why in modern cartoons and shows they make the father figure so stupid
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It’s a trope. The same as when a movie has a stunningly gorgeous woman trip and fall all the time to show that she’s “klutzy” and explain why men aren’t begging for her time.
It’s a common stereotype: the strong but funny and goofy dad, the serious and not so funny mother. Then the annoying siblings (if the protagonist is a kid), mostly three kids (if the show is about the whole family) (Simpsons, Family Guy, Cleveland, Bobs Burgers and so on). One good-hearted, one a rebell, one an ‘idiot’.
This sells good and so it is used more than ‘innovative’ family dynamics.
Hope you get my point.
In the black & white & early color eras of TV, sitcom dads were portrayed as wise, competent characters. Later on the in 80’s & 90’s, comedies started to subvert this trope for shock value and comedic effect by having the father act against this type and be stupid and/or incompetent. This proved popular enough (and probably easy to write) that it became its own trope and wife/mother became the wise character and the moral center of the family.
Comedy plays against expectations in order to work. To be funny, something must be other than what’s expected. So when you have an expectation that the patriarch is going to be competent, reserved, intelligent, etc, then to make a show funny he’s got to be none of those things.
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