In The Name Of Humor

I listen to a local radio show on the way to work. They have a nice blend of witty banter, traffic and weather, interesting guests, creative (and sometimes bizarre) contests, a good music format, and intelligent as well as infantile, bathroom humor.

This morning they kicked off the holiday weekend by broadcasting their show from a bar at the beach. The place was packed and they chose fans from the crowd for the latest contest, Shock and Paw (or something very much like that). The hosts would ask multiple choice questions of two contestants who would "buzz in" their answers by pressing a button on remote controls for electric dog training collars that were fitted around the necks of two of the station's interns.

I always feel bad for the interns. The pay sucks, for one. Also, their internship -- whether it's a year or several -- is replete with enduring the obligatory hazing at the hands of the hosts. Any outlandish schtick that the morning crew thinks up is usually dumped onto the interns for everyone's entertainment. In their defense, no one is ever hurt -- well, not seriously or permanently -- and I've never heard the interns bitter at all. Maybe that's just the way the radio industry works.

Anyway, at the first Yelp from the interns after both contestants responded to the first question, I vacillated between laughing out loud and being disgusted and (mildly) horrified. One of the girls, after seeing her effect on the intern, said Dude, I'm so sorry! She didn't realize how the game worked. And the show's producer made sure to mention that both collars had been turned up to their maximum setting -- like for a St. Bernard sized dog.

I don't like the whole idea behind those collars. I think there are better ways to train pets without using pain and torture -- it's called conditioning using positive and negative reinforcement. And at hearing the way the interns screeched every time the button was pressed, it made me think of the poor animals that are subjected to this without any clue as to what's going on.

But the interns did have a clue and they put these ghoulish devices around their necks willingly in the name of humor. So with that in mind, I decided that it was more fun to be amused at today's idiocy rather than offended.

And as Steve Martin once said, "Comedy is not pretty".