CNN thinks Ulcerative Colitis is hilarious

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=19987&count=0


In a segment on an unusual treatment for UC, CNN opens it with the diarrhea scene from Dumb and Dumber. Ali Velshi is aghast and on the live segment asks, "We didn't really do that, did we? Good thing this is a taped show and we can edit it out."

See the clip online. Really maddening.

Not going to lie, that scene from Dumb and Dumber is hilarious. You have to let crap like this roll off you.

yeah, well either UC is a legit disease which deserves study, funding, attention etc. or it's a joke. it's fine to laugh about it yourself (probably necessary really) but it's another thing to watch something like that on the news. Totally idiotic.

I do have a sense of humor, but I found that in poor taste. Sure, that clip is funny, but to make light of ANY disease just isn't right.

CNN is such a mess so it doesn't surprise me.

CNN is a joke just like the US government. Sometimes I am ashamed of calling myself an American because of garbage like this on the TV.

I believe that there is a God, and every staff on CNN is going to wake up one morning (hopefully tomorrow), use the bathroom and notice blood in their stool's. Welcome to UC...

     Wallc, I wouldn't go that far.  I always said I wouldn't wish this disease on my worse enemy (that being my ex son in law...lol),  and I wouldn't.  It is a horrible disease.

Bad taste? Possibly. But it gets the point across.

I hated that movie, and that was before I got IBD.

I see your point. But they wouldn't start out a segment on heart disease with a joke.

wallc777 said...
CNN is a joke just like the US government. Sometimes I am ashamed of calling myself an American because of garbage like this on the TV.

I believe that there is a God, and every staff on CNN is going to wake up one morning (hopefully tomorrow), use the bathroom and notice blood in their stool's. Welcome to UC...

AMEN!!!

Keep the politics out guys or you gonna get in trouble...

So I thought a lot about this the day it aired. First, full disclosure: My father took me to see this in theaters when I was little as long as I wouldn't tell my mother, so it has a special place in my heart.

I believe there may have been some insensitivity on the part of whoever chose the clip, as I highly doubt any involved in the production has personal experience with the disease. I fully respect anyone's right to be offended by the clip.

journey2health has an interesting point: "But they wouldn't start out a segment on heart disease with a joke."

This is very true, but on the other hand, poop is funny. There's a reason poop and fart jokes are so pervasive, whatever your opinion towards them may be, and why clips like these, even years after their release, remain ingrained in the cultural conscious.

I firmly believe that humor is a great way to bring about awareness of this disease in particular. Why I'm personally not offended by the clip is that it isn't suggesting anything about the character of the person with the disease (as jokes about, say, mentally challenged or ill people can sometimes imply) but exaggerating, for humor, a terrible case of diarrhea which many people without IBD have experienced maybe once or twice.

Essentially, I think humor is a good entry point into a conversation about IBD, as it can break down people's barriers and perhaps add some level of relatability. This particular example is particularly crass, yes, but I don't think we should write off this approach entirely.