I am several weeks behind on my Closer viewing, so please don't tell me if the horrible attorney/rapist has come back and whether they get him this time.
But anyway, so the other night I just caught the episode guest starring Amy Sedaris as Fritz's nutty would-be psychic sister.
Overall, it was a darn good episode, up to the high standard this show sets week after week.
Except for this--when Amy Sedaris shows up, we know she's a nutty freak because she cooks a bunch of...wait for it...vegan food! Oh, the hilarity! Watch as Brenda Lee and Fritz share covert looks of disgust at the gross food! Because what's grosser that food made with no animal products? (do not mention this to the millions of Chinese vegetarians who enjoy dairy-free vegetarian food on a daily basis.) Oh, the yuks just keep coming.
Now, I admire vegans, but I am not one. I partake of the occasional cheese and butter. But I object to this on a couple of levels. One: it's such a cheap, hackneyed joke, the kind of bad-sitcom laugh track thing that The Closer doesn't need to stoop to.
Two: I just wish vegan weren't tv shorthand for annoying freak. Now, perhaps in L.A. there are a lot of annoying, self-righteous vegans, and the TV writers like to do stuff like this to piss off their annoying friends and acquaintances. As a longtime contrarian (such a better word than asshole), I understand this, but, I mean really.
Now, again, I'm not a vegan, but I have to say that as far as being nutty goes, what's nutty is the way we think about animals in this society. Most people object to animal suffering when they see it, but happily support it in the form of meat and dairy products. I'm the same way--despite my curmudgeonly exterior, I can't stand to see an animal suffer, but if they're suffering in order to bring me some delicious cheese, well, I kind of look the other way.
Confine your dog in a tiny space, overfeed him and don't let him exercise, and you're liable to find yourself on an episode of animal cops. Do the same thing to a pig, and you're just makin' bacon! We as a society have a pretty weird, inexplicable standard for what consitutes animal cruelty--we punish it on an individual level and reward it on a mass level. So all the poor vegans do is point this out, and say, you know, if you don't want animals to suffer, maybe you shouldn't fund an industry that is predicated on animal suffering.
Wow, how nutty! How flaky and new-agey! Applying your ethics consistently? Who the hell are these kooks anyway?






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