One of America's most beloved Television icons, Jerry Lewis, guest stared on Law & Order: SVU this week.   Hopefully viewers didn't tune in to see "The Nutty Professor" solve a crime, because there was nothing funny about this episode.  In fact, the episode, entitled "Uncle," was downright disturbing. The sadistic rape, torture, and murder of a woman and her pre-teen daughter earn SVU the title Worst of the Week.

The show opens with Elliot and Dani investigating a murder scene.  They find a woman and her young daughter lying in bed murdered, bloody, bound, and naked.  Both have been stabbed 40 times, raped, and then suffocated with packing tape.  Melinda (the coroner) explains, "The vaginal trauma was more severe on the child…due to her pre-pubescence."  Later she elaborates on the cuts saying that each of the 40 cuts was inflicted before death and that the victims felt every one of them.  Detectives pry the little girl's hand open to retrieve a crucifix she tore from her mother's neck.  The entire scene is too much for Dani to handle and she is noticeably shaken not only by the gruesome sight, but at the idea that a child could suffer in such a way. 

It is puzzling how the writers of SVU could conceive of Dani being disturbed by the sight of the murder scene and yet present the scene as entertainment for Americans.  Are we heartless, desensitized monsters who feel nothing at the sight of a murdered child who was raped and murdered?  Is the intention of the show to disturb us?

After suffering through an hour of graphic descriptions and imagery of the deceased mother and daughter, the show concludes with Jerry Lewis's mentally ill character pushing the murder suspect in front of a speeding subway train to avenge the young victim.  For graphic and disturbing visual and verbal content involving a child, Law & Order SVU is our pick for Worst of the Week.