It's Funny Because It's...Not True

I get so peeved when the hilarity of a show is based on the fact when it would never happen in real life, especially when it actually DOES happen to people who are oppressed...

Confused? 

Exhibit A: "Hung," a new series on HBO about a white adult male who goes into prostitution to earn money. Critics are calling this show witty, daring, and hilarious. Why? Maybe the dialogue is great. Maybe the acting is superb. Or maybe we're all comfortable seeing an extremely ugly reality of society (women, often of color) forced into the sex industry because they literally have no other options. An adult white male...well...he has other options. This show will probably be a huge hit, just like...

Exhibit B: "Weeds," a Showtime original with four seasons. It's been lauded as witty, daring, and hilarious. It's about a single suburban mom who deals pot to make a living. Yes, the dialogue rocks. Yes, the acting is great. But this show ignores and makes a mockery of (I know that doesn't make sense) the fact that the people who are truly forced into professional drug dealing tend to be poorer men of color and not suburban moms. ("Forced" not in the sense that someone is holding a gun to their head but in the sense that in their communities, what other options do they have? I don't say this lightly. I watch it happen.) 

If "Hung" were about a middle-aged woman of color who becomes a prostitute because she couldn't find another way to make money, it would probably not be a comedy. If "Weeds" were about a young single dad of color who turned to drug dealing, it would probably not be a comedy. 

Keep laughing, assfaces. Making light of society's actual issues while ignoring the problems at hand is just one more way to waste our lives...and that's really what American TV is all about.