There's a movement under way among dads in America that's changing what you see on TV.

Across the country, more and more are fed up -- and rising up against the stereotype of the inept, clueless father.

"We're not the Peter Griffin or the Homer Simpson that we're often portrayed as," said Kevin Metzger, who runs the Dadvocate blog.

It's often the chief gripe among the dads I interview about modern fatherhood.

David Holland, father of three, rails against "doofus dads" in ads. In his blog Blather. Wince. Repeat., he calls them "Madison Avenue's go-to guy."

During every commercial break, he says, he and his wife "try to see who can be the first one to spot the idiot husband or father."

In a sign of their growing power, dads out to end the stereotype recently scored a knockout blow against a pair of TV ads.

A Huggies ad earlier this year said the company put its diapers "to the toughest test imaginable: dads, alone with their babies, in one house, for five days."

What exactly made time with dad "the toughest test imaginable?" The ad showed dads making some unpleasant faces and ended with a woman saying, "good luck, babe."

Another Huggies ad featured a group of dads not changing their babies' diapers while watching an entire game through "double overtime."

Angry dads and moms responded with complaints, saying fathers aren't incompetent parents who leave their kids in dirty diapers.

Chris Routly took it a step further, creating a petition on change.org.

"This wasn't just that they had created a bumbling dad character or that sort of thing or just excluding dad," like so many other TV portrayals, he said. "They were using language that was really saying dads are terrible at this stuff."

Huggies took action.

On Facebook, the company praised dads and said its intention was to "break out of stereotypes." And Huggies officials called Routly, giving him a list of steps they were taking to show fathers in a better light.

Soon, Huggies issued new ads featuring dads caring for their toddlers. Last month, the NYC Dads Group heaped praise on them for "raising the bar" in how a father was portrayed.

Huggies isn't the first to run into frustration from consumers rejecting what they view as an outdated, inaccurate trope. AT&T angered some with an ad about a father who somehow couldn't wrap his mind around the concept of wireless Internet.

The image of the hapless dad has long roots in American pop culture. A study of comics as far back as the 1940s found "incompetent" fathers and other mocking portrayals resurging at times across the decades.

But TV didn't start skewering dads frequently until much later, says Bob Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

While dads in "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Donna Reed Show" had flaws, they were close to what was then thought of as "perfect," part of an idealized white American family. Later, shows such as "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties," "Growing Pains" and "Full House" showcased caring dads of a new generation, Thompson says.

But by the late 1980s, more shows wanted to distance themselves "from the corny, syrupy stuff" -- and in stepped shows such as "Married With Children" and "The Simpsons."

It's only natural that comedies would take on dads, Thompson says.

"Comedy is about inversion -- taking people who are in authority and control and making them the butt of jokes." So in a society "that has been so dominated by men... comedy is naturally going to play against that."

Dads on TV today are presented in so many different ways that it's impossible to say things are getting better or worse, he says.

From the stay-at-home dad in "Up All Night" to the lovable dads in "Modern Family," relatively positive portrayals abound. Thompson says the growing push for "recognizable" dads who reflect today's realities are probably to credit for these characters.