her face. Dewey knows more about it than I do.
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u/christmas-vortigaunt Mar 19 '24
Yeah, this is the joke. It isn't that Hal's gullible, it's that Francis thinks Dewey is doing the kid thing and making stuff up (like how Creed in the office does the whole "funeral for a bird" bit and Jim says he's pretty sure it isn't real)
The bait and switch is that Dewey, the kid, was the knowledgeable one.
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u/AleGZerbo_Piano Mar 19 '24
It is humorously unclear on purpose. But my opinion is that the joke is "Hal is gullible". Even if this was just the death's details embelished by Dewey rather than a complete fabrication. That last "Dewey knows more about it than I do" punchline is a definite tell.
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u/djddy Mar 19 '24
i’ve always taken it as hal didn’t want to know the gruesome details whereas dewey was happy to learn all about it. it works on so many levels.
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u/Aegis_et_Vanir Mar 19 '24
I thought the joke was more in how nonchalant Hal was about it. It's not just that he doesn't know, it's also that he didn't care to know more, even when what little he did was so outlandish.
If I heard someone had died via cats eating her face, whether I loved, hated, or never knew this person, I'd wanna know more sheerly out of morbid curiosity.
I'd firstly wanna know if that was just an excuse to avoid telling a child the real reason.
But if it was the real cause of death, and not just something that happened separate, I'd REALLY wanna know more.
Were they her pet cats? Was she pet sitting? Were they strays? Was she starving or abusing them? Was she drugged, comatose, or otherwise incapacitated? Or were these fucking big cats like lions or pumas or something? In which case, was she a zookeeper? Did they escape? Was this a hiking trip gone horribly wrong?
All these questions alone just from that cause of death. And that's for someone I have no knowledge of or emotional connection to.
Hal, if I'm remembering this episode correctly, knew this woman personally (she was a relative of Lois, but he still met her). He knew Lois hated her (which means there was some emotional connection), knew enough about her himself to think her a bad person, and could even tell some stories at her funeral, where he was expected to give a speech.
Yet even with all that, he did. Not. Give. A. SHIT. Not even out of aforementioned morbid curiosity.
So either this woman lived a life were death by feline facial feasting made enough sense, or Hal is expected to speak about a woman he has this little regard for.
Either way, I think the joke is that some big piece of this puzzle is missing and will never be found.
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u/Claytonius_Homeytron Mar 19 '24
My take: Hal is just burned out so he's going with whatever Dewey said, it just so happened that Dewey did in fact know more about it, or at least more than Hal at the time.
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u/Airspirit26 Mar 19 '24
Cats will eat your face when you die, she didn't die FROM cats eating her face, but they did after she died
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u/ziasaur Mar 19 '24
I always figured the joke was just that everyone was being dismissive of Francis
like Hal is just parroting whatever Dewey is saying to keep things moving
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u/noeagle77 Mar 19 '24
Should ask Dewey, he knows more about this than we do.