This may be the stupidest thing ever

If you're a fan of the TV show House, and you happened to miss tonight's episode but Tivo'd it, you should probably see it before reading on. Spoiler alert! Hmm. Been doin' that a bit recently.

So, I like House, but this season has been sub-par at best. Last week they touted this episode as the most shocking thing ever. And then we find out that Kutner shot himself in the head. Wow, okay, that was a surprise.

I wasn't happy when they killed off cutthroat bitch, and I wasn't happy about this. Kutner wasn't the greatest character ever, but he was certainly more likable than Foreman, Taub and 13. Is it the show's mission to just keep the most worthless human beings on as House's sideicks? I know the show is a medical drama, but it used to have some good sarcastic comedy thrown in. House's exchanges with Wilson and Cuddy used to be fun, and now they're usually just depressing. And, though they did have a clinic visit in this episode, it seems they've cut down on those as well, and those were usually used as comic relief... but in this episode it was about a beauty pageant child getting drunk like Mommy. HAHAHAHA! Get it? Yeah, not so much.

But putting all of that aside, I still haven't talked about the dumbest thing ever. The episode ends, and there's a message from NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) with contact info if you feel suicidal and want help. So, there's a message being delivered and you think they'd end on that serious tone. Then they show a preview for next week, and then... (stupidest thing ever) ... they give you the website to the online Kutner memorial. Seriously? An online memorial for a TV show character? Right after you give a message about how serious depression and suicide is, you give us a fun interactive website about a TV character's death? You have got to be f***in' kidding me.

I checked it out, because I was in awe of the stupidity of this idea. They have notes written on stationary "from the desk of" all the other characters, his obituary (which informs us that he enjoyed water polo), and they have a Kutner memorial video, which is two minutes worth of clips that are funnier than anything that's been on the real show for quite some time. Way to showcase the seriousness of suicide there, Fox! If I ever blow my brains out because of severe depression, please, show a gag real at my funeral.

Then they have a link to "Leave your own personal message for Dr. Kutner... and grab an embeddable badge!" Wow, a funeral AND a prize! This is the best day ever! The link just takes you to a Facebook page where there are comments from viewers ("It's like Star Wars without Han Solo", "Have fun in heaven dude") and pictures of him singing karaoke. I don't know what's dumber at this point- the fact that they made all of this, or that fact that I was looking at it.

Nowhere on the Kutner site was a link or contact info for depression (I later found one on the main House page). I searched online and checked out the National Alliance on Mental Illness website, and they have a link to buy House t-shirts that say "Normal's Overrated" with proceeds going to NAMI. I'm fine with the promotion and the awareness, but I think Fox's fake memorial page is just awful in so many ways.

Maybe I'm just bent because back before the inter-web they didn't have sh** like this. Sven bit the dust in Voltron, and Optimus Prime died a few times on Transformers, but there weren't any fake online memorials for them or for us cartoon-watching kids. And isn't it more traumatizing for a kid to see a cartoon character die than for an adult to see a character die on a TV medical drama? Ugh. End rant.