Even though I just posted an article about Women’s rights, I wanted to get back to all the feedback I gladly received for my article on trashy German television.
Here are a few recommendations on how to avoid turning your TV on when you are bored, and how to instead watch something GOOD on the Internet:
My first recommendation is Fernsehkritik TV, a biweekly format done by a 37-year old entrepreneur.I would like to introduce it with this trailer:
I really like his show because he attacks the public tv channels whose program has turned just as bad as the one of the private channels and the fees everyone of us is supposed to pay for just having a TV.
Also, he strongly criticizes and bashes Call-in TV (Neun Live and the like) where people are being deceived into throwing their money out the window via phone calls in hope of winning an usually unrealistic amount of money.
The format is very varied, it is worth checking it out!
You can look at all episodes that have been done so far and have quite some fun with all the older episodes as well- of course, it is completey free!
I would also like to recommend two shows which ARE on TV, but which you can watch whenever you like via these youtube channels:
If you are interested in satire and sometimes dark comedy, you should check out the following shows:
1. Kalkofe’s Mattscheibe – I honestly think he is one of the very few funny Germans, and I love it when he mocks bad TV with his mix of eloquence and imitation!
2. Switch Reloaded – another very well done satire program in my opinion- they sometimes copy the behaviour of the people they are imitating so well that it is hard to tell the difference!
They have improved a LOT within the last two seasons, and now the show is worth watching! Again, a little taste:
Well, definitely look into it if you are bored and are looking for some GOOD entertainment!
First of all I want to thank you so much for your comments in the past. I have to say that I am very happy with the outcome so far, and if your compliments were honest then i guess I am on the right track!
After having put up the poll in my second last entry, the results so far have shown that you really wanted me to write an article about Society again, which I have hopefully done in a satisfying way with my last entry about the way we deal with the lower class in the media.
However, there were also three votes on Women’s issues, which I am also very happy about. I found the following article on BBC News, and was stunned to read about the situation of women soldiers in Iraq.
As I want to keep it short today, let me summarize it for you (I strongly recommend reading it yourself, as there are three personal experiences written down that are just terryfying, but highly interesting):
Approximately one out of ten soldiers serving in Iraq (11 %) is female at the moment, the tendency is that the numbers will rise.
However, women at war are usually unevenly distributed and thus sometimes end up as the only woman in their platoon (or one of few among hundreds or thousands of men).
What’s shocking is that these “lonely soldiers”, as the author Helen Benedict calls them in her book in which she explains these issues, are as afraid of their comrades as they are of the “enemies”.
The reason?
Almost a third of them (30 %) are raped by one of their fellow soldiers during their military service, and up to 90 % are sexually assaulted or harrassed at some point.
A majority of female soldiers in Iraq actually emphasize that they are scared most by the other men around them that by an eventual attack by the enemy.
It is common for them to carry a knife wherever they go and not even leave their platoon after dark in order to get some water due to the high risk of being violated.
Also, research within the military has shown that women soldiers are much more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder once they return to the US due to the additional, steady fear of rape which the men who are serving with them are not exposed to.
Women are needed in the military due to their diplomatic nature- a useful character trait when dealing with local citizen
I am not going to go into the detailed experiences as you can read about them in the link above, but I would like to highlight what I find most disturbing about this- the policy of silence.
Just like it has been done with gay men within the military in the past, the “don’t ask-don’t-tell” policy so often used by the military in order to avoid uncomfortable questions is what keeps female soldiers in this bad position.
Usually, no one wants to listen to their complaints about continuous sexual harrassment, and if they do, it is commonly the women who are transferred to another platoon, not the offenders.
The ignorance of their suffering goes as far as telling them that in earlier days, the soldiers had prostitutes- nowadays they have female soldiers.
Fellow comrades have even told them that they serve mostly as eye-candy and because (as usual) the mere presence of a woman, even if she is being harrassed and mocked, keeps the men sane.
I am not a big fan of the military, and ultimately everyone who is going to serve is at least to some degree aware of all the dangers and eventual damage they will face (whether straight or gay men or women), but I still think that is not acceptable that the military does nothing to try to prevent such discrimination and abuse.
This is not a new problem, a in the 20th century it was an issue for black men who served in the US military at the time that they rights were still partly restricted and racism was extremely common.
Even though they defended the land the lived in just as much as any white man, the faced the same racism and hatred when returning home as before.
It seems to me that while we often fight racism nowadays and it has become very unacceptable, we don’t acknowledge problems related to sexism (the idea that it is ok to rape a woman is sexist just as much as the idea that women should cook for men is sexist- it is all about control and the superior gender) and homophobia enough- they are the modern discrimination, but just as unacceptable.
Please read the article if you like,
I hope you found this interesting,
There is a strange phenomenon which has developed within our society- it is not an exclusively German trend, but since it seems to have affected our television to a high degree, I felt that it is about time voice my opinion on it.
Admittedly, there is an endless amount of bad programs on German television, but this happened to anger me the most.
I find it not only inexplicable that there actually is an audience for such shows but truly disgusting to see what these kind of formats are telling us about our own nature and morals.
I know that I have written about my dark and to some people offending sense of humour before, but there is one thing I simply can not laugh about- the exploitation of the lower class by the media which is commonly referred to as “Reality TV”.
Look! It's the lower class! Hilarious!
Of course there probably aren’t too many educated individuals who regularly watch shows like “U20- Deutschland deine Teenies”, “Mitten im Leben”, “Lebe deinen Traum” and all the others.
However, a considerable portion of usually lower middle class and jobless people consistently watch the shows and use it to laugh about the weakest in our society.
To me it seems like an attempt to vent one’s own frustration (usually regarding the conditions of one’s own existence) and laugh at the misfortunes of other people, who are doing even worse than the viewer.
However surprisingly (or possibly not depending on the cynicism of the reader) it is not only restricted to people in relatively similar or comparable situations.
Conversely it would seem that there are individuals at every level in our society that derive some strange pleasure from watching the poor suckers at the bottom of the heap struggle to deal with their miserable and restricted lives.
But that is not the biggest issue that I see in the fact that shows like these are actually on TV at all- in my opinion, they confuse cause and effect in a dangerous way.
Most of the time (especially in the U20 show, which always depicts German teenagers) it is young people just above twenty or below as well as their dysfunctional families who are the main protagonists.
One of the worst shows on German TV
Almost always, the youngsters face situations like joblessness, poverty, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, behavioural disorders and general problems with school and family life. The problem is that the accompanying commentary is supposed to sound objective, but often reveals its derogatory and biased nature.
Whenever an especially embarrassing or disturbing situation occurs, the commentary cynically and arrogantly supports the image we are supposed to get from these dumb and uneducated fools.
In almost all cases, the desperate parents get to show off their evil children who create nothing but problems and everyone else gets to laugh (or cry?) at the apparently stupid youth.
However, these shows always fail to recognize the fact that the teenagers are victims of bad politics concerning the educational, youth and social issues- and are only partially responsible for the screwed up situation they are in.
If someone has been brought up by parents usually too young, poor and uneducated to live their own lives correctly and has gone to a school with too little funding to even afford enough teachers or social workers, it is proof of the government’s inability to sensible allocate their finances and not them.
On top of all that there is a perverted desire by the makers of the show to intensify the issues the protagonists already go through. Very likely, this is done in order to make the pseudo-documentary more interesting to the viewer- but at what cost?
This it is evident in every interview done with separate family members in which the crew commonly asks them question likely to make them upset or reduce them to tears.
One example which I can think of immediately was a moment in which a young girl, who obsessed over a German girl group, was asked if she’d rather have a different mother than her own. She sadly replied that she likes to imagine coming home to the mother of her admired star rather than her own because she never seems to care about her daughter’s life unless there is trouble involved.
THIS IS NOTHING BUT A HUMAN ZOO- and we, the rest of the nation, get to point and laugh from a safe distance. In my opinion, anyone who can actually have a good laugh when watching such a program has not understood the true issues.
I think that it reveals a very bad character trait of ours- Schadenfreude. There is a saying in the German language that goes like this: “Wer den Schaden hat, braucht für den Spott nicht zu sorgen”.
In English, it would translate into „The laugh is always on the loser“, or more literally: “The one who is damaged does not need to take care of his mockery”.
Well, I would say that the ones who are truly damaged (morally and humanely, that is) are we.
Whenever we support a politically apathetic and socially bankrupt society, we contribute to the problems.
So let’s stop making fun of the effects and start working on the causes- or in other words: Turn off your TV, get your ass up and do something!
in order to get an impression on your likes and dislikes and also in order to understand what articles in the past you have found most interesting, here is a poll that I hope you will vote on! Please let me know what you would like to read about and comment on in the future:
What do YOU want me to write about in my next entry?
If you hear the word torture, what do you think of immediately?
Old, medieval techniques where fingernails are pulled, hot irons and the rack are used?
victim on a medieval rack
Nasty stuff, that’s true.
What if someone told you about an experience where nothing else but water was poured on their face- and they felt it was horrible torture?
Even though it sounds harmless, this “aggressive interrogation technique” (that’s the new, official euphemism) has been frequently used by the CIA, in order to interrogate suspect terrorists during America’s “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks.
When this became public, a great scandal as well as a highly emotional debate arose within the US concerning the question whether “Waterboarding” should be considered torture or not.
Obviously, the conservative side of the debate argued that it could not be considered torture, as, in their view, it did not cause severe pain or suffering on a physical or mental level.
This was supported by an official memo released by the Office of Legal counsel, in which they came to the conclusion that it did not qualify as torture, as well as some other legal advisors.
The Liberal point of view, on the other side, recalled the long history of waterboarding, which was more commonly known as “water torture” throughout the centuries, dating back to the Spanish inquisition.
I guess someone else invented it already...
They considered it a scandal, as this torture technique can eventually kill the interrogated suspect if extended for too long.
Also, it has commonly caused psychological damage to the victims, as they were severely troubled by panic attacks as well as nightmares due to the waterboarding sessions.
In order to settle the question once and for all, a few public personalities from both the left and the right-winged spectrum have made themselves subject to this “interrogation method”.
The most notable one is probably the case of Christopher Hitchens, a well-known polemicist and columnist for Vanity Fair, who had not made his mind up about waterboarding when trying it out. Well, check out for yourself what he experienced:
(the music that is playing in the background is used for further disorientation of the victim)
One has to note that the average person can handle approximately 14 seconds of waterboarding, so Hitchens, even though he is turning 60 this year (and was told by his doctor to stay away from this experiment), did a little better than most.
Now, let’s have a look at a conservative, who was completely opposed to the notion that waterboarding should be considered torture.
The radio show host Erich “Mancow” Muller was very confident about lasting about 30-60 seconds, but when he tried it out, he lasted only 6 seconds- and changed his mind entirely.
Look at the footage- it’s fascinating:
What I think is most notable about the modern lie about waterboarding, is the description of it “simulating the feeling of drowning” (as Hitchens put it). However, water torture I nothing else but controlled drowing- it does not simulate anything.
In order to keep it short, I only concerned myself for now with the question of whether it is torture, and not with the idea that even though it obviously is, the use could be justified.
Let me answer it quickly: To me, this is definitely a scandal, and the West including the US needs to start acting on their often praised “moral superiority” and the valuing of human rights- if we become like the extremist enemy we are fighting, what do we have left of our democratic, humanist identity?
Nothing.
Please comment, I would like to read about your impression (especially of the videos),
Best wishes to all of you,
Laura
PS: If you want to read Hitchens article on his experience, click here.
What do you, as a Berlin inhabitant, like the senate to use its money for?
Is it:
A) Homeless animals who need a shelter to take care of them- as they otherwise become a sanitary problem by living on the streets.
B) The salaries of bishops and preachers, including the costs of smells, bells and costumes for their ceremonies.
Now, no matter what your answer is (even though I assume that a majority of you would choose A), what do you think the senate actually spends money on?
If you chose A again, you are wrong. The church receives a huge amount of money, the animal shelter receives none.
Berlin, just like any other federal state of Germany, fully pays all salaries received by archbishops, bishops and any lower status preachers in both the evangelical and the catholic church, as well as subsidising the two churches in many other ways.
the Churches- also sponsored by you!
This includes money for church reparations, frankincense for ceremonies (such as sanctifications of new bishops), big church events and even mayor funding (always more than 50%) of officially evangelical or catholic preschools and nursery schools.
NOTE that this is not only financed by church taxes, which come from people who are registered in the church (even though sometimes, due to a fee for leaving the church, some people can not afford to drop out), but by taxes generally.
This is the reason experts call it a “hidden church tax”, as every one of us, whether registered in a church or not, has to pay for the above mentioned things.
HOWEVER, officially recognized charities such as the local society for animal protection (German: Tierschutzverein Berlin) who runs Berlin’s only (and one of Europe’s biggest) animal shelter, does not receive a single cent of financial support from the senate since the middle 1990’s.
Abandoned Dog in Front of the Animal Shelter Berlin
They have to completely finance themselves by donations, membership fees and the sales they make with their junk-shop located at Ostkreuz.
I am helping out at the shop on a regular basis now, and was shocked to learn about this- especially as I recalled all the money that flows to the churches regularly.
The result of this self-financing dilemma is that the animal shelter can only afford a few paid workers- the rest has to help out voluntarily.
I find this a disaster considering the fact that these people do a part of the city’s work by taking care of the sanitary problem all the abandoned former pets, especially dogs and cats, would cause if we had no animal shelter to care for them.
Also, they are forced to accept every type and number of animals brought to them because they run an official animal shelter- but, at the same time, have to completely raise the funding for necessary facilities and nutrition themselves.
And that’s not it- Here is the worst part:
Everything that the voluntary workers at the junk-shop sell in order to raise money for the animal shelter is being taxed by the city of Berlin! That means with every Euro they make, 19 cents are collected by the city! On the other hand, the churches which receive full salaries and subsidies are- of course- completely freed of paying any taxes whatsoever.
Sorry, no money left for you, Kitty
Do you think this is fair?
I know I don’t.
I usually pick up something from the News in order to write my articles- this time, however, it was personal experience (and additional information from the news) which led me to write about this unbelievable financial circumstance using up tax money and government spending.
I hope you thought it was interesting- and I hope I made you think about this issue.
Since the end of WWII, with all its horrors of the Nazi Regime and the resulting Holocaust, German National Pride has been an incredibly touchy subject. Since then, it has simply been regarded politically incorrect to claim pride in the country, and anyone who did so was immediately thought of as a Neonazi or at least a foreigner-disliking, mislead patriot.
Since the Soccer World Cup in 2006, however, things seem to have changed slightly. All of a sudden we were able to see German flags all over the place, and the German fans seemed to be comfortable with their national colours painted on their faces.
World Cup fans in Bochum
Most surprisingly, however, all the foreign guests didn’t seem to mind the harmless joy in expressing the German nationality either- which, ironically, has always been the first and foremost reason for the ashamed Germans to officially dislike their country because of its history.
Now, I would not consider a big Sports Event to be a good proof of anything, as you can hardly compare affection for a national team with actual national pride (even though sport events with their national competition strangely resemble a peaceful replacement for wars).
However, a recent study commented on by BBC News has shown that German National Pride actually IS on the rise again. Suitable for the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany, approximately 60 % of all Germans questioned in the survey were proud to be German. Another 70 % claimed that they felt others should be more confident about their German nationality.
"I don't love the state (of Germany). I love my wife." - Gustav Heinemann
Now, while I personally would probably not state that I am proud to be German, as I always feel that it is ultimately luck and not achievement which gives you a certain nationality, I would definitely agree with the latter statement about being more confident about the nationality.
As a modern German citizen, I am not ashamed of my nationality- as a matter of fact, I am mostly proud of its current stand- I appreciate the fact to live in a country which-compared to most of the rest of the world- is very democratic, very free, which grants free rights to me as a person and as a woman and which has improved a lot over the last few decades.
Of course, I am very critical of many things in Germany- whether it is the often pessimistic mentality, the closet-conservative attitude of many politicians and people, the way we deal with our recent history (including our non-existing debate about the issues of the GDR), the way we tax, the unbelievably low wage rates for women- the list goes on and on, and there surely are a lot of countries that do a better job than us (including Sweden, Norway, the UK and France in some areas).
I also would not consider myself typically German, but I surely appreciate it for what it is- one of the most liveable countries in the world, due to its wealth and its democratic principles.
However, I feel that this “ever-guilty”, ashamed outlook of many people is simply out of date. Numerous countries have a dirty history, but strangely, most of them are able to differentiate between harmful, blind patriotism with a xenophobic attitude and a healthy confidence in the positive, current achievements of their country.
What do you think? I would also like to hear your opinion if you are not German- that may be even more interesting
Auf Wiedersehen,
This is one of the most touching videos I have ever encountered in my life… and I think you will feel the same way!
What happens when a 32-year old American is sent out on a world trip and dances with people all around the globe in order to tape this amazing trip? He creates a beautiful video with a breathtaking message- See for yourself:
I must say that I was not only touched by the mere visual content of the video, but I think that the music choice is perfectly suitable and makes this all the more touching.
This video was created in 2007/2008, and it took a total of 14 months to get all the footage. In this time, Matt Harding (the main silly dancer) visited 42 countries and danced with thousands of people.
I think that, with or without intent, Matt Harding and his generous sponsors Stridegum have created a masterpiece which shows us the extraordinary beauty of our world, with all the nature, culture and people in it.
By simply dancing silly and attempting to get other people all around the globe to join in, they have shown how similar we all are deep down- despite our ongoing, often unnecessary political, religious, social and racial conflicts.
One thing we all have in common is the joy of living and all the simple pleasures related to it- like good music and dancing with friends.
To me, this video does not only promote peace, but it also shows what chances the commonly criticized globalization of our world holds- is it really impossible to create a livable, enjoyable environment for all people? If we can make everyone happy by simply dancing with them, why not go a few steps further?
I hope you find this video as inspiring as I do… I am looking forward to read about how you felt while watching the video and if you believe it will have a long lasting effect on you as well. Please let me know!
Lots of love,
Laura
PS: I have talked to Maria about this idea before, as I think it would also suit her blog very well. Don’t you agree that this is an amazing way to spend your lifetime?
Do you plan your day- when to go shopping, get groceries, go out with your friends?
Whatever it may be, I am sure you take it for granted, so that it is NOT your concern to protect the rights to do the above mentioned things. As good as that is, I think it is necessary to remind ourselves in the spoiled west to consider the fact that all these rights are not carved in stone yet- we have to continue to fight for them.
And more importantly- that most women in the rest of the world do NOT have the amount of rights we enjoy even today!
Source:lwvwa.org
In Germany, we have only been able to vote for the past 91 years. That’s not even a century! What’s even more shocking is when you consider that this is quite progressive compared to other countries, even within Europe- Switzerland, due to its direct democracy, didn’t give women the right to vote until 1971.
It obviously doesn’t end there. Compared to other issues, women’s suffrage is a rather positive aspect to look at concerning our rights.
Women all over the world are still oppressed, forced into marriages, forced to kill themselves after getting raped (in order to restore the honour of their family), or killed for being disobedient or openly homosexual.
Just recently, Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai has been attacked and critizied for passing a law legalizing the rape of wives by their husbands. The law includes an article which requires married women to obey their husbands sexual demands and grants the right to men to have sex with their wives at least once every four nights.
How free do you feel?
Also, the law approves of child marriage, which often leads to underage girls being married to grown and even elderly men, who are then recommended to wait with the first intercourse until the girls have reached puberty – a rule which a lot of the husbands forget about rather quickly.
Child bride in Afghanistan
Lately, the stories of several childbrides seeking divorce from their abusive husbands have been all over the news. Whether it is the story of Arwa, a 9-year-old girl from Yemen, who successfully annulled her marriage, Reem, married off at 12 years of age, who was choked and dragged by her hair when resisting the sexual advances of her 30-year old husband, or even the fate of an 8-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married to a 50-year old man- These cases are so shockingly common all over the world, that I believe it is time we start to be more aware of it.
Also, when talking about women’s rights, we must not forget about homosexual women. In South Africa, the successful national female football player Eudy Simelane, an outspoken lesbian, was found dead in March this year. Because of her support for equality rights, she had been gang-raped and stabbed to death.
Protest after rape & murder of Eudy Simelane
Her murder was not a rare phenomena either- among Human rights groups, the “corrective rape” of lesbian women is a common crime in South Africa, where homosexual women pose a threat to the increasing macho culture. It is a broad belief of South African men that they are able to “heal” lesbians by having forced sex with them. Also, the government has not considered it a priority to take legal care of these hate crimes, which have led them to increase.
While I have now focused on the sexual freedom on women, because the current abuses related to these freedoms are the most disgusting and shocking ones, it is just one part of the broad oppression of females all around the globe.
As women in the west, I think it is our responsibility to be more concerned about women’s rights again, as they are not well established yet. We often think that the fight for emancipation is over- for most women, it has not even begun.
Personally, it is an absolute horror to read about these topics, and as uncomfortable as it is, I hope that you felt encouraged to read more about the fight for our rights- To me, a woman who does not live freely in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Afghanistan or Yemen is just as important as a woman who does not live freely in Europe.
What do you think? Please let me know.
Thank you for reading, Laura
PS: Funnily, Ekaterina wrote an entry lately which is sort of linked to the issue of child brides. Check it out!
A family with two children is celebrating Christmas. One of the sons is getting much better & more numerous presents than the other.
Noticing this, he says to his brother:
Hey, have you noticed how many presents I got compared to you? Seems to me like our parents love ME more!
The brother replies: Oh really? Seems to me like YOU have cancer.
Of course, whether you are a boy or a girl, you must have a tendency to like dark-sided humour in order to enjoy a joke like that. But generally, I would make the assumption that this is a joke that would not go very well with “girly girls”. Why? Because I have often received a more critical feedback from girls rather than boys, whenever I made a morbid remark, or whenever I laughed at something with a lot of offensive potential- which, I think, is often hysterically funny.
This also influences my choices when it comes to enjoying movies and tv series. I am sorry, but let’s be honest:
When was the last time you had to laugh out loud while watching a so called “romantic comedy”, or chuckled more than once every twenty minutes when watching a neat, clean, politically correct “sitcom”?
Could there be anything more boring than repetitive, innocent, predictable humour? The very essence of a great joke is a “positive shock”, where something unexpected, and yes, likely something offensive, happens, which points out a flaw in our society so well that we can not help but to laugh at it.
Yet, I often get the feeling that especially girls tend to think that laughing at something politically incorrect or mean-spirited equals approving of such politically incorrect or mean-spirited attitude in real life.
The sentence “Oh, this is so wrong! You shouldn’t laugh at that!” is thus used whenever a hilarious joke is made about a touchy subject- whether it be Hitler, religion, child labor, anorexia, poverty, abortion or the like.
However, I strongly oppose this. “Ungirly humour”, which goes to the limits of “good taste”, which is sometimes random, sometimes evil, often politically incorrect and almost always socially aware is the BEST HUMOUR.
Just think of classic, amazing comedy like Monthy Python. Would “Always look on the bright side of life” be as hilarious and as famous, if it hadn’t been sung by Jesus on the cross? Just to show everyone again, what I mean, this is the video:
Ok, you want something more modern? No problem, here is my recommendation- if you want it all, offensive, hilarious, with lots of political and cultural references-
WATCH FAMILY GUY.
The best comedy show of all times
If you haven’t liked Family Guy in the past, or if you don’t even know it well, here are a few scenes to explain how this show incorporates everything “ungirly” and thus truly funny:
1. Political Humour
Of course, Family Guy is not just a parody of typical, dysfunctional sitcom families, it also lives off of a lot of political humour. Whether they are joking about Osama Bin laden himself (in a scene where he is joking around with his terrorist buddies while trying to create a video threat to the US), Hitler and Eva Braun or the logic behind the war in Iraq, their humour is always spot on- see for yourself:
2. Cultural references
Family has often been accused of using too many cutaway scenes in order to make humorous cultural references which distract from the main plot. But who cares! They are just hilarious- like here, where the family baby Stewie has to learn that the love song he wrote is not very original:
3. Making fun of religion
Just like Monthy Phyton, Family guy creator Seth MacFarlane does not stop at one of the touchiest topics when creating jokes for his show- Religion, in this case Christianity, gets made fun of regularly. Check out what kind of “miracles” Jesus really performed, according to this episode:
4. Random Humour
On top of all that, Family guy throws random humour and punchlines at you at constant rate, which, in my opinion, puts the cherry on top of their brilliant ideas. You have to watch this scene- believe me, it is really funny, as it shows common language barriers in a very creative way:
In order to convince yourself of the many humorous sides of a provocative show like Family guy, I have not included the more offensive, yet funnier parts. In case you were able to handle the above videos, and actually laughed- congratulations! You are ready to enjoy more ungirly, rude, morbid jokes in the future! I am sure you will have a lot of fun with it!
At least, this is the experience I have had: watching more shows like family guy, less sitcoms and especially NO romantic comedy, makes you happier ultimately.
WHY? Because gallows humour has always kept people sane, as they could finally laugh at all the suffering and evil sh** going on in the world- if you can get a politically incorrect laugh out of life every once in a while, it seems much easier to deal with.
