Accounting

Some dads have to work deep in manure and others sewers; some have to come up with great new ways to sell sanitary napkins; others have to go in every day to be mentally abused by a mental [short person] boss; and then there are those who decide to become accountants.

And there is nothing wrong — per se — with being an accountant. Someone has to keep track of money and the fact is almost every dad has that job, too, as part of his family life. Still, it is a sad sight when the man who becomes an accountant has proven he can also bring the fun ... which is where we mention that Eddie Murphy has a new movie coming out in which he plays another father, a type A dad who eventually finds his life in his neglected daughter's imaginary world. In the words of Variety:

Arguably the most innocuous pic of Eddie Murphy's career to date,"Imagine That" is an undemandingly pleasant, mildly amusing fantasy in which nothing -- not even those elements that actually define it as a fantasy -- is ever allowed to get of hand.

It's not his first dud dad role on screen, nor in real life. [Earlier: Back in the Day] However, when there is the material waiting to be created like that for James Caan co-starring with son Scott in a based-on-an-autobiography new film and the shoestring-financed Unknown Soldier — the documentary of New Jersey's John Hulme trying to find the dad who never returned from Vietnam and so never held his son — it is hoped that Murphy would not simply be racking up the pay days as a way to balance the books in his head.

Imagine this: one day his numerous kids will look at him in coffin repose and say, "he was a genius, but then he became a dad and an accountant." It doesn't have to be, for Murphy or any father.