Get Incensed

“Who’s the head bull-goose loony around here?” ….

Back in July, there was a study released by the British government that was announced in the Daily Mail with the following headline:

As a card-carrying skeptic of most things governmental and as a professional comic and humor writer, this seemed too good to pass up as a topic for a Get Incensed salvo. And I didn’t.

In a piece, One Toke Over the Line, I attempted, as the British say, to “take the piss out of” what would seem to be a dubious statistic at best.

At least one reader missed the point and fired off the following comment:

1. Mithotyn Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 7:54 pm e

Wow, you are very ignorant. Not only is it true (As well as psychosis) but you obviously don’t even know what schizophrenia is with such quotes as “I’ll have more to say on this topic as soon as the giant spiders with Larry King’s head stop attacking …”

You watch too many movies. I work for a supported employment agency in Michigan and I deal with the mentally ill all day long, you can never tell by looking that they are ill and most of them do not know or will admit that they are ill, either. These are disorders that effect THINKING, cognition, perception and behavior. I wonder if you even knew that marijuana will cause depression and anxiety as well. The problem I have with you pro-weeders is that you go way too far in your belief that marijuana is safer than water. It seems just because you know a few people who smoke and *seem* fine, you think you can go ahead and disregard all of the scientific information regarding it that says that it *IS* bad and *DOES* destroy lives, it just all depends on what *YOU* consider to be *BAD* and *LIFE*. Surely you can find alcoholics who don’t mind shaking because of brain damage and you can find potheads who don’t mind being anxious, depressed, lazy and ill-cognitive. Please, get a education before posting more garbage on your blog.

I thought I’d take Monday’s post for a thoughtful, well-reasoned juvenile and snarky reply …

Mithotyn,
Wow. I so want to urge you to have a joint and mellow out.

Although it’s not immediately obvious in some cases, Get Incensed is, first and foremost, a humor blog. Smart, witty and sexy with a whimsical irreverence, yes - but still a humor blog.

Every once in awhile, when writing or performing, it will occur to me I’m not nearly as funny as I think I am or that I’ve picked on some undeserving person or group.

This wasn’t one of those times.

I’m not sure whether it was the study or the headline that was in error, but to state “smoking one joint raises the danger of schizophrenia by 40%” is patently absurd.

To assert that two-minutes of experimentation in college (or even third grade) is the direct cause of something as complex and ill-understood as serious mental illness is ludicrous and I don’t believe any respectable researcher would ever make such a statement.

It was exactly this kind of junk science I was taking issue with and poking fun at.

Despite the fact that I ended the last sentence with a preposition, I like to think I’m not quite as ignorant as you may believe. I’m pretty sure schizophrenia is at least partly reflected in the inability to perceive reality and often involves auditory hallucinations as well as strange or paranoid delusions.

I’m a New York City kid, so maybe things are different in Michigan, but where I come from being attacked by giant spiders with Larry King’s head qualifies as a strange and paranoid delusion. I left out the auditory portion of my particular vision because I didn’t want to terrify any little children and also because, when I listen to Larry King, I find it difficult to discern whether I’m hallucinating or not.

You mentioned you “deal with the mentally ill all day long, [and] you can never tell by looking that they are ill and most of them do not know or will admit that they are ill, either.” Here we share some common ground. I work with stand-up comics, so I can relate to your situation.

I found it interesting you noted marijuana can cause depression and anxiety and then, in the next sentence, labeled me as “pro-weed.”

Life can cause depression and anxiety, but that doesn’t mean I’m pro-suicide.

I am pro-choice, in that I think people ought to be able to choose who or what they smoke, drink or sleep with once they are of legal age and that they ought to accept the consequences and responsibilities of those choices.

Summing up in my own defense, I just wanted to let you know that I have, in fact, worked my way through the U.S. public school system and graduated from college. As such, any garbage in this blog is already largely the result of my education. I’m not sure how much any more formal education would help.

In all seriousness, I applaud your efforts to help people with mental illness; it is work I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do. My hat is off to you.

I would be happy to discuss further any of the issues we’ve raised in our mutual rantings.

Your buddy,
Mark

humor, marijuana, pot, cheeba, mary jane, grass, weed, schizophrenia, hallucinations, Larry King, reader comments, British science, oxymorons