History Main / InspirationallyDisadvantaged

** [[http://www.seanbaby.com/news/commonsense.htm Temptation Beach vs. a Book About Retarded People]] features the book "Common Sense Not Needed" by Corrie ten Boom, which discusses the author's experiences preaching Christianity to developmentally disabled people in Nazi-occupied Europe. The result is a mix of "Patronizing" and "Magical", with the "subnormal" people (as she calls them) being portrayed as paragons of wisdom for parroting the Christian doctrine she had been preaching to them.

* ''Film/TropicThunder'' mocks this trope with the OscarBait FilmWithinAFilm ''Simple Jack''. It wound up backfiring on its star, Tugg Speedman, and it came to be viewed as one of the worst films of all time (though it's [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff inexplicably popular among Golden Triangle drug lords]]). Kirk Lazarus attributes the film's failure to the fact that the character was portrayed as ''too'' mentally disabled (or, in his parlance, Tugg "went full retard" in his performance) and lacking the "inspirational" part of this trope, citing ''Film/IAmSam'' as an example. As a result, Tugg's performance [[UnfortunateImplications was just plain insulting and uncomfortable to watch]].

** In "Petarded", Peter finds out he's functionally retarded. He even gets a social worker who makes a big deal over ''everything'' he does, saying "Good job, Peter! High-five! Alright!" Eventually, he uses his diagnosis [[DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery to get away with all kinds]] of {{Jerkass}} behavior, and when that puts Lois in the hospital the state takes custody of his kids from him...

* Invoked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Peggy starts making sculptures out of discarded propane tanks, which draws the eye of an art dealer. However, at her first exhibition, she learns that the guy has been portraying her as an idiot savant hillbilly.[[note]]The exhibition is even titled "I Ain't Got No Book-Learnin'".[[/note]] Needless to say, she's not happy, and Hank is even less so, but her spirits get lifted at the end of the episode when a few people express honest love of her "pro-bots".
** Another episode deals with Bill being told his legs will fail due to diabetes. Bill prepares by getting a wheelchair in advance and joins a handicapped basketball team/club. When Bill drunkenly stands up and begins to walk to the bathroom, he discovers that not only have his legs not failed, but his diabetes has reversed. Being branded as a fraud and no longer praised as an inspiration, he begins to scoop sugar into his mouth to regain his diabetes to become handicapped again until Hank and one of his basketball friends stop him and talk him out of it.

* ''Film/TheRoom'' gives us a bizarre subversion of this trope with Denny, an orphaned teenager who's essentially Johnny and Lisa's adopted son. Though he apparently came from poverty, and he struggles to put himself through school, he's never actually said to be disabled at any point in the film... but Tommy Wiseau himself [[WordOfGod went on record]] saying that he's "retarded, a little bit", apparently to explain some of the character's [[NoSocialSkills more bizarre behavior over the course of the film]] (most memorably, [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext he tries to creep into Johnny and Lisa's bedroom mid-foreplay at one point]]). Hilariously, Wiseau never actually told Denny's actor about that little detail, leading most fans to conclude that it's a {{Retcon}}.

* ''Film/TheRoom'' gives us a bizarre subversion of this trope with Denny, an orphaned teenager who's essentially Johnny and Lisa's adopted son. Though he apparently came from poverty, and he struggles to put himself through school, he's never actually said to be disabled at any point in the film... but Tommy Wiseau himself [[WordOfGod went on record]] saying that he's "r*tarded, a little bit", apparently to explain some of the character's [[NoSocialSkills more bizarre behavior over the course of the film]] (most memorably, [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext he tries to creep into Johnny and Lisa's bedroom mid-foreplay at one point]]). Hilariously, Wiseau never actually told Denny's actor about that little detail, leading most fans to conclude that it's a {{Retcon}}.

* Subverted, and then some, by a scenario on ''Series/WhatWouldYouDo'' in [[FourthWallMailSlot an episode based on viewer ideas]]. A wheelchair-using woman, who had sent the idea in, played herself in a supermarket as an actress not only went up to her and gushingly lampshaded the trope, she went on to patronizingly do things for her that she was clearly capable of doing for herself, even wheeling her around at one point. All were things the woman said had actually happened to her. Most of [[TheMark the passersby]] reacted by telling the actress to calm down and back off.

* ''Film/TheIdiots'' takes a somewhat {{postmodern|ism}} approach to this trope. It's title characters are a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob and his peers who invoke it InUniverse both to [[ItAmusedMe amuse themselves]] and [[DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery take advantage of strangers' hospitality]], not to challenge anyone's perception of developmental disability so much as play some [[DeliberateValuesDissonance juvenile game]]. The movie clearly depicts them as {{jerkass}}es, best shown when ''actual'' developmentally disabled people (played ''by'' actually developmentally disabled people) are invited to the group's compound, angering their leader.

[[quoteright:323:[[Film/TropicThunder https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simple_jack.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:323:[[Series/LastWeekTonight Mental illness. It's the thing actors pretend to have in order to win Oscars]].]]

* Creator/DustinHoffman's autistic savant character Raymond in ''Film/RainMan'' is a quintessential example. The film's use of this trope as {{Oscar Bait}} -- combined with its pop culture infiltration, which has spread the stereotype that all people with autism are genius savants -- makes its legacy controversial.

** Another good aversion shows up in "Little Miss Meanie." Muffy and Lydia enter the Little Miss Crocus pageant, and Muffy assumes the judges will let Lydia win because she’s paraplegic. She even considers asking Lydia to drop out because she can't "win" on her own merits — but then hears another girl tell Lydia the same thing, and [[JerkassRealization realizes how mean the assumption is]]. When Lydia finds out about it from Francine, she’s initially angry, but [[NotSoDifferent then admits that she’s not really one to talk]]. Lydia initially assumed that Muffy, being from an extremely rich family, was going to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney bribe the judges so she could get the grand prize]], so Lydia was thinking about asking ''her'' to drop out of the pageant. She had a similar JerkassRealization when she saw the same snob who told her to drop out accusing Muffy of using her affluence as an unfair advantage. This shows a character with a disability having to deal with, and overcoming, her own prejudices, which is rare especially in children's programming. Afterwards, Muffy and Lydia decide to team up and help improve each other’s acts. They end up tying for first runner-up, while the snobby girl receives no honors.

* There's a little {{Glurge}}-heavy brain tulip from the mid-'80s entitled ''Film/TheBoyWhoCouldFly'' (reviewed [[http://madnessmonster.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/boy-who-could-fly-review/ here]], and it is about an autistic boy who is so TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth that he can fly.

* Parodied in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' with [[AntagonistTitle the titular character]], an [[SmallNameBigEgo insanely arrogant]] rich guy who milks the fact that he's in a wheelchair for all it's worth, ranting about how inspiring it is that [[SelfMadeMan he got where he is despite his disability]]. It's later revealed that his success is a complete lie (his wife was the rich one; he just inherited her wealth after she died), and Walter suspects that he [[ObfuscatingDisability Lebowski isn't even really crippled]]. [[spoiler:He's wrong; turns out, being crippled was the one thing Lebowski ''didn't'' lie about, and [[BlackComedy Dude and Walter end up traumatizing him by knocking him out of his wheelchair]].]]

See also IdiotSavant, WaifProphet, DeafComposer, and WhoopiEpiphanySpeech. DreamCrushingHandicap is essentially the inversion of this trope. Also somewhat related to LittlestCancerPatient. Can result in {{Glurge}} if handled poorly. Compare GracefulInTheirElement, contrast EvilCripple.

A.k.a. the Magical Disabled Person (to go with MagicalNegro, MagicalQueer, MagicalNativeAmerican and all their magical friends.)

* Averted in ''Series/{{Glee}}'' with Becky Jackson, Cheerio, BadassAdorable administrator, mean girl in development, and TheDragon to [[CrazyAwesome Sue Sylvester]], who also just happens to have Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, also played painfully straight with Sean the quadriplegic football player, whose injury and subsequent development into a singer and math genius is used to teach the series' heroine an {{Aesop}} about how there's more to her than singing after she ''temporarily loses her voice due to a bout of tonsillitis''. If this was intended to be satire, it monumentally failed to land.

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in a first season episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' with Rose's sister. She tries to be one of these, but [[RealityEnsues reality]] gets in her way. Best shown in a scene where Rose tries to get her a cane so she can make her way through the room without falling over the various stuff the girls have spread around for the garage sale they're throwing, but she insists that she'll be fine because she memorized the layout of the house. Cue Rose, Dorothy, and Blanche dashing back and forth moving things out of her way. She then has a HeroicBSOD after setting fire to the stove. [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructed]] in the end when she goes back to a school for the blind to learn how to take care of herself, gets a seeing-eye dog, and is even [[RuleOfFunny driving by herself]].

* Subverted in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Leslie reads an "inspiring" book about a woman with no limbs who tried to swim the English Channel, and [[RealityEnsues drowned instantly]].

* An unintentional example happened with the advertising for the Swedish market [=ICA=]. In the commercials, a trainee joined with Downs Syndrome. However, the trainee was portrayed as both sly and clever, instantly recognizing the local ButtMonkey and taking advantage of his boss' subconscious prejudice against trainees. This made him surprisingly popular among viewers but also had a [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools rather positive side effect]]. All of a sudden, people with Downs Syndrome had a lot easier getting jobs.

* Downplayed in the "I Funny" books with protagonist [[DisabledSnarker Jamie Grimm]]. While he's considered an inspiration by the hospital that got him up to wheelchair-bound from total body cast, it's because of his optimism, not being handicapped. Jamie has also gone on record repeatedly as intending to get the use of his legs back if procedures to do so become available and when media tries to paint him as this trope, he gets annoyed and even suffers a HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath over it at one point (and it doesn't help that since the reason that he's in his chair is a car accident that killed his parents and beloved little sister Jenny, this is just salting the wounds the tragedy left and that he spends most of the series dealing with, [[StepfordSmiler as much as he skips over the topic to get back to jokes]]). That said, he does enjoy being an inspiration to other handicapped kids though he prefers it when it's of the "I won't let my limitations prevent me from being the best me I can" variety (a healthy way of looking at it).

** The one-legged Didi has [[MeetCute a chance meeting]] with a young man who has lost both of his legs and one of his arms, and the two fall in LoveAtFirstSight. He's always willing to protect Didi, especially from Earl (who wronged her in the past, and whom she resents.) He's kind of a subversion, though, because he beats up Earl before the latter even says anything.

** Kerry Weaver. Despite walking with a crutch throughout most of her time on the show (due to congenital hip dysplasia), she was consistently portrayed as an excellent physician. Even more remarkable, this was in a specialty like Emergency Medicine which requires considerable mobility. As well, her abrasive personality, rather than warm and fuzzy, might even subvert this example.
** The series also featured a small arc in an early season where Peter Benton discovered that his son was deaf. He met a doctor who was marketed as a "deaf specialist" of sorts only to discover that the doctor herself was deaf and relied on an interpreter for communication. The doctor had been profoundly deaf since she was young and still managed to complete medical school in a time where treating the disabled like everyone else was uncommon. She slightly invokes this trope in the sense that her character is primarily used as an example to Peter that being deaf is not the end of the world, but also to other staff as well.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' - Tommy in "Planet of the Spiders", a mentally disabled man with a taste for shiny objects. He appears to represent innocent goodness in the story's Buddhist symbology.
* A Christian show called [[https://youtu.be/FGlDJZtG06Y?t=42m52s Kids Praise]] featured in the 5th episode a firefly with one wing. They talk and sing about how wonderful it is that he only has one wing because that means he can glow and give glory to God...or something.

* Subverted in the ''{{Series/Seinfeld}}'' episode, "The Jimmy" when Kramer, who's still under the effects of Novocaine (he's slurring his words and drooling a bit) and still wearing Jimmy's strange training shoes, is mistaken for a mentally-challenged adult by an executive of a benefit for "Able Mentally-Challenged Adults" and invited to the event. Kramer, completely oblivious, goes along with this.

* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': In "The Injury," Michael tries to invoke this with the wheelchair-bound building superintendent, Billy Merchant (in order to gain sympathy after he burned his foot). Billy, however, is having none of it, especially since Michael parked in the handicapped space.

* Several Christmas songs feature characters who are ridiculed or otherwise shunned because they're awkward, clumsy or have no apparent talents compared to others. However, they use their hidden or unique talents to save Christmas from a bleak fate (often, foggy weather that prevents Santa and his reindeer team from making their journey):
** "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," perhaps the most famous example. All of the other reindeer had made fun of Rudolph because of his red nose and leave him out of their activities, until the fateful foggy Christmas Eve wherein Santa Claus asks a downtrodden Rudolph to lead his team, because his shiny nose is useful as a foglight and can see through the fog.
** "Ding-a-Ling the Christmas Bell," a Jerry Foster-Bill Rice composition, saw an anthropomorphic Christmas bell being shunned because he is off-key (thanks to an accident). Full of despair, Ding-a-Ling rings loudly when he discovers the sound of his bell can guide Santa and his team safely through a blinding Christmas Eve blizzard and to deliver all the toys. This became a huge holiday hit in 1971 by Lynn Anderson.
** "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle," a Burt Bachrack-Hal David song, cries because he is unable to jingle loud and proud on Christmas Eve. Santa calls on Jack Frost to give him a new clapper, which allows the Bell That Couldn't Jingle to jingle all the way. Most famously recorded by Bobby Vinton (1964) and Herb Alpert (1970, one of his rare times he sang).

* ''VideoGame/SabresOfInfinity'', Cazarosta, as a Deathborn, his inability to sense or manipulate the Bane and the social stigma attached to the status, would be expected to considerably hamper his military career, yet his skill as a soldier is such, that he frequently outclasses you in combat drills and never falls behind you in rank.

** It's discussed a little as well - if Hisao patronizes Hanako, she will [[spoiler:become extremely pissed off with him and a Bad End will result.]] Also, in Rin's route, Hisao gets uncomfortable when the art teacher suggests mentioning Rin's disability (she has no arms and paints with her feet) to attract attention (the art teacher himself says that if they play up Rin's disability, they'll be accused of exploiting it, but if they hide it, they'll be accused of discrimination), and when Hisao sees that Emi is an extremely good runner, he resists the urge to say something like 'especially since you have prosthetic legs' when telling her that she's very impressive for fear that it would take away from the compliment.

* The Website/YouTube comedy show ''WebVideo/MyGimpyLife'' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYTnldzk9nc&list=PL8DFDC12B1B8CFC85&index=4 Episode 3: Inspirational]]. The main character Teal (who's in a wheelchair) bombs an audition of ''Theatre/TheVaginaMonologues'' and knows it, but is applauded and called "inspirational" by the members of the company putting it on, all of whom are African American. Eventually, Teal gets sick of it and calls out the company, saying it's as if she had complemented them for being articulate or said that they could pass for white. They, of course, are [[HypocriticalHumor massively offended]]

** Teo averts this trope. Teo might be an excellent pilot, but this is never suggested to be because he is paraplegic, nor does any of the other characters seem to consider him in any way unusual. The only notice anyone takes of Teo's handicap is when Sokka is impressed by his "glider chair". Also, in spite of only being in two scenes in The Day of Black Sun, and not doing much in either, he was on the front lines in the end so we can [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome assume]] that he was fighting the whole time.
** Then there's Toph, though she's more along the lines of DisabilitySuperpower. Also averted, as she's happy to make blind jokes about herself as well as jokes at other peoples' expense about her blindness, and her genuine setbacks (being functionally illiterate in a world without Braille) are merely acknowledged.
* Avoided with Garrett of ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'', paralyzed from birth, but is the jock of the group. Not only does he enjoy sports (character profiles stated he is one of the best wheelchair basketball players in the Boroughs), but he often does things like getting across the city by holding on to the bumper of a bus, and ''jumping off a building with a parachute''. Given these activities, the writers could be accused of trying just a bit too hard to show that his disability didn't limit him, but he was still praised for his portrayal. He's also willing to [[ICantFeelMyLegs crack jokes about his condition]], and the one time he shows any offense is when he thinks Egon is patronizing him by telling him to stay back (He wasn't, Egon was just having a mid-life crisis and trying to take a more active role in the group). Heck; in the first episode, his reaction to Eduardo blatantly mocking his handicap is a "NeverHeardThatOneBefore" eye roll and nothing else.

** Averted in the infamous "Extra Large Medium", in which Chris' infatuation with his Down Syndrome classmate rapidly dwindles as she spends the entire date being a rotten, demanding bitch. UsefulNotes/SarahPalin infamously criticized the portrayal, which provoked a response from the actress ([[DisabledCharacterDisabledActor who has the condition herself]]), expressing the opinion that Sarah was no less trying to invoke this trope by shilling Palin's relationship with her own Down Syndrome child for political gain.

* Invoked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Peggy starts making sculptures out of discarded propane tanks, which draws the eye of an art dealer. However, at her first exhibition, she learns that the guy has been portraying her as an idiot savant hillbilly.[[note]]The exhibition is even titled "I Ain't Got No Book-Learnin'".[[/note]] Needless to say, she's not happy, and even less so is Hank, but her spirits get lifted at the end of the episode when a few people express honest love of her "pro-bots".

* Generally averted with Scootaloo from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Though conceived as a pegasus who simply hadn't learned how to fly yet, she is all but stated in season 4 to suffer from a disability that keeps her from achieving flight. However, this means that [[FridgeBrilliance Scootaloo has gone through three seasons without facing any grief from anyone over her physical disadvantages]], and the only teasing she ever gets for it is done to psych her out of an already impressive stage performance she and her friends put together.
** The end of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E20TheWashouts The Washouts]]" bears a very close resemblance to the "Patronizing" flavor of Inspirationally Disadvantaged described up top. First, Scootaloo reveals her motivation for joining the titular stunt team: She had accepted her limitations, and found the Washouts to be a satisfying second choice to following Rainbow Dash into the Wonderbolts - something that would make good use of her scooter skills and appeal to her adrenaline-junkie nature, but not require flight. Soon after that, when Lightning Dust nearly gets her killed, we've given the message that this was a '''BAD''' thing. The episode ends with Scootaloo getting her own fan club, despite not really having done anything particularly fan-club-worthy (in this episode or any other). This seems to imply that she shouldn't need the Wonderbolts ''or'' the Washouts to be happy - that she shouldn't bother trying to do anything noteworthy with her life, instead she should just be [[Main/{{Glurge}} praised for whatever mundane things she's capable of]] and be satisfied with that.

* Since one of the {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s of [[MemeticBystander Derpy Hooves]] of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is that she's severely mentally handicapped,[[note]]which was eventually declared non-canon; she's merely TheDitz[[/note]] she becomes this a ''lot''. Dialed UpToEleven [[MamaBear whenever her daughter is involved]]. One example includes ''Fanfic/{{Bubbles}}''.

[[folder: Stand-Up Comedy]]

* ''Film/TheRinger'' is a film about a guy who fakes being intellectually disabled in order to join and rig the Special Olympics. Surprisingly, it manages to avoid being as disparaging to disabled people as one would expect from the premise, but it's also been praised for not going in the other direction, either. The Olympians are treated more like actual people ([[EnforcedMethodActing it helps that people with actual mental disabilities were hired to play them]]) crowd-favorite Jimmy Washington [[SmallNameBigEgo has a massive ego]] and is hated by the other Olympians, and uses their disabilities for one or two jokes (like when main character Steve has to break out a whiteboard and provide visual aids to explain his plan once he's caught) while the Olympians also get to crack a few jokes of their own.

* ''Film/Music2021'' uses this trope with Music (a non verbal autistic teenage girl) so blatantly that it’s a shock that it isn’t a parody.

** Barbara Gordon. She was crippled in an attack by the Joker and responded by returning to her career as a superhero as the BadassBookworm / GeniusCripple ComicBook/{{Oracle}} and did more good from a wheelchair and a computer than she ever could have done on the streets as ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}. A rare example of such a character being almost universally positively received, to the point where Babs regaining the use of her legs in the post-New 52 {{Retcon}} led to quite the backlash. Ironically her abilities as some kind of info-genius rarely came up until she lost the ability to walk and they rapidly declined once she regained her legs again, leading to the question, 'Would Batman have given a rat's ass if she wasn't a genius?'.

[[quoteright:324:[[Film/TropicThunder https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simple_jack.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:324:[[Series/LastWeekTonight Mental illness. It's the thing actors pretend to have in order to win Oscars]].]]

[[quoteright:325:[[Film/TropicThunder https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2750118481_9f99a2b5e8_o.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:325:[[Series/LastWeekTonight Mental illness. It's the thing actors pretend to have in order to win Oscars]].]]

* Issue #81 of the Italian comic ''ComicBook/DylanDog'', "Johnny Freak", checks many tropes of the "Magical" type of inspirationally disadvantaged, with Johnny being a TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth victim of human trafficking, Dylan himself filling the role of the white male lead that 'learns' things while taking care of Johnny as a surrogate son, everyone getting {{Glurge}}-y whenever Johnny displays his talents such as playing Dylan's clarinet or making stunning Surreal Fantasy paintings on walls, [[spoiler: and in the end he proves to be so pure and incorruptible to the point of asking to donate his heart to save his abusive brother, despite being shot to dead by him]]. "Johnny Freak" is considered by fans to be one of the greatest ''Dylan Dog'' stories [[TropesAreTools despite it all]].

* The title character from ''Film/ForrestGump''. Later, Lt. Dan.