Representation of Disability

Little Britain:

Little Britain is a British comedy series which ran between 2003 - 2007 and stared Matt Lucas and David Walliams. The program consists of a series of sketches involving exaggerated parodies of British people from various walks of life.

One of these sketches is the ‘Lou and Andy’ sketch which features Andy, an inarticulate wheelchair user who lives in a rundown house on a council estate and his helper Lou (David Walliams). Andy (Matt Lucas) speaks in a simplistic and childish way with big words being absent from his vocabulary, whilst his career Lou seems to ‘talk down’ to him. This may suggest that his disability has affected him in more ways than one and could therefore be an unjust representation; just because a person has a physical impairment doesn’t necessarily mean that it affects their mentality. You could also argue that this representation is hegemonic as it reinforces some of the societies' main stereotypes of disabled people.

However, whilst this may all be true, it’s important to note that the most significant point of these sketches is that the jokes and humorous storyline invites us to empathies with Andy in his mischievous behaviour and to share in his pleasure in outwitting Lou by climbing out of his wheelchair to do an assortment of activities such as waterskiing, swimming in an aquarium or even stealing a horse behind Lou’s back. These pranks are timed in such a way that Lou never seems to understand that he has been made a fool of. Andy always has the last laugh at Lou’s expense and the audience therefore narratively partakes in deceiving and laughing at Lou.

I believe that placing disabled characters at the centre of comedy sketches does not result in an unproblematic promotion of disability rights. The comedy sketch show format only works successfully when there is an audience recognition of stereotypical situations and/or characters. This could fit into one of Richard Dyer’s functions of stereotypes: ‘a shortcut to meaning’ which is when you use a stereotype in a media text so that information can be quickly understood if the audience holds a shared understanding of that stereotype. The jokes are often either centred on a disruption of the expectations generated by the stereotype or due to a clash of stereotypes.

Fundamental to the humour of ‘Lou and Andy’ is the binary oppositions between real and fake disability. The British press and the Internet are full of stories of people who fake disability in order to fraudulently claim disability benefits or who fake mental illness to evade prosecution...in fact, since 2004/2005 there has been a significant rise in such articles.

The lack of explanation as to why Andy uses a wheelchair generates a wide range of interpretations and, unfortunately, the most common explanation is one which accords with the stigmatizing of fraud and the poor. In this version, Andy is a disability benefits cheat who has fooled many (even doctors) into giving him a wheelchair and a helper.

However, there are many other explanations with one being that he may have a condition which stops and starts, meaning that he does not always need to use the chair. This would typically be outside the general representations of disability within the media as disability is often represented as a permanent, medical problem or at least subject to repair. More interestingly, a further interpretation which seems justified in certain sketches is that the wheelchair functions as a visual representation of the ways in which Lou, and by implication careers and health professionals in general, metaphorically “push disabled people about”.

All in all, I believe that Little Britain is important for both TV and disability because it generated popular and widely recognized characters who continue to draw attention to modern representations of disability. The program invites us to laugh at the stereotypical ways that disabled characters have been used in popular on-screen entertainment. It also draws attention to the ways of which the disabled characters are used as background in television narratives and questions the social expectations of the disabled people by visually and narratively showing the failure or refusal to conform to the social normality of behaviour of the ‘abled’ bodied. It allows a ‘disabled’ character, in some sense, to take a front role and finally have the final laugh at others.

---

"We're the Superhumans"

Channel 4 followed up its multi-award-winning ‘Meet the Superhumans’ which was launched in 2012, with another advertising campaign called ‘We’re the Superhumans’ back in 2016 ahead of the Rio Paralympics. The campaign is believed to include more disabled people than ever featured in a UK advert and is the most accessible campaign ever produced by Channel 4. Subtitled, signed and audio described versions are also available which truly drives home the ideologies of these campaigns: disabled people are thought of and included.

The campaign mainly revolves around a three-minute advert which was directed by Dougal Wilson who has directed a multitude of projects before such as John Lewis adverts and an array of music videos. The film features a cast of more than 140 disabled people – including Paralympic athletes, musicians and members of the public from all walks of life – and celebrates the abilities of people with a range of impairments that are capable of doing both extraordinary and everyday tasks as well as any able-bodied person could. It includes inspirational scenes such as a mother with no arms holding her baby with her feet; children with prosthetic limbs running, jumping, and playing football; and a woman flying a plane with her feet. I think this juxtaposition of every day to ‘extreme’ is so important as it again reinforces the key message that disabled people can do absolutely anything, that nothing is off-limits and that we are not defined by our differences and struggles.

These key messages are echoed throughout in Sammy Davies Jr’s song ‘Yes I Can’. The lyrics seem to come alive as it soundtracks to the lives of disabled people all over the world. Sammy himself was also visually impaired, which further showcases talent despite an impairment. The song in the advert was re-recorded by a specially assembled band of disabled musicians drawn from around the world, The Superhumans Band, featuring lead vocalist Tony Dee. It was recorded in the famous Studio 2 of Abbey Road studios and the track was released by Universal Music with all profits donated towards the British Paralympics Association.

The campaign completely destroys the typical stereotypes of disability that have loomed over us for too many years. It’s filled to the brim with positivity, empowerment, and endless boundaries. I believe that it holds the power to not only change the minds of those who still believe in these, some would argue, old-fashioned views but also of the disabled themselves...I think that they can realize how much potential they have.

---

Maltesers: "New Boyfriend"

This advert is one of three released by Maltesers, focusing specifically on the “lighter moments in the lives of those living with a disability” and comes after research found that, sadly, 80% of disabled people felt underrepresented by TV and the media. The ad, which aired during the 2016 Paralympics, stars Storme Toolis who is talking to her friends about a particularly “awkward” intimate experience.

Maltesers worked with a disability charity called Scope for the advert, which aims to encourage everyday conversation surrounding disability and champignons the growing diversity on TV. I believe that, over many years, the media has helped shape the nation's views on disability, as being just a serious, life-defining issue but this advert proves that it is not as it opens new perspectives of humour to its viewers. Suddenly, we don’t just focus on what has been taken away from these disabled characters but instead gain an indication of how they too can enjoy and live their lives. Whilst their disability is a focus, it tells us that this other side of disability exists and therefore allows those in similar circumstances to engage, empathies and even laugh along with the absurd situations which they may be able to imagine getting themselves stuck in or even relate to.

The advert received an overwhelmingly positive response on Twitter, with some saying it gave them a ‘giggle’ and others pointing out that it was great to see disability being “normalized” ...and it is. One user said, “That #maltesers advert during the #Paralympics was so good! We need more representation for people of all abilities. And jokes!”. However, there were still a handful of individuals who believed that the advert was a little bit too much, with some branding it ‘tacky and inappropriate’. A user even added on “Would they have done the same if it were from a man’s point of view?” and perhaps they wouldn’t of in fear of being labelled ‘sexist’.

Lisa Quinlan-Rahman, the director of external affairs at Scope, said: “We know comedy is a great way to shine a light on the awkwardness that many people feel about disability.” Humour is a subjective matter, it is up to the individual to decide what’s funny and what isn’t and for some this just clearly wasn’t.

Even with the likes of these campaigns and the slowly growing awareness has started, there is still a long way to go if we want to normalize disability. For example, Michele Oliver, the vice president of marketing for Mars Chocolate UK, said that diversity is still seen as an “exception, not normality”. She labelled it as “totally wrong” that Maltesers had to go to a specialist casting agency to find actors for the campaign. This suggests, to me, that disabled actors still to this day are being separated and perhaps even singled out from the rest of society.

All in all, I believe that this advert uses humour to encourage people to think differently about disability and helps to breakdown some barriers that many disabled people face.