Cancer Support Group Named After Gilda Radner Changing Its Name Because Young Patients Don’t Know Who Gilda Radner Is

A Madison-based cancer support group named after legendary Saturday Night Live player Gilda Radner has announced that it will be changing its name to accommodate younger patients unfamiliar with the iconic comic, who passed away of ovarian cancer in 1989. Gilda's Club — so named for Radner's famous remark likening cancer to membership in "an elite club I'd rather not belong to" — boasts some two dozen affiliates across the country. But, in a tragic sign of the times, at least four, including Gilda's Club Madison, have recently undergone a name change due to Radner's lack of name recognition among potential new members. "One of the realizations we had this year is that our college students were born after Gilda Radner passed, as we are seeing younger and younger adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis," executive director Lannia Syren Stenz told the Wisconsin State Journal. "We want to make sure that what we are is clear to them and that there's not a lot of confusion that would cause people not to come in our doors." The club plans to change its official name to Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin. A grand reopening celebration is planned for this Thursday, and after that, "the Gilda name will slowly go away."

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• In a related story, the city of Washington DC will now be known as Bush DC.

• I'm Bah-bwah Wahl-turs and this is twinty-twinty. That b*tch must be rolling in her grave. Ha!

• I had to Google her. She was on SNL, not sure what else she did.

• THEN TEACH THEM ABOUT WHO SHE WAS. Jesus H. Christ. That blessed, wonderful, beloved comic who left us much much too soon. So what if these young patients don't know who the fuck she was? SHOW them. TELL them. TEACH them. This makes ZERO sense. The Lincoln Memorial will henceforth be known as Bieber Memorial because, you know, young people relate more to Justin Bieber.

• Uh oh, get ready for the angry eldergays.

• Because "Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin" is sooooooooooo catchy !! Who cares if people know who Gilda Radner is ..... I don't know who that Alex from the Lemonade 'stand' thing is either .... but you know it's for cancer support, so that's enough. (How about a paragraph on your flyers explaining who Gilda is and her battle with cancer ?? Is it THAT hard ?)

• Exactly R4. How dumb can those folks BE?

• And who the hell is Susan G. Komen anyway? Why can't it just be known as Generically Named Breast Cancer Foundation?

• The dumbing-down of America continues...

• Eldergays think it has something to do with Rita Hayworth.

• It's always something...

  Roseanne%20R.

• R4, calm down. She was a comedian on a variety show, not a founding father or Susan B. Anthony.

• As a cancer survivor and support group user, I can assure you that the name, if the group is effective, doesn't mean a God-damned thing; and if it isn't a good group, it should close. The name isn't important. I'm sure Radner would agree that Gilda's Clubs are about supporting the members, not memorializing Gilda.

• Name it after the Kardashians...after all, they ARE cancer!!!

• I hope to hell this doesn't mean they're also going to change the name of the 'Rita Rudner Society for Bad Comedy'.

• Good move. Sorry, know one knows who the fuck Gilda Ratner is. Someone's not gonna see Gilda's Club and think "cancer support". And if the goal is truly to offer support (and not to educate about Gilda as R4 weirdly offers), then they need to reach as many people as possible.

• Ke$ha's Kancer Krib The Kardashian Oncology Resort & Spa One Direction Presents: Cancer Sucks

• They could have at least waited until Gene Wilder passed away. Jeez--this is a real slap in the face to him.

• lol, the irony of memorializing someone...

• Is it that difficult to explain who she was to those who don't know? Should we just rid of all the things people do not know about because they're too young to know?

• P.S. I am European and I know who she is because I watched old re-runs of SNL while I still lived in Europe (I live in the US now). It's pathetic that someone born in this county would know so little about its TV culture from two decades ago.

  20

• What R4 said. Who the fuck was Susan G. Komen? Some rich bitch who died from tit cancer, but her fucking name is on 1000s of products, TV, radio and the Internet. Say what you want about that org, but they know how to publicize.

• La Guardia Airport Martin Luther King Blvd. Bob Hope Airport Henry Hudson Parkway

  You get the idea

• There's still The Will Rogers Institute and he's been dead since 1935. This is SHITTY.

• Wevenge is a dish best sewved cold.

  Baba%20Wawa

• As if anyone -- adult or young -- know who Susan G. Komen is. Most kids don't even know the person their school is named after. It's really the dumbing down of America.

• I bet most people today don't know who Lou Gehrig is either.

• LOL, R17. W&W.

• They should rename it The Cancer Cabana: We Help You Copa!

• From now one New York will be knows as The City because lets face it, how many kids have ever heard of York England. The fallowing changes will now will be made: St Jude Hospital = THAT GIRL Hospital The Betty Ford Center = Got Liquor? Julilliard = Danc'in With The Stars College The Stone Wall Riots = Rupal's Kiki Florida = America's Wang

• In other news Washington D.C. will now be known as Boehner D.C.

• Friends of Dorthy will now be Friends of GaGa

• I'd rather die of cancer than get support and help from a place named for someone I've never heard of.

  American%20Idiot

• Because THAT GIRL is a hit with the Tweens?

• The Imogene Coca Foundation is horrified.

• That Girl is easy to remember, St Jude, sounds like a church.

• That just goes to show you, it's always one thing or another.

• St. Jude is the God of hopeless causes in Catholic mythology. Gilda was great on SNL, but I don't think she was ever deified by a major world religion.

• I kind of love r14.

  Enid Nelson

• I guess I'm getting old, because I thought Gilda Radner was still pretty well-known to the general public. Do young people know who Lucille Ball was, I wonder?

• My father is over 90 & doesn't know who Gilda Radner is either, because SNL came on after his bedtime so he's never seen it. That's still no reason to change the name of the organization.

• All of this outrage is annoying. Different people are important to different generations. There is no one who deserves more veneration than another. Still, it's kind of a dumb reason to change the name.

• [quote] Sorry, know one knows who the fuck Gilda Ratner is. Oh, dear.

• Just because she's important to you, R43, doesn't mean she has to be important to everyone else.

• Hahaha, R12

• SEXISM!!!! This would never happen to a male cancer support group.

  Nan

• I fucking HATE 20 year olds.

• R44? it would help if the poster I was Oh, dear-ing even got her last name right. Now piss off you worthless twink.

• When they say twinkies are young, dumb and full of...xxx, I guess it's really true! IT DOSE NOT MATTER IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE PERSONS NAME, LOOK IT UP! Nine times out of ten it's because that person gave their name, fortune or whatever to help other people who are suffering. It's totally disrespectful to say "oh I am a self-centered uneducated twink, so could you change the name to something more current for me" Because it's about me, and god forbid I might have to use Google for anything other then bareback porn.

• Hello?! Why not just change the name to Gilda's Club for Cancer Support? Or, Gilda Radner Club for Cancer Support? Like at least one poster mentioned, who is Susan Komen? I'm an elder and I don't know. Or care. I wish Gene Wilder and the other people who founded the club would throw. a. fit. I will consider him a fucking pussy if he doesn't.

• You had to be of a certain age group to know her. I was that age but thought she was only ok. It's not like she's one of the Beatles - timeless.

• If I was a donor to this club, I would pull my fucking money in about 2 seconds, and write a letter explaining why. This is bullshit. On a non-medical note, does everyone in NYC knowwho Avery Fisher was? Or Alice Tully? Does it stop them from attending performances at those halls? Does everyone know who Carnegie was? The day will come when not everyone will know who Steve Jobs was; does that stop people buying Apples?! I realize this isn't quite the same thing. But DUMB DUMB DUMB of this organization. I hope they get hate mail from friends of Gilda.

• And, R49, it isn't disrespectful for you to say "I'm an ageist, out of touch bigoted old queen too busy fingering my own asshole while watching 'Haunted Honeymoon' to realize there are more important things to focus on in a cancer support group than protecting the legacy of a former SNL cast member"?

• The National Park Service has announced the renaming of the Lincoln Memorial since young people today know nothing about Lincoln. The new name will be the Taylor Swift Autotune Memorial.

• Love all these posts expecting Gilda Radner to have the same importance and name recognition as Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

• Well R49, Yes, you said it I didn't. You obviously can't figure out your hole from a-hole. The point is not to save the legacy of an SNL cast member, if she was famous enough or if you personally didn't care for her. Its about and individual that in throws of death, did something good for other people. It's just disrespectful. Weather she was a nobody or somebody is irrelevant. Did it ever occur to you that the reason some people give their names to things is to that other people can relate?

• We're so lucky to have you here r55. We really thought Gilda Radner equaled Washington and Lincoln in importance. Thanks for setting things straight. What DL needs is more brilliant people just like you.

• [quote] Do young people know who Lucille Ball was, I wonder? No. I Love Lucy was in reruns for years, but it was on local stations. Local independent tv stations don't exist anymore. My son has never seen I Love Lucy. He wouldn't watch it anyway, since it's in black and white and 99.9% of young people will not watch b&w. There may be a cable channel somewhere that has an I Love Lucy marathon every once in a while, but you'd really have to look for it. Young people aren't looking for it.

• I think it's rude to Gilda and don't see how changing their name to "generic cancer outreach center" is going to help distinguish them when it comes to fundraising. Gilda left them a gift, a hook they have failed to capitalize on. That they're blaming Gilda or young cancer patients is the part that is so offensive. Of course none of this matters to Gilda at this point. It's just a sad comment on the lack of imagination on the part of the care providers.

• I love Lucy unfortunately is slowly fading away because there are not 13 channels anymore, there are 1300. A friend of mine went out on Halloween as Phyllis Diller and when twinks asked who he was supposed to be, they still said, who is that?

• What does knowing who Susan G. Komen was have to do with? That's not the point. It's the name recognition. In which case Susan G. Komen is a great example. Ask anyone who Susan G. Komen is and they might not be able to give you a bio of the actual woman but they'll definitely know the cancer connection. You ask Gilda Ratner? They won't know the woman OR the organization.

• Lucy has been struggling since the women's movement. When I was little I wondered what was wrong with her. Why would she cry like a baby and let her husband spank her? She had no connection to any type of woman I would see in my neighborhood or at school. The later shows she did where she had kids and a job were more relatable but I thought it was sad and strange that she was so undersexed.

• You are right on point R59. She gave them a gift they could capitalize on, raise money, awareness etc and they failed. That's the very reason celebrities lend their names to cretin causes, it bring more people in. What my younger friends here fail to see bulk of their donations come from older people who remember Gilda's name. Not the 20-30 something self absorbed queens still thinking about their next outfit they want to buy. Its the older crowd who is opening up their wallets. So really it's a stupid move just from a business standpoint.

• "I" remember Gilda. I always will. Bunny bunny.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRiurHNHoS0

• They made the obvious mistake of using her name as a pop culture marketing tool, not as an actual memorial. But to keep everyone happy, perhaps they could try "Gilda's Club: The Cancer Support Network of South[blahblah], Wisconsin."

• When was the last time you went to a graduation ceremony and the guest speaker showed up and surprised them by doing this?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dqd_syuD-N_k

• I think we should all gather hands and sing Let's All Talk Dirty to the Animals.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzKxjBsO-Bvk

• Decades before the Real Housewives of Jersey, Jersey Shore and jerseylicious there was Roseanne Roseannadanna...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZ7gLJr03vNQ%26feature%3Drelated

• This is the cancer support group's message to the great Gilda:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DV3FnpaWQJO0

• I have never bought this "too young to know" thing..about anything. Especially now that information is so much more accessible.

• Are there no smartphones? And the Wikipedia - is it still in operation? Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.

• That's a shame because her comedy could certainly lift anyone's spirits. There hasn't been anyone quite like her since. Maybe they'll reconsider once this get some attention.

• If Gilda was alive, this is how she would respond.

  http://www.hulu.com/watch/4092

• OMG R67 I forgot about that. Thank you. Lets Talk Dirty to the Animals.

• People are outraged on here because if there are people who don't know who Gilda was now, it means that she was of an era generations ago, which means that the people on here are officially ancient.

• [quote]The dumbing-down of America continues Ironically caused by television.

• [italic]I love Lucy unfortunately is slowly fading away because there are not 13 channels anymore, there are 1300. A friend of mine went out on Halloween as Phyllis Diller and when twinks asked who he was supposed to be, they still said, who is that?[/italic] Phyllis Diller is nobody compared to Lucille Ball. You and your friends are embarrassing.

• Everyone thinks their pop culture is the only pop culture.

• Uh, R77 he went as Lucy the fallowing year...Same response. Most kids under say 20 don't know who she is or just know the name but cant recall watching any episodes.

• R79, too bad for them. Just as the symbols of our culture don't affect twinks, theirs shouldn't affect us or change our behavior in any way.

• R66, That's from her Broadway show, not a real commencement.

• [quote]People are outraged on here because if there are people who don't know who Gilda was now, it means that she was of an era generations ago, which means that the people on here are officially ancient. Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner. Johnny tell the little lady what she's won.

• This country is going to shit. We are raising a bunch of worthless dumbasses.

• You still following me? Stop, leave me alone! I'm just teasing. Come here, closer. You know I love you, my little monkeys. But leave me my dreams. Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily. I love to play. Every time I play, you win. Ciao.

  http://vimeo.com/48286686

  La%20Dolce%20Gilda