Nyle DiMarco is not laughing at Jamie Foxx’s brand of comedy sign language. In fact, the model and Dancing With the Stars season 22 champ is speaking up on what he considers to be flagrantly insensitive behavior from the Beat Shazam host.
During some promos for Foxx’s then upcoming appearance on The Tonight Show, the comedian provided some fake sign language as host Jimmy Fallon did the mini-ad. DiMarco, who is deaf, shared the promotional spot on Twitter and expressed frustration with how that gag still gets play in 2017.
https://twitter.com/NyleDiMarco/status/868323804715524096
https://twitter.com/NyleDiMarco/status/868463691045285888
“.@iamjamiefoxx, It is straight up disrespectful to make up sign language,” tweeted DiMarco. “Everything is in gibberish.”
DiMarco expanded on his thoughts in a later statement and emphasized that Foxx’s actions are the sort of thing that makes things needlessly difficult for the hearing impaired.
“We simply do not make fun at the expense of other cultures, especially those with a history of being marginalized,” shared DiMarco. “When we do this, progress takes a step backward.”
Entertainment Weekly reports that NBC has reached out to DiMarco following his response. No matter how you feel about the pushback against Foxx for using fake ASL, it’s pretty safe to say we can all agree that faking sign language isn’t exactly a rich comedy vein. No one’s losing anything by taking that gag out of the repertoire, so let’s just usher that stuff out, shall we?
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
