Everybody supports the rights of the satirist, unless they are the ones being satirized. It’s an unfortunate fact. Nobody likes to be raked over the coals, but it’s vitally important that everybody gets their turn. The real test of a national movement or of any prominent public figure is in how they respond to such satire. When the time comes to have your values challenged, your name poked at, everything you stand for lambasted and attacked, the details of your personal life lampooned, your good name sullied, you can stand up, accept the joke, roll with the punches, the public will almost always reward you for it. There is a reason that people remember Nixon on Laugh In. People that can have their moment under the hammer and can face the satirist with dignity. It is a moment that tests the true integrity and character of a person.

Carol Burnett has failed that test.

Let me fill in the details for any of you who are not aware. I guess the people behind the Fox Animated Series The Family Guy, wanted to use some of the music from The Carol Burnett Show. She refused to allow them the rights. The show, supposedly angry over the rejection and apparently taking a page from the South Park school of conflict managment, rewrote the scene. The version that aired took a few personal shots, admittedly filthy and sophomoric ones, at Carol Burnett, and so she got pissed off and filed a TWO MILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT against fox.

The thing that really gets me about this is that HER show took all sorts of shots a celebrities, was renowned for its satire of various entertainment conventions. What if the people from “As The World Turns” had gotten all huffy and sued her for their “As The Stomach Turns” sketch? It’s the same principle. The problem here is that Carol Burnett can’t take the shot, and doesn’t get the jokes. It doesn’t even really matter if the jokes are even funny, it only matters that they ARE jokes. It’s not like some reporter called her a filth porn booth custodian in the New York Times. It’s THE FAMILY GUY. It’s not meant to be taken seriously. I find Carol Burnett’s hypocritical response and defensive legal temper tantrum disturbing and sad. It says nothing about The Family Guy, which does this kind of crap all the time, and speaks volumes about Burnett. The style of humor may have changed since her day, but the fact that she doesn’t understand the comedy doesn’t change the rules applying to the people that make the jokes.

She of all people should know how to lighten up.