Kevin turned on the television while we were watching dinner this evening and was watching the last part of Jeopardy and then Wheel of Fortune. For some reason it's still fun to sit there and try to solve the puzzles on these timeless shows. But after they were over a sitcom came on and Kevin asked if I minded if he turned the TV off - he can't stand sitcoms. I asked him why and received an earful about how they're just not funny because all the humor is based on cut-downs and he finds them to be terribly offensive. It's an idea that I can't really wrap my brain around but Kevin does have a valid point. A lot of the humor in sitcoms are based on cutting other people down but everything that happens in the shows are such exaggerated situations that it seems almost unreal. Maybe there's just enough of a grain of truth in these shows that we can relate to them and find the humor in terrible situations, but how does that justify the crude manner in which the characters tend to treat each other in these shows that we so often laugh hysterically at?

It is my theory that in finding humor in a biting or witty remark made toward someone on TV we find an outlet for all the mean things that we would probably, at some point, like to say to a person we really know. We can relate to the characters on the show because people really can be annoying or do stupid things but in the name of courtesy we are more likely to hold our tongues for the sake of not hurting someone's feelings. Awkward social situations and ironic mishaps happening on the boob tube all have the ring of truth to them - we encounter them in our daily lives enough to feel for the the poor soul on that TV show - but seeing it happening to someone other than ourselves brings the humor of the situation to the fore and we are forced to laugh not only at the character's predicament but also at ourselves. After all, we are all human together and all great comics know the universal secret to getting a good laugh is by telling the truth. The million dollar question is, does it make us less kind to find the scathing remarks in sitcoms to be funny? Personally I don't think so. What we find to be funny does not define our character - they way that we act and treat others when we encounter them does.