Praise God! Sarah Silverman's Back!

Inside Television 595
Publication Date: 3-16-12
By: Hubert O’Hearn


I’m quite sure you’ve run across a reference or three to Demosthenes, the Athenian orator who according to legend went door to door carrying a lantern in the hope of finding an honest man. Good luck with that at any door in any age. What you likely don’t know is that the old boy was pretty sharp with the one-liners. Upon seeing the son of a prostitute throwing rocks at a crowd, the man who was the envy of Cicero yelled out, ‘Careful boy! You might hit your father!’ On another occasion, when asked to name his favourite wine, he responded in words both Winston Churchill and Groucho Marx would have approved of - ‘That for which other people pay.’ Lastly, to cover himself when objects of his caustic wit took offence, his comment was, ‘Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?’ To which I say, Hear hear!

I certainly have never gone door-to-door with a lantern at night - that sort of thing can get you arrested or at least set upon by upset spaniels - however I do have some understanding of fruitless quests. There hasn’t been a situation comedy made that actually made me laugh out loud since … when exactly did Corner Gas go off the air anyway? Yes it’s been that long. While any galoot can get off a good line now and again (my continued existence as a writer bears evidence to that), by and large when I tune in to any present sitcom until my eyes glaze over and I grab for the remote and switch to some real comedy: a Maple Leafs game perhaps, or a speech promoting what Maureen Dowd of the New York Times referred to as ‘the Taliban beliefs of Rick Santorum.’ Now that’s a good line and not one you’ll be catching on any episode of Two and a Half Men.

However, at long last there is hope. NBC has signed off on a pilot co-written and starring the funniest woman in America. Sarah Silverman will be back on TV come fall and upon reading the news I promised myself to run out and buy a lottery ticket as clearly my luck had turned for the better. 

Caption Contest! Insert rude Jimmy Kimmel joke here!

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that I mourned when the original Sarah Silverman Program went off the air in 2010. Those three seasons’ worth of shows had more great caustic-innocent jokes and plotlines than the entire 968 year run of The Simpsons. (I know, but it seems like 968 years even though it’s really only been 462.) Perhaps my favourite was the one where Sarah decides to do Good Works so she takes in a homeless man. Isn’t that lovely? Sarah thought it was lovely. The homeless man thought it was lovely. Of course, as she didn’t wish to offend him and to properly acclimate him, she let him sleep on her kitchen floor with fresh, clean newspapers to use for blankets.

Oh, her comedy is not for everybody; but to me that’s her strength. Comedy for everybody is about as memorable and tasty as a rice cake. You ingest, digest and in a short time it’s gone. Did I forget to mention that Sarah also wrote The Poop Song? (‘It was brown and it had raisins/And we flushed it for those reasons’) To me, she has found a pure and holy note of comedy that manages to be crude without being vulgar. Crude is the best of the late Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor or Sam Kinson. Vulgar is your beered-up buddy trying to tell any of those guys’ jokes.

The new series will be called Sarah 313 and while plot details are sketchy, it will be about Sarah finding her way after the end of a 10 year relationship. The ex-boyfriend will be played by an actor who matches Silverman’s gawky comic intelligence perfectly - Jeff Goldblum. The three lead writers, including Silverman, are the same as the Sarah Silverman Program.

All I can say is, thank you God. Thank you Sarah Silverman. Thank you NBC. I may never have to watch a GOP debate ever again... speaking of brown with raisins.

Be seeing you.