Quotes / Inspirationally Disadvantaged

Kirk Lazarus: Everybody knows you never go full retard.
Tugg Speedman: What do you mean?
Kirk Lazarus: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man, look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. Then you got Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and he won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. He was a goddamn war hero. You know any retarded war heroes? You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, i am sam. Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...

— Tropic Thunder, on using these roles as Oscar Bait

"Moviegoers love the mentally challenged. Or rather, the quirky, innocent versions who show up in one inspirational movie after another. [...] To take home the gold you need to play the kind of mental handicap that just makes you quirky — or even better, gives you special powers somehow. You can't actually show audiences what life is like for these people. Who the fuck wants that?"

—Adam Brown, Cracked.com editor, 6 Cheap Acting Tricks That Fool The Critics Every Time (#2: Get Retarded!).

"The diseased/addicted/mentally impaired always get the Oscar."

— Hollywood Rule Book, Vanity Fair

"But back to Music, her nonverbal autism is portrayed as some kind of wonderful thing, which I guess is better than demonizing it, but it's also very patronizing. She's like some kind of cutesy alien. Autistic people don't see the world in this whimsical way, and this is a condescending interpretation of their experience. Autistic people are just that, people, and they deserve to be treated as such, warts and all. [...] This is a feel-good fantasy, a classic example of inspiration porn that was made to make its creator feel better about themselves without actually doing anything to help the people they're claiming to help."

— Cynical Reviews on Music (2021)

"Hi, Support Group Hazel. Come over here so I can examine your face with my hands and see deeper into your soul than a sighted person ever could."

— Isaac, freshly blind, in The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

"Let me be clear about the intent of this inspiration porn; it's there so that non-disabled people can put their worries into perspective. So they can go, 'Oh well if that kid who doesn't have any legs can smile while he's having an awesome time, I should never, EVER feel bad about my life'. It's there so that non-disabled people can look at us and think 'well, it could be worse... I could be that person'. In this way, these modified images exceptionalise and objectify those of us they claim to represent. It's no coincidence that these genuinely adorable disabled kids in these images are never named: it doesn't matter what their names are, they're just there as objects of inspiration."

— Stella Young, The Drum

"When I moved to Toronto, there was a man in a wheelchair, and he decided he was going to climb the CN Tower in his wheelchair. He wanted to do it for two reasons: Number 1, to raise money for charity, and number 2, to change the attitudes people have towards handicapped people. And not only did he succeed in one, he succeeded in both. 'Cause not only did he climb the CN Tower, he changed my attitude when he did it. 'Cause now I think, 'If a man in a wheelchair can climb the CN Tower, step by step, flight after flight, all by himself, with no trouble whatsoever, all in under, like... 5 hours nonetheless, well, it's quite clear to me that they don't need to park so close to the goddamn mall anymore!' They should save those spots for the fat people, that's what I'm tryin' to say."

— Comedian Casey Corbin

"Mental illness. It's the thing actors pretend to have in order to win Oscars."

— John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. […] When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

— Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search For Meaning" (discussing a completely different type of adversity, but whatever)

"It's often been noted that the alleged signs of being an indigo child or starseed are very much in line with those of autism and ADHD. And as someone who has both, I find the idea that my sole purpose in life is to help the rest of the world get its act together so it can spiritually ascend to be highly offensive. I'm a human being. I have physical and mental disabilities. I have physical, psychological, and emotional needs that this society is not set up to meet. It shouldn't be my job to make the rest of the world get its act together. I am not your sparkly space messiah."

— Springhole, "Sketchy Spiritualities & Shady Pseudohistories: What People Need To Know"

"Honestly, if six handicapped people got together, wheeled around lip-synching old Diff'rent Strokes episodes setting bags of shit on fire someone would praise it as brilliant."

— Seanbaby, "Absoludicrous Video: MUSIGN"

"I had it all in that wheelchair! Women paid attention to me. Buses would lower themselves before me. When I'd check the mail, people would call it 'A triumph of the human spirit'. But now, nothing. People only cared about me when I was disabled."

— Bill, King of the Hill, "Dia-Bill-Ic Shock"

"If they're going to insist that we really need to know about sick babies and cripples who tap dance and quadriplegic softball players, why don't they simply have a special television program called “Inspirational Stories”? That way I can turn the fuckin' thing off. I'm tired of people battling the odds. Fuck the odds. And fuck the people who battle them."

—George Carlin, Brain Droppings

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