Ideas I had after I read this post: Kramer on Seinfeld was kind of schizotypal. : ) They make fun of suicidal people pretty often on comedy shows and some sit-coms. Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety meds are mentioned for comedic purpose all the time. "Crazy" people, people with addictions, people with "multiple personalities", and people with hallucinations are often exploited for laughs. There are lots of funny sketches about sociopaths with knives and guns. I don't even want to mention the funny sketches about people with sexual disorders, both paraphilic and those related to sexual arousal and functioning. Need I mention the ADHD skits about uncontrollable children? I have even seem comedy sketches about Alzheimer's and autism.
I think making fun of a mental illness (or symptom) usually includes several elements: 1) must include a behavior or situation that is potentially interesting or funny (usually, this eliminates everything about depression except self-pity, suicide, and medication). 2) the symptom must be an exaggeration of something understandable to the average viewer (getting drunk, worrying about germs, being afraid of snakes = like me or someone I know and really not that bad) OR something that is bizarre and allows the viewer to dehumanize the person with the disorder (a homeless person with hallucinations and hygiene problems; severe anorexia or bulimia = not like me and never will be, so it is ok for me to be malicious at his/her expense). The in-between stuff doesn't work so well. 3) Like all humor, the behavior must arouse discomfort, typically by violating social norms. Finally, if you give a protagonist a disorder, it must be one that is understandable (the most famous of those is alcoholism) and/or that can be minimized into something not truly harmful (kleptomania is ok, but scatologia or self-mutilation probably won't fly). I think what is different about things like OCD, alcoholism, or hypomania is that the person with the disorder is viewed as a "normal" person with an eccentricity. Other disorders are used to distance the viewer and dehumanize the person with the disorder, rather than make the person with the disorder quirky and endearing, more human than if he/she was perfect. -Wendi Born Baker University -----Original Message----- From: Michael Britt [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 12:40 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Why is OCD so "funny"? I had a listener ask me a very good question and I was wondering what people thought about this: why is it that the media seems to find OCD sort of a funny psychological disorder? There seem to be shows (like "Monk") and skits (like the old "Anal Retentive Fisherman" on Saturday Night Live) about people with OCD, but we don't find ourselves laughing at people with PTSD or depression or schizophrenia. Maybe because we can all relate more readily to people who have a little more "fastidiousness" than we do better than we can relate to something more unfamiliar like schizophrenia? Michael -- Michael Britt, Ph.D. Host of The Psych Files podcast www.thepsychfiles.com [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by Baker University ("BU") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify Baker University by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
