There are many forms of disability and many ways that people react to them. Robin Williams for one makes jokes and pokes fun at those of the mental retardation status. Some people say that Robin Williams is sick and prejudiced, especially when he only seems to make fun of the “crazies” and the “mentally retarded. ” Have they really watched Robin Williams in the movie “The Awakening” where he plays a doctor of those who are mentally challenged. He is caring, kind and quite unorthodox. The same goes for his role in Patch Adams where he pokes fun at the “crazies” in the loony bin.
He isn’t making fun of these people in spiteful ways; what he is doing is making fun with them, making them see a different side of their handicap. Somewhere it has been said that the parent’s of John Hinkley wondered why Williams always made fun of these people and not those who may have cancer or MS. What they apparently weren’t aware of is that Robin William’s mother had lung cancer and that she died of this. It is in Williams nature to make fun of an issue but not for anything more than fun’s sake and he did this for the benefit of those around him, sick or not.
It always helped to see a lighter side. Williams did make jokes about his mother’s illness, but they, like all the other jokes he makes, are not mean. I say to these people who seriously think that Williams is being spiteful; Try laughing in the face of adversity, especially yours and see how you feel. Even Richard Pryor with his MS accepted jokes from Williams about the ailment he suffered. Williams jokes about his own alcoholism. So in short in seems to be pretty prevalent, the diseases that Williams is close to, has knowledge of, he finds a way to make light of a heavy situation thus putting a smile
Crazy Retardation 3 in place instead of the depression that will generally reign. Pryor and Williams are alike, they don’t tell jokes, they become them. (Dec 12, 2005 PRNewswire). Crazy Retardation 4 Works Cited Bonner, Raymond. Ban on the Execution of the Retarded is Vetoed. June 2001 http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=990CEEDA1331F93BA25755C0A9679C8B63 Joyner, Tom. Pryor ‘Influenced Nearly Every Major Comic Working Today (2007) http://emol. org/celebrities/pryor/