Could anyone have foreseen that the Duck Dynasty would become a cultural phenomenon? It is one of the most watched shows on cable television. According to Wikipedia advertising sales for the show in 2013 exceeded $80 million and the revenue from merchandising exceeded $400 million. Who would have thought in March 2012, when the show first aired, that millions would watch, it would generate hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue, and that it would become one of the most talked about shows on television? I watched my first episode of Duck Dynasty about three months ago. I am now working through the second season. As I watched I asked myself why is the show so popular? What is about bearded, duck call makers that causes millions of people to tune in? I think there are several reasons people watch. There is the “odd” factor. We love watching people who are not like us, who live in a completely different world. The draw of reality shows is that we get to watch people do things we will never get to do. Second, Jase, Phil, Si, Miss Kay, Willie, are all “characters.” I grew up in the South. I met people like them and enjoyed their company. Men attached to their tea, who butchered frogs and wore camo. Men who were not pretentious, but knew who they were and didn’t apologize for it. Men who liked to blow things up. Men whose eyes had joy and a sadness that said they had been to dark places. Women who were women and happy to be so. People who still enjoyed playing and didn’t take life too seriously. These “characters” add humor to the show, as well as giving the show a sense of truthfulness. And then there is the family dynamic. Many Americans live in broken homes separated from one of their parents and sometimes both. Extended family is usually just as fractured. Grandparents are distant, if they are involved at all. Aunts and uncles are seen only occasionally. Family matters on Duck Dynasty. A lot of us look at them and wish we could live (and may even work) around our families even if it means sitting next to our crazy uncle.
But this morning as I sat around the breakfast table celebrating my birthday, I thought of another reason why Duck Dynasty might be so popular. All of us long for a happy ending. Tolkien said, “We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with a sense of exile.” We all want to get back to the Garden. In our narcissistic age dark endings are all the rage. Hope is lost. We are the “Walking Dead” and “All Men Must Die.” “Its a Wonderful Life” is disparaged for its rosy view of life. At the end of our show life just fades to black. But as Nate Wilson said somewhere, there really is a happy ending for those who love God. We really do walk off into the sunset. It really is better than anything we could think or imagine. In the end all things will be put right. What does this have to do with Duck Dynasty? Every episode finishes with a happy ending, with a miniature picture of Heaven. No matter what happens in the first 21 minutes the last 30 seconds picture the Robertson family around the table joyfully eating together. There may be bickering, fighting, stupid decisions, harsh words, and laziness but the final scene says, “In the end, all will be well.” For all humans, and especially Christians, this taps into something deep that our dark, narcissistic age cannot stamp out. Since our first father fell in the Garden our hearts have longed for home. We hunger for the tree of life, for the table of peace and joy where sin is eradicated. We are restless until we find our rest in Him. Every episode of Duck Dynasty gives us a window, albeit an smudged one, into that final day when our faith will become sight. It gives us a picture of the final return from exile into the promise land.
Revelation 19:9 “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelations 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
People may love Duck Dynasty for its oddness, characters, or its family dynamic, but the reason I like the show is that it points me, in a small way, to that final table when the great family of God gathers to offer praise to the King of Kings. It reminds me that all things do work together for good. It reminds me that every day I am blessed by my Father and every time I eat with my vine and olive plants I am blessed. Like all things, Duck Dynasty is about eschatology. And they get the ending right.<>
I never thought of Duck Dynasty as making an eschatological statement. You are right!
Phil and family are Church of Christ types. A sort of post-millennialism is in that body.