Sarah Silverman—Just Say No!

Somewhere between There's Something About Mary and Family Guy, it happened.

My, oh my, it happened.

Shock humor. The very phrase sends an ice-cold shiver up my spine. Frightful flashes of cynical, "edgy" punchlines flood my mind—"they went there" moments, kind-hearted grannies "unexpectedly" cussing, semen on X, poop on Y, a penis caught in Z.

Ugh.

No—for the last time, no—it wasn't funny when you "went there." It wasn't daring, it wasn't witty, it wasn't provocative, and it sure as Hell wasn't courageous or cutting-edge.

Now, it's true I'd need all Vishnu's fingers to point out every offending purveyor of this moronic slurry, so lemme narrow my focus.

Sarah Silverman. Just Sarah Silverman—dynamite with a laser beam, Exhibit A: It's the nice Jewish girl with the potty mouth! Shame, shame! She's the one who farts and says racist things! Taboo, taboo! And what did she say about grandpa? You gotta rewind that!

Argh.

It's times like these I know just what to do: When my soul's cut up and infected by incisive this and fecal that, I go and cleanse in the healing comedic waters of Groucho, Monty Python, or Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The perfect one-liner, a knight hitting blokes with a chicken, and jovial puppets reviewing deliciously bad movies—now that's comedy.