A few months ago, I wrote about Frasier’s ex-wife, Lilith Sternin. Lilith is my favourite character from the show, and while admittedly she isn’t the nicest person ever, I feel that some of the jokes about her could get a little mean-spirited. (I like people who speak in a near-constant monotone. As well as that, I really admire Lilith’s style.) And anyway, compared to Niles’ wife, Maris, she ‘s the epitome of normal.
Maris is an unseen character on Frasier. The reason for this is most likely because she’s an eldritch abomination whose physical appearance defies the laws of nature. If she ever had been shown on-screen, it would have caused a mass explosion of television sets, not to mention permanently fracturing the minds of all those who saw it. I have no idea how the other characters are able to handle seeing her, but this certainly explains a lot about Niles’ behaviour. It’s true that he’s always supposed to have been a fussy milquetoast, but perhaps he wasn’t always this extreme. Maybe being married to Maris for so long left him a broken shell, exaggerating all of his worst traits.
It’s actually quite interesting that such a character even works in a sitcom like Frasier. From what other characters have said about her, Maris seems to be totally bizarre, somebody who couldn’t ever exist in real life. (Though it is possible that they are just joking.) On paper, she just doesn’t fit. Frasier is a show that is, for the most part, based in reality. Like all sitcoms, there is some willing suspension of disbelief at work (Frasier goes on a date every third episode, yet still whines about how lonely he is) but most of what happens is pretty mundane. (Though the website Fraszier does have a rather surreal, not to mention creepy take on the show, summarising all of its “finest unproduced episodes”. Don’t read it late at night.) Maris is more like the kind of thing you’d find in a British sitcom, such as Black Books, where the sense of humour is slightly more offbeat. The jokes about Maris should fall flat…yet, they don’t. For some reasons, the parts about Maris are often some of the funniest. I guess that this is because, like some minor deity of darkness and unfathomable evil, she is kept in the background. The jokes aren’t as much about her as they are about the others’ reactions to her. Like the Noodle Incident in Calvin and Hobbes, Maris is so entertaining because she’s mostly left to our imaginations. Her never being shown is not only what makes her funny, but also what allows her to be a part of the series’ world. Every viewer can have their own idea of what Maris truly like, whether that is an eccentric woman whose physical traits are exaggerated by the main characters, or a nightmarish monstrosity from the darkest depths of another dimension where none know the definition of love or hope.
