The League of Young Voters is on a quest to educate people about abstinence-only programs and health care reform. And it’s hilarious.

What’s not funny? A provision to restore funding for abstinence-only programs was recently added to the current incarnation of the health care reform bill – funding that had been eliminated. The League of Young Voters is not happy. 

What is hilarious is the pubilc service announcement the League produced to make people aware of just how absurd abstinence-only programs are as sexual health education. The video parodies the well-known "Marshmallow Test", originally performed at Stanford and recently reprised, a sort of psychological test on self-control. The post-test analysis and follow up suggested that those children who were able to "save" the marshmallow for later "enjoyed greater success as adults." Whether or not that test had merit is debatable but the parody is a narrative on the virtues of resisting temptation, practicing self-control and patience, for greater rewards later on. 

You need to watch both videos to enjoy the hilarity of comparing marshmallows to sex – both are yummy and hard-to-resist, sure – but the larger point may be that we adults all know how wonderful sex is and yet all we do is throw it out there to young adults as, "Sure sex is fantastic/this marshmallow is delicious and sure you are a sexual being with sexual desires/you’re a human who cannot resist marshmallows, but don’t even think about having sex, your sexual desires, engaging in sexual activity/eating that squishy, sweet marshmallow. Wait, wait, and wait some more. And then you’ll find the pot at the end of the rainbow. When you’re married. Years from now."

Here’s the marshmallow test (the PSA parody is below that):