Here we go again. Disabled people used as mocking comedy bait? Well, perhaps. There have been claims in the US that Sacha Baron Cohen posed undercover as a disabled veteran for a year to lure Sarah Palin and other political and cultural figures for interviews on his new show, Who is America?. This has, understandably, caused a social media storm.
Palin cried shock horror. “Yup – we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now? I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive [sic], sick ‘humor’ of the British ‘comedian’,” she wrote on Facebook. She claimed that Baron Cohen, in character as conspiracy theorist Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr PhD, showed disrespect to US disabled veterans. Baron Cohen and television channel Showtime have denied the character is disabled and uses a mobility scooter only “to conserve energy”.
The phenomenon of comedy using disabled people for a quick laugh is hardly new, from old-fashioned fairground freak shows: laughing at the jokester dwarf, the jolly fat lady and the ‘pinheads’ (people with microcephaly) was all part of the fun. More recently, we have had scowling wheelchair user Andy and carer Lou from Little Britain. Ricky Gervais – a controversy-generator in his own right – attracted mixed responses to his comedy series Derek. The portrayal of a man with learning difficulties was done with affection. But, still, it was his disability spawning the comedy – and many people were uncomfortable with that.
Films such as There’s Something About Mary made mockery of disabled people central to its plot, with Matt Dillon’s character claiming he “works with retards” to woo Cameron Diaz’s character, whose brother has a learning disability. Yet, as with most Farrelly brothers films, there is a kind of equality, as everyone is a target for outrageous uneasy jest.
Compare that to Forrest Gump – admittedly hardly a comedy. For many disabled people, the film is rife with scenes of smugness; “Run, Forrest run!” became a taunt for people with learning disabilities. Even within the context of the film’s narrative, and in the hands of the usually faultless Tom Hanks, there are many scenes played for comic effect make disabled people cringe.
That’s not to say disability can’t be funny. It really can. Disabled comedians such as Francesca Martinez, Liz Carr and winner of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent, Lost Voice Guy, all have jokes about the disability experience. There is a sense of slow change as disabled people fight back with their own brands of humour.
We are coming forward with our own voice – so being a cheap comedy device for others will only become less and less acceptable.
• This article was amended on 18 July 2018 because an earlier version used the plural of phenomenon.
