A lot of behavior we’ve seen from people in the public eye lately, whether it’s a celebrity like Amanda Bynes who is having a Twitter conniption fit every few days or a Strawberry Coolata fan from Florida, are always up for grabs for comics.
It’s something being talked about by everyone. It’s also fraught with joke possibilities because so much is bizarre.
But it’s not always fun and games if the person is having a mental collapse of some kind. Many people realized this back when Britney Spears had what appeared to the observer as a nervous breakdown. For one, there’s nothing funny about that. Secondly, the entertainment industry can be a pretty toxic environment which leads to situations like that. What people realized was, Britney shouldn’t be a punching bag or a target for laughs. She was going through a mental health issue, some believe, and that is no laughing matter. That’s fair.
It’s hard to say what to make of what is going on with some of the people in the news today. I think the sorority girl who threatened to @#^! punch her sorority sisters during Greek Week was fair game because she wasn’t crazy. She was just an idiot. An aggressive idiot. One I would totally fall for if I were in college with her cause I just had a tendency to like jerks when I was younger.
But what about this young woman in Florida who went on a racially charged and borderline terrorist tirade at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Florida recently all because she didn’t get a receipt. My initial reaction is, “Woah, she’s a real jerk. And that big of jerks exist, unfortunately.” If that’s the case, READY THE JOKE MACHINE!!
But then I started thinking about it. What sane person would go that nuclear over not receiving a receipt and believing they were treated in a rude manner? She invoked 9/11 in her tirade because the person “causing” her ire had brown skin. She said she’d “bomb them from Mars.” That’s when I thought, “This person just might be mentally ill.” I’m not taking down my Twitter jokes about her, because I think she’s just that big of a jerk. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she shouldn’t be made fun of because it makes light of mental health issues.
And what do we do about Amanda Bynes? We’ve all collectively agreed that something is seriously wrong with her health. Well, I say “all” but apparently Drake Bell has no idea what Amanda’s tweets say. But the rest of us see something quite troubling.
Amanda claims she’s not “crazy” a she put it in a tweet.
If she’s not unstable then she is a humongous jerk. Have you see what she says about people? Even people who were just trying to help her or people who didn’t say a one word to her can’t escape her mean-spirited rants.
So what do you do in these situations?
Make fun of Republicans? Make fun of Democrats? Make fun of Jimmy John’s for not serving hot subs. Seriously, guys, seriously?
I have no answers. I do, however, really want some Dunkin’ Donuts today. Any press is good press, I guess.