Long Nguyen

Are Jokes About Bad Things Bad Jokes? What if I Said Screw Cedrika?

According to my statistics, most of my readers are not even in Quebec or France, so you don’t even know who Cedrika is and you probably don’t even care, but pay attention anyway, this is going to be interesting.

This is a story about Mike Ward, a well-known stand-up comic who has made a joke about Cedrika Provencher, who is also well-known, not to make people laugh, but she is known for disappearing.

See? That last phrase was a joke. Those who know anything about Cedrika, you get it, but did you laugh? It doesn’t even matter to me. Here’s the story:

During this year’s Just For Laughs festivals, Mike Ward made a joke about Cedrika. Wait… That’s the media brainwashing my brain into thinking what I just said is correct. No! The actual joke was about high taxes in Quebec, not Cedrika. There are two punchlines to that one: one is that Revenu Quebec will kidnap your kids over taxes and the other one is that they are the people who have Cedrika.

It’s clearly a joke and people are blowing this out of proportions. It is ill-advised to take comedians seriously and if you do, you only have yourself to blame.

I wish that wasn’t a joke. I wish that what Mike Ward said is true. At least, we would all know where Cedrika is, meaning there is nothing to worry about. Pay your taxes and get your child back.

That is also a joke, like in the first paragraph. Did you get that one? Or are you taking things way too seriously? Seriously, why so serious?

Seriously, all jokes aside, if Mike’s joke was true, I would find it reassuring to know where disappearing people are. If he used another child’s name… well, let’s get real, the joke wouldn’t have worked. Cedrika is a high profile media case. I am very serious, that is what she has become. That is what people have turned her into. This is not a joke.

Mike Ward said he has received death threats over this situation. I just hope that he doesn’t get the idea that he went too far. There is a strong possibility that I am saying all this only because I am not the one with a target painted on the back of my head. However, if enough people read this, I wouldn’t be surprised to have at least half a target.

I hope that people who are against Mike Ward never believed that laughter is the best medecine, because they clearly don’t believe it. On my Facebook profile, in my interests, I wrote Drama before Comedy, because I do prefer drama. There is no comedy without drama.

“I disaprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” -Evelyn Beatrice Hall, often mis-attributed to Voltaire.