Tracey Ullman: "Happy Schizophrenic"

New Show Of Brit-Born Comic, Now U.S. Citizen, Is Impersonation-Heavy, Aims At U.S. Culture

(CBS)  Tracey Ullman wastes no time poking fun at her adopted country in her new Showtime effort, "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union."

The British-born comic and actress, who's been a United States citizen for a year-and-a-half, gives her unique take on life in the U.S., impersonating one celeb after another, including males, in zapping America's celebrity-obsessed, 24-hour news culture.

Targets for her barbs include the likes Cameron Diaz, Renée Zellweger, Dina Lohan, Tony Sirico and David Beckham, as well as politicians and pundits such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Arianna Huffington.

The show also has a lineup of original characters reflecting a cross-section of American society as Ullman sees it, from an Indian pharmacist, to a homeless woman without health insurance, to a soldier on temporary leave from Iraq.

Asked on The Early Show Tuesday by Russ Mitchell how she goes seamlessly and flawlessly from one character to another, Ullman replied, simply, that she's a "happy schizophrenic!"

To see the Early Show interview, which includes Ullman impressions of Zellweger, Sirico and even Andy Rooney, click here.

Ullman is perhaps best-known in the U.S. for her series, "The Tracey Ullman Show," which aired on Fox from 1987-1990. It earned multiple Emmys, and is credited with spawning "The Simpsons."

[orlando511]

For someone who has a schizophrenic family member, it is highly upsetting that a bright and talented individual, on national TV, would use the word "Schizophrenic" so loosely and carelessly.

As she makes fun of Americans for their celebrity obsessed culture, she rides on the tails of their fame to make her own money and find stardom herself.

Schizophrenia is chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that affects about 1.1 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. For schizophrenics, suicide is the leading cause of death. Upwards of 40% of people that have schizophrenia will attempt suicide at least once.

There is nothing "happy" about this and calling herself a "Happy Schizophrenic" tells me she is just as, if not more shallow than the some of the people she ridicules.

Her thoughtless words will only deepens society''s misconceptions about mental illnesses like schizophrenia.