Adam Bozarth Enjoys the Internet: A Sitcom Looks Dumb?
I was mad at the “50% of marriages end in sweatpants” ad, but for reasons entirely unrelated to anyone else’s. I was mad because MARRIAGE-RELATED SWEATPANTS JOKES ARE MINE, dammit. MINE. When I was moving in with my husband, I asked him if there were any cohabitation pet peeves I should know about—Would he, for instance, be annoyed by a wife who insists on leaving the kitchen light on at night because of an irrational belief that it scares away waterbugs? Would he expect his wife to pay bills on time, know how to cook, or contribute in any meaningful way to household chores when she was in the middle of writing something, which would be always? Would he mind a wife who sometimes has to call him several times a day so that he can reassure her that she did not leave the iron on/that her ankle pain is not a sign of diabetes/that if she were having kidney or liver failure, “she would know it”? Would he mind when his wife sends him drafts of tumblr posts about sweatpants with the subject header “Is this funny?” Luckily, he did not say any of those things (although I suspect he wishes he did). He was quiet for a moment, a contemplative look on his face. He was obviously giving this a ton of thought. Then he said, in what was either perfect deadpan or total seriousness (I still don’t know): “Well, I don’t think we should wear sweatpants in the house.” It made me laugh more than anything else he’s ever said, and it’s become a running joke with us. Six years into our relationship I am guilty of all of the aforementioned annoying, obsessive, irresponsible things that one should expect from an easily distracted writer with mild OCD, as well as many more. I also wear sweatpants but they are tight, hipster sweatpants from American Apparel and they make me feel like I’m in a movie like Revenge of the Nerds or Porky’s and a nerd or a Porky is watching me in my sweatpants through a hole he’s drilled into my wall. This is one of five 80’s-movie related scenarios I need to be thinking about in order to have an orgasm so the sweatpants have ironically worked our really well for us.I know this is not going to be a popular opinion, but I have to get this off my chest.
I don’t get this backlash against Whitney Cummings’ show “Whitney.”
Sure, the ads are glib and rather generic looking. Seems like any number of sitcoms about a married couple. So what if there are other shows about married couples? You think “The Honeymooners” said all there was to say about being married? Or “I Love Lucy?” So you don’t relate to it. Then it’s not for you. It’s for the millions of Americans who watch TV and are married and want to laugh about it. You know, like all of your high school friends who decided to start families instead of blogs.
And the fact that a lot of this is coming out of the comedy community is really disturbing. Whitney Cummings is a stand-up, which makes her no different than any of the other stand-ups or writers or sketch actors you know. Your friends, basically. She had to do the same shit we are all going through to get any kind of notice. She made a big splash on one of the Comedy Central Roasts and now she’s sold two sitcoms in one year to different networks. She’s doing what we all wish we could, but instead of seeing the possibility for us to do the same, we snark all over an ad campaign some dopey designer worked up in a Burbank basement.
So, it looks stupid, familiar, and other derisive adjectives. It just might be, but who cares. If people watch it, it stays on the air. If not, it goes away and you’ll never have to be reminded that married people wear sweatpants. Sweatpants! Could you imagine wearing such comfortable clothing after busting your ass all day?
If any of us were to be lucky enough to sell a show, save us from the snarky backlash if a bus advertisement isn’t God’s gift to comedy posters. If I was offered a job to write on this show, I would take it in a heartbeat. Writing for a network sitcom sounds like a dream job. You don’t get higher up by tearing others down, you get higher up by doing things better.
It’s demoralizing how much energy is going into making fun of this show that isn’t even on the air yet. If you don’t like Whitney Cummings’ comedy, fine. You don’t like it when characters are married on a sitcom, fine. Don’t watch it. There are millions of television shows to watch. You fully caught up on “Louie” yet? How about all the DVD commentaries for “Arrested Development?” Network television is fast food; it’s cheap and convenient and not that great for you. That’s the nature of the beast.
I don’t want to offend anyone with how harsh this sounds, but just replace the word “Whitney” with your own name and see how it feels to have people mock something you worked hard to create that they haven’t seen yet.
Super well put. See also: Scott Aukerman’s thoughts on comedians maligning “hack” comedy.
I will go on record saying that I was one of these people who shit on this show’s ad campaign as well as How To Be A Gentlemen.
Simply put, we all talk shit. We do.
Without personally knowing what Whitney Cummings is like a human being (hopefully nice and awesome) it’s clear from the many things I’ve read about her that she has worked as hard as anyone else (perhaps harder) currently starring in/writing/producing a primetime sitcom on network television. For evidence, see this article from the WP last year.
There’s a lot of shitty TV out there. If Whitney is in any way worse than I think Workaholics is from the goddamn “Workaholic” posts I see on my dashboard from Comedy Central’s tumblr I will eat my smelly sneakers.
And I gotta say: it really annoys me to see people hop on and off that “women in comedy” bandwagon as it suits them. It’s great if a female comedian gets a sitcom, but only if it’s the right type of sitcom? I’m sure the billboards for Roseanne were stupid as hell! Madeleine Albright once said “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support each other.” Let’s learn our lesson from that “Joan of Snark” episode of 30 Rock and not judge the boobs and baby voice when the boobs and baby voice might have a story of their own.
These ads are stupid. They are really fucking stupid. The people who made them are stupid, and they obviously think that the people reading them are also stupid. And maybe Whitney itself will be fucking stupid, too.
But guess what? This is America. A man who PRAYED FOR JESUS TO RESOLVE AMERICA’S FISCAL CRISIS is a VIABLE presidential candidate! Many Americans cannot get enough of stupid things so sometimes the dumb people get the dumb stuff they want.
Here’s the long and short of it, in my eyes: as long as Two and a Half Men remains on television I don’t see any reason why Whitney shouldn’t. If we think it sucks, let’s make better stuff. K?
NOW CAN WE GET BACK TO TALKING ABOUT RICK PERRY? THAT MAN IS AN IDIOT AND HE MIGHT BE PRESIDENT.
