Is there comedy in cancer?
by Jaime
August 4, 2010
A comedy about a woman living with cancer. Is this possible? Showtime has a new show called The Big C, in which Laura Linney plays a woman who is diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma. Linney says her character has “been in a state of denial her whole life, and it takes the shock of her mortality to wake her up.” Personally, I think a show like this is long overdue. Those of us in the cancer world, or who have family members or close friends dealing with cancer, know that life is not all gloom and doom after a diagnosis. Sometimes, laughter is the best medicine. Life goes on after a cancer diagnosis, though it may not feel like it does – or should – at the time. And with life, comes laughter.
I am hoping the show is factual, true, and honest. I hope it brings dimension to living with cancer and helps start conversations about Stage IV cancer in particular. People aren’t just “dying of Stage IV cancer” – they’re living with Stage IV cancer. After all, we’re ALL dying aren’t we, when it gets right down to it? I hope the show adds to the de-stigmatization of cancer and helps bring a little levity. The title illustrates that not so long ago, the word cancer wasn’t even used when talking about the disease – people just didn’t use it. Even doctors did not tell their patients they had cancer. We may have come a long way in those respects, but in other, more human aspects of disease, we still have a ways to go.
Personally, I have seen this play out in “real life”. You bring up cancer and suddenly, people are afraid to make eye contact with you, or they change the subject, or stop calling you. When my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I had friends who never once asked how she was doing, how I was doing – even when I came back to NC after going up North for her mastectomy, they never asked about my trip, nothing. When my aunt was diagnosed with end-stage ovarian cancer, only my friends who have had cancer in their own lives have ever kept tabs on how things are with her. Many of my friends – even those in the health field – avoided the topic, ignored when I mentioned it, or wouldn’t meet my eyes when I told them. Whether this has to do with their own fears or their own issues, it’s still hurtful. Maybe this show will help break those attitudes down and chip away at people’s fears. At least that’s what I’m hoping.
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