Weekend Update
I understand two women do Weekend Update now. Is that a big deal? SNL used to be ahead of the curve. Guess that is partially why I stopped watching 20 years ago. They quit being relevant and just started following the political/social bandwagon. Twenty years ago, Baba Wawa on the desk was funny because Gilda was funny. It didn't matter who was on the desk with her. She could make you laugh about shoe polish. She didn't need to make fun of a social situation or a person, though she did both very well. Suddenly, say over the past ten years or so, if you can call that sudden, everyone has to make a political statement with all of their humor. Great comedy is in the everyday, not in the news. I miss Chevy, Steve, Bill, and Eddie. I miss Gilda and Jane. I miss Larry, Curly, and Moe. I miss Stan and Ollie. I miss the Keystone Kops. I didn't intentionally climb down the ladder of sophistication in humor as I wrote that list - I believe Gilda and Jane actually rank above Bill and Eddie - but as I wrote Larry, Curly and Moe, it occurred to me, I just miss simple, visual humor. There is commentary there that the Colbert Report will never reach. There is poignancy that is real - not contrived. Honesty that is apparent and not hidden with a smirk. I believe the slide might have actually started on its way to the current state of comedy on SNL. Church Lady, though funny and on point for the most part, opened the door to "We all know who the butt of the joke really is here, Christians just are so clueless about real issues." I enjoy smart humor; I get enough of smart alecks on a daily basis at work.
I did NOT sit down to write about that!
All you out there, stop right now and do a breast exam! Women, if you are at work, sneak off to the restroom, guys - no one will notice, believe me. You men are always rubbing or touching or scratching some part of your body. Men do get breast cancer. You aren't on the radar because yours don't have special underwear. The special underwear people have to keep ours healthy so we will buy more special underwear. Which, for the most part, we buy because of you. Either to keep you from staring or to make you stare. Depending on which side of 30 the special underwear was purchased. That can either be 30 years or 30 bucks. Take your pick.
Found a lump in Chicago. By the time I got into see all the folks with degrees, three of them said, "Wow, that's big!" or "No missing that, is there?" or my favorite "Do you feel that?" Duh, lady. Why do you think I'm letting you put this sensitive part of my body in that freezer door? So, here we are a week later after three mammograms (in the same day, within an hour of eachother - don't ever complain to me again about once a year) and an ultrasound where I'm watching the screen with her as the Black Hole in Space is measured and probed with depth charges. 5.1 cm. No one calls you with results - oops, just realized I didn't return a nurse's call! Have to do that Monday. But I did get two letters in the mail on the third day. First one I open says, "Thank you for visiting our office. We hope we were able to serve your needs. Your mammogram results show an area of concern, please follow up immediately with your doctor or this office." Good thing I was sitting down. Second letter starts out, this is above the folded part of the paper, "Ultrasound Reading by Premier Radiology." Nothing else but the date and my ssn and birthdate. I'm thinking, surely if this was bad, they wouldn't have waited on a letter to get to me. Someone would have called. I think they should call either way, because when the note said, "No noted signs of cancer associated with this abnormality. Please schedule again in six months," I still almost wet my pants.
I did NOT sit down to write about that!
All you out there, stop right now and do a breast exam! Women, if you are at work, sneak off to the restroom, guys - no one will notice, believe me. You men are always rubbing or touching or scratching some part of your body. Men do get breast cancer. You aren't on the radar because yours don't have special underwear. The special underwear people have to keep ours healthy so we will buy more special underwear. Which, for the most part, we buy because of you. Either to keep you from staring or to make you stare. Depending on which side of 30 the special underwear was purchased. That can either be 30 years or 30 bucks. Take your pick.
Found a lump in Chicago. By the time I got into see all the folks with degrees, three of them said, "Wow, that's big!" or "No missing that, is there?" or my favorite "Do you feel that?" Duh, lady. Why do you think I'm letting you put this sensitive part of my body in that freezer door? So, here we are a week later after three mammograms (in the same day, within an hour of eachother - don't ever complain to me again about once a year) and an ultrasound where I'm watching the screen with her as the Black Hole in Space is measured and probed with depth charges. 5.1 cm. No one calls you with results - oops, just realized I didn't return a nurse's call! Have to do that Monday. But I did get two letters in the mail on the third day. First one I open says, "Thank you for visiting our office. We hope we were able to serve your needs. Your mammogram results show an area of concern, please follow up immediately with your doctor or this office." Good thing I was sitting down. Second letter starts out, this is above the folded part of the paper, "Ultrasound Reading by Premier Radiology." Nothing else but the date and my ssn and birthdate. I'm thinking, surely if this was bad, they wouldn't have waited on a letter to get to me. Someone would have called. I think they should call either way, because when the note said, "No noted signs of cancer associated with this abnormality. Please schedule again in six months," I still almost wet my pants.
posted by Rushton at
8:34 AM
4 Comments:
I am so sorry that I did not know you were having to go through this. I had to to a followup recently and it does make you nervous about everything anyone says or does during those "tests." Mine appears to be nothing but doesn't it make you wish that nothing was outside your body rather than inside?
By
BW, at 5:25 AM
In order of importance:
1) Please don't have cancer. Thanks.
2) SNL left/leaves funny behind when they tried/try to specifically make one target group laugh. "Church Lady" can make anybody laugh - well, anybody willing to watch SNL in the first place. Will Ferrell's George W. Bush (on SNL, at least) very rarely went into actual political commentary and managed to just make fun of the President's mannerisms and speech patterns largely. But sometimes SNL shoots for specific demographics, and in doing that, alienates everybody else, which is why nobody thinks SNL is funny across the board anymore. Nobody enjoys the full episode. Everybody enjoys certain skits from time to time, because occasionally your demographic is hit.
Nobody ranks above Steve Martin and Bill Murray. I just wish Steve Martin would make good movies again. I wouldn't mind seeing Bill Murray make a return to the sarcasm that I loved him so much for in Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Rushmore, but what recent dramas of his that I have seen I have enjoyed. "Where the Buffalo Roam" is not so good, though...
I love Laurel and Hardy and want more of their stuff on DVD. The same goes for the Stooges.
I do think the Colbert Report is pretty funny sometimes, even if I disagree with a whole lot of it.
But this is part of why I think Brian Regan and Jim Gaffigan are so funny: they appeal to everyone. I don't like comics like Ant whose entire gag is "Look at how gay I am" or very many of the comics who seem to think that exaggerated and retreaded highlights of the differences between men and women or blacks and whites or southerners and northerners or whatever and whoever is still funny.
But me, I'm funny.
(Word verification: kaqzxrw - WORST. SCRABBLE. EVER.)
By
Aaron, at 1:41 PM
So did you go to the doctor after the mamogram? And what did he say? Or was the last note all you got and that was enough? I'm sorry you had to go through that! I've been called back a couple of times but it's always been nothing and they told me before I left-thank heavens and I didn't have to wonder!
And about SNL, I never stay up late enough to watch it!
By
Tammie's Thoughts, at 4:16 PM
YIKES! That is so scary. I just checked mine...no lump worries here because I am really as flat as a pancake...Really. Thanks for that, Parker Green. Anyway, I know, too much information. I'm glad that you got the good note...Pheeww...much better.
By
Jenn, at 1:41 PM
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