Yesterday's New York Times featured an article called "Laughing at the Big C," which discussed the recent trend of comedians and others making jokes about cancer. Of course, this isn't really a recent trend (and in fact, the article gives a nice history of comedians who have dared to bring up the subject of cancer in their acts, from Julia Sweeney, who performed a one-woman Broadway show about her experiences with cancer, to "Robert Schimmel, who used to tell an unprintable joke involving the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Dolly Parton."
So while there is a history of making light about cancer (or, to maybe put it more accurately, a history of confronting cancer and refusing to be intimidated), the recent film 50/50 has brought the subject of humor and cancer to Hollywood. It's a movie, based on a true story, about two friends in their 20's who have to deal when one of them gets a cancer diagnosis. I haven't seen it (yet), but it looks very funny, and the humor is mixed with fear and anxiety and sadness -- all of the things that come with cancer.
Of course, I see this "trend" as being a very good one. As I've been saying since the beginning of this blog, almost 4 years ago, humor is too important a weapon to put it back in its sheath just because the opponent is cancer. And if a movie gets popular enough that more people can see that -- can see that a cancer joke doesn't mean you laugh and then quickly stop and look around, embarrassed -- then I think we're making progress.
Monday, October 10, 2011
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