It Only Hurts When I Laugh

 

I remember watching the Andy Griffith Show when I was a kid. 

Comic actor Don Knotts was brilliant as Deputy Barney Fife, an inept blowhard trying hard to mask his feelings of inferiority and insecurity behind false bravado.

On one  occasion, Sheriff Taylor (Griffith)went out of town for a couple of days, and by the time he returned, Deputy Fife had locked up just about everyone in his sleepy Southern town of Mayberry on one ridiculous charge or another.

It was hilarious.

As a TV sitcom.

But just picture Barney Fife on steroids -- literally.

With a taser.

With automatic weapons.

And a carte blanche.

Now multiply him by thousands.

Not so funny anymore.

Is it?

sj