..is this....is this ok? This is very explicitly mocking the disabled. It seems a little uncomfortable to me. Watch the recent Louis Theroux documentary where he meets autistic kids like I did, then watch this.
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Kung_Fu_Russ ran out of amusing signatures on, Sat 28 Apr 2012, 0:44,
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They seems to use the character to mock absurd situations
I don't see autism as being the punchline here. They had another report from him where he was reporting from a scene where somebody died and he didn't get why the victim's family were hugging his body (or something like that) as he was already gone.
The actor who plays the reporter is himself autistic. That doesn't immunise it from being offensive, but it makes it a bit less likely to be so in my mind.
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RadioElectric, Sat 28 Apr 2012, 10:02,
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feel I should respond to this, even little belatedly
Firstly, "the disabled" should be no more immune from mockery than the rest of us. Second, the point of the sketch is to use the device of an autistic viewpoint to satirise war and the differing viewpoints about death/victory/patriotism. Thirdly, although you have watched a documentary, I work with autistic people regularly. The ones with high functioning are able to laugh at their quirks etc, what they really struggle with is the public's ignorance of their condition (assuming they have rain man style 'special powers' etc). Something like this highlights how they view the world and so increases people's understanding of autism and why they react 'oddly' in certain situations.
So yes, it is ok.
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Sheriff John Bunnell https://twitter.com/thewonderfulgam, Sat 28 Apr 2012, 22:48,
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