LY #125 It's Always Sunny . . .

in Central Oregon" is not a true statement, at least it hasn't been this week.   Nevertheless my public speaking class has been in its usual good mood, in large part because of the high energy folks it contains.  Some of this energy gets misplaced on occasion as folks chat too much when other people are at the front of the classroom.

This week one of the excessive sharers explained his constant joking in this way:  "We have to be serious all the time in the program [Criminal Justice] so when I can I just want to be myself."

I responded with, "Why do you think I'm retiring?"

He laughed and gave me a thumbs up.

As someone in a profession that values a certain level of, well, professionalism, I need to repress many of my baser instincts both in the classroom and among my colleagues.  Although I have many Selves (like most post-modern individuals), the one that come out for opportunities of hilarity is something of an ass, not unlike Nick Bottom.

Take last night, for example.  I was feeling comfortable and friendly with my colleagues at one of our quarterly Faculty Forum soirees.  I saw the opportunity for a joke based on the physical appearance of a friend and, sadly, made it.  BUT, the annoying and rude meaning that I intended -- "you are very muscular and busy at outdoors activities but the last I heard you weren't promoting your intellectual labor enough" -- was instead given a very different annoying and rude meaning: "you've put on weight."

I will not share what I actually said and ask for arbitration because that would entail revealing the identity of my colleague.  Let's just say that as soon as I realized how my comment had been interpreted I was aghast at the taste of my foot in my mouth.

Ad for the Fox TV show with a warning for me.

I was perplexed by this colleague's sanguine response to my perceived insult until he recommended the television program It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which he described as a guilty pleasure that pushed the boundaries of the acceptable.  So as soon as I got home I watched the first three episodes of season one on Netflix.   The wikipedia entry on the show says, "Each member of the gang shows varying degrees of dishonesty, egotism, selfishness, greed, pettiness, ignorance, laziness and unethical behavior, and they are often engaged in controversial activities."  As I watched I recognized classic vaudeville moments updated for an age that pretends to a greater politesse than the early Twentieth Century.  I also noted that, at least in the first three episodes, the shows could be analyzed as an ongoing argument between between political correctness and its lack as it positioned the viewer as someone who buys into liberal humanism and then as someone who criticizes it.

After watching these episodes I gained a greater understanding of why my younger colleague could suffer my "being myself" with such equanimity.