The following is my opinion and although it is about humor,
it is not funny.
A petition is circulating asking NBC and CBS to stop
allowing the use of material that jokes about hepatitis C. The petition is
moving, reasonable, and timely. I was going to sign it, in solidarity to those
many people I care about who have died, or will die from this disease. I
decided not to for the following reasons:
- Although distasteful and insensitive, bad publicity is better than no publicity. Millions of people have hepatitis C and do not know it. Although a proper awareness campaign is needed, a few tasteless jokes might do more good than harm.
- I believe that when we can laugh at our pain, healing begins. The problem here is that the writers for CBS and NBC are doing the laughing, but it is a start. Besides, I love a good hep C joke.
- I am not a fan of censorship. I don’t want to sign a petition that tells people what they can and cannot say. Please don’t send a petition around asking me to stop my silly blog. We have off buttons so we can control what comes into our lives.
If you want to view or sign the petition, visit this link.
Posts
The beloved comedian Gilda Radner explored new territory in the 1980's when she joked about Cancer. She wasn't well received at first, but in the end we learned that laughter does have a therapeutic value. I guess disease-centered humor isn't funny when its coming from people who haven't experienced the disease. Although,censorship is never the answer.
ReplyDeleteKeep the humor coming Lucinda!
Tina
I am HCV directly concerned. For me humour is the best way to escape of this bad dream and its weird treatment. If I censor other people for joking about it, then I forbid myself to laugh about my disease and about other topics as well.
ReplyDeleteThis I dont want.