He just told us not to automatically believe everything we heard about it, although he didn’t have any alternate theories (that he shared with us, anyway) because he didn’t know himself.
Why? Is this comment meant to suggest that it’s more a problem now than then?
Or just that “people” would not find the notion as funny now, because audiences of teen comedies are more sophisticated these days?
Well, of course. His handle is “Bear.” Nobody self-applies that nickname.
It’s the equivalent of calling oneself “Steelrod” or “Bushman” or “Cuddle-lamb.” It isn’t done.
“Knife-edge steel paw Bear Grylls, a chubby cuddle bunny with lots of body hair”: obviously, this person isn’t for real.
Suicide as a punchline hasn’t worked for 20 years. Mental health is taken more seriously.
20 years? Burt Reynolds in The End should have been the nail in that coffin back in 1978.
The suicide jokes were still hilarious in S.O.B. (1981), and Crimes of the Heart (1986).
Personally, I think that gallows humor is much healthier than humorlessness. When someone cannot laugh at trouble, the trouble is winning.
There’s two epsiodes of early Simpsons where the climax centers on Homer trying/wanting to kill himself… Suicide was an easy topic but now in the 21st Century you can still do suicide jokes but they better be good.
Hasn’t 24 been cited in actual legal proceeding for why “enhanced interrogation techniques” were allowed?
Think its worth mentioning that they kind of referenced Pat on this season with the Ayo Edebiri episode. She played a high school student whose costume was very much Pat. It was a plaid shirt instead of western–but wig, glasses and khakis and a kind of androgynous presentation.
Youtube SNL Hypnotist Sketch