Because They Make Me Smile

When I was living with my friend Briton in Norman while I was working on my Master's degree, we decided to have a movie night with our friend Jo. She picked the movie. The cinematic masterpiece she brought over? Team America: World Police. And if you know Jo, you know that this is a quintessential Jo movie. Now, I had my reservations about watching it. After all, it was a movie about marionettes taking on terrorists, specifically Kim Jong Il, and it just sounded pretty stupid. And gross. And all those things that I raled against at the time.

 

We decided that the worst that would happen is that we'd turn it off and watch something else.

 

We laughed hysterically for the duration of the movie. Mostly because, let's face it, marionettes singing about fighting terrorism, being terrorists, and falling in love (ha!) is just so incredibly ridiculous that it's funny. And our friends who brought us South Park have such a unique view on life that they manage to yes, be gross and crude, but also be astute in their satire.

 

Just now, as I sat at my desk working diligently on this day before Thanksgiving, the strains of "Pearl Harbor Sucks, and I Miss You" came over my iPod. And I smiled. And I laughed out loud. Because as resistant as I was to watching that movie initially, I now have several of the songs from that same movie on my iPod because they make me laugh. Sometimes literally out loud, not like lol-ing in a text message.

 

And it also taught me the value of freedom: $1.05.