Somehow I completely missed Margaret Cho’s sitcom All American Girl when it was on. It was only after it had been cancelled that I heard about it and I’ve still never seen a single episode, although there’s really no excuse for that since it’s been on YouTube for years. I knew, and still know, her mainly from her stand-up acts which I find hilarious. And after hearing her describe some of the problems she had with her sitcom–including having to keep her weight down and endangering her health, which she somehow manages to make funny–maybe I should skip it. And it’s hard to imagine any sitcom being as risky and funny as her solo work.
So here’s wishing Margaret Cho a happy birthday today. And a special thanks to her mother.
I wonder if being born in December makes one particularly funny, clever, engaging, and insightful? The evidence is stacking up.
That’s an interesting idea and one I hadn’t considered. I thought it was just lucky that this month provides the opportunity to highlight the birthdays of some of my favorite performers, but if there’s something special about this month it’s another reason to call this the most wonderful time of the year.
I was actually just listening to an interview with her yesterday–she talked about how depressed she became when she found out the show was cancelled. She’s extremely talented–maybe America wasn’t ready for her yet.
Her whole experience with her sitcom, which included literally starving herself to keep her weight down, was pretty depressing. She worked very hard to succeed so I can understand being depressed at its cancellation, but I think of it as a mixed blessing. The sitcom was forcing her to be someone she wasn’t and its cancellation really freed her up to be herself and to talk about how abusive the whole experience was.