PUTTING THE MAD IN MAD TV

I am currently reading Artie Lange's book "Too Fat to Fish". I have been a Howard Stern listener for quite some time. Anyone who is a listener knows that Artie is an addict and deals with bouts of depression. Well, I thought that by reading his book, I would try to find connections between addiction, mental illness and/or trauma. Well, that and I am addicted to reading about tragic figures (Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, etc.) Artie's life story is chaotic so far but nothing really shocks me since I own a front row seat when it comes to irrationality. Today, I was searching for MAD TV clips since I never saw Artie's work on the show. The first video I stumbled upon was very ironic. I will let the subject matter speak for itself. I would love to hear what you all think. I am not for censorship but imagine if this clip stereotyped African American's or people with AIDS. I don't think the sketch would have seen the light of day. Of course, it took years to achieve this amount of respect. More reason to keep fighting for the dignity and respect of those who deal with mental illness. Above is a clip of "Schizophrenic Jeopardy" presented by Mad TV. Lastly, for those of you who may object to Howard Stern, you may find it interesting that his show is one of the few to discuss mental illness very openly and honestly. These discussions end up correcting many myths and stereotypes. What makes this powerful? Stern has about 20 million listeners. 

AM I DOING THE BEST THAT I CAN?

I would like to thank everyone for taking interest in my blog and cause. It has been less than a year since I have started this blog. I received a comment recently (July 27th) which lead me to wonder, am I do the best job I can? In my mind I am but I would like to hear from you. In my quest to fight stigma, my main concern is to inspire others to treat all illness as equal. Have I missed the mark? Have I contributed  to stigma? Is it wrong of me to mention words like SCHIZOPHRENIA, MENTAL ILLNESS, ETC? When I think of this topic, I think of AIDS and how we have almost erased stigma. It took a long time, but it happened. In order to see progress, sometimes we have to put ourselves out there, no matter what others think. I would like to see the same happen for mental illness, or whatever you want to call it. My gut is that you are all happy with my work thus far. I don't like to welcome criticism, but as an artist, it comes with the territory:)