Answer: NEVER
I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I read an article about how the hit TV show, Tosh.0, may inadvertently be helping the lgbt community lessen homophobia. Tosh.0 is a modern day version of America's Funniest Home Videos except that the videos are youtube videos. Seeing as my browser rarely lets me watch videos inside of blogs I went directly to youtube to watch the video of Daniel Tosh and his coworkers popping viagra and watching hardcore gay porn which, unfortunately, alerted me to this video:
transcript:
Tosh: When is it okay to laugh at the disabled?
video of two fat women in electric wheelchairs going down the road with one wheelchair hooked to the first. [laughter]
Tosh: now, now, now!
video replays
Tosh: if train A leaves walmart going 1 mile an hour... good thing she swung for the tow package on that rascal. And I see mom's wearing her going out tarp [laughter]. Shame on you for laughing. I don't find these jokes funny. Whenever I see someone in a wheelchair I always offer them a ride
video clip of a truck towing a long series of wheelchairs behind it with the last wheelchair turned over and being dragged with no one inside.
Tosh: 98% of them made it to their destination safely
So when is okay to make fun of the disabled? Well when they're fat of course! Because then you know it's their own fault- unlike that football player who became completely paralyzed during a game.. no, he didn't put himself in that situation at all. Being a football player is genetic and being fat is a choice you know. At 0:17 you can see the second woman flip off the camera guy- good for her! And I sincerely hope with every bit of my being that she went home, got on a fat acceptance support group and was able to get pissed off with lots of people supporting her. Not only was she recorded by some random asshole in a car just for having the audacity to appear in public while fat but the video went viral and ended up on a national TV show.
I can't even begin to articulate why this is so disgusting. Not only do they have no idea why these women are fat or why they are disabled, but even if they did, it doesn't give them the right to emotionally and psychologically abuse these women. And I hope it truly hits home how severe the word "abuse" is because I mean it in it's most serious form. These men are using sizism, sexism, classism, and ableism to oppress and grievously injure complete strangers who have does nothing to them except dare to appear in their line of vision.
Bigotry 101: if your sentence starts with "when is okay to laugh at" followed by an oppressed group then you should probably stop right there.
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Dreaming of Wheels
I finally dreamed of myself in a wheelchair . How we view ourselves is often hard. What we think of ourselves, even how we picture ourse...
I wouldn't get upset over him. He makes fun of everything and it's usually ridiculously stupid. But I agree that it's never ok.
ReplyDeleteYeh...to be fair he ridicules everyone...
ReplyDeleteridiculing everyone doesn't make it better.. it makes it much much worse.
ReplyDeleteand this post also isn't just about him or his show.. it's about the women and why they were recorded- not for doing anything wrong.. just for daring to be fat. The fact that it ended up on Tosh.0 is more of a side note than the focus.. the focus is on what happened to these two women. It's about the fact that a lot of fat people face this kind of discrimination and stigma- all those news stories you see with the headless fatties walking down the street or eating? Those likely were taken without permission (they don't use the face so they don't have to ask). So being fat and in public means that you may be recorded or photographed for the sole purpose of being ridiculed and oppressed *just for being fat*.