Was it possible for Malcolm to have friends?

yardgames

Retired Administrator
We know that Malcolm is socially retarded, but did he have any chance at all after starting high school? He made it his mission--and succeeded with the exception of Stevie--to ditch the Krelboynes once high school ended, but was he even given an opportunity to make friends with anyone else? How does one go about befriending people anyway? Is it a mutual process or one that leans more toward or away Malcolm? Is there anything that could have changed his friendless fate?
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Personally I think he did have friends - Reese was always the one without. Its just the way the show focused it - more about Malcolm and family than Malcolm and friends.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
In "Dewey's Special Class", Malcolm tells Dewey "I lost all my friends when I went into that class." But apart from Richard (from "Pilot"), did we ever know how many friends he actually had?
 

smithythedon

New member
After the opening when the krelboynes sing doopy during recess, Malcolm walks in having been playing basketball with his friends but i also think the show was made to have very few friends of the boys in it apart from Stevie and that the brothers were different to all the other boys. Malcolm - a genius, Reese - a bully, Dewey - a normal kid in the busey's class (I remember an episode when Dewey brought home a real live friend and paraded him to Lois!) and Francis- a weedy kid who gets beaten up at military school.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Dewey - a normal kid in the busey's class (I remember an episode when Dewey brought home a real live friend and paraded him to Lois!)

He brought friends home twice, but in the later episode (can't remember which one it is) Lois must have thought it was the first friend he's brought home hence taking a photo, but when in "Malcolm's Girlfriend" when Ronnie came over, Lois was too busy freaking out over Malcolm having a girlfriend to even notice him.
 

Dabney

Deutscher Moderator
He brought friends home twice, but in the later episode (can't remember which one it is) Lois must have thought it was the first friend he's brought home hence taking a photo, but when in "Malcolm's Girlfriend" when Ronnie came over, Lois was too busy freaking out over Malcolm having a girlfriend to even notice him.

Wasn't that the exact same episode?
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
No, there were two seperate episodes. Malcolm's Girlfriend which I was describing before, and I just looked on TV.com and the other episode is Hot Tub.
 

Alle

New member
As I've said before, Malcolm could have made a lot of friends....if he kept his ego in check and his disdain for people he perceives to know less than himself, suppressed. One aspect about friendship is that you have to accept people for who they are. If you shunned anyone because you thought they were ignorant, narcissistic, crude, or whatever, then you could find youself lonely. While he may have balked at being labled a genius in the first season, over time, he became somewhat proud of it, to the point that he would betray his feelings about some kind of injustice or about anything at all he believed to be stupid. His frequent outspoken rantings and bursts of unwarranted sarcasm ( and gripes about his family to some prospective girlfriends ) gave everyone else the impression that he was a miserable, discontented, whinging killjoy. He seems to be aware of this psychological handicap during his more lucid moments, but for the most part, he seems blithely unaware how much he can piss people off. If only he could take a breather, think for a moment, and pay strict attention to what he says and does, then he'll be ok.
 

APK

New member
In the first couple of seasons, Malcolm seems (in general) to be pretty friendly and, apart from his genius IQ, he's normal. I can't really comment on how he is in later seasons, because I haven't seen much of them, but he seems like a guy who could have a good group of friends.

But then again, in the first episode, Malcolm complains about people at school thinking he's weird, so maybe he was never too popular even then. I wonder why exactly they thought he was weird? Was it perhaps that they noticed he was doing much better work than them?
 
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