If Ebola House Is Funny, Why Not Breast Cancer House? C'mon! Lighten up!

bvckvs2

There's a classic scene from Dick van Dyke that explains humor quite well.

His character visits his son's class on career day to explain what he does for a living. He talks about how humor is rooted in pain... and then proceeds to kick his own ass. He "accidentally" slams his fingers in a drawer, stabs himself with scissors, trips over a trash can, etc. - all the while, the children are cracking up.

Jerry Lewis has a similar bit from an earlier era.

What both fail to mention is that it's only funny to people with a healthy outlook on life. If you're someone who sees himself and others as victims, and are looking for reasons to justify that feeling, things like that won't be funny at all.

In psychology, we learn that a smile and a grimace are fundamentally the same expression, representing fundamentally different emotions. That makes it very difficult for neurotics to differentiate between the two.

Ashlee34

I am one of those people who think in general we've become overly sensitive with a lot of things. And I love to laugh... But, this is tacky, classless and majorly insensitive.

MickeyFree

LOL at how President Obama is always brought into these discussions. Y'all are a trip.

rufuslevin

A BUNCH OF IRON LUNGS outside for Polio Halloween would be cool for the Baby Boomers who remember the 1950 polio epidemic too.

ladypegasus

I thought the idea was to scare people. What is more scary than ebola? I don't see the humor at all, but I certainly see the scary. And the guy was trying to find a way to use his notoriety to make money for doctors without borders (who turned him down). When we are afraid we laugh. I guess that is where the funny comes in. But why not draw attention to that of which we are all afraid by making a haunted house out of it? Perhaps when we are scared enough we will try to do something to stop the scary thing. Bad taste? Probably. But certainly a scary subject--which I think was the point. And, yes, despite the fact that my mother died of breast cancer and I may too, I would support a "Breast Cancer House" because I think more people need to be scared out of their minds by that so that they might do more to support a cure. If they knew what breast cancer smells like and looks like it IS pretty scary. Perhaps a haunted house with that theme is exactly what we need.

auntiecairo

Or how about 9/11 house -- that would be hilarious too. I've commented before that if Mr. Duncan had been from University Park - you'd see ribbons on trees; prayer vigils; t-shirts in support. if you go on the Mr. Faulk's Facebook it all makes sense -- just another middle aged white guy angry there's a black man in the White House so using alleged humor to act out. There's a way to do satire effectively - the Daily Show did a hilarious take on the overreaction to the ebola outbreak -- but that's very different than joking about it a few miles from where one person died and 2 others were sick with it.

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

It occurred to me that over the years, many of the haunted houses that I've been thru have had a "creepy mental institution" theme of one sort or another.

LOL. Mental illness in hi-larious!

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

Speaking of Ebola...again and still...I saw a news story this morning that said this quarantined nurse misled the public, and worked for the CDC, and her attorney was associated with Al Sharpton and the White House.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/10/quarantined-nurse-kaci-hickox-misled-public-works-cdc-attorney-tied-white-house-al-sharpton/

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

Just when you thought "Bad Taste" had hit the floor, some moron comes along and lowers the floor even more.

If there is something funny about Ebola, then Bubonic Plague must have been knee-slapping hysterical.

This is different than the unfunny school-yard joke about the Helen Keller wind-up doll that walks into walls. People are dying from Ebola, and it could threaten to turn into a pandemic and kill hundreds or thousands - especially children and pregnant women.

Somebody needs to give this clown a funny-bone transplant or a new brain.

fred.garvin.mp.713

It's easy to make fun of things that seem detached, unrelated. So in the spirit of things, given that Ebola happened just on the other side of 75, how about something that's even more unlikely than contracting Ebola in Park Cities--that's right, woudn't it be funny if a Park Cities resident went full-on black face?

I know, I know, black face is so...last century Park Cities. But seriously, you'll see a Yeti riding a fucking unicorn before you see a black family in Park Cities. Yes, I realize that black face is un-PC (as in "politically correct," not un-Park Cities, wink wink).

Of course, since it is Park Cities they would have to be respectable black. So Cosby sweaters all around.

longhorn20

I agree with your logic although I think you underplayed the point. Cancer has been around for ages and while we are fearful of it, we also accept it as a part of life... even for rich people. Ebola is something new but distant, affecting a small minority (to the park cities and "lighten up" crowd). The argument behind the lighten up is that it is ok to have murder scenes and death associated with Halloween, so what is the issue with Ebola and Ebola hysteria??? While I agree the hysteria is absurd, I don't feel that downplaying the true epidemic is sensitive or at all tasteful. But as you said, if lake of taste is ok... I was thinking that a more fitting "bad taste" hilarious house concept would be a school shooting house. Its a new issue but yet still distant... it's just murder and death like everything else... like Ebola...right? A lawn scattered with empty school desks, police tape and a single shooter searching for victims...

The Ebola house (and the school shooting house for that matter) aren't sci-fi, horror, all in good fun concepts... the issues behind them are real problems that require appropriate, non-dismissive and beneficial attention

rufuslevin

@ladypegasus It is tough to get all scary about Ebola itself...compared with gettiing REALLY scary about healthcare services in total under the Obamacare Insurance idiocy.....maybe just an Obama masked surgeon dummy out front with a hatchet in its hand.

Catbird

@auntiecairo This is going to get real funny after the election: http://www.infowars.com/exclusive-u-s-government-orders-250000-hazmat-suits-to-be-sent-to-dallas/

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk

Crazy people don't know they're crazy, so they don't find such displays offensive.

auntiecairo

@noblefurrtexas What is misleading about that? The point is the woman isn't sick; she has been tested; people need to get informed and quit overreacting so that a sensible plan can be made going forward. The crisis isn't here -- it's in West Africa. 50K people died from the flu in our country last year - in large part because many people refuse or decline to get a flu shot. But somehow that's not a crisis - there are no mandates to force people get flu shots.

mavdog topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

Hickox was working for Doctors Without Borders in Africa.

"MSF Nurse Held in Isolation in New Jersey"

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-nurse-held-isolation-new-jersey

Hickox finished the EIS program, it is a 2 year term, prior to working with DBW.

as far as her atty, so what? and very revealing the insertion of Sharpton BTW, not trying to distract from the subject are you?

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

This gets better. This nurse, now in Maine, has refused to follow the voluntary quarantine agreement, and will do whatever she wants to.

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2014/10/29/lawyer-maine-nurse-who-treated-ebola-patients-in-west-africa-wont-observe-states-quarantine

It also appears she has panicked her neighbors and others.

http://www.centralmaine.com/2014/10/28/nurse-released-from-quarantine-wont-immediately-return-to-ft-kent-home/

ShoddyFreude

@noblefurrtexas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kllZsaNGtVg

dingo

@fred.garvin.mp.713

'But seriously, you'll see a Yeti riding a fucking unicorn before you see a black family in Park Cities.'

http://www.parkcitiespeople.com/2011/07/14/2003-watson-has-stayed-for-a-while/

http://www.city-data.com/city/University-Park-Texas.html

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@TheRuddSki

I'm certain that there's a White Knight with a pen, somewhere, ready to take up the cause and be offended for them by proxy.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@mavdog @noblefurrtexas It doesn't matter who she was there with....if she was there at all. Any association with the CDC, and the confirmed association with Al Sharpton AND The White House, makes this look like a setup to excuse Obama's absurd stance on quarantines.

One of the problems with the Obama Administration is that we never know when they're telling the truth. And, this woman acts like another Sandra Fluke.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

It's not a virus, it's a civil-rights issue. This woman's reproductive rights are threatened by a vast right-wing overreaction to a junior-varsity infection.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@dingo @fred.garvin.mp.713 There's either a black family in UP at the corner of Lovers Lane and Douglas, or there's an ongoing home invasion in very slow motion.

If I'm not mistaken, most of those houses are rentals, but still very nice.

A friend of mine who lives in that neighborhood says there is also a black doctor and his family living somewhere in UP.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk

The occupy movement was a great show of solidarity to the mentally ill, but they didn't and still don't know it.

Oddly enough.

mavdog topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

I'll paraphrase your post:

The facts and reality do not matter, don't bother me with these as all they do is get in the way of my conspiracy fabrications!

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

The reason all her CDC and dem party affiliations disappeared from the web was a massive, simultaneous and coincidental crashing of thousands of hard drives across the globe - the same drives the faulty, deadly CDC ebola instruction poster PDF and select IRS files resided on.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@TheRuddSki You wouldn't believe how many people on the net have compared this setup to the Fluke setup.

These people can't do anything honestly.

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@TheRuddSki

Not to mention the Tea Partiers.

All blissfully oblivious.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@mavdog Actually, the conspiracy charge wasn't mine; it came from a friend in the media who is a former Democrat who doesn't trust Obama at all.

If this woman worked for the CDC in its Intelligence Division, and if her lawyer is who she says it is. that's a huge pile of interesting coincidences....is it not?

auntiecairo

@TheRuddSki Wow - watch Fox News much? Guess they have conveniently forgotten the millions of e-mails the Bush administration "lost" during the Valerie Blame investigation -- you know - where Cheney et al. outed a CIA agent for political reasons? Being the great patriots they are. And does any of this have to do with this jerk and his Halloween house.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@TheRuddSki I love it. LOL

I thought about using the dead computer drive with the IRS. But, my lawyer assured me I wouldn't have a computer in prison.

mavdog topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

hmm, how did they get Gov. Chrisite and Belleview Hospital to participate in "this setup"?

and Doctors Without Borders!

they must be in cahoots with the Obama White House, too! [/sarcasm]

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

Honestly?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/10/15/the-absurd-claim-that-only-republicans-are-to-blame-for-cuts-to-ebola-research/

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk

As the Official Tea Party spokesperson, I feel compelled to remind that the party, as it were, fields candidates and wins elections. Occupy, not so much.

Although, the creator and leader of the movement, Squaw Warren, may be the next dem presidential candidate.

mavdog topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

Actually, the conspiracy charge wasn't mine;

I see, you put forth the "conspiracy charge" several times, make comments on its validity, but "the conspiracy charge wasn't mine".

uh huh.

If this woman worked for the CDC in its Intelligence Division, and if her lawyer is who she says it is. that's a huge pile of interesting coincidences....is it not?

no, it's not.

she works in the medical field, enrolled in the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (that is not an "Intelligence Division" BTW) to receive more training, and used that training to assist Doctors Without Borders with their program in Africa.

She is a person who should be honored for her service, not derided by those who want to see a conspiracy behind every door.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@auntiecairo

Wow - watch Fox News much?

No, I don't have cable.

Guess they have conveniently forgotten the millions of e-mails the Bush administration "lost" during the Valerie Blame investigation -- you know - where Cheney et al. outed a CIA agent for political reasons?

The non-undercover employee was "outed" by Dick Amitrage, not Dick Cheney. The only prosecution was for making conflicting statements, not for the "outing".

I assume you realize the Wilson's lawsuits predicated on your stated belief were thrown out of court because there was no basis. It was all bullshit, as it turns out (you must have slept in that day)

I understand your point though. If someone somewhere lied or committed a crime, then it's ok if others do so.

Considering the rather long list of lies, half-truths and pure bullshit coming from the White House, the next pres can do pretty much whatever he wants. Isn't that cool?

And does any of this have to do with this jerk and his Halloween house.

No. But you decided to jump in anyway with some mythical malfeasance. You can blame your contradictory stance on Bush though, if you like.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@mavdog I know there's a point there, somewhere. But, I just can't find it.

Gov. Christie and Obama were at odds on this one. Obama wanted no quarantines; Christie mandated quarantines.

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@TheRuddSki

Are you trying to argue the point that fielding candidates and winning elections indicates some sort of collective mental stability?

Seriously?

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@mavdog Great. What is she doing with a lawyer who is buds with Al Sharpton and has worked with him, and who also has been a visitor to the White House?

But, you seem to be saying you have in good authority that she has never worked for the CDC; Yes?

I find it most interesting that this also coincides with the President's objection to Gov. Christie's mandatory quarantine.

So, if she doesn't work for the CDC. Who does she work for, and is it full-time employment? It's not Doctors Without Borders.

mavdog topcommenter

@noblefurrtexas

I know there's a point there, somewhere. But, I just can't find it

ok, maybe you'll figure it out later.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk

It is the basis for our democratic system, so it shows more sanity in regards to results than, say, shitting on a cop car or screaming profanities at passerby like crazed loons.

With apologies to that magnificent bird.

auntiecairo

@noblefurrtexas @mavdog Again -- because you only watch Fox News you don't realize that all of these workers are volunteering their time in most instances to go over and help with the real outbreak in West Africa. Like Dr. Brantley in Ft. Worth. And the CDC does a pretty good job of keeping our country free from outbreaks like we see in other parts of the world. There are thousands of viruses; they have to come for protocols for those; in addition they have to make sure some sort of protocol is applied in thousands of hospitals in our country. Of course if we had universal healthercare there would be a more concise way of dealing with situations like we just saw. But that would make sense - and wouldn't make as much money for those who profit from illness in our country. . .

Dr. Brantley was a great example of a true Christian sacrificing to help others. You and other conservatives are great examples of all the hypocrisy on the "right" when it comes to our country being a Christian nation. I've never seen more people with less faith and more cowardly in my life. . .