"Mentally Challenged" Policeman

Well, not INTENDING to make fun of anyone, and not OFFENDING someone are not the same thing.

I have a son with Down syndrome and a part of me was a little disturbed by this. But a much bigger part thought it was funny as hell.

That's the thing about humor...
 
Jim Brennan said:
Well, not INTENDING to make fun of anyone, and not OFFENDING someone are not the same thing.

I have a son with Down syndrome and a part of me was a little disturbed by this. But a much bigger part thought it was funny as hell.

That's the thing about humor...
Click to expand...

Jim, you're right. They're not intending to make fun of anyone, but they probably are...

Jarred, I don't really see a correlation between the actor in the sketches and a small child. A small child has no idea what's going on, but the actor in the sketches completely understands what's going on. NO ONE is taking advantage of him. I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion...
 
I think its really good, why shouldn't this actor have the chance to act if he so choses,

say if you had an actor who was wheel chair bound, and played a character who is also wheel chair bound, I'd think no one would object to that.

I'd rather say this actor is talented, watch the out takes, he clearly had fun making it!
 
I think he does a great job and it looks like he has a lot of fun doing them, as does everyone else who's in the skits.

EDIT: To me, it's like a midget doing "short person" comedy. No one looks at Verne Troyer (Mini-me) and says "Wow, that's not right." To me, it's the same thing.
 
It's dicey Tom. I know a fair amount of children and adults with a variety of delays and diagnoses. It's very possible that that man has the cognitive and emotional ability to assess the situation and make a judgment. Seeing a video doesn't really tell you much about that. It's also possible that he doesn't understand that he IS the joke as opposed to being PART of the joke. He may be doing it because he is making people laugh, not knowing they are laughing at him.
 
It's entirely possible that he hasn't the ability to judge what's the source of the humor. I just thought it was fun watching him joke around. But you're right, and the more I think about it, the more I realize it might be in poor taste...
 
I'm way out of my depth here. Obviously Jim knows what he's talking about. I'll admit I assumed it was this one:
It's also possible that he doesn't understand that he IS the joke as opposed to being PART of the joke. He may be doing it because he is making people laugh, not knowing they are laughing at him.
Click to expand...

Tom Marshall said:
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion...
Click to expand...
Tom: For the most part I think of mentally challenged adults as children and think they should be protected and dealt with as such. Not disrespected or taken advantage of under the guise of "But he's having fun!" That's how I arrived at that conclusion.
 
Jared Meyer said:
I'm way out of my depth here. Obviously Jim knows what he's talking about. I'll admit I assumed it was this one:


Tommy: For the most part I think of mentally challenged adults as children and think they should be protected and dealt with as such. Not disrespected or taken advantage of under the guise of "But he's having fun!" That's how I arrived at that conclusion.
Click to expand...

Jared, I'm starting to come to that conclusion myself... hadn't considered that before, but yeah...

I'll try and get this thread deleted since it seems to be offending more people that I thought it would...
 
Tom Marshall said:
It's entirely possible that he hasn't the ability to judge what's the source of the humor. I just thought it was fun watching him joke around. But you're right, and the more I think about it, the more I realize it might be in poor taste...
Click to expand...

But humor is a visceral thing. I laughed at it.

This is a very complicated issue for me. My wife and I work very hard at establishing a sense of dignity for people who have developmental delays (Just had a 2 hour meeting about that this AM at the school district in fact). But part of treating people with dignity is allowing them to laugh at themselves. We all do that.

The tough part is knowing whether the people behind this are approaching this that way or not, and we'll never really know.

Believe me, I'm not judging anyone.
 
If it does offend anyone, then I'm happy to retract my statements too, I assumed the actor was happy doing it, naturally I can't know that for sure.
 
Jared Meyer said:
For the most part I think of mentally challenged adults as children and think they should be protected and dealt with as such. Not disrespected or taken advantage of under the guise of "But he's having fun!" That's how I arrived at that conclusion.
Click to expand...

Ironically, as well intentioned as that is, it can often be at the root of the disrespect often shown people with disabilities.

Again, I don't know this young man's abilities or situation, and even if I did, I wouldn't be qualified to make that decision for him. But many people with a diagnosis like this can make sound judgments about many things. They are not all "like children" in the sense I get from your statement. They continue to learn and grow from their experiences, just as we do, and often as our expectations of them rise, their development follows suit.

But just as Tommy's initial post was well-intentioned, so is your comment. Your feeling of protection for a population who may not always be able to stand up for themselves is admirable.
 
I always think of mentally challenged people as being blissfully happy, honestly. If they don't know the difference between people laughing at them or laughing with them, then I'm envious... I wish I thought everyone thought I was funny, but I know better... :laugh:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top