The Inbetweeners – Disability in Media

In this scene the disabled girl is used for a comedy element, although the majority of the people in the world take disability as a serious issue, it is regularly used to create humour. In the clip, the main character throws a Frisbee that coincidentally hits the head of a girl in a wheelchair, the girl is used to create a sense of humour.

 In 1991 Paul Hunt observed the perceptions of disability throughout media and modern day society. He spoke of how disability is regularly used to create a comic element in many different types of media. Hunt described the use of  others weaknesses as a form of humour as being around since the ancient Greeks, this old method of comedy is used in this clip to show that the disabled girl is weak, which is why the character felt so bad (and therefore why the scene was funny to the audience) when the Frisbee hits her.

The makers of media aren’t always mocking disability by using it to create humour, for instance, in this clip it is used to show the luck, or the lack of it, that the character has, because his Frisbee hits the girl instead of going where he wanted it to. The stereotype of a disabled person is weakness, meaning any other ‘weak’ group in society could have easily replaced the disabled girl’s position in this scene, e.g. a child.  The disability of the girl isn’t the key part of creating the humour in this scene, meaning that the clip could still be funny despite the girl’s ‘weaknesses’.

Disabled people are often shown in humiliating circumstances in media, meaning other disabled people will often see this happening on TV. A disabled person, specifically people with a similar disability to the girl in the clip (cerebral palsy) may be offended by watching this scene as it portrays people with similar disabilities as being weak and pitiable.

As a society we tend to pity people with disabilities as they appear weaker and less abled than the rest of us. We don’t do this to be patronising or to mock, just to be nice and try and help. However many disabled people have shown they are more than capable and are able to complete massive challenges on their own, the Paralympics is a prime example of this.