Is Port Charles too campy?

This week, soap opera tomfoolery took a backseat to real life tragedy after the school shootings in Connecticut.

For the first time in I don’t know how long, people didn’t spend the day complaining because ‘General Hospital’ was preempted by news coverage of the tragedy.

Before Friday, though, I did see some people complaining about how GH has gotten campy.

Guess what? That’s how most fans like they’re soaps.

We’re not watching soaps because we want to have real world debates about the crisis in Israel or the imminent fall of the Syrian governmental regime. We want our super spies to be cheeky like Robert and Anna and we want our characters to be able to come back from the dead.

Okay, not everyone likes that. I guess it’s just most soap fans that I know.

I think the reason I have remained loyal to soaps for so long is because I like the campy nature of them. I would much rather believe that a person can pretend to be another with a latex mask than watch the real life travails of a mentally ill man that gunned down elementary school students.

What I find most interesting about the “campy” argument, though, is that the people lambasting GH for being campy right now seem to be fans of the Guza reign of terror.

Essentially, they’re saying mobsters with a hearts of gold and a rampant narcissist with a God complex are more entertaining than the “campy” spy stories.

I totally disagree.

Carly, Sonny and Jason were the trio that ate Port Charles. Every story revolved around them. Every story had ties to them.

I like the balanced approach GH is taking these days. And, yes, I like the camp.

I was laughing like a mad person when Faison’s face started melting off.

What some people seem to forget is that GH spent a lot of years being campy. The Cassidines tried to freeze the world and Robin made friends with Casey the Alien, for crying out loud. Those are still better storylines than Jason saving the town in between mob hits.

That’s not to say everything is perfect, mind you.

Olivia seeing that stupid puppy is getting on my last nerve and the dastardly DID patient stealing a 12-year-old’s book is ridiculous. Still, what GH is doing right far outweighs what they’re doing wrong right now.

So, in light of real life tragedy, I guess you could say I like a little camp. I’d much rather laugh at the latex mask and its hilarious foibles than cry because 20 six year olds were gunned down while their teachers fruitlessly tried to protect them from a monster.

What do you think? Do you like the camp on GH or not?