Dear Mindy, Abuse is not funny.

After two episodes of The Mindy Project, I've started wondering if this show is specifically designed to push all my buttons because Mindy Kaling has some personal vendetta against me that I don't know about. Halfway through last night's episode, "Hiring and Firing," I was planning to write a semi-joking post along those lines. (The bookstore stuff was what got me at the beginning.) But then, at the end of the episode, something so objectionable happened that I can't turn this post into a joke anymore.

Mindy is punched in the face by a nurse she has to fire, but as she rides the subway home with a coworker, she apparently thinks it would be funny to tell this group of strangers that her coworker is in fact her husband and that he caused her visible injuries. THIS IS NOT FUNNY ON ANY LEVEL. It wouldn't be funny or acceptable coming from anyone, but SHE IS AN OB/GYN. She should be especially sensitive to these issues. She should be watching for warning signs so that she can help her patients, not turning something very serious into a cheap punchline that a) isn't even found to be funny by anyone around her and b) risks serious consequences for an innocent man WHO IS ALSO AN OB/GYN. I can't think of any way in which her behavior could be seen as funny or acceptable or even endearingly flawed. She should absolutely know better, so I can only assume that she is in fact a horrible person, so self-centered and clueless as to have no idea how to behave as an adult in public, never mind how to help and treat her patients in any competent manner.

Now, I will be the first to argue that we don't have to like everything the characters do in order to like a show. And I'm a strong proponent of keeping in mind that the views expressed by characters (or the things characters think are funny) do not necessarily track to their writers, even if the character has the same name as and is played by the writer. But in this case, the show seems designed around the idea that we will empathize with Mindy, or at least root for her. At this point, I don't think she should be allowed near patients and can't imagine why anyone would be friends with her, which is not the best way to keep me invested in the show.