Islands of Sanity: Driving Away Despair with Cartoonist Stephanie McMillan and E Network's "The Soup"

The "ironic" attitude of my generation towards suffering disgusts and drives me to despair. It has led to the lionization of "Sin City" and Saturday Night Live, to a self-preening "hipness" that is in fact no more than collaboration with evil, a homoerotic reacharound for Dick Cheney. It is not to be confused with dark humor, with redeeming laughter in the face of despair; it is indifference.
I am cheered by the emergence of cartoonists like Stephanie McMillan, who remembers what human beings are supposed to be like: human, and outraged by attacks on our humanity.Visit her website here for more., or e-mail her here if you want a cartoon sent to you every week.

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Careless channel hopping should be avoided by depressives. The reigning culture of "reality"-TV, celebrity news, sadistic animation and Football is All We Can Talk About in Endless Permutations sometimes drives me under the covers with thoughts of suicide. Given the freedom to express and amuse ourselves, this is what Los Angeles and New York feeds and America swallows, Strasbourg gooses amusing themselves to death.

"The Soup" (formerly "Talk Soup") delivers the bittersweet news that you am not alone. I still miss Aisha Tyler, but Joel McHale has won me over, and the catcalls from the backstage guys-- they can't believe this shit either!-- restores my faith in humanity.

"TV producer Mark Burnett is developing a new reality show inspired by Touched by an Angel. It will be a quest to find the one reality-show contestant who doesn't deserve to go to hell."
"Paris Hilton may also be called to testify in a criminal case involving a two year old burglary. The district attorney's office says that Paris 'just happens to be a witness.' I hope the trial is televised. I don't care about the outcome, I just want to see what happens when Paris puts her hand on the Bible."
"Mick Jagger's daughter Lizzie has defended supermodel Kate Moss following her cocaine scandal, because 'everybody in England is taking the illegal drug.' When asked for comment, Queen Elizabeth went on a tangent about the first Blondie album for three hours."

See Also: Cheap Thrills 2005, Capitalism Stole My Virginity, Richard Pryor, If a Social Darwinist Dies, Should Any of Us Care?, Neo Monster Island 2005, Zippy the Pinhead and others