No Alzheimer’s Jokes Please…at the Oscars.
February 23, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
When Julie Christie accepted her award from the Screen Actors Guild last month for her role in Away from Her, she thanked the cast and crew and then stated “And if I’ve forgotten anybody, well, it’s just that I’m still in character.”
This was viewed as insensitive by many who are now concerned that with two films (Away from Her, The Savages) about the disease and dementia up for awards at next months Oscars, there is likely to be more ‘insensitive’ jokes thrown around.
“It is no laughing matter,” said Peter Braun, chief executive of the California Southland chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, “People don’t laugh about cancer; people don’t laugh about AIDS. We call on the academy to use this moment for good, as it has done for so many other social causes.”
So what do you think?
Was Julie Christie’s comment insensitive ?
Do you think that the presenters of this year’s Oscars will manage to avoid using humor about the disease ?
And if they don’t, are they being ‘insensitive’?
I am so tired of hyper sensitivity to humor that targets any and everything. We have to relearn how to laugh at ourselves. I am of Irish & Scottish decent, wrinkled, balding; my father died of Alzheimer’s and my Mother is in it’s early stages. It’s a good bet that I will get there too. Go ahead, tell all the ethnic, bald, old, wrinkled, or Alzheimer’s jokes you want. I need to laugh and not take myself too seriously.
Scary things need humor to defuse the denial and resistance that they engender. There is much humor in dementia, in caregiving and in life. Let the untouched masses see the humor.
I agree. Humor is such an important part of dealing with disease and illness. As a nurse, I see it every day and also use it help get through difficult situations.
I say, let the jokes roll on..