What the population of the world needs is something to take their minds off of the mundane chore of life itself.
A distraction is undeniably necessary from the repetitive daily drive on the same boulevard in the less-than-desirable car that is barely paid for; something to help forget the taste of homemade coffee in a grotesque plastic mug, or the smell of the checkbook when writing away money. Perhaps even the way stiff jeans feel at 8 a.m. when they're pulled on after having been on the cold floor of the dorm room. Perhaps even something as prominent and arguable as the war in Iraq, the intensifying environmental issues and even the cost of living.
Simply put, the world needs really good comedy.
What most collegians and working class people look forward to are great films or just something entertaining to let their brains go into neutral as they disconnect from life, which is entirely what television is for.
There are some programs that air on "Adult Swim" that are exceptionally well-written and leave me scratching my head at times, wondering how people could come up with such gems.
"Adult Swim" usually airs on Cartoon Network at 11 p.m. and hosts some of the most ridiculous comedy penned today, surging through cable jacks and plunging directly into the tube. Comedies such as Family Guy, American Dad, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Futurama are some of the best-written, well-animated and well-crafted dialogues that I can think of in comedy today.
In fact, looking into the past, comedy has improved vastly over the years in quality and dialogue. Compare Family Guy to something like I Love Lucy - one of the most undeniably successful comedies of the middle of the 20th century. I Love Lucy, piloted 1951, was one of 19 comedy shows released between 1951 and 1952, and it was the only one of the 19 that ran more than two years. Only seven of the 19 made it one year alone.
Comedy wasn't very important to society then, and it certainly wasn't as entertaining as comedy today, perhaps because there was less for the nuclear families of yesteryear to worry about. I am definitely not claiming that it wasn't good comedy; it's just that I think it doesn't hold a candle to today's witty, edgy programs.
Comedy is getting this good for a reason: society wants to disconnect from the cold, harsh, unforgiving world that is ever-strangling. But how is comedy getting so good, and where do these prolific writers emerge from to create such entertaining comedy? Now, bear with me because this may be a little bit too much food for thought - the government. What if?
Considering that the environment has been constantly threatening the globe with the impending doom of global warming and the unavoidable end of civilization while politicians argue (you know, nothing major), comedy could be the perfect public distraction. In addition, the ever-existent war in Iraq, when will it end, well, when is "Adult Swim" on?
Family Guy, of course the most popular comedy accessible, went off the air in August 2000 after season two had wrapped up. It came back on the air in July 2001, two months before the disastrous 9/11 tragedy. Every red-blooded, beef-eating, beer-drinking American will remember that day for the rest of their lives, but at the same time they could use something to take their minds off it.
Fox absolutely did not want to bring Family Guy back on the air due to its racy humor, although the general public loved it and more or less demanded it. So then the government told the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) to back off and give the public what they want.
The correlation is maybe a little ridiculous, but hasn't the government done some less-than-impressive, scandalous things in the past? What do we, the general public, know? Probably not much.
The possibility of the government funding certain comedy series to relieve society of real life certainly has potential. The quality of these television series is paralleled to none that had come before, and it is utterly undeniable that the general public loves its television and is very passionate about its comedy.
The chances of government-funded comedy are actually far better than the government being behind the John F. Kennedy assassination, only because I find it incredibly improbable that the US government would off its own proud leader. But then again, I'm just a naive college student.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
