I Prefer His Earlier, Funnier Psychotic Rants

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It doesn't need to be said that there is absolutely nothing amusing about the death of 33 teachers and students in a university shooting spree perpetrated by a deeply troubled young man. But if there were, it would be this one-act play. Until the last page, it seems dark, absurd, and maybe just a bit funny. I envisioned Larry David as the stepfather, caught up in pile of misinterpreted intentions and insane accusations. And then the story just gets, well, sick, once you realize that comedy isn't exactly what Cho had had in mind.

Still, I have a genuine curiosity as to how Cho Seung-Hui's work will play out when performed in earnest by a group of actors. Given the cynicism and kitsch-humor with which enthusiasts sometimes treat mass-murderers (there are fan pages for the likes of Charles Manson and Eric and Dylan) is it crazy to suggest that it's only a matter of time before someone actually performs this thing? Sets, lighting, direction; perhaps in the round. Minimal props. The mind boggles.

Here's my advice to the first smartass university improv comedy troupe cynical enough to actually try putting together a real production at the student union: when the local news team arrives and the morality police emerge from their living rooms and churches to condemn your insensitivity, tell them it's all in the name of attempting to comprehend the troubled mind of a killer, so that we can grasp, deeply, what is at the very core of this national tragedy; we laugh so that we may cry.

And if that doesn't work, just tell them hey, it's your first-amendment right.

Read the play here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html

Lend your thoughts and prayers here: http://www.vt.edu/

And, until we have the ability to somehow eradicate chemical imbalances and delusional paranoia from the minds of potential killers before they strike, you can contact these folks-- http://www.nra.org/ --for any questions or complaints. Because, honestly, the only aspect of this tragedy that could have been truly avoided was the availability of the Smith and Wesson 9mm, which, having been mixed with a heaping helping of crazy, played an essential role in ending all those lives. Yeah, I know what you're gonna say: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. But bullets come from guns, and bullets tear up internal organs. And hopes, and dreams, and entire families. And you can get guns and bullets at the corner store these days, thanks to certain powerful people. Speaking of which...

In other news, the similarities between GWB and Nixon are becoming increasingly uncanny; it causes one to wonder how (or if) our current president would have survived Woodward and Bernstein. Remember when the press used to ask questions? Those were the days.

So as the networks continue to squeeze every last drop of pathos from the Virginia Tech tragedy, as they jockey for position and compete for camera angles all over the campus, scrambling to score interview time with the ex-girlfriend of the guy who shared a room with the killer for, like, half a semester, it's easy to forget what journalists have not been doing. Tom Tomorrow reminds us in this recent The Modern World.

For a larger image: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2007/04/16/tomo/index1.html