BBC comedy attempts to normalize assisted suicide
Way To Go is a show about a current and difficult issue but it treats its serious subject in the same way that Arsenic And Old Lace dealt with old lady poisoners or Kind Hearts And Coronets dealt with aristocratic murders. Working with a really great US creator and a transatlantic writing team also brings us just a whiff of the way in which their shows find a different tone for mixing comedy, drama and death.
~ Jon Plowman, executive producer of BBC Three’s new “black comedy series about three ordinary guys who find themselves forced by an extraordinary set of circumstances into setting up an assisted-suicide business,” as quoted by The British Comedy Guide, November 22
Nov.26, 2012 2:01 am |
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Well, I’m first impression is how horrendous! But then, Arsnic and Old Lace was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It is possible to make ‘gallows humor’ appropriate subject matter.
BUT since talking about serial murder does not statisically lead to more serial murders while talking about suicide has repeatedly been shown to lead to more suicides I think I have to stick to the original horrified indignation that someone would produce such a thing.
…so the way we deal with deadly issues is not to ask for solutions from the Creator, but to laugh at them instead?
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/way_to_go/
This is just a bunch of BBC producers sitting around saying how can we get the public on board with euthanasia and make some cheap entertainment along the way? The fix is in for the UK, and with their NHS it’s only going to get worse and worse.
Eh. At least anyone who steps into the booth has a choice to do so.
Oh..Ha-Ha! Because helping people kill themselves is SO FUNNY!
Uh..no.
*I am a big fan of British Humor, but I don’t find assisted suicide a ‘humorous’ subject*
It was funny when Bender was about to do it. But he’s a robot.
A constantly drunk robot. Maybe it could make a funny sketch about a drunken fool, but I don’t see how you can stretch it into a series – black comedy or not.
I was one of the prospective victims in our high school production of Arsenic and Old Lace. ;) But a farce only works in a world where you can say, “That couldn’t really happen!”
“At least anyone who steps into the booth has a choice to do so.”
That’s how I feel about it. And I really don’t find this show more horrifying than South Park or something.
+50 points for the Futurama reference.
Arsenic and Old Lace was hilarious, and it was predicated on morality. I don’t know what this is all about, as I haven’t seen it. If it’s truly dark comedy, it might be OK. But if it attempt to normalize assisted suicide–more likely–that’s pretty scary.
There is actually quite a bit of truth to Futurama!