The Real Best Comedy on Television

So the Emmys were announced last week and at the end of August we'll finally see the telecast where some golden statues that are not Oscars are handed out and hopefully Jimmy Fallon makes us laugh a couple of times. It's sure to be a bit of a snoozefest, but as I love pop culture and never miss the big award shows, I will tune in.

I've also been watching a lot more TV in the past year. Lots of really good shows have been nominated and if someone doesn't give Jane Lynch an Emmy I will cry. I usually don't care who wins (except I would LOVE to see Conan win), but this year I think there will be a disparaging difference between what should win Best Comedy and what will win.

Who will win? Glee, of course. It's certainly been Ryan Murphy's year and his tour de force show which generates lots of buzz, laughs, and tears got the Golden Globe and the SAG, so, naturally, it will probably get the Emmy as well. And the show is definitely deserving. I always laugh at least once during the hour it's on, and the show's cast and crew work tirelessly. The show itself has gone above and beyond and addressed some heavy subject matter. Plus, the music is really fun sometimes. I thoroughly enjoyed the Madonna episode.

But at the same time, I don't think Glee is necessarily the Best Comedy on Television. I would give that title, and the Emmy for Best Comedy Series, to Modern Family. In the last half of the Glee season, the show almost got self-congratulatory, over-the-top, and slightly cheesey. Also, as much as I adore Kurt, the soul of the show, and every story line with him makes me weepy, I think we were verging on beating a dead horse. It felt almost tiresome at one point to watch Glee. I started to really dislike Rachel and Mr. Schue. And some of the plot lines came out of nowhere. The whole Schue seducing Sue made me want to barf. Seriously. It does not make sense for their characters to enter into any sort of romantic entanglement.

Modern Family, however, has ten perfectly drawn characters, who are funny, yet true to themselves. Love for the show aside, the last half of the Modern Family season was a strong showing. The episode where Phil donned a fake moutsache and got locked in the port-o-potty? Hilarious. How about Cameron spraying Lily with water to keep her awake at the airport? Genius. The show is so funny, yet never over the top. Modern Family makes you feel good after watching an episode. The voice over can be cheesey at times, but it's always cut with something funny. My friend Pat said it perfectly when he said, "after watching an episode of Modern Family, it makes me want to go call my mom."

People say Modern Family isn't topical like Glee is. Um, hello? A gay couple living together in California raising an adopted baby? It's topical without being political. The show shows a gay couple just being regular people. It's fantastic. I know people who watch Modern Family and it's made them less homophobic because they see Mitchell and Cameron struggling with things new parents are always dealing with.

There's also the argument that Glee is more of a dramedy than a comedy, and I agree there. Some episodes are funnier than others. A few episodes were cringeworthy and brought me to tears (see Kurt and Finn's argument where Finn calls him a fag. That KILLED me. I felt so crummy after watching that episode). Glee's best episode, in my opinion, was it's pilot. The hilarious voiceovers from Rachel and Finn, plus the entrance of Sue Sylvester and an enticing plot that actually made me care about Mr. Schuester was fantastic. And then 'Don't Stop Believing' was reborn and it gave me chills. Where has all of that gone? There need to be more episodes like that!

Modern Family's pilot was funny, but I could name at least ten more episodes that came after it that were equally as funny, and for that, I say, in my humble blogger opinion, that it really is the best comedy on television.

Women Authors

Recently I clicked on a photo gallery on Oprah.com of readers 'favorite women writers.' The list of 30 or so literary femmes included Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jodi Piccoult. I've read books or shot stories from all these ladies and I can see why they are beloved. But I couldn't help but notice that some of my favorite female authors are not on the list. Perhaps it's because I am not in Oprah's target demographic, as I'm still in my 20s and I have no children. But the list is not without it's holes.

First of all, if we're going to look at some of the books that have sold the most copies, it's hard to overlook the powerhouses of J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. I am not a fan of Meyer's novels by any means, but there's no denying the woman got a bunch of other women to read books. I'm surprised that the cougar demographic didn't list the brain that spawned Edward Cullen as a favorite. I'm even more shocked that there is no mention of the fabulous J.K. Rowling. I know she is sometimes discredited because the books, and subsequently the franchise, are a worldwide phenomenon, but she's seriously a good writer. Her plots are thick, characters are colorful and she's got a knack for descriptive writing.

Speaking of women who wrote powerhouse novels, the big series this year is Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games and it's concluding in August. She was recently named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People and she's nowhere on the list. The absence of Rowling, Meyer and now Collins' leads me to believe that YA is once again being wrongfully ignored. And this irritates me.

Moving away from YA, one of my favorite authors, Jhumpa Lahiri, is not on the list. The woman wrote Interpreter of Maladies and it won a Pulitzer. Then she wrote The Namesake and it was made into a movie. People have loved The Unaccustomed Earth (including this girl right here!) and she's not on the list at all. Hm. Interesting.

You know who else is missing? Amy Tan. Sure, maybe she doesn't publish like she used to, but there's no denying she wrote lots of books that people read and one that stands out to me as a personal favorite from high school, The Joy Luck Club. You'd think that the book that analyzes mother-daughter relationships to the extreme would be right up Oprah readers' alley. But not so I guess.

They also failed to include some of the more 'classic' female authors. I didn't mean go back in time and talk about Jane Austen, but there's no mention of the fabulous Harper Lee, who's still kicking at age 84, and this is a big year for her. Fifty years since To Kill A Mockingbird! Give the girl some love.

While I agree with lots of the names on the list (and never heard of some of the others, but that's okay, I'll just research them more) I can't help but notice glaring omissions that I would have noticed if I was the editor.