Just a Little Tidbit from the Reader's Forum

Everyday in BYU's student newspaper, there is a section called the Reader's Forum where readers write in about previous articles or pertinent issues. This is what the Forum is INTENDED to be. But it is NOT what actually happens. Instead, the Reader's Forum has become a source of entertainment for hundreds of Daily Universe readers. Today's article about Saved By The Bell, the television show from the 90s, made me laugh out loud in the library. I will share it with you. (And I'm putting it in quotations so as not to cite it as mine. Because it's not.)

MORALLY CORRUPT

"It has come to my attention through reading two recent letters to the editor ("Saved by the Bell," March 6 and, "The shorter the better," October 3,2008) that some students at BYU believe it is acceptable to derive moral lessons from episodes of the television series, "Saved by the Bell." I am extremely troubled by this mode of thinking. "Saved by the Bell," or SBTB, as it is know to the extreme followers of the show, is morally corrupt. If we use the show as a moral compass, surely we will be led astray.
For example, in an episode titled, "Screech's Woman," Zach cross dresses and tried to make Screech think Zach is in love with him (Season 1, Episode 5). In season 2, episode 5, the "gang" holds a house party when a parent is out of town. Jessie is addicted to caffeine pills in season 2, episode 9. The list goes on and on. Cross dressing? Disobeying our parents? Consuming caffeine? Whatever happened to the essential nature of manhood, honoring thy father and thy mother and condemning all those who dare to sip a Coca-Cola?
I call on all BYU students and alums to boycott any reruns of SBTB and any further use of it as a moral scale. No longer may Zach lead us astray, as he did with his friends on "Day of Detention" when he convinces them all to help get him out of detention. Need I remind you that in the end, rather than freeing Zach, everyone winds up in detention (season 4, episode 8)?"

by Maria Miles
East Walpole, Mass.

Here and now, I offer my congratulations and my gratitude to the author of this letter to the editor. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. And even though I am 146% sure that she is being totally sarcastic, I am still just as grateful for the laugh. So here's to you and your sarcasm, Maria Miles of East Walpole, Massachusetts.