Usually if I am YouTubing it is a very mindless time that allows me to decompress from life’s more serious responsibilities. Not today. After clicking between a few videos I found myself pontificating on the fine – in this case wobbly – line between right and wrong.  

I came across a video entitled Funny DUI. The video captures a cop booking a guy he arrested for drunk driving.  The guy is absolutely smashed. In an attempt to pick up the license he dropped on the floor, the guy can’t control his lumbering momentum and proceeds to smash into the wall, leaving a huge hole where his head hit. As if things weren’t bad enough, he follows this performance by stumbling sideways, almost vertical down a hall and violently crashing into another unsuspecting wall. I laughed my tail off when I saw the video and immediately thought that I should post the link on my Facebook profile page. And then in an instant I thought maybe this wasn’t a good idea. I started thinking about all the people who lost loved ones because of drunk drivers. The reach of drunk driving victims is endless — fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, students, teachers, coaches, and more. For as funny as I thought this guy was in the video, it suddenly occurred to me it wasn’t funny at all. Was it OK for it to be funny because nobody was hurt? I know I would have felt outrage if I had seen the same video clip in a news story where someone had died. How would I have felt if I had lost a child to a drunk driver and then saw the video on a friend’s Facebook profile page? I’m guessing I would have been upset. So, I chose not to post the link. 

Instantly, my thoughts jumped to another YouTube video I had seen entitled Police Officer Steals Marijuana. This clip is an actual news story about a completely stoned cop who ate pot brownies with his wife and is begging a 911 operator to send rescue. He pleads, “…I think we’re dead. Time is going by really, really, really, really slow.” The three newscasters are laughing uncontrollably through the story and can hardly contain themselves. I couldn’t help but think that they would not have laughed on-air if the cop or his wife had gotten behind the wheel and killed someone.     

Clearly in the empowering world of user-generated content, anything goes. However, is it OK for the media to exploit any substance abuse situation – no matter how funny it may seem – for a laugh from its audience. I think it’s a fine, wobbly line.  

What do you think?