History Main / DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery

* Sugar Motta from ''Series/{{Glee}}'' uses her Asperger's Syndrome as an excuse to be rude to everyone.

* George Castanza from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' once faked a disability in order to get a number of perks at his job. He quickly began acting like an even bigger jerk, going so far as to have a secretary carry him to his office.
** Also from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', the episode "The Bubble Boy." Jerry pays a visit to a fan who has to [[BubbleBoy live in a plastic bubble]], but he turns out to be a {{jerkass}} who harasses Susan and picks a fight with George. But when George fights back, the neighbors are outraged: "What kind of person would hurt the bubble boy?"

* On ''JustShootMe'', Elliot's brother Donnie faked a mental disability for ''twenty years'' just so that he could get away with mooching off the family and not have to work.

* Dufrais, one of the Facejacker's personas, lives off this trope. He is in a wheelchair, but is an unpleasant, mean-spirited JerkAss.

'''NoRealLifeExamplesPlease.'''

* Sugar Motta from ''Series/{{Glee}}'' uses her Asperger's Syndrome as an excusee to be rude to everyone.

* Dufrain, one of the Facejacker's personas, lives off this trope. He is in a wheelchair, but is an unpleasant, mean-spirited JerkAss.

* Sugar Motta from ''Series/{{Glee}}'' uses her Asperher's Syndrome as an excusee to be rude to everyone.

* The Lou and Andy sketches in ''LittleBritan'' were built around the concept of a jerkass who is pretending to be wheelchair bound and possibly having learning disabilities in order to both be lazy to the nth degree and get away with being demanding ("Want that one..."), contrary ("...don't like it."), and to get away with some pretty horrible and ludicrous behavior [[spoiler:up to and including murdering a woman who wouldn't take his attitude]]. All this to the complete unawareness of his carer Lou Todd, a rather sweet put upon man who Andy basically treats as a slave.

When a disabled character is not entirely jerkass, but just snarky, they are a DisabledSnarker. When a character uses their age rather than an illness to get away with similar behavior its ScrewPolitenessImASenior.

** In the episode "Ass Burgers" he attempted to do this with Asperger's Syndrome, but failed due to a very basic misunderstanding of the disease. (He thought it meant that burgers come out of his ass.)
** Inverted with Joe, who is paralyzed from the waist down, but is generally outgoing and friendly. In one episode where Joe regains the ability to walk, NOT being disabled turns Joe into a complete ass hole to his friends and his wife. It isn't until Joe gets crippled again that he is brought back down to humble levels.

-->"I have self-diagnosed Aspergers so I can pretty much say whatever I want. I'm so much better than you. Sorry, Aspergers."

** And again in "Up the Down Steroid", he fakes being mentally disabled to cheat in the Special Olympics. Unfortunately, he can't fake being athletic.

This character-type is a parody of a [[TruthInTelevision similar behavior in real life]], which can be a BerserkButton for people who actually have said diseases.

Another variation will have the character claim to have the disability despite the lack of a professional diagnosis, or fake the symptoms so that they get get diagnosed with it. This character generally comes from a privileged background, and has thus become accustomed to treating other people poorly. Usually this character is just a Jerkass or Attention Whore, and would be exactly the same if they did not have or did not claim to have the disability.

** In the episode "Ass Burgers" he attempted to do this with Asperger's Syndrome, but failed due to a very basic misunderstanding of the disease.

-->-- '''Sugar Motta''', ''{{Glee}}''

* The eponymous character in ''{{House}}'' justifies his jerkassery with his injured leg, but he was a {{jerkass}} before that.

* Sugar Motta from ''{{Glee}}'' provides the page quote.

* George Castanza from ''{{Seinfeld}}'' once faked a disability in order to get a number of perks at his job. He quickly began acting like an even bigger jerk, going so far as to have a secretary carry him to his office.
* Roy (Chris O'Dowd) in ''TheITCrowd'' episode "The Work Outing" pretends to be disabled in order to cover a series of lies stemming from getting caught using the handicapped restroom at a theatrical performance. Each of his lies, however, only serves to make the situation worse for him.

* ''SomethingPositive'': As a young boy, Fred was admitted to a hospital for an ear infection, where he was antagonized at every turn by a boy in a wheel-chair, who used his disability as an excuse to rage at the world, and every other child at the hospital hates him. Eventually, Fred and his friends team up to scare him and teach him a lesson... [[spoiler:whereupon it is revealed that the boy is in the hospital for a heart condition, and the shock of the scare ends up killing him.]]

* ''FamilyGuy'': Peter uses his diagnosis of being mentally retarded to be even more of an asshole than usual, being abusive to people, shoving to front of lines, and just generally misbehaving all with a "sorry, retarded".

* [[SouthPark Eric Cartman]] once claimed to have [[HollywoodTourettes Tourettes]] so that he could get away with making racial slurs and insulting people.

* Paul and his wife were once harrassed by a man in a wheelchair in an episode of ''MadAboutYou''. Once Paul realized the man was disabled, he backed down, only to receive a blow to the gut. On instinct, Paul punched the man in the eye, resulting in everyone yelling at him for attacking a disabled person while the man in the wheelchair exaggerated the amount of pain he was in.

* Roy (Chris O'Dowd) in ''TheITCrowd'' episode "The Work Outing" pretends to be disabled in order to cover a series of lies stemming from getting caught using the handicapped restroom at a theatrical performance.

** In in the episode "Ass Burgers" he attempted to do this with Asperger's Syndrome, but failed due to a very basic misunderstanding of the disease.

The "faking it" variation is a parody of a similar behavior in real life, which can be a Berserk Button for people who actually are disabled, due to the prejudice they are targeted with every day compounded with having to put up with ignorant assholes who are adding insult to their injury by claiming to have it just to get attention and/or have a convenient excuse for being a jerk.

* In an American episode of ''[[TheOfficeUS TheOffice]]'', Michael suffers from a ''very'' mild burn on his foot, and ends up using a wheelchair.

* In HouseRules, Jacob is a Jerkass and considers his autism as a legitimate excuse for being such, as well as that autism is the next step in evolution.

* The eponymous character in {{House}} justifies his jerkassery with his injured leg, but he was a {{jerkass}} before that.
* In an American episode of TheOffice, Michael suffers from a very, VERY mild burn on his foot, and ends up using a wheelchair.

* Paul and his wife were once harrassed by a man in a wheelchair in an episode of MadAboutYou. Once Paul realized the man was disabled, he backed down, only to receive a blow to the gut. On instinct, Paul punched the man in the eye, resulting in everyone yelling at him for attacking a disabled person while the man in the wheelchair exaggerated the amount of pain he was in.
* George Castanza from {{Seinfeld}} once faked a disability in order to get a number of perks at his job. He quickly began acting like an even bigger jerk, going so far as to have a secretary carry him to his office.
* Roy (Chris O'Dowd) in TheITCrowd episode "The Work Outing" pretends to be disabled in order to cover a series of lies stemming from getting caught using the handicapped restroom at a theatrical performance.

* FamilyGuy: Peter uses his diagnosis of being mentally retarded to be even more of an asshole than usual, being abusive to people, shoving to front of lines, and just generally misbehaving all with a "sorry, retarded".

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