JUNO
when does a joke go too far?
when do we begin to let Hollywood
assume our responsibilities?

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning ("'Juno' joke on adoption upsets parents, teens") got me thinking. This is one of the best movies (ok one of the few I've seen in the theatre in these last few months) I seen in the past year. It was real, authentic, messy, dirty, down-to-earth. It dwelt with remarkably difficult themes (teenage pregnancy-love-divorce-adoption-acceptance) in a way that wasn't trite, didn't involve a light saber, or even had Bruce Willis save the day. The article talks about some criticism of the movie for a line about adoptions and China. Now the joke isn't the most PC, or humanly thoughtful comment. Yet it was something that a regular teenager would say to a friend in a moment of real-life as opposed to a policy-motivated statement that the Surgeon General should include in his report on teenage pregnancy.

I found myself wondering where we draw the line between humor and instruction, between when a joke goes too far and when we start to expect others (in particular our modern, capitalist-based media houses) to raise and educate our children. Read the article. It's good. I tried to find the clip that they talk of, but I suspect that Youtube has already purged it due to pressure. If you know where it is post the address in the comments box. Here's the trailer for the movie.