alessay

Question: How does Radner use humor to overcome her dire circumstances?

     Most people think of Gilda Radner as the spunky, and funny comedienne from
Saturday Night Live, and she was. But there was also a darker side to Gilda's life,
something not quite so funny. Gilda had ovarian cancer. Yet even though Gilda was
going through something so tragic and scary, she always made room for humor in
her life. Humor was what kept her going and was what helped her deal with the
fact that she was sick, because humor was one of the most important things in
Gilda's life. This is proven by Gilda's statement, 'Cancer is probably one of the most unfunny things in life, but as a comedienne, even cancer couldn't stop me from
seeing humor in what I went through.'
       'I was fighting for my life against cancer, a more lethal foe than even the
interior decorator'. Comedians often have a hard time dealing with difficult
problems and therefore, turn to humor.This is exactly what Gilda did. She felt if
she made jokes about what she was going through, she could make herself and the
people around her more comfortable with what was going on in her life. Her first
time in the hospital, Gilda focused on the nurses to make her laugh. She would
watch episodes of Saturday Night Live with the nurses, in which she appeared. She
copied one nurses haircut, and would ask about their personal lives. Then she
would come up with funny advice for them. It was as if dealing with their problems might make hers go away. Her nurses constantly asked her if she needed anything,
sp eventually she came up with a little game. A couple minutes after the nurse had
left she would buzz them and say into the intercom, 'Nuuuuurseee', in her most
pathetic voice. She said of her times with the nurses, 'I was still the clown, still
wanting to be liked...to be loved...to be funny...to perform.'
        Another way Gilda worked humor into her situation was visualization. She
pictured life as a deal, and tried to laugh about the fact that humans didnt want to
accept this deal. That they could live for a while but then they must die. She
attended a support group called, 'The Wellness Community'. They would say things
like, 'You never know, you could die just by being hit by a car' and she would reply
'Yeah and the driver will probably be me!'. She was upset that she was a
comedienne with cancer. She thought it would make much more sense had a
dramatic actress had it. She wondered how she could make cancer funny. How she could make people laugh about the unlaughable. In bed she would make up characters of who she could be, and refused to go out if she couldn't decide on her character. Since she was in bed so much she thought of characters all the time. She visualized the cancer cells in her body as if they were stupid. Whenthe chemo came, the cancer cells would get scared and run away. Then the visualization changed.She said she'd always loved doing laundry, so suddenly she'd picture her health as a pink, clean towel. Cancer was the dirt on the towel, and she would picture herself washing it away.
        Gilda also worked on poems, songs, and videos. She had her husband tape her at her last chemotherapy. Just to make sure it was always entertaining, they would tape the dog when it got boring.She also taped other patients so they could enjoy watching themselves also, and get a little laugh. She came up with cancer bashing poems that made people feel they could beat all cancer cells. The poems, of course, were humorous.
         In reading this book you can really understand what a difficult time Gilda went through. It describes in detail all the horrible thing that have happened. Yet not a page goes by where there is no atleast one funny line. Everything has a bit of humor in it, it's like she cant describe her ordeal without trying to make people laugh in one way or another. As Gilda and her father used to say, "Its Always Something."