Twitter Is FURIOUS About My Death Bed Sketch
One of the first internet lessons I learned was that if a tweet gets more comments than retweets, you’ve done something wrong. There are exceptions to this rule, like if you ask a question, i.e. “can a skinny tie function as a blindfold, or can she still see?” In that case, you’ll tend to get more responses than rt’s. But if you’re firing off statements or videos, it should be a little closer to even.
We put out episode 2 of BVH at noon. Gaz released the death bed sketch individually on our main twitter around the same time, with a somewhat controversial description that he and I discussed and agreed upon. People were NOT happy.
When someone responded to this account with a link to a similar SNL sketch, @sportsfans responded:
Interesting. Apparently, it’s ok to show old people dying of cancer, but young people dying is “too close to home.” Good to know. I’ll bet this guy spends a lot of time with his grandparents…
No, Caitlin. W’all not about to delete this. I’m not sure if you’re asking or telling, but thank you for your confusing input. PS- I can understand why people say “y’all” out loud. But when people type it, I have to breathe into a paper bag.
Sadly, we appear to have lost Natasha. How do I know? She told us. Something tells me Natasha says individual goodbyes to everyone at parties, even if she was only there for 10 minutes. So long, Natasha. We had quite a ride.
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Apologies to Sam Rothstein, who will now go to bed 3 minutes and 47 seconds later than he usually does to make sure he finishes all the tasks he had planned for the day. Joking aside, that font he used is cool. I’ll bet he has a spooky organ in his home.
This… this one stung. I’m not Michael Rapaport. PLFC knew exactly what he was doing here, and then he rubs salt in the wound with “lame af bruh.” This is exactly the type of intellect I avoided in the dining hall at Harvard.
In the interest of fairness, this is a fine take. It’s a slightly dark sketch–nowhere near as bad as it could have been. If you don’t find it funny, so be it, I can accept that. My work isn’t for everyone, and not everything I do is funny. I’d honestly give this sketch a B. The headline on the tweet was a little… on the nose. The sketch isn’t supposed to be about cancer. We threw in the twist at the end as a nod to my ordeal last year, but it’s mostly a sketch that asks how much a family is willing to forgive when they’re losing a loved one.
The point is, it’s very clear that a lot of people did not watch the sketch but still put forth offended responses. This, to me, is pathetic. It’s also a perfect example of what Facebook and Twitter have done to the internet. On Facebook especially, people hear and read things in the way they don’t want to hear them. In other words, they are prepared to be offended… even before they start reading/watching the post. We used to say “innocent until proven guilty.” On Facebook, people say “guilty, and I don’t care enough to find out if I’m wrong.”
On a happier note, a lot of people who have been affected by cancer seemed to enjoy it.
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In the end, it bums me out that people get so easily offended now. I feel like the walls are closing in on what I can say/write/sing in comedy. Kathy Griffin is a perfect example–was her Trump joke in poor taste? Some say yes, others say no, I personally don’t give a shit. But did she deserve to be blackballed from working in America? Fuck no. Give me a goddamn break. I live in constant fear that something I say will be taken out of context or will elicit a backlash because I forgot to consider the feelings of people like @sportsfans who hate it when young people, specifically, die of cancer. I’m hoping the pendulum swings back towards the middle, for we are living in a time when frenzied internet sensitivity breeds censorship. But for now, I’m very glad to be at a company that isn’t afraid to walk the line.