Oh, come on, that’s pretty low.
Tried to take the high road but it wasn’t ADA compliant
Originally titled we let our 3 year old son decorate a tree on Reddit’s r/CasualUK. Later recycled into A very Dinklage Christmas in r/suicidebywords.
I just want to take a moment to reflect on the ableism at the core of this the joke. The tweet isn’t even by the real Peter Dinklage, it’s from a “Fan Account”. This is just someone who found the picture, and created a joke based on Peter Dinklage’s disability (without his input or consent) by comparing his abilities to the efforts of a toddler. It’s actually a pretty great example of how society continually questions people with disabilities about their competence in vaguely-related situations.
Dinklage said this about the Snow White remake and I think it’s pretty worthwhile revisiting:
“Literally no offense to anything, but I was sort of taken aback, … They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. … You’re progressive in one way, … but you’re still making that fucking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.” - Dinklage on WTF podcast 24th Jan 2022
As a civilisation, we’re still doing “lol, person with different body can’t do things like most people because the world wasn’t built to include them” and calling it comedy when it’s actually a hugely pervasive and damaging stereotype that keeps people with disabilities from being able to contribute meaningfully. Achondroplasia (and other medical conditions) are not a joke, and the difficulties people do face as a result of exclusion are not in any way funny to experience or be reminded of unnecessarily.
I wish so much of comedy wasn’t just hurtful bullying pretending to be good-intentioned playfulness.
what makes it funny is literally the idea that peter himself made the joke, it wouldn’t be funny without that detail.
and afaik it’s perfectly in character for him to make such a joke
And if Dinklage said it, I wouldn’t have bothered to say anything, even if I still have thoughts on that topic. Because he has the right to tell jokes about his experiences. But the fact he didn’t say it is worth highlighting.
There is a lot to be said for the psychology of humor, with a wealth of research about in-group and out-group humor (mostly from a race and gender perspective, because people with disabilities often experience poorer educations) that dives into how humor is often used as a strategy to survive and compete. Ford, Thomas & Breeden, Christopher & O’Connor, Emma & Banos, Noely. (2019). Jokes and Humor in Intergroup Relations gives a decent overview of some of the topics, if you’re keen to dive into academic communications articles.
I also find that jokes made by members of marginalised groups are often more nuanced than they may seem to non-members, because they’re backed by lived experience and a better understanding of the social factors at play. Sort of like the jokes in kids movies that are actually targetted at adults. The kids laugh because it’s silly and over the top, but the adults laugh because they know what the joke really means.
Not sure about it being in character for Peter Dinklage. But very much in character for Warwick Davis. cf. Life’s Too Short
You broke the joke, but in a great way. You got my upvote and the post got a downvote
The 750 people who upvoted it need to come back and downvote it.
If you downvote the post, the insightful comment is less likely to be seen.
That one of the hard paradoxes of the life… But I don’t think lemmings will read enough to see my comment.
Perhaps not. There must be a graph that could describe the relationship, even if it hasn’t ever been drawn.
okay but the seven dwarves didn’t live in a cave. They worked in a cave, they were miners, mining for precious gems. They lived in a proper house. The house was pretty awesome.
I laughed at this but it was not because I equated him to a toddler. I was unaware it was a fake meme and seemed like a joke in good faith from a person poking fun at their circumstances. Thanks for the background information! Guess I won’t be laughing at this again or sharing the laugh with others given the context.
Ok yeah it’d be a little funny from a little person, but not if it isn’t. I’m very used to jokes about disability from disabled people, it’s how many of us cope and disarm non-disabled people.
Dinklage isn’t some fucking dwarf saint. He pulled the ladder up for other dwarf actors after his major success.
Dinklage didn’t pull up the ladder with his mild criticism of Snow White, if that’s what you mean. Unless he has some kind of requirement that no other short actors can be cast near him, he’s not the one making the call on hiring decisions.
Disney pulled and pulls up the ladder every time they cast. After Dinklage’s criticism, they decided to consult with the dwarfism community, and then decided to remodel the dwarves into animated creatures with voice actors, based on the feedback they received. Ok, that does indeed remove these roles for actors with dwarfism…
But Disney also provided no other roles to little people as replacement, except the ones based on old stereotypes. Disney has the power to cast anyone in roles, as they tried to demonstrate with Snow White, but they choose not to.
And even if they did keep the original dwarf concept, there’s no guarantee they’d hire people with lived experience as little people anyway. Just like when Gary Oldman starred in Tiptoes. Most disabled characters in TV and movies aren’t actually played or written by people with first-hand experience.
Most disabled characters aren’t played by people with first hand experiences because there are not many disabled people in the acting pool to choose from. That is simply not the case with the dwarfism talent pool.
That’s not what the research says. Study shows lack of opportunity for disabled actors. The full PDF report, co-authored by actor Danny Woodburn who is best known for his role on Seinfeld, is linked in that article.
Tl;dr Actors with disabilities “were repeatedly subjected to negative stigma and preconceived biases by casting agents and producers” and less than 2% of actors cast had disabilities.
Even the Executive VP of talent and casting at CBS Entertainment agrees:
“There are so many talented performers available who are often overlooked and are not being considered for roles, so our goal with this initiative is to help bridge that gap.”
It’s a short joke, not a dwarf joke. Jesus cocksucking christ. I bet dinklage would find it funny
It’s a short joke, not a dwarf joke.
And being short is a symptom of achondroplasia, along with many other painful issues. It’s a joke about how he is unable to do something to any kind of reasonable standard, because he has a disability.
I bet dinklage would find it funny
Maybe he would. Maybe he’s heard so many shit short jokes in his lifetime that it would be just another asshole who thinks they’re hilarious and original. And maybe his snow white dwarf comment was less about the mythical creatures as much as it was abour society’s portrayal and exclusion of people with bodily differences. You, much like the person who posed as him on Twitter, do not get to make that decision for him.
As far as I’ve seen, he has pretty much built his career on the joke “haha I’m very short but with attitude”, literally human Chihuahua
And if he had said it, I wouldn’t have said anything. But humor is a really complex thing, not always associated with pleasant feelings. It can be a social strategy and coping mechanism too.
Unfortunately this one is PDF only but it explores all the complex social themes in some depth from an ethnicity perspective: Dobai, A ; Hopkins, N. (2019) Humour is serious : Minority group members’ use of humour in their encounters with majority group members. European Journal of Social Psychology.
literally human Chihuahua
Dehumanisation, like infantilisation, is another problem for people in marginalised groups.
Try not to blow yourself up over your silly outrage, shorty.
I’m literally taller than every country’s average height, but that’s OK - an inability to empathise is a disability too. I still think you’re capable of meaningful contribution to society, even if you didn’t come close to that here. Better luck next time, friend!
Seethe more.
Oof
An oldie but a goodie
And who took the photo?
Three Peter Dinklages in a trenchcoat
Threeter Dinklage
Hmm let’s count to be sure. One, two, three… zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Peter Dinklage didn’t actually post this. The original picture is of a family who let a three year old decorate a tree. Someone took that picture, made the Peter Dinklage account and posted this posing as him. Allegedly. I think it’s kinda funny, but with that background info maybe in poor taste.
Selfie stick
deleted by creator
bro accedentally put just instead of my daughter or my son
an aneurysm happened here.
