Episode 78: Who's Got It Worse?

TRANSCRIPT OF “WHO’S GOT IT WORSE?”

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MALE VO [00:03]
This is Bad Attitudes.

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LAURA [00:20]
Hello friends and strangers! Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes: An Uninspiring Podcast about Disability. I’m your host, Laura.

Don’t come for me, Matt Rife Stans.

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As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community but I am not the only voice.

[01:45]
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Are you familiar with Matt Rife? He’s the comedian of the moment. When his tour was announced earlier this year, a lot of people I know laser-focused on getting tickets.

I find him mildly amusing, but I think a big source of his appeal is his sex appeal. He’s young, attractive, has washboard abs. I mean, he’s pretty, but to me, he’s uncanny valley pretty. Individually, his features are perfect, but when you put them together, something seems a little…off.

The level of attraction I feel toward Matt Rife is neither here nor there. Someone sent me a clip of him joking about disabled people. It was fine. I didn’t find it particularly funny, but I also didn’t find it offensive. It was a non-issue, and I didn’t feel any need to make a big deal out of it one way or another.

But, in the way of the universe, clips of Matt Rife kept showing up in my various short-form video feeds, almost all of them related to this one clip I was sent. Without getting too deep into it, the gist of the bit is that wheelchair users have it worse than trans people. Rife was specifically referencing ONLY wheelchair users, not disabled people in general. So he was comparing the life of wheelchair users to the life of trans people. The problem is, I don’t think Matt Rife knows much about trans people OR wheelchair users. And if you’re going to make comedy, it’s usually helpful to have some knowledge about the topic.

An example of the types of jokes he was making: Rife, speaking as a wheelchair user says, “Oh, people don’t use your PRONOUNS? The other day someone called me Chariot Tubman.”

Now, I’ll give him props for the “Chariot Tubman” crack. That made me laugh. The people I usually encounter can’t be more creative than some variation of “speedy.” If you’re going to say something mildly insulting, at least put some effort into it.

To paraphrase George Carlin, comedy is about punching up, not down. It’s a way to speak truth to power. And as a white, cis man, the only power Matt Rife can really speak truth to is other white, cis men. Generally speaking, it’s not okay for white comics to make jokes about people of color, because, historically, whites are the oppressors. In the same way, it’s not okay for cis comics to make jokes about trans people and it’s not okay for non-disabled comics to make jokes about disabled people.

I will listen to disabled comics make jokes about disability and non-disabled people all day long. I will also listen to non-white comics talk shit about white people all day long. But when it starts to go the other way, it gives me pause. I listen critically, with an ear to whether or not it’s appropriate for that particular comic to be making that particular joke.

Like I said, I don’t think Matt Rife knows much about trans people or disabled people. What he does know appears to be the superficial knowledge you can skim off of any social media site. And I believe, with the political climate being what it is right now, making jokes about trans people in any context (unless you are yourself trans) is…distasteful.

I have been a wheelchair user for my entire life. And I can say unequivocally, I would rather be a wheelchair user than be a trans person in America. Not because there is anything wrong with being trans, but because trans people have huge targets on their backs right now.

Of course, knowing the way the pendulum swings, the persecution of trans people is only a preview of what is likely going to come for disabled people. I saw another disabled advocate compare the current spate of anti-trans laws to the so-called “Ugly Laws” that made it functionally illegal to be disabled in public. And she’s right! Anti-trans laws, public drag bans — these laws are attempting to make it illegal to be (or look) trans in public. They are a new version of Ugly Laws.

And if you think that politicians won’t come for disabled people sooner or later (it’s going to be sooner), you aren’t paying attention. Do you REALLY think right-wingers care about the disabled population? You know, the people trying to kill Social Security and Medicare, which the majority of the disabled population relies on for their income and healthcare?

But this isn’t about politics, it’s about comedy. And I simply don’t feel comics should make jokes about marginalized communities, unless they are a part of said marginalized communities.

That’s just my personal opinion. That doesn’t mean I think all comics who make jokes about marginalized communities are bad comics or they should be cancelled. It is possible for those types of jokes to be made without being offensive. However, toeing that line can be difficult.

So, while I don’t think Matt Rife necessarily did anything wrong in his bit comparing the lives of trans people with the lives of wheelchair users, I also don’t think he did anything RIGHT. His jokes limited entire communities of people to incredibly superficial stereotypes. Oh, trans people only care about their pronouns. All wheelchair users are paralyzed. You get the idea.

It fell flat for me. I didn’t laugh. If I had been in his audience, he probably would have thought I was offended. I wasn’t offended, I just didn’t think it was that funny. Because Matt Rife doesn’t have the insider knowledge that makes for really clever social commentary.

But, Chariot Tubman. That’s gold.

Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you in the next one.

[08:08]
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