OPINION: Jokes about disabilities are not taboo.But here’s who you shouldn’t tell them

Editor’s note: se smith is a national magazine award winning essayist and journalist based in northern california. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.read more opinions On CNN.

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Last weekend, Shane Gillis took a gamble on the Saturday Night Live stage to put a damper on the LGBTQ and disability communities, but it didn’t pay off. When she did that, she received a frosty welcome from one of the band members on SNL. She clearly looked unimpressed.

Gillis is neither the first nor the last performer to “punch down” for comedic effect, as demonstrated in Dave Chappelle’s “The Dreamer.” He’s the latest in an apparently endless series of Netflix specials that play up his own notoriety.

“I probably have a handicap in the back now because I’m sitting there,” Chappelle said in the comedy special, which premiered on New Year’s Eve.

It relied on an outdated and offensive term to describe disability and a rift about where many people thought disabled people belonged, and was clearly a line that audiences were supposed to find funny. . But the outrage over this kind of comedy is kept in amber without expanding into the larger discussion of who gets on that stage in the first place.

The supposedly edgy and comedic debates of our current political moment tend to focus on the growing backlash against social progress. Conservatives are growing increasingly uncomfortable and furious about living in a time when marginalized communities are fighting back and insisting on fairness.

From the birth of the “politically incorrect” movement in the early 1990s to today, there has been a long-standing trend of vicious personal attacks aimed at cutting people down in response to societal changes. You can see that in the performances of Gillis, Chappelle, and others.

A better, more interesting conversation about comedy and disability would be whether people should be allowed to make disability jokes (which they are) or whether even disability can be made funny ( It’s definitely not possible).

The real question is who should be telling these jokes, and how the lived experience of being disabled (punching up, not downing) can create radical and truly edgy comedy. about it.

While doors are endlessly open to older performers like Chappelle, many disabled comedians struggle to gain traction in environments where systemic ableism hinders them. He lacks the star power of established non-disabled comedians. It’s not because they’re not that good, it’s because fame relies on access to social capital, something Chappelle, of all people, should know after rising through the ranks as a black comedian .

Want to crack jokes about Down syndrome? Why not take a look at the Improvaniers or Drag Syndrome, an all-disabled British drag troupe who put on hilarious and provocative performances? Other Down syndrome performers force conversations about the abilities of members of the intellectually disabled community that many are not prepared for.

They are far from the center of the jokes, they are the ones telling them, and the tepid humor of non-disabled people trying to exploit their disabilities on set, including those like Gillis who made harsh jokes about his own family. Sometimes they push back directly. member.

For double threat, consider Maysoon Zayed, a Palestinian-American comedian who has cerebral palsy. For decades, she has displayed a clever talent for exploring her identity as a disabled Muslim woman in both stand-up and sit-down shows. Her sets are sharp, very funny, and she doesn’t shy away from professing her ableism or Islamophobia in her work, both of which make her disability itself more difficult than anything she’s ever experienced. Also pointed out that much is always hindering her.

In true comedy tradition, comedians like Pat Lawler, Harold Fox, Josh Blue, Steve Lee, Daniel Perez, and Nina G have incorporated their disabilities into their sets. Telling jokes about yourself rather than at others is a true art form, and the threads of disability comedy sometimes thread the needle in ways that make viewers uncomfortable, and the threads against disability in society and culture. Promote understanding. For example, Lawlor’s research engages not only their autism but also their experiences as health workers in Afghanistan, including their experience with an IED that caused permanent brain damage.

But despite knowing that audiences love their work, comedians with disabilities or those who have experienced life events that involve disability don’t get the praise and attention they deserve. There are very few people. Bo Burnham’s “Inside” special on Netflix is ​​a notable exception, with the comedian tackling mental health issues in a hugely popular and sometimes dark performance that allows people to see disability as a personal experience rather than just a disability issue. It showed that there is a hunger for comedy that tackles issues. Teasing.

Performances like Gillis’s are disappointing, not just because they’re not funny or because they directly hurt members of the targeted communities. Also, all the big deals with entertainment giants like Netflix and NBC are a missed opportunity for comedians with disabilities, and inequalities that contribute to deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination against people with disabilities in our larger society. These are also eternal frustrations because they are the things that fixate them.

The sight of disabled people standing up and sitting down may be uncomfortable for able-bodied audiences who fear disability, but that’s the best part of discomfort in comedy, the kind that encourages introspection and humanization. It is. One of the reasons why disability is so scary is because of its unknowns. This is because many people without disabilities do not know people with disabilities or consider disability itself to be a taboo topic. In fact, making fun of a disability can make it more relatable and less worrying.

Approximately 20% of the U.S. population is disabled, and disability is one of the few marginalized identities that is always accepted. Comedians who are openly disabled may thrive in a world where prejudice is less pervasive, and where being disabled is seen as a fact of life rather than a tragedy. do not have. , It’s quite interesting.

When we’re laughing at ourselves, it’s okay to laugh with us. It’s another thing to not have disabled people in the room, and to continue to invest in comedy that explicitly assumes that our entire community is here as a source of entertainment rather than as equal participants in society. is.