Hearing Disability, Gender, and Comedy in Film and Television

• In Event: 444 - Section on Disability and Society Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Social Implications of the Intersection of Disability and Gender

Abstract

How are deaf or hard-of-hearing characters portrayed in film or TV comedies – as the butts of jokes, the creators of humor that mocks hearing people, the originators of laughter in which they want people of all hearing statuses to participate, or the background characters who provide mise en scene? And how have these possible portrayals changed over time? I answer these questions by reviewing 45 comedy films and TV shows first released in the United States between 1932 - 2012. I conclude by evaluating whether and how the changes in the images of deaf or hard-of-hearing characters in comedies have progressed from a Cinema of Isolation towards a Cinema of Liberation. This study is the first analysis not only of hearing disabled characters in film and TV comedies but also of the historical changes in those images over eight decades.

Author

• Nan E. Johnson, Michigan State University