TV Quote of the Day (‘The Addams Family,’ As Morticia Reveals a Logical, Legal Mind)

[Insurance agent Joe Digby has come to the Addams living room about a claim they filed to replace a stuffed bear that Uncle Fester accidentally set afire with a new flame-thrower. Digby quizzically eyes the pile of ashes on the floor.]

Joe Digby [played by Eddie Quillan]: “I don't want to quibble, but how do I know that was a bear?”

Morticia Frump Addams [played by played by Carolyn Jones]: “Well, let's use simple logic. Does it look like an antelope?”

Digby: “No.”

Morticia: “A zebra?”

Digby: “No.”

Morticia: “A giraffe?”

Digby: “No.”

[later]

Morticia: “An elephant?”

Digby: “No.”

Morticia: “A tiger?”

[much later]

Digby: “No.”

Morticia: “A camel?”

Digby: “No.”

Morticia: “A gorilla?”

Digby: “Well, uh... No! No!”

Morticia: “Well, then it must be a bear.”

Gomez Addams [played by John Astin]: “Querida, with your incisive mind, you should be on the Supreme Court!”

Morticia [considering it]: “I do love those black robes.” —The Addams Family, Season 2, Episode 28, “The Addams Policy,” original air date Mar. 25, 1966, teleplay by Harry Winkler and Hannibal Coons, directed by Sidney Lanfield

Would the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee prefer Morticia to Biden Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson? Perhaps, if the matriarch of the creepy, kooky family announced a GOP affiliation.

At least her exercise in logic here is not as breathtaking—or as twisted—as what Senators Cruz, Graham, Blackburn, Cotton, Hawley et. al. displayed the last few days at Jackson’s confirmation hearings.

As noted by Domenico Montanaro of National Public Radio, much of their questioning took place with midterm messaging to their base in mind, as well as the airing of grievances on how Democrats treated the GOP’s most recent nominees for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.