I'm Spazticus

cbwex

Channel 4's Funny Fortnight welcomes brand new series I'm Spazticus, offering a fresh new take on the hidden camera prank show format.

Featuring a cast of disabled talent, this four-part series features individuals with varying disabilities pranking members of the public in a cheeky and irreverent way, mixing hidden camera and mockumentary style shooting to create a series of hilarious situations.

In the opening episode people are asked to take part in a police line-up while pretending to have Cerebral Palsy, a delivery man returns the wrong stuffed guide dog to its blind owner, and a wheelchair parachutist gets stuck in a tree. Do people really think guide dogs can speak? Yes!

Created by and starring some of the best disabled talent, the show features Tim Baggaley, Jamie Beddard, Tanyalee Davis, Tim Gebbels, Toby Hewson, Max Laird, Peter Mitchell and Simon Stevens.

Next on Channel 4
Mon 20 Aug, 10.35pm

Well did anybody see this, aired channel 4 Sat 19/08/12 22:10 hrs, What did ye think of it ??

face1990

Recorded it, just watched it now. Overall I have very mixed opinions on it.

The guy from Seven Dwarves, Max Laird (who's also in a new documentary about him getting married) is in it, and to be honest I'm not of fan of him. I took an instant dislike to him when I watched Seven Dwarves. But aside from that, I couldn't see where the humour was in his sketches apart from him being a dwarf. It almost seemed as though there's supposed to be something inherently funny about dwarves, and left me questioning whether the whole programme was in very poor taste.

The sketches with the blind guy, and the guy missing one arm, were quite funny. Unlike with Max Laird there was actual punchlines to their sketches, like when the blind man goes to a window blind shop called 'I love Blinds' thinking it was a blind dating agency.

If the idea of the programme was to show disabled comedy talent, I can't see why Max Laird was on it. Walking around in silly costumes is what dwarves working in showbiz have been confined to for decades (Life's Too Short being a recent example of how you can make clever comedy that plays off dwarfism, rather than having the condition itself as the punchline).

And then there was the guy with cerebral palsy (quite severe cerebral palsy too). I found his sketches quite uncomfortable to watch, and I'm undecided as to whether that's a good thing or bad thing. Perhaps I was uncomfortable watching people make fun of a serious condition, or perhaps I was uncomfortable seeing people with a serious condition making fun of themselves.
Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's breaking taboos. And at the end of the day, all the participants are clearly happy to make fun of themselves.
But when it comes to disabilities there's always a thin line between good entertainment and morbid freak-show-esque spectacle.

I'm undecided about which side of that line this programme falls on.

ejmaztec

I only found the programme when I was flicking through the channels, and because I didn't read the info, I didn't know that the bald guy was blind when I caught his efforts with a dog on his doorstep. I immediately thought that whoever this guy was, his acting was crap. The next thing that I saw was where some random passer-by was given the task of rating the disabled as to which one she would go out with. It was appalling. At that point I gave up.

face1990

ejmaztec wrote: »

The next thing that I saw was where some random passer-by was given the task of rating the disabled as to which one she would go out with. It was appalling. At that point I gave up.

Wasn't she rating them by which disability she'd least like to have, not which one she'd go out with?

I found that one uncomfortable to watch as well, but I'm not sure why I did. Why were you appalled by it?

ejmaztec

face1990 wrote: »

Wasn't she rating them by which disability she'd least like to have, not which one she'd go out with?

I found that one uncomfortable to watch as well, but I'm not sure why I did. Why were you appalled by it?

I wasn't really paying that much attention at that point, but whatever the reason behind the rating didn't hide the fact that it was pointless.

I was appalled because the bits that I did see were so amateurish and bad.

It seemed to me that the disabled people involved decided to take the piss out of themselves, because no-one else would get away with it, and in my opinion it just didn't work.