Ellen Degeneres Studio Audience on Pharmaceuticals!

Not being much for daytime television, when Sue invited me to watch Toni Braxton perform a ‘new’ song from a ‘soon to be released’ CD, through clenched teeth behind pursed lips, out of kindness I acquiesced. Well, the songstress who had the megahit ‘Un-break My Heart’ a few years ago gave a la-de-da, whoop-de-do performance on a recorded episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that originally aired April 27.

Although I had fulfilled my obligation, and ready to go about my way, the announcer advised the television audience that ‘coming up next’ an eight-year old would be singing Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. The video clip kept me a viewer.

Second grader John Teas carried on a very casual conversation with Ellen, chatting about his rise to instant fame on YouTube showing his first ever live performance in a talent contest in a school auditorium in front of a group of K-8 students.

Of course, at his age he was a bit fidgety but not the least bit nervous. When asked “What do you want to do when you grow up? You want to be a singer?” John replied, “I wanna be a singer, an artist and also a Lego designer.” My first thought – a future American Idol top 12 contestant. My second thought – an architectural engineer.

As we smiled and chuckled, Sue referred to John as a ‘child prodigy’. My immediate response, said very pointedly, was, “No… Michael Jackson was a child prodigy.” Sue agreed.

When the show was over, Sue extended the invitation to watch yet another episode. Sure, why not! Ellen’s entertaining enough. She’s fun, positively funny and kinda funky with her trademark smooth 'n groovy moves dancing up and down and across aisles of people in the studio audience.

The guest on the March 12 show was Chris O’Donnell, who I learned is the lead star on the TV show ‘NCIS: LA’. Whatever… Chris played Robin in one of the ‘Batman’ movies – that was all I remembered of him.

But prior to Ellen’s interview with the actor-turned-primetime TV character, there was a segment that she refers to as ‘Bad paid-for photos’. Three adults exposed childhood photos that were indeed hilariously atrocious! One woman’s photo reminded me of ‘Ugly Betty’. The other woman’s hair-do may have been freaky looking when the picture was taken some twenty years ago but I could easily imagine Lady Ga Ga making it a present-day fashion sensation.

The third person introduced himself as Mike, a pharmaceutical rep. The crowd went wild, filling the audio portion of the transmission with laughing and cheering and the clapping of hands as if they were in sheer ecstasy. My brow furrowed. My mouth frowned. Ellen immediately picked up on the audience enthusiastic laughter. She accommodated the accolade. “Pharmaceuticals!” “YA!” “Woo!” “Pills!” The crowd whooped a bit more. The moment passed and Ellen was back in control with her branded humor, out of bounds of the audience’s drug-induced frenzy.

Now, I’m all for the wonders of medications as prescribed by qualified physicians. I admit, I pop a few pills on a daily basis. Simvastatin does a great job of keeping my bad cholesterol at an acceptable level. Amlodipine keeps my blood pressure in check. And a weekly dose of alendronate sodium helps strengthen the discs in my back from the degenerative affects of spinal osteoporosis.

Although I appreciate the intended results of taking these medications, I sure don’t jump up and down and shout in exaltation, Hallelujah! Nor do I expect the same reaction of patients who take medicines for heart diseases, viral infections, stomach ailments, fungal diseases or myriads of other human ailments and frailties, including mental illnesses. Where’s the funny in that?

I doubt not that the middleclass women and men in Ellen’s audience, all of whom appeared to be whooping to one degree or another, were thoughtlessly thinking of drugs being used for ‘recreational purposes only’. There was no other conclusion.

Are the illicit uses of drugs so tightly woven into the fabric of America that humor precedes prudence? Is it truly laughable that, when taken for reasons other than what health concerns necessitate, drugs/pharmaceuticals maim and kill people, many who are innocent bystanders until peer pressure drives them to ‘fit in with the crowd’? Does that include the audience crowd that gave a hoot-n-holler when the pharmaceutical rep was introduced? Or perhaps it will be the children or grandchildren of those who sat comfortably in those cushy studio audience seats.

Back to funny Ellen. The ‘bad paid-for photo’ of Mike, the pharmaceutical rep, showed him when he was in the sixth grade. His head was shaved but for a tuft of hair curled downward from his forehead. During the interview with Chris O’Donnell, he asked, “What would you call that?” Ellen replied, “The caterpillar?” The crowd appropriately roared with laughter. So did I.