Lunatic of the Week: Media Scheduling

By Meg Curtis, PhD

Just think! We could have learned a foreign language or solved world hunger. Instead, the American media expects us to major in Abnormal Psychology. Why do this? The baby needs changing. The kids need a lullaby. In place of singing “Summertime,” we dance to a tune composed for the Broadway version of Frankenstein.

Ah, now we recognize the storyline which has bedeviled us since Friday night: Young scientist goes mad, and creates his own monster. If he hadn’t spent those long hours in that horrid neuroscience laboratory, he’d be normal like us—right? Dream on, America. It’s not normal to obsess over Abnormal Psychology.

Jack Nicholson, where are you when we need you? You went into that role of the Joker, and you came out again, too. Maybe James Holmes’ problem was he needed a course in method acting, instead of neuroscience. Method actors know you don’t take your role off the screen. Tai kwon do athletes don’t take their expertise out of the dojun, either--unless they're under attack.

Let’s see—who was last week’s Lunatic of the Week? Oh yes, Sandusky, who got prime time for a little Broadway review of his villainous activities this week, competing for the position of the showstopper. Then, Penn State had to haul Joe Paterno’s statue away because he might inspire us to play football, instead of obsessing over Abnormal Psychology.

The media create the impression, it seems, that all of us just might go mad eventually. It’s going around, and, if the NIH could get funding for a vaccination, that might become the show to end all media shows. In the meantime, how about a little Sherlock Holmes? He knows how to wear a cape. He catches the villains. He lets us sleep. Or is sanity the one state of mind Americans really find boring?