North Star Writers Group

A show has emerged called “Weeds.” The premise for the show is that the lead character, played by Mary Louise Parker, has recently become a widow in a ritzy area of California, and in order to maintain the lifestyle to which she and her family have become accustomed, takes up marijuana dealing – hence the title, “Weeds.” It may be best described by its theme song, part of which states:

“Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same

There's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives

And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,

And they all have pretty children and the children go to school

And the children go to summer camp and then to the university

Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.”

The show raises issues, treads on sensitive areas and obviously prides itself on trampling all over the caution typically used when addressing the topic of marijuana. Early teens have sex, spouses cheat, marijuana is sold to 10-year-olds and smoked by almost everyone, and the Parent Teacher Association is constituted almost entirely of hypocritical mothers with no lives. It is often hyperbolic, and yet, usually compelling and insightful. The show was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. As you may already know, it’s not a musical.

An issue arises. A comedy such as “Weeds” serves as an accurate example of the way in which our television culture has become keenly infatuated with shows that handle serious issues in comic fashion. “Sex and the City” may have been the first. “Desperate Housewives” came along. Then there was “Big Love”, and now “Weeds”. Perhaps the incessant witticism and impossibly bizarre characters, such as Kevin Nealon’s character – a self-absorbed, silly, oblivious politician who smokes pot in playground parking lots and blindly champions the Bush administration because Laura Bush sold him pot in college – take the sting off the inevitable somberness attached to broken marriages and dysfunctional families. But what one might find disturbing is that, on the one hand, we are soaked up by these sad stories that admittedly reflect elements of real life, and on the other hand, we are laughing uncontrollably.

An article from the Asian Times, written in 2003, stated that, “Sadly, Americans cannot laugh at their own culture.” Who else disagrees? I would suggest that laughing at ourselves seems to have become our favorite pastime. Anyone heard of Dave Barry? How about Bill Watterson? Did the author of this insight ever turn on a boob tube?

The truth is, we’ve been laughing at ourselves for decades, and one would be hard-pressed not to admit that we are gosh-darn hilarious. But maybe this is not such a good thing. Maybe this elongated fad of “laughing at ourselves” is getting old.

We ought to be concerned about the fact that the tragedy and the laughter of our culture have become so closely associated.

The word “sardonic” has a fascinating etymology. Invented by the Greeks, it comes from a plant called the sardonion, which was said to cause facial convulsions resembling those of laughter, and then death shortly thereafter. I wonder if our culture has become similar to the sardonion. First we convulsively laugh at it, and shortly thereafter, we die.

Our culture can be characterized in many positive ways. We are more tolerant than most. We get to keep most of the money we earn. We have an advanced system of democracy. And most importantly, we have the Bill of Rights. But this doesn’t turn us into some sort of country-wide Brady Bunch. We do have our share of weeds, including a huge percentage of marriages ending in divorce, sexual promiscuity (at an increasingly young age), materialism stemming from successive generations of workaholics, increasing percentages of children born out of wedlock and irresponsible drug use. If only we could laugh at ourselves.

Oh wait, we already are. These are not the characteristics of a healthy culture. Yet these are the characteristics a recent trend of television shows are both focusing on and simultaneously managing to make light of.

I have often wondered which poses the stronger influence – TV on culture, or culture on TV? I am unconvinced one is more true than the other, but I am convinced that the two tend to produce an aggressive snowball effect.

“Weeds” rarely sugarcoats. It states with certainty, “such is the reality,” and it does so with an uncomfortable degree of accuracy. It is the antithesis of “Leave it to Beaver”. (Trust me, the “Weeds” DVD bonus features told me). This is a far better idea than shoving our heads into the sand. The danger is that our laughter could easily distract us from the tragedy.

Our culture does not suffer from an inability to laugh at itself. The truth is probably quite the contrary. Perhaps we need to be a bit more cautious, for the weeds of our culture are growing, and this is not a laughing matter.

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