I attended an evening event for mothers hosted by the school one child attends. The intent is to provide mothers with a pleasant and supportive evening, and includes a light meal and entertainment.
The entertainment this year was a stand up comedian. I tend to smile at jokes more than laugh, but last year the speaker was so funny that I was laughing throughout her talk. She had a positive and thoughtful message underneath all of the jokes, and I enjoyed it enormously.
This year was a different kind of presenter. She got up and began making jokes about the people sitting there; after waiting five minutes for her to get to her main content, I just couldn’t take it any more.
My sense of humor doesn’t extend to listening to someone make fun of or put down other people. This is behavior that for many years I’ve cautioned my children against and I respond strongly if my child makes fun of another person or group of people. While everyone has an audience and I’m sure she was entertaining to many people there, I don’t have a stomach for content whose only purpose is to generate laughter and doesn’t offer some kind of reflection or insight.
Based on the introduction, I expected it to be a short segment of less than half an hour at the most, and decided to wait outside for her to finish since my conversation with a teacher was cut short and I wanted to finish up. It was late, I was exhausted, I had an hour drive home waiting for me…and the comedian continued for an hour.
My time is precious to me, and being so tired, it upped my frustration at wasting my time. I kept wishing I had known what the content and time line for the presenter had been so I could have made a better choice.
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The following night, I went to a different mother’s event hosted by a different school. I met the occupational therapist I had spoken to the night before, as she works at both schools, and she cautioned me that the program for the evening was the same as the previous evening.
I mentioned not having stayed in for the first performance, and she commented that it was good I left so soon. I asked her how she noticed when I left; she explained the comedian made fun of every person who walked out, and that was generally the kind of humor the entire time.
I was so glad to have the heads-up about that night’s schedule, and to have a chance to make a better decision on this night.
I got to chat with mothers from both of my sons’ classes; the food was delicious, the rabbi who gave the Torah talk was excellent, and then I departed as the comedian was walking towards the stage. It was a lovely evening and it was freeing to have the information that allowed me to be conscious of my time and energy, for a kind of do-over from the night before.
Avivah
One Response
Very upsetting. Why would I want to sit and listen to someone cracking jokes at others expense? Kol Hakovod you got up to leave. Maybe you can mention to the schools and to whoever was in charge of the entertainment that it was not fitting for a school to have a performer like this. (It sounds like others left also) .