Refried Screens

A number of professions have commitments which require sacrificing things that other people enjoy. 

Animal rights activists disavow fur. Politicians forego privacy. Priests give up sex…with adult women.

No one talks about the plight of the comedian.

Take Ellen Degeneres.  She’s funny and always begins her show with a dance party.  When she started yesterday’s episode looking depressed and while talking about her doggie problems, people weren’t sure what to make of it:

Some folks thought it was the set up for a joke:

Call me insensitive, but am I the only person in America who wasn’t moved by Ellen DeGeneres’s on-air breakdown over her hairdresser’s dog?…As the surreal situation unfolded, I kept waiting for the punchline — but it soon became clear that there wasn’t one.

That is the true price for being a clown.  Ask Michael Richards when he was on Letterman.

And there’s nothing comedians can do about it.

As soon as a Comedian Serious Broadcast System (AKA ‘CSBS’) is implemented to let the audience know the comedian is not joking, the CSBS will probably cause more laughs than the deadpan delivery of bad news.

And even if the CSBS works, it would only be a matter of time before other comedians eviscerate whatever serious value it once had…like Britney Spears. 

As a result, no one will ever take a comedian seriously again.

Tears of a clown indeed…