Social media comedians receive backlash for mocking deaf community
In the midst of their promotion of the upcoming reality show 876 Roommates, a group of Jamaican comedians have found themselves in hot water for joking about the deaf community.
In a since deleted video, which was posted yesterday, social media jokester Deno Crazy posted a video of himself, World Dawg, Valdomore and Swiiss Lee mocking the deaf community.
“How dumb people chat people (laughing emojis),” he captioned the video, before cautioning, “it’s just a joke people don’t get sensitive.”
But that didn’t stop several people from finding the content offensive.
“Ummmm this is a no,” one user wrote. “Not even funny.”
“Yeah I said it’s insensitive and disrespectful especially calling them dumb.”
“It’s not a joke if everyone ain’t laughing. Remember that.”
“Lawd di show ain’t air yet and a pure problem already.”
“This could’ve been done better. There’s no joke it’s just mocking people and there isn’t even a punchline.”
It’s the age-old question of whether comedians should have parameters for their topics, or if they should be allowed to exhaust their freedom of expression. Other users defended the latter.
“I think we need to allow comedians to be comedians. They make fun of women, men, gay, straight, dog, cat. We just have to laugh at ourselves sometimes.”
“It’s the fact that if Kevin Hart did it y’all wouldn’t be so defensive about it uno would a laugh n gwaan sed way.”
“They use every aspect of life for comical purposes. Someone will always be offended. Moving on.”
“Unu sensitive bad.”
“While I found the video funny and had a good laugh I understand both sides.”
Deno Crazy has not issued any statement despite the backlash. The online-bred influencers are busy doubling as frontline public relations officers by posting skits for the rollout of their reality show, which will premiere this summer.