I have watched this movie many times and every time I wonder why Big Jake gets annoyed when James calls him Daddy! Isn't that supposed to be a good thing.
He wasvery disrespectful and sarcastic. That is why the Duke was rather "ticked off."
shareI believe it was the way his son said it. There's a lot of truth to the saying, "It's not what you say. It's how you say it."
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel120501.shtml
The way the younger Wayne said it was in a mocking/disrespectful/condescending tone. He was attempting to make his father angry by doing it. He was the son most bitter about Jacob McCandles not being around while they grew up.
share[deleted]
For some reason or another John Wayne is offended by the term "daddy". Whenever I call my father "daddy" he reacts in a similar response as John Wayne. Maybe they think the term "daddy" is sarcastic or something.
shareIts not the actual word daddy but the way it is spoken, ie very sarcastically.
shareIt is more difficult to be sarcastic with a one-syllable word.
~I can sing better than Taylor Hicks!
when He said Daddy it dripped with so much sarcasm it left a blood trail on the floor.
Oh GOOD!,my dog found the chainsaw
In 1909, "Daddy" may have been disrespectful. Times change.
shareThe reason it's offensive to Jake is, as others have said many, many, MANY times, because it's being said in a very sardonic, mocking way. He's also saying it WAY too many times within the conversation just to be obnoxious---readdressing somebody by name (or nickname, or whatever) many times within a conversation is just inherently annoying.
For instance, IMDB users, don't you find it rather irritating, IMDB users, that I keep referring to you IMDB users in this sentence as if you IMDB users could possibly need any additional reminding that I'm talking to you IMDB users? :)