Letters to the Editor
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I like to watch
I don't like to watch. This is the first time that i have chosen to read this section. I won't bother again. it is tripe. simple and I guess that this make some sense since T.V. as we know it today is just a tool of one think. to bad that salon feels that it has to offer this nonsense.
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Frank
Frank actually said, "there's nothing funnier than smelly bums." And he seemed to be serious too, but in fairness to the execs watching the finished product, the guy in the hospital bed that was supposed to smell bad, didn't actually look like a bum (dirty, unshaven, etc.). So maybe they just thought it was somebody that broke wind, or something.
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I like to read
I wouldn't admit this if anonymous hadn't decided to needlessly slam the author (did your mother never tell you that if you can't say something nice, you shouldn't say anything at all?), but here goes. I don't even own a television, and I read everything Heather Havrilesky writes for salon.com. If it's got her byline, I'm gonna click. (I'm also a Stephanie Zacharek fan.) Television exists, everybody but me watches it, and I read to get a smart person's take on the shows du jour. This way when I nod and smile during inevitable conversations about Grey's Anatomy, I've at least heard the characters' names before. Also, anonymous seems to have entirely missed the fact that Heather does lovely little non-TV related intros that would crack up anyone with a sense of humor. Side note to Heather--just wait till you hit the toddler years! My two and a half year old son designed and oversaw our kitchen renovation, paying for it with his earnings from his paper route. He's always ready with a smile and a kind word--now I know what all those moms meant when they said he would be the light of my life.
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Another HH Fan
Heather,
I also look forward to everything you write, whether it is about shows I watch (Gray's Anatomy, 24, Lost) or shows I don't (Apprentice). I love your take on things, your asides, your sense of humor.
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Andy Barker Got Cancelled? WHAT THE F***?
And the networks wonder why they can't compete with cable, the Internet, video games, and staring at a blank wall. ABPI was a great show I was only just getting into. It was funny, which these days I guess means it must be cancelled as soon as possible. I would like to know how much crack the suits at NBC are smoking. And can I have some?
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Love me some Havsies!
I too cannot resist reading The Hav's amusing articles about shows that I don't watch. I am a fan of the writing, and, if I've seen the show, I generally agree wholeheartedly with Heather's assessment. As a matter of fact, she's turned me on to just about every one of the very few show's that I currently watch. Thanks Heather!
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My Favorite Martian
I can't take any T.V. critic seriously if she watches THE APPRENTICE but not VERONICA MARS, which unfortunately is returning with it's last episodes starting May 1st. VERONICA MARS is the best show not airing on HBO or SHOWTIME. It's got great writing and features the coolest female character in the history of television. It's also the most delicious eye candy I've ever tasted. The visual components alone make it must see T.V.; cinematography, set design, costumes, not to mention the drop dead gorgeous star, Kristen Bell.
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Avenging Mrs. Peel's Honour
In a previous post I referred to Veronica Mars as the coolest character in the history of television. I forgot about Emma Peel, who is in fact the coolest character in the history of television. Veronica Mars gets the Silver Medal, and Kristen Bell still holds the title as the World's Sexiest Vegan.
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I don't have a TV
But it has nothing to do with with pretentiousness. When I lived in France, I didn't have a TV, and it would have been pointless anyway, since i couldn't afford cable, or really even get it where I lived. When I moved back to the US, i certainly had better things to spend my money on then a TV.
I have wished for one when the World Cup and the Olympics were on, but with the convergence of TV and internet finally arriving, i don't need one anymore. Live streaming of C-Span for presidential speeches, live streaming of ESPN for the world cup, iTunes selling episodes of TV shows, and others now viewable in full on the networks' websites (ABC has everything online, for example), there is no need for an actual TV set anymore.
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Did she just actually literally joke about rape?
Apparently life is nice and simple in the slammer. They say you don't need salad spinners or Post-it notes or closet organizers or paper shredders at all, ever, and when you drop the soap in the shower (which is provided for you, gratis!), there's always a friendly young man there, ready to give you a helping hand.
There's something I've always been curious about -- why is rape not funny in the least bit when it happens to women outside of prison but absolutely adorably and forgivably hilarious when it happens to a man in prison?
I mean really -- why is it appropriate for someone like Heather to get cute here?
I understand it's her style to be sarcastic and ironic, but would this kind of attitude towards rape really fly if she were trying to joke around this way about women?
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To answer your question about rape:
No, it's never funny, in any case, no matter the gender or prison/civilian status.
It doesn't fly with me (I'm female, in case you're wondering). It's just plain insensitive and ignorant, to say the least.
It's one (major) flaw in Heather's otherwise solid and (usually) funny writing.
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There's always some humorless people around...
In the first place, we usually are more willing to laugh at the people with power in our society, and usually men have the power. So the reversal of the position involved in prison rape is a source of jokes, while the teenaged girl jumped by her seemingly trustworthy date and/or boyfriend is not.
Secondly, a person in jail is, of course, a criminal (theoretically) and seeing someone who tried to get ahead by inflicting misery on his fellow humans now have to accept certain, um, attentions, can make the joke funny too.
It's not, like, the funniest joke, either. And as I'm gay, I don't consider anal sex the ultimate shame. Prison rape jokes basically leave me indifferent. But I get why people can make them, when they would't make them about a brutal assault on a woman.