The Burn Takes On Randy Lee Tenley Tragedy
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 19th, 2012
Jeff Ross on his show The Burn on Comedy Central decided to take on the death of Randy Lee Tenley.
At 10:30 pm Eastern, on Tuesday night, September 18th, (it may have been a repeat, who knows?), hosted his special segment called “Too Soon.”
It is a section of his program where he makes fun of those who have recently died.
Ross launched into his “comedy” by making factual errors to frame his jokes, like saying Tenley was unemployed, was unloved, and was without a family. He also did zingers about Bigfoot not existing, but those were expected.
Clearly, the comedy routine was, indeed, too soon.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
This is one kind of person of which the world could do with fewer.
It’s a shame the show felt they needed to stretch or ignore the truth in their search for a laugh.
“Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but no one has a right to be wrong about the facts. Without the facts, your opinion is of no value.” —René Dahinden
And, perhaps more on the mark:
“An amateur thinks it’s really funny if you dress a man up as an old lady, put him in a wheelchair, and give the wheelchair a push that sends it spinning down a slope towards a stone wall. For a pro, it’s got to be a real old lady.” —Groucho Marx
Truth is always funnier than fiction.
I will never understand the human condition or anyone who likes to make fun out of a tragedy! If this was on the radio and it was Howard Stern it would still not be funny for Randy’s loved ones including his child (I believe?) or the two young people that ran him over. Whatever the stupidity of his actions, no one deserved to die and no one deserved to live with the undeserved guilt of running him over (as these two young people will always feel).
I agree with you all. Totally. There is NO need to exploit this tragedy for cheap laughs.
Loren this’s a fault even British comedians’re prone to where they warp the facts or even simply invent things just to give a gag legs eg I once watched a normally very funny guy called Jack Dee die simply because he was determined to make a gag out of drummer Pete Best supposedly making the mistake of leaving The Beatles just before they became a huge success when in fact Best was essentially kicked out.
He knew it. The audience knew it. So the few titters he did manage to extract were actually sheer embarassment.