Truth In Comedy

I’m not one who spends a lot of time watching television – when I’m not working I like to spend my time playing with my son Devon, working in my gardens or relaxing with a book under the shade of a tree. But, I do like to keep tabs on what’s going on in the world, so instead of watching the News (which is controlled by big business), I’ll watch comedy shows like ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ or ‘The Rick Mercer Report’.

It annoys me when I’m watching the local News and I see a report telling me that milk consumption is good for me – this is false and I quickly realize that the milk industry is probably behind this promotion… calling itself ‘news’.

To find out how the government is wasting tax dollars with outrageous military spending while doing nothing to protect our environment, tune in to your local comedy channel!!

I find it hard to realize that our global environments are in such a sad state of degradation and instead of focussing on issue of this nature, our media does its best to distract us by filling our time with mostly useless and one-sided stories that neither inspire or capture our imaginations.

I like to use comedy to share important environmental issues with the world. I find that these simple cartoons can bring light to any situation.

Viewers, at once, tend to agree with the message and although they may not be inspired to act in positive ways at that moment, the information has made its way into the viewer’s mind and that is the most important thing… at this stage of humanities growth.

I grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes comics and I know that – more often than not – they made me pause and think about our world in many different ways. This comic strip brings to light a very valuable observation. If everyone did spend their time thinking about all the issues of importance in this world, it would be very hard to focus on the affairs of our daily lives – that’s why these issues are pushed away and avoided.

This may be an accurate observation, but it is this observation that is harming the happiness for future generations. Instead of realizing the connections between what we consume in our day to day lives and how these economic choices are destroying our world, it’s easier and less complicated to ignore these problems so that we can finish eating our fast food that’s been served to us on styrofoam plates with plastic forks.

We may not find the solutions that we need to overcome our environmental issues in comedy, but I believe that they do hold a value for our societies as they continue to educate us.



Jim