Yesterday was a long one at Stately Spoilers Manor East, as Widget awakened in the middle of the night and began projectile horking in a much-less entertaining revival of ‘The Exorcist.’ Granted, it was just a stomach bug, and certainly nothing on the days we spent in Pediatrics learning to inject insulin a few years ago, but it was still a good time to bust out a little ‘Tales Of The Beanworld’ to try to help with the discomfort and unpleasantness of it all, with a couple of Power Rangers episodes we had in queue and ending the evening with the new episode of ‘Doctor Who’; a Widget pop culture trifecta. As of this writing, she seems to be feeling a bit better, and while the reading of comic books cannot be proven to help with healing, it’s as good an explanation as any other, which leads us to today’s query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) finds Stephen King short stories to do this trick when I feel awful, but they’re not really the kind of thing that makes other people feel better, asking: What beloved pop culture would you share with someone you loved help them weather a sick day?
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To start with I’d have to say Rocky & Bullwinkle. As a kid, whenever I got sick my parents would go to our local library and check out a stack of VHS tapes. There was usually some Underdog and Looney Toons put in as well. That may explain my love of classic animation. And nowadays I also add some humorous TV such as “Gilligan’s Island” & “I dream of Jeannie” to name a few. As I’ve heard mentioned over the years, laughter is one of the best medicines. I know those stomach bugs are no fun at all, thankfully they usually don’t last real long. Glad to hear she’s feeling better.
Futurama always cheers me up.
On the other end of the spectrum at “The Worst Possible Thing”, I still can’t watch the Pilot for Twin Peaks without remembering the day I had the stomach flu and tried watch it. I can’t watch the scene where Mr. Palmer sees Laura’s body without remembering the shuddering cramps my abdomen was wracked with.
There are various episodes of older series and a few movies that cause similar memories to surface when I see them due to all the stuff I watched when I was going through treatment for Leukemia. Some are bad enough that I’ll become physically ill from the memory, so I try to avoid them when/if I can.
MST3K, Futurama, the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials, older seasons of “The Simpsons” and the alien comedy “Paul”.
However, if laughing is too painful (because some illnesses cause those kind of pains), then Batman Beyond, Forever Knight, the first Highlander movie, the original Star Wars trilogy and the classic video game Tetris. If it is an extended illness, then I like to suggest the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series “Dune” and “Children of Dune as well.
If someone is hospitalized and doesn’t have access to any laptops or handheld devices or any TV other than what the hospital offers, then any number of stand-alone or short mini-series of Star Trek novels (such as “Shadows of the Empire”, “Yoda: Dark Rendezvous”, the Thrawn trilogy or “Outbound Flight”), any number of comic TPB or graphic novel (depends on the person’s interest, so too many to make a short list), Tad Williams “Otherland” novel series (about a future VR world with mystery and conspiracies), and occasionally, Archie Digest Comics.
Any of the old ridiculous comedy movie – I’m thinking Leslie Nielsen or Mel Brooks type stuff. The more ridiculous, the better.