A woman I knew in college and I were talking years ago about favorite movies, and I told her one of my favorites, by
far, was Spinal Tap. She bristled, wondering how I could enjoy such a boring documentary. It just wasn’t funny, she
said. It was sad…sad how our culture celebrates this kind of music, these heavy metal musicians. I didn’t heave the
heart to tell her…well, I’d hate to spoil it for her now either.
But here’s the point: of all the types of humor we have in our cultural arsenal, one of the most vicious, and
wonderful, is satire. Remember how right after 9/11, when we were all shocked, saddened, maddened, and confused about
what had happened? Remember that first issue of the Onion that came out with the
headline: Holy Fuc&%ing Sh*t! (or words to that effect). For me, that issue did more for my psyche that a million
hours of therapy.
All this as a long way to go to mention this new site called Don’t Go. The site
lampoons a travel advisory format and provides lots of reasons why we should NOT travel, including really bad toilets
(and, for what it’s worth, they might amp it up a bit as the photo they use of a bad toilet is nowhere NEAR as bad as
many I’ve seen).
Now, I am NOT saying this is the equivalent of either Spinal tap or the Onion. Not even close. But it is a creative
stab at satire and global travel, and I thought it was worth a post so that others could weigh in. Clearly I think it’s
cool. But maybe it’s simple and kind of…well, lame. What do you think?