Bar mitzva is in the news this month, in ways ridiculous and serious.

First the ridiculous: A six-second clip from NBC's must-see sitcom 30 Rock is an Internet sensation. "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" is a parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video in which series character Tracy Jordan sings a song of inspired goofiness (sample lyric: "Boys becoming men/Men becoming wolves"). The high concept of the low joke is the character's weird confidence that a song about a horror movie version of a Jewish ritual could become a hit — we think. We're just glad the clip is genuinely funny, and nobody gets hurt.

There's nothing funny about the news that David Brooks, onetime CEO of body-armor manufacturer DHB Industries, was indicted on 21 counts of alleged securities fraud, insider trading, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice. Coverage of Brooks' fall was breathless in describing examples of his lavish lifestyle — although no example was so thoroughly detailed as the obscene bat mitzva he threw for his daughter. Typical was ABC News' on-line coverage, which carried the banner headline "Scandalous $10 Million Bat Mitzvah" over a smaller headline saying Brooks had been arrested for embezzling company funds. (Remember, the bat mitzva took place, and was widely reported, in 2005.)

Like the New York Post, which headlined its coverage of Brooks' arrest with the pun "Bad Mitzvah," ABC tried to justify its focus on the Jewish ceremony by saying a celebration that featured rap singers and pop stars is unlikely to win the sympathy of a jury. But the lip-smacking nature of the coverage made us wince.

If nothing else, the Brooks story is a cautionary tale. First, do not steal. Second, no one is begrudging anyone's right to party or to celebrate a child's rite of passage the way they see fit. But there is something to be said for restraint and for staging the kind of celebration that makes you proud to stand up, smile, and say, "Today I am a wolf."