Around the time Dustin Holden was falling for his TV Character crush, I was elsewhere in the world complaining about having to watch a show that would soon become my everything. You’ll find out later this week about Dustin’s crush, but before we get there – let’s talk about Lucy Ricardo.
While it’s one of my favorite shows today, that wasn’t always the case. About a year separated my disdain and my devotion to ‘I Love Lucy’ because I just couldn’t shake the black and white. Did kindergarten really teach me to be more open with my TV choices? Perhaps so, because before then I was programmed to like the colorful antics of Chip, Dale, and all the rest of the Rescue Rangers. Black and white felt old-timey and I was a hip-and-happening four-year-old with a sweet-ass Babs Bunny sweatshirt. Then I matured into a five-year-old after realizing that Lucy Ricardo was basically a real-life cartoon character.
Her facial expressions, movements, and the way she always got into the wildest of scenarios took ‘I Love Lucy’ from a show I wouldn’t watch to one I watched on repeat; whether it was Nick @ Nite or on the weekends on syndication via basic cable. I was hooked, and in so many ways inspired. Of course, I didn’t realize it then but looking back, a lot of my humor was based around the cartoonish ways of Lucy Ricardo.
I not only wanted to be funny like her, but I also wanted to dress like her and live in a quaint New York City apartment where my best friend was my landlord and whose husband had a pretty cool job. Lucy was living the dream and I wanted it to be my reality. Sadly, I was never as boisterous as Lucy. Oh no. I was (and still a little) too shy to be as out there as Lucy Ricardo was, but from watching her over and over and over again, I think there was a pinch of comedic timing that burrowed into my core.
Now I’m not saying I’d ever win ‘Last Comic Standing,’ but I think what genre of TV and movies you attach yourself to as a kid really does impact how you go about life. Sitcom kids are innately funnier than the kids who grew up watching ‘Law & Order.’ That’s a scientific fact that I have no proof of but if you need a bibliography for my sources, um, it’s in the mail. But yes, based on that oh-so-very true fact, I feel I learned the foundations of funny, and it’s all because of my love of Lucy Ricardo.
Not to mention that loving ‘Lucy’ eventually led me to watch other shows that came before my time and from there ‘Mary Tyler Moore,’ ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ ‘The Facts of Life,’ and other shows that came and went before I was old enough to watch, or in most cases…before I was alive. I always think about how kids today don’t really have that, we’ll call it, appreciation for the past because they have so many fresh options to watch via streaming. Like, kids today are really only discovering things from the ‘90s, which is fine – but it’s wild to think that someday there’ll be no one who cares about the classic TV shows that kickstarted the small screen.
Anyways, Lucy Ricardo helped me realize what was funny and in many ways helped lay the foundation for how I approach hilarity, and for that – I’m grateful.
Crushgasm 
Leave a Reply