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Laugh at menstrual humor and Dr. Michael Abramson's poems.
And, for the heck of it, inspect a Midol booklet!
MUMorable Show and Art
KATHY & MO’S
MENSTRUAL MIRTH
A review by Marisa Guillardo
MENSTRUAL MIRTH
A review by Marisa Guillardo
What’s funny about menstruation? Maybe nothing. After all, it’s just a natural bodily function of women. But Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney have found something funny about it. That is, not about menstruation itself, but how people think and talk about it — including commercial pitches for feminine-hygiene products these days.
A truly trenchant comedy duo, Kathy & Mo rose to national awareness in “The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives,” televised in 1991 as an “HBO Comedy Hour” special. In that special, they cover the waterfront of human frailty and folly, including some mental miasmas about menstruation.
For example, they examine how feminists might look at menstruation:
“O labia — golden labia of Goddess Love, let your champagne flow!” is one rapturous outpouring in a recitation called “Sister Woman Sister,” given by “Holly” and “Molly” (played by Kathy & Mo). They are far-out feminists who perform at “Las Hermanas” — a “chemical-free, meat-free, male-free” cafe for w-o-m-y-n.
The recitation continues:
“We are sexual — period. My period, your period, let it flow!”
Menstruation is no mere bodily function for Holly and Molly, who raise it to lofty spiritual significance. But what’s lofty for Holly and Molly seems comically absurd to Kathy & Mo — an idea forced beyond its logical limits. Therein lies the humor.
In another skit, Kathy & Mo send up tampons — especially scented ones. Playing a Russian farmer, Mo describes her hardships in the past year: losing her husband and half the crop in a flood, and having to feed eight children and a cow. “So, you see,” she says in a convincing Russian accent, “I have no time to worry about feminine protection.... Thank God for Lilac Spring tampons. With Lilac Spring I can plow fields, irrigate land, and still feel confident, protected, and — most important of all for poor dirt farmer — fresh!”
How would guys talk about periods if they had them? Would they euphemize in whispers as people do about women’s periods, using such expressions as “that time of the month,” “under the weather,” and “Aunt Mary’s coming”? Well, maybe some guys would, but not “Nick” and “Buck,” two macho guys portrayed by Kathy & Mo. They meet on the street and immediately fall into a ritual flurry of high fives, friendly jabs, and general jocularity.
“Got my period,” says one.
“Oh, yeah? Bleed on, brother!”
“A little bloating ... cried this morning.... Hey, you got a ’pon I can borrow?”
“Sure, man! Go back for a pass, way back!” [passes the ’pon]
“Got it! [catches the ’pon; examines it] Hey, man, this is my brand — Stud. All right! But this is just regular, and I always use super-plus.”
“Well, man, those are just for my light days....” [Read Gloria Steinem's essay about this.]
If such banter seems banal, at least it’s no worse than being tight-lipped and up-tight about menstruation. One absurd extreme balances another.
In all, Kathy & Mo’s catamenial cutting up runs only 4 minutes or less, a small fraction of the 1-hour show. Not enough to saturate us, by any means, but enough to make us chuckle about Big M hang-ups — and perhaps to check our own psyches for signs of them.
Note: the Kathy & Mo Show, to my knowledge, is not running on HBO at this time [2016]. Pieces of it, however, may be found on the Internet as YouTube offerings. Fortunately, it has been immortalized in a set of two DVDs: the original Parallel Lives in the HBO special reviewed here and a more serious dramatization, The Dark Side (another HBO special)—plus 20 years of never-before-seen material, easily affordable through Amazon.com. MG