When did disabilities become funny & the object of ridicule?

[Philosoraptor]

It's always been sort of a social taboo to make fun of the disabled or exploit them, but it's much more prevalent now. Adult cartoon shows like South Park and Family Guy and American Dad regularly use disabilities as fodder for comedy. They even make jokes about polio, cancer, speech impediments, etc. A general coarseness that makes me a bit uncomfortable.

There are even republicans who are now openly making legislation screwing over the poor and disabled, while hypocritically supporting them in public.

I suppose humor can be found almost anywhere, but until one has been in a wheelchair for years, or unfortunate enough to be sick or otherwise disabled, some of that so called humor is over the line of decency. I thought we'd evolved slightly beyond that, but I guess we haven't.

Some people think little people are naturally humorous, because they are little. If little people want to enter the world of comedy, I don't mind, but the ones I've known didn't care for the rampant ridicule. Some little people are great actors, and I've known a couple who were accomplished musicians and artists, they are not just comedians or munchkins, or freaks.

I will be accused I suppose of being over sensitive, but to me there are some things which are not funny, never will be, and shouldn't be the subject of humor. And I'm a guy who appreciates humor, I just don't like to see the disabled being objects of ridicule.

[Bluebear]

1. Since "oh excuuuuuse me for not being **P***C***" (dripping with spite)...

...entered the vernacular.

Being "politically correct" (or what I was raised to think was just "polite") was demonized by the rightwing, making what you describe as commonplace. And the world a less decent place.

[sweetpotato]

2. When did disabilities become funny & the object of ridicule?

I think it is PC backlash. My republican family has been upset with the concept of political correctness since we became aware of the term. They hate it. They say "political correctness" with a sneer that would make Cheney proud. Its ugly.

[NMMNG]

3. People have always made fun of those with disabilities

Yes, it has been frowned upon and yes, the trend is for advocacy and education efforts to further reduce the stigma. However people who limp, have mental retardation, have mental illnesses, have speech impairments, etc. have long been the brunt of jokes by children and even adults, in person and in the media. I work with both adults with developmental disabilities and adults with mental illnesses and have heard and seen a plethora of cruel jabs.

Sadly some people think it is funny and even proper to make cruel remarks about others based on a health condition. While we've come a long way over time we still have far to go.

[Philosoraptor]

4. I expect if of children

And know firsthand how supposedly cruel kids can be, but they are afterall kids who don't know any better, and must be taught to be kind to the less fortunate, without kissing their asses.

But when full grown adults continue this behavior, they lower themselves.

[NMMNG]

5. I agree

But I still see too much of it and am quite used to it, sadly. I've lost count of how many times over the past 20 years I've heard derogatory words like "retard" and "nutjob".


How many people would make fun of somebody with cancer? :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I am a special ed teacher

and I think kids are kinder than adults.

Another poster said it in this thread - in today's climate, it is acceptable to criticize and belittle those less fortunate. It is sickening, isn't it?

[Philosoraptor]

11. crippled is now disabled, retarded is now developmentally challenged

And language always changes, as in racial slurs and common slang. Some disabled folks hate the word cripple, some black folks hate the term African American, and calling someone a retard will get you scolded.

I remember when black folks were all called colored, a word now considered insulting.

It all starts when you are in grade school out on the playground, but it should stop when you reach adulthood.

[NMMNG]

26. It should, but sadly it often doesn't

Some groups are particularly likely to be targeted by jerks, and some people are particularly likely to be jerks.

[dbt]

7. This had its roots in the Reagan Era/Error

I noticed early on after Ronnie The Popular* came to power that it was suddenly okay to hate certain groups of people, first among them being the poor. It is no coincidence that Rush Limbaugh began his ASScent at roughly the same time.

Both entities set out to demonize the humanity and concern of Jimmy Carter, blaming weak-kneed liberalism for all the country's ills. And it worked very well, because Americans always do best when we have somebody to hate, on whom we can blame all our problems.

Mocking the afflicted is just a natural outgrowth of "Morning In America."

:freak:
dbt
Remember New Orleans

*See (hear) "It Came Out Of The Sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Thank you, John!

[etherealtruth]

15. That was my first thought ...

The Reagan era made it a social norm (again) to vilify the weakest and most vulnerable among us ... I guess it helps justify massive cuts in social programs (?)

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Probably back when people were still wearing skins and living in caves.

Disability, whether mental or physical, has almost always been a cause for shunning, scorn, derision, and mocking. The Roman emperors and medieval European kings had jesters who were deformed, mentally retarded, or giants/dwarfs; the freak shows of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had precursors in medieval and Renaissance fairs...it's only in the last fifty to seventy years that we've really considered the human dignity of the disabled, and unfortunately mingled ridicule, pity and horror have been more the norm than the exception.

[StClone]

9. First off what does Political Correct mean?

To me it is a catch phrase employed by the Right rather than the Left. That says snidely "Oh we're supposed to be Civil and respectful!? Forget about it!...what a joke I'm to in to me to do that."

[cornermouse]

10. When good manners were twisted into "politically correct"

by people with bad intentions. I don't like it either.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Goes back to

at least the 1950's and I'm guessing well before that.

In passing - use of the word spaz in the USA, which is abb. of spastic, would be found offensive by some in the UK. see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

[flamingpie2500]

13. People make fun of the things they fear. A defense mechanism--IMHO

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. since 3d grade. Anything different was a perfect target, especially for

the class bully. And since the class bully was usually large, dumb, and loudmouthed - oh wait. I'm describing Rush, aren't I?

[bleedingheart]

16. actually I think it is because society is now open to living with people

with disabilities.

When my mother was a child...it was rare, very rare to see a disabled person out and about. Most retarded, crippled, or even those who suffered from deformities were kept at home most of the time to "protect" them or they were in institutions. Hell my mom's first 12 years of life were spent under FDR's administration and even he was ashamed of his condition and worked to hide it.

Even when I was a kid, it was uncommon to see disabled kids.

Today kids, who would have been tutored at home or in institutions, are actually sitting in classrooms with all the rest of the children. They are among their peers.

Some kids pick on other kids because they are jerks and have been raised by jerks.

Some kids and even adults with disabled friends actually joke around with them like the rest of us do...I wore glasses as a kid. My friend would tease me about it in a funny way. She had a rather large nose...and to "get back"...I would duck when she turned her head toward me.....it was all a joke. Hell at the office today...we make jokes about stuff...it breaks the ice.

But...as I said...there is a difference and those who are jerks or make fun of others to hurt them are still assholes.

[Ellis Wyatt]

17. Jerry Seinfeld

Did an episode about a woman in a disabled woman that George bought a wheelchair for and Kramer fell in love with. And then hilarity ensued.

Something About Mary

Mr. Magoo

I don't think it's anything new to find humor in disability, right or wrong, it's certainly been going on well before this current administration.

I just hope that what is spurring this question isn't what Rush did, because that's not even close to comedy. That's not "humor", that's just ignorance, closemindedness, and/or whatever else in a person causes them to actually think someone would fake or otherwise exaggerate a degenerative condition for the sake of winning a damn election.

Please don't take what Rush did as an indictation of society as a whole. It's not right. No one thinks it is right, he's being universally raked over the coals for his statement.

[jillan]

18. Rush is the most disabled person there is

Something is seriously wrong with his brain.

[recoveringrepublican]

24. wasn't he also deaf for awhile? I remember reading something

awhile back. I'm very hard of hearing, it makes it very easy for me to put myself in other's shoes. Sadly, temporarily loosing his hearing didn't do jack for him. Then again he had the money to "fix" it right?

[colinmom71]

33. Physically, Mr. Limbaugh is *still* deafened...

And permanently so due to his abuse of oxycontin. He had cochlear implant surgery last year to restore his hearing, but he's still deaf. The implant is really in essence just a permanently installed hearing aid (albeit of superior quality to conventional hearing aids), and even then the external parts of the device cannot be used under certain conditions (bathing, swimming, etc.).

[bryant69]

19. They've always been funny

Look at Shakespear - even he has his deformities as jokes. It's part of human nature to laugh at people with disabilities.

Not, I'll admit, one of our better parts.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Philosoraptor]

20. --------------

[DireStrike]

21. They've always been uproariously funny.

Until say, 5th or 6th grade.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

22. They always have been; the portrayal of the disabled is more sympathetic now than ever before.

Your claim, "It's always been sort of a social taboo to make fun of the disabled or exploit them, but it's much more prevalent now", could scarecely be more wrong.

If you look at the portrayal of disabled characters in e.g. Elizabethan work, they're almost invariably either comics or villains (like Richard III), or at best pitiable, like Caliban, and this only began to change very recently.

The idea that external deformity was sybolic of deformity within used to be a very commmon one.

More recently, things improved somewhat - Tiny Tim is portrayed as an object to be pitied, but not as a human being - but it was still always true that the most important thing about a disabled person was their deformity, until the last few decades.

That's not to say that the portrayal of the disabled in art nowadays is perfect, or even all that good, now, but it *is* better than it's ever been before, so the OP doesn't really make sense.

[recoveringrepublican]

23. I can't speak for others, but I have a profound hearing loss

and it's amazing that people think I'm supposed to laugh along with them. I would say it happens at least on a weekly basis. I can't count the number of times people, when they find out I can't really hear, think it would be to talk with no sound.

[maxsolomon]

25. you mean when we make fun of overweight, smoking

pitbulls who wear burkhas to the gun range?

fear of difference is a survival mechanism. we learn to temper it by recognizing the humanity in the other. some do it well, others less so.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. There's a difference between Cartoons and real life

When Family Guy did the special peoples' games episode I thought it was a clever way of invoking stereotypes.

The fact is that somewhere along the line the Coyotee chasing the Road Runner ceased to be funny and people need cartoons that make them laugh out loud. Cartoons with these types of jokes do this because they invoke stereotypes mostly so that we can poke fun at the stereotype not the people that are being stereotyped. Seth McFarline assumes that his audience is smart enough to know that stereotypes don't reflect reality.

[RapidCreek]

28. When Rush Limbaugh doesn't suffer from it!

RC

[undergroundpanther]

29. Look at how many times Crazy people

are brought up, how often mental inness is an insult,Look at how many times people lump in people with mental illness with psychopaths like ted bundy who are NOT mentally ill.
Psychopathy is not an ILLNESS it is a flaw of character and it is a permanent one an illness implies a hope for change.
Axis 2 diagnosis are about something permanent about how the person is, like retardation. prozac and taking about it won't make a retarded person raise his I Q score, likewise a psychopath won't grow a conscience no matter how much you "love them" .So I am sick of being lumped in with psychopaths by ignorant"funnymen" because I have mental illness and people are so damn ignorant.. Are retarded people ill,NO. Are psychopaths ill? NO. Are people who can heal with the right therapy or medicine mentally ill YES.
They have an illness that can be helped.

The insensitivity and ignorance "normal" people have about mental illness and disability issues physical or not irks the hell out of me.And it ain't funny.

[leftofthedial]

30. when the bullies took over

[undergroundpanther]

31. .. our counrty turned to shit

God dammit I hate bullies.I wish I could put them on an island with each other to pick apart and let them destroy each other themselves for thier stupid amusement..and leave us the hell alone..

[WinkyDink]

32. Since the Banging on the Courthouse Doors, 2000, when we became a

Thugocracy.

[Fire Walk With Me]

34. People who laugh at the helpless? It's the laughter of discomfort.

They're frightened people and can't admit it. Terrified of their own helplessness and doing ye olde suthun defense of pointing at other people when they can't bear to look at themselves.