The Inbetweeners- Disability in Media

The Inbetweeners- Disability in Media

In this clip, the disabled girl is used as the comedy element. Across the world, disability has become more of a serious situation but in some comedy dramas such as the Inbetweeners, the disabled are used to create comedy. In the clip, the main character in the series throws a Frisbee and hits the disabled girl by accident and because of her reaction to the Frisbee hitting her; this creates a sense of humour.

A man named Paul Hunt in 1991 observed how the disabled were shown to through media and he talks about how the disabled were mainly used as a comedy element in all types of media. Paul Hunt also goes onto say that that the disabled are seen as a source of comedy since the ancient Greek times as they were seen as the weakest people in their times. And now the disabled girl in this is represented as a comedy element.

In my opinion I feel as if no one should laugh at the disabled as they already feel as if they are low in society. But people do still make jokes and the disabled are still laughed at. But not all media productions are making fun of the disabled to create humour, as in this clip it only hits the disabled girl because of luck of the Frisbee hitting the girl, not where the character said he was going to throw the Frisbee. This clip could have easily replaced the disabled girl for another character such as a child and would still get the same the sense of humour. 

I think the disabled who can relate to this girl would not find this clip funny due to how much they relate to this in real, especially the disabled who are specifically like her (cerebral palsy) may even complain as they will be very offended to watch this scene as it portrays the people with similar or this disability to being weak.

In this society we take pity to people with disabilities, as they appear too many people as weaker and helpless than the physically abled, this is not done on purpose to mock the disabled but because the physically abled people want to help and be nice to the disabled. But recently, it has been shown that the disabled are capable of doing extraordinary achievements, a prime example for this would be in the Paralympics and even in the Olympics.