Disability and Comedy: Challenging Stereotypes Onscreen
Authors
Martínez-Guillén, SaraIdentifiers
Permanent link (URI): http://hdl.handle.net/10017/56988DOI: https://doi.org/10.37536/reden.2023.4.2038
ISSN: 2695-4168
Date
2023Bibliographic citation
REDEN: revista de estudios norteamericanos, v.4, n.2 (2023), pp. 55-71. ISSN 2695-4168
Keywords
Disability studies
Humour studies
Film studies
Stereotypes
Incongruity
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abstract
Characters with disabilities or any type of impairment have been present in film productions since the early
stages of cinema. However, they seldom become main characters in mainstream media and in particular in
comedy films, as their body doesn’t belong to the acceptable norm. Comedy has been known as a tool to
challenge the system and yet it seems scarcely used to represent disabilities, drama being the preferred
choice for narratives revolving around disabled protagonists. This article focuses on two films in which
comedy and drama are combined to tell stories centred, indeed, on people with a disability (Come as You
Are and The Peanut Butter Falcon, both released in 2019). Using different humour strategies such as incongruity and superiority, their main characters successfully challenge society, its conventions and its stereotypes—with incongruity mechanisms the films deal with what is considered “normal” and with superiority
mechanisms they challenge power relations. The analysis will show how comedy is a genre capable to give
its disabled characters the possibility to express themselves for an audience that is also being represented
on screen—whether it is disabled viewers who can identify with the protagonists or abled ones who see
their behaviours challenged onscreen.
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