Laughing at Cancer

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.