Sunday, December 01, 2013

You've Got the AIDS

I know I can be crass.  Yes, it's true. Completely true. Ask anyone who has known me for something longer than three days hours. And I get that some readers will chastise me over today's World AIDS Day post - but all my entries can't all tug on the heart like my 2010 post or smack of a little condemnation like 2011.

People live with this disease every single day - and if you couldn't smile or laugh now and again, even its face, then the disease wins. Sometimes, you have to inject a little humour into bad subjects - and no doubt I'll get some backlash over this, but.....

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying AIDS is funny, but sometimes you have to laugh during the most dire of circumstances. I'm not sure I could have made it through my cancer thing without making fun of it the entire time.

Was Monty Python the first to make fun the Spanish Inquisition? ....or was that "too soon"?  Hell, there were Challenger jokes hours after that "major malfunction'.

I've never claimed to be hyper-sensitive about most anything, but Family Guy has a way of touching on very taboo topics (I still think they're the only show to do 9/11 gags - oh yes, they've done multiple). And they are possibly the only show to make jokes about HIV or AIDS.

I think I like Family Guy more than I should because at they are potentially the most crass show on television. And in primetime, yet. The storylines are not always funny, but you watch it for the set-ups and the cultural reference flashbacks.

The first clip made me smile. The second clip was never shown on tv and is considered a 'deleted scene. .....and then there is the third clip.

The barbershop quintet...wellllll... the first time I saw it, I'm not sure you could have been able to pick my jaw up off the fucking floor. The second or third time, I'm sorry, I couldn't help but laugh. I think the fourth time I was singing the song.

Out of the last 10 years, I've written maybe seven or eight posts on World AIDS Day - like the two I referenced earlier. They are all contain some despair with a little hope built in there. I couldn't write the same post over again today.

It's not that we should forget the fight or those who have the disease or have perished from it. I don't think that is possible - even with a little tongue in cheek humour.

If this is the first time you've seen the third clip, eventually you'll pick your jaw up off of the floor as well.  And maybe you'll even smile......just a little.



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Song by: the Family Guy Barbershop Quintet

5 comments:

Erik Rubright said...

South Park has done a couple of AIDS episode as well. Both made me chuckle. Jared Has Aides, Tonsil Trouble.

Granted, not as snarky as Family Guy tends to be, but sometimes you just have to laugh.

Harpers Keeper said...

I remember going to the Minetta Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway in NYC in 1993 to see "Jeffrey" which was advertised as 'the first AIDS comedy". Even 20 yrs ago I think people realized that sometimes you just need to laugh.

Good post.

Ur-spo said...

Cancer, AIDS; all disease- if we don't laugh at it it is too much. Luther said "The Devil can not endure being mocked" .

cb said...

I will say the first time I saw the Barbershop Quintet, I thought "whoa…. this is really borderline even for me." But now I think its delightfully tasteless

Mark in DE said...

"Laughter is the best medicine."