What's Up With That?

by Tom Kuzeja - May 3, 1999

What's Up With That?

A Very Special "What's Up With That?"

You know, many people come to me and they say, "Hey, Tom, what do you do with your free time when you're not writing immature, sarcastic, passive-aggressive commentary in your "What's Up With That?" column?" Very good question. Someday I'll answer it, but today I want to talk about something that really bothers me.

Have you ever been in this situation? You're settled down in your favorite cushy chair with the T.V. remote control in your right hand, a bag or bowl of your favorite man-made snack-like substances in your left hand and you've just tuned in your favorite Comedy series when all of a sudden, the announcer utters these infamous words: "Next on a very special <insert name of favorite COMEDY show here>". On a very special are words to dread in the comedy world.

Here I am sitting down ready to watch some light hearted comedy in the hopes of adding some laughs to a long and very much laughless day and instead I find that tonight's episode of silliness is going to be replaced by a somber show with some sort of serious message. What's up with that? All the sitcom characters are the same, the sets are the same, but alas, today they will all have their serious faces on. Oh sure, they try to throw you a comedy bone every now and then, but when they're focusing on cancer or death or infidelity or something like that, it hardly seems to work.

Mad About You, Home Improvement, Roseanne... these are shows where I've encountered "the serious episode". There have been more that I don't recall off the top of my head. I'm guessing that either the writers or the performers felt obligated to show us, the viewing audience, that they had greater acting range than was exploited on T.V. every week. Who cares? I want to laugh so hard that whatever I'm drinking shoots out of my nostrils.

The proven comedies never resorted to the serious episode wimp-out. I don't recall catching a very special Seinfeld. Ren never turned to Stimpy and talked about homeless people. I have serious doubts that Homer and Marge Simpson will ever somberly discuss the moral decay of the family unit due to violent movies.

On second thought, I think I have seen an episode of The Simpsons based on movie violence and if I recall correctly, it was a riot. It's not everyday that ice cream comes shooting out my nostrils.

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