Now, before I go any
further let's get one thing straight. I like a good laugh as
much as the next person. I also agree with what Dave Gorman
once said in a stand-up routine, to the effect that if the disabled –
of which I am one – want to be fully integrated into society we
have to accept that humour is part of that acceptance, to whit
laughing at ourselves and allowing others to laugh with us is part
and parcel of that. One of my favourite jokes is about one of my
disabilities, Hydrocephalus; unfortunately it relies heavily on sound
so doesn't translate into a blog. A stand-up routine I love is from
Chris Addison who did an hilarious piece describing pirates as
disabled sailors. I've seen it several times and I still laugh every
time.
So that's the good
part out of the way. Now onto the bad.
Humour based on
ignorance is not humour. It's offensive. Tonight I watched a
stand-up routine from a comedian who clearly hadn't done his research
properly – if at all - and simply plucked a common disability out
of the air to compare with an eating disorder. His misfortune –
quite apart from the laziness inherent in the lack of research –
was to single out my disability. Now, I grant you the routine
was from 2011 and in the intervening years he may have had his error
pointed out to him, but have the thousands who saw the routine also
been informed of his error?
My major disability
is Spina Bifida – I minored in Hydrocephalus (See? Humour! :) ) and
for those not familiar with the condition, simply put it is a
malformation of the spinal cord in the womb which results in varying
degrees of paralysis and other side effects depending on where on the
cord the malformation occurs. In my case, and that of many others,
it results in an inability to walk and thus many of those who have
Spina Bifida are wheelchair users.
The condition this
ill-informed individual compared Spina Bifida to was wheat
intolerance and Coeliac Disease. The latter is an autoimmune
disorder of the small intestine. Symptoms include pain and
discomfort in the digestive tract, chronic constipation and diarrhoea
and many others. Vitamin deficiencies are often noted in people with
coeliac disease owing to the reduced ability of the small intestine
to properly absorb nutrients from food.
The offending line in
question suggested that people with wheat intolerance 'act like
they've got Spina Bifida..' Hopefully having read the two
descriptions above you will, dear reader, appreciate what an asinine
comment this was.
I'm going to be blunt
here because the individual concerned is a public figure and has his
words and opinions exposed to hundreds, if not in the low thousands,
of people at a time, possibly millions on television. The man's an
idiot. Firstly for not bothering to research his material properly,
but then for exposing the thousands in the auditorium and watching
the televised event to his ill-informed humour. The saying 'With
great power comes great responsibility' is I feel appropriate
here, as his words have the potential to shape what everyone thinks
who attends one of his performances, or the millions who will have
watched him on television. I hope that knowing they are
watching a comedian they won't go away with the belief
that he knows what he's talking about, because if they do they will
think Spina Bifida is an eating disorder, or conversely they may
think Coeliac Disease means you can't walk.
People in the public
eye, especially those whose job entails addressing large numbers of
the public, have a duty and responsibility to know
what they are talking about. Not only comedians, but actors,
music artists, politicians, in fact anyone who routinely finds
themselves in front of a camera and feels obliged to have an opinion.
These people have fans who in some cases hang on their every word
and believe what they say – and that they can speak English
properly but that's a whole separate blog.
The point of this
story is quite simply if, while in the public eye, you're quizzed on
a subject you know nothing about have the honesty to say so,
and if you don't know about a subject don't make it up!
