Posted on by qscrisp

Down’s Syndrome in comedy

I've come across two stories in the media recently about controversy surrounding jokes made about or around Down's Syndrome. One of them involves Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, and the other involves Frankie Boyle, stand-up comedian.

Those links include other interesting links. I won't post them all here.

I'm not going to give commentary, because I don't really have anything to say beyond the obvious.

7 Replies to “Down’s Syndrome in comedy”

  1. Interestingly enough, since way back in elementary school when I was in class with some kids with developmental disorders, I have been pondering the possibilities of writing some material for comedians with Down’s.My big idea so far is to try and find a guy with Down’s who is a good rapper and possibly rhymer and to try and help him become the first ‘special’ MC. If I can find a guy I am thinking of the name MC Short Bus, if I can find a group maybe we can use Trisomy G’s. I was thinking of getting together whole outfits of stuff like baseball caps with “I’m Down” stenciled on the back, “I’m with stupid” T-shirts with arrows pointing at the viewer, anything we can think of.Then to develop some good rhymes about how society keeps treating people with Down’s like they are all retards, excuse the language please, and other Public Enemy type songs. Get together some good musical production and some concert dates and I could probably stop being their promoter. I would love to see that, it would kick ass! It’s about time that people realize that everybody is different, even within the Down’s community. We need to stop looking down at them and treating them like little kids. They’re adults! At least the ones that are over the age of suffrage.

  2. It could be done, either independently (in the case of a single group), or as a registered charity, for a more largescale project.This is a video made by the good folks at Wolf and Water:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl8URBoieU8It's the climax to the film that begins thus:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Yk6VjNtX8People talk about bringing back national service (occasionally), but I feel like, rather than military service, what they should actually implement is a system whereby everyone in the country has to spend a year working on Wolf and Water projects, thereby coming to understand the meaning of beauty.

  3. I’ve just read this article on Frankie Boyle:http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/print/2076It's a bit priggish, but there’s something in it. That is, I think what is often marketed (and I mean marketed) as edgy in British comedy is actually just mindless. I’m also interested in the identity crisis of left-wing/liberal politics. (A question Nick Cohen, who wrote that article, is also interested in.) The Nick Cohen article presents liberalism as something at the very least vaguely censorious (probaby unintentionally). Here’s another liberal point of view that seems to take an opposite point of view:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlEIryW8zAIn the above, liberals have ‘open relationships’, where as conservatives are sexually uptight and intrinsically hypocritical. I actually feel, though, that the liberal world is comparably infected with sexual confusion, underlying which is comparable self-righteousness, or perhaps comparable self-righteousness underpinned by comparable sexual confusion.

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