Don’t kill yourself
Beyer has an essay on the BBC news site. It’s a comment of BBC Two’s IF… show which dramatised a suicide on a fictional future reality show.
The essay is rambling and incohesive, ranging over a few of the things that Beyer doesn’t like about modern culture, and concluding (in the sense of “ending” rather than “arriving at a conclusion based on argumentation”) with the paragraph:
Suicidal tendencies are a human dysfunction and, as the Mash signature tune tells us, “suicide is easy” and broadcasters should exercise “reality caution” before it is too late.
It is a poor essay, and I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you have a particular interest in the not-very-clear mind of this Black and White Minstrels fan who likens himself to St Paul.
(Thanks to Dan Factor)
And he seems to be a bit hard of hearing as the song’s called ‘Suicide is Painless’.
Interestingly, if you watch the original M*A*S*H film, where the song first appears it’s used in a scene where, having failed to dissuade the camp’s dentist (known as ‘Painless’) from his suicidal urges, Trapper, Hawkeye et al effectively fake his suicide to mae him realise it’s not a good idea. But John Beyer was probably more interested in counting the number of times Sally Kellerman’s breasts appeared than noting any moral messages in the film.