Don't Love Lucy
The reality of I Love Lucy hadn’t really sunk in for me till just the other day.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYd0mmmQEd0]
Born of the same television era that happily allowed the concept of “The Lovable Drunk”, Lucy is obviously a caricature of a woman who suffers from untreated anxiety and depression. Our lack of medical and social understanding led to ill people being considered fair comedic game, as were the aforementioned drunks – or, really, black people and the mentally & physically handicapped – and all of the signs are there: the lack of self-confidence, the manic focus, the extreme swings in emotion.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLLw7JcU74]
It wouldn’t be tough to “Garfield minus Garfield” every Lucy clip, but the truth is undeniable: laughing at Lucy is equivalent to laughing at mental retardation.
Leave a Reply