Read on Twitter
Every now and then, someone discovers that abortion, like any human experience that involves sex, politics, bureaucracy, relationships, etc., can contain elements of humor. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/06/saint-frances-how-a-new-wave-of-taboo-busting-comedies-are-tackling-abortion
Six years ago, the same year "Obvious Child" came out, Mindy Kaling rejected the idea that television comedies could/should address abortion. https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/abortion-on-the-mindy-project-mindy-kaling-says-it-wont-happen.html
But she 1) overlooked that they often have; 2) has been proven definitively wrong as many have adeptly done so since.
So here is a VERY LONG THREAD with a comprehensive list of comedic stories about choosing abortion in American film and TV.
So here is a VERY LONG THREAD with a comprehensive list of comedic stories about choosing abortion in American film and TV.
Released on Christmas Day 1963, we have "Love w/ the Proper Stranger" starring Natalie Wood. In 60s/early 70s: Goldstein (1964), Alfie (1966), End of the Road (1970), Making It (1971), To Find a Man (1972), & Play it as it Lays (1972). (To be fair, these were comedy/dramas.)
In 1972: our first comedic TV abortion! (Not the first ever TV abortion, as many believe). On "Maude" 47-year-old Maude Findlay faces an unplanned pregnancy. At the encouragement of her adult daughter—who quips, “It’s just like going to the dentist!”—Maude did obtain an abortion.
In the late 70s/early 80s for film: Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976), The Last American Virgin (1982), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Racing with the Moon (1984).
On TV, Facts of Life (82) & Buffalo Bill (82) had abortion stories, but then there was a huge gap until early 2000s.
But there were lots of abortion comedy in films in the 90s: Smoke (1995), Wilbur Falls (1998), Standing on Fishes (1999), Entropy (1999), Topsy Turvy (1999) and of course, Dogma (1999).
In 2000s, lots of smaller films: High Fidelity (00), Baby Boy (01), The Anniversary Party (01), The Fluffer (01), Girls Will Be Girls (03), Palindromes (04), The Right Way (04), Venus (06), Greenberg (10), MacGruber (10), Natural Selection (11), Bachelorette (12).
There were also more and more on TV again, after almost 20 years: South Park (00,01,08), The OC (04), Weeds (06), Scrubs (06), Sarah Silverman Program (2007), Boston Legal (08), Archer (10).
In 2010, FOX refused to air a Family Guy episode abt abortion. (FG had previously included abortion jokes, but not an entire episode.) When Seth MacFarlane was asked “Did it occur to you that maybe abortion isn’t a funny subject?” he replied, “It didn’t." https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/how-family-guy-tried-to-talk-about-abortion/
"[Abortion]’s tougher to defend, I think, when it’s a comedy. If this were an episode of ‘House,’ it probably would have aired." [MacFarlane was correct here; FOX had aired other stories including abortion on dramas before (including three on House, MD), but never on comedy.]
MacFarlane: "I’ve always thought that’s maybe a policy that should be revisited, because it undervalues the power of comedy to make a statement that is at least as profound as the power of a live-action drama."
Family Guy included more stories abt getting/disclosing abortions in 11 & 12; other TV shows did, too: The Game (12), My Mad Fat Diary (13), Orange in the New Black (13), The Comeback (14). Whereas movies included far more comedic abortion stories before, TV now led narrative.
Then in 2014: Obvious Child! And everyone started asking the same question: Can abortion be funny? http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/abotion-comedy-obviouschild.html
Even Jenny Slate pushed back on the label of the "abortion rom-com": “The movie isn’t saying that abortions are funny. It’s saying that people are funny."
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/26/jenny-slate-obvious-child
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/26/jenny-slate-obvious-child
However, Obvious Child did seem to open up a wider range of abortion stories to be told. For film, in the next two years, we saw Grandma (2015), with Lily Tomlin as an eccentric grandmother helping her granddaughter get an abortion, and Demolition (2016).
But TV really picked up the pace on the funny abortions: Girls (15), Another Period (15), Grace and Frankie (15), You're the Worst (15), Please Like Me (15), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (16), Better Things (16), GLOW (17), Archer (17), Brockmire (17), Veep (17).
My favorite of these from this time, though, is BoJack Horseman (2016). The story is crazy, but here's the best part, an exchange between Diane, objecting to some over-the-top jokes about abortion, and a young girl. Both are in the abortion clinic waiting room:
Diane: It doesn’t offend you? What about the part where she says, ‘I hope and pray to god my little fetus has a soul / Because I want it to feel pain when I eject it from my hole’?
Girl: It’s a joke. You get that it’s a joke, right?
Diane: Well, obviously.
Girl: It’s a joke. You get that it’s a joke, right?
Diane: Well, obviously.
Girl: Do you think she actually wants to shoot her fetus with a gun?
Diane: No, I get it.
Girl: Getting an abortion is scary, w/ all the protesters out front, and how you have to listen to the heartbeat and all that. When you can joke about it, it makes it less scary, you know?
Diane: No, I get it.
Girl: Getting an abortion is scary, w/ all the protesters out front, and how you have to listen to the heartbeat and all that. When you can joke about it, it makes it less scary, you know?
The show is not just making jokes about abortion—it is offering a theory of what humor can contribute to the cultural conversation about abortion. Here, the humor is ultimately helpful to the teenage girl getting the abortion. It makes it less scary, less taboo.
Importantly, the girl does not find the abortion itself scary, rather she is intimidated by antiabortion impositions like protesters and mandatory ultrasound viewing. For this fictional character, irreverent humor is the antidote to such pervasive impositions.
[Here are some other thoughts from a few years ago about abortion and humor: https://twitter.com/gesisson/status/991378047788924929]
TV has continued to embrace humorous abortion stories, including many more about people of color: Dear White People (18), Insecure (18), Claws (18), She's Gotta Have It (19).
We've also recently seen Big Mouth (18), Sex Education (19), Workin Moms (19), Shrill (19), Special (19), Veep (again! 19), Orange Is the New Black (19), The Letdown (19), Shameless (20), Curb Your Enthusiasm (20), Run (20).
And then we saw one recent movie: Saint Frances (20).
The tradition of humor in abortion stories is a long one, and there is plenty about abortion that is deeply personal, ironic, hypocritical, bizarre, fraught, and clarifying for characters -- perfect sources for comedy.
The tradition of humor in abortion stories is a long one, and there is plenty about abortion that is deeply personal, ironic, hypocritical, bizarre, fraught, and clarifying for characters -- perfect sources for comedy.
So, yes: abortion can be funny. It often is, both in real life and onscreen.
[A lot of this thread is lifted from this paper, which, if you've read this far, I would be happy to send you: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2017.1414864]
[A lot of this thread is lifted from this paper, which, if you've read this far, I would be happy to send you: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2017.1414864]
Aw shoot, I forgot Jane the Virgin (16). Unforgivable.
