Promoting Hope, Preventing Suicide

I don't know if you're a South Park fan or not (don't get the wrong idea with that reference, there's a point), because a large number of people tend to dismiss the show as trashy, filthy, and vulgar before a single episode is even viewed (OK, maybe the last descriptive is appropriate).

Personal views of the show aside, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a habit of making several very insightful points in each episode, or at least the later ones (The first several seasons are the ones that use the most 'dumb' humor and over-use of vulgarity, as the show progressed, they became more like Matt and Trey's own takes on current events than animation intended to entertain 'trailer-trash'). In a two-part episode, they addressed the issues of censorship and morality in humor, and this was made during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. I won't get into the plot of the episodes, but their point was this: Humor is a very ethical thing; either everything is ok to make fun of, or nothing is. You can't tiptoe around people's feelings when you're writing humor, and the writers of South Park explained this as well. Essentially, they said that if a controversial TV show is on the air, the best way to get it canceled is to have an episode pulled. For example, say that The Office had made a joke about Muhammad, and there was protesting over it in the same way there was over the cartoon. What happens now is a definitive snowball effect; now that people know it can be pulled for being offensive, they will pressure executives to exclude ANYTHING that could possibly be offensive. That means all politically correct humor, and we all know how much money that makes, how much ground it breaks, and how many people actually would WATCH it.

Not to say that a little tact now and again doesn't hurt, but don't forget that there IS a funny side to everything. The moment you refuse to laugh about something in any way, shape, form, or context, you fall into the same frame of mind as those same violent Muslim Extremest protesters.

In my own personal opinion of course, and I'm just a punk teenager anyway, what do I know?
^That wasn't meant to sound like I think you won't take me seriously or anything, just pointing out that I AM in fact just a 17 year old kid, certainly nobody with a psychological degree, and one who completely and totally acknowledges the fact that nothing I ever say can be 100% right, not even this phrase.

And excuse the over-explanation of that last bit of my comment, it's just that I very frequently get accused of being condescending, self-righteous, as well as being accused of harboring feelings of superiority over others, and that my posts are nothing short of self-indulgent nonsense. All of these are false of course, but I think it may be some part of my writing style that comes across that way accidentally, but I honestly don't see it. I really don't think I'm any more intelligent than most others, maybe a little more articulate or eloquent than others, but intelligent? Certainly not. But I digress, and in my attempt to explain my over-explanation, I have, in fact, over-explained.

I won't say I'm an especially smart child, for reasons already explained, but I will readily admit that I'm quite the strange one when it comes to thought processes.

I've come across this article researching different points of views of suicide survivors. I must say I was happy to see someone point out the difficulty in The Office episode. I had lost a friend to suicide (she hung herself) at the beginning of October 2009 and when I saw the episode of The Office all I could do was put her face on Michael Scott's body, everything was so fresh and I was so caught up in wondering how she hung herself and how it must have felt for my friend who discovered her. I was very distraught.

Regardless of the immediate reaction I had, I think the underlying issue here is how taboo suicide is in society even though it affects so many people, some studies say up to 250,000 Americans each year have been a survivor to suicide. It is difficult to discuss, and when someone talks openly about losing someone to suicide, it is very difficult for people to react or know how to handle the situation. Yet the question must be asked, is it our cultural sensitivity to suicide that recognizes it as a psychotic act that makes us feel that we can't admit to having our own thoughts of suicide, or to find the humor in it? I'm not saying that suicide is a very common thing, but it has definitely proved itself to be part of our history, suicide occurs all the time, so why can't we be so open minded to the various representations of suicide as we can to say racial stereotypes? Of course the approach must be sensitive to how some will react but the purpose of bringing about such stereotypes or other actions is to create the social awareness of the various social issues.