Humor, Taboo, and Acceptance

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-05-27 10:47:00 UTC
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a brightly lit Lisa Simpson plastic figurine casting a long dark shadow across a wood floor and white wall. the figurine has both its hands up, its mouth open in an 'o', and very wide eyes, as though surprisedBack when it was fresh out in the first run theatres, I remember a bit of press on the movie Good Morning, Vietnam that stated something like, "The humor of this movie is a good sign we're starting to accept what happened with Vietnam and deal with it." The idea being that when something is a fresh wound to some group of people or makes the majority of people feel very uncomfortable or upset, it's taboo to publicly place it in a humorous context. When something is accepted (even if it's not liked or wasn't a good thing) it then becomes acceptable, or even healing, to place it in a humorous context. Some things never become acceptable to joke about (e.g., genocide) and that's perhaps as it should be. So what about this story Is "The Simpsons" defending disability rights or making fun?

The three cool girls, all named Caitlyn, (with different spellings), say: "Do you even know how lame you are?"

Lisa responds: " I should warn you by using the term 'lame,' you are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Caitlyns: "Eew, that makes you even lamer."

The original post links back to this essay from The Ragged Edge, Lame, lame, lame which discusses how disability-related words invariably mean something bad when used as metaphors--and that's something worth complaining about. The original post then asks,

"So is "The Simpsons" bit agreeing with this sentiment [that it's wrong to use disability metaphors to mean something bad] or just making fun of concerns about language?"

So. The Simpsons, Lisa, taboo, and acceptance: Is the joke in poor taste? Is the joke funny? Are we able to laugh, or is this topic too sensitive? Jokes about "the R word" are taboo and disrespectful at this time, what about "the L word?" Or the "A" word? Is it OK to joke about autism? Is it OK for me to joke about my autism but not about someone else's autism? Is it OK for a non-autistic person to joke about autism? More to the point, is it OK for Lisa Simpson to joke about autism? ;-)

Dora Raymaker
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