I like Denis Leary. Ever since those MTV spots back in the ’80s. I can’t say that I’ve followed his career, but whenever I’ve seen him in something he’s either made it better or not actively made it worse. And I’ve got enormous respect for what he’s accomplished with Rescue Me. Television is not the easiest place to examine personal responsibility, puncture our ongoing addiction to hero worship, and show how some of the worst people can do the best things—the fact that Rescue Me is still going strong is laudable. He’s a funny guy, one who can do almost anything with that talent.
He’s chosen to write a book, Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Lazy, and Stupid. And in this book, Leary writes "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can’t compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks…to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don’t give a s— what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you—yer kid is not autistic. He’s just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."
F— you, Denis Leary.
I’m not writing this as the parent of an autistic child (though I am), who’s angry and hurt by that statement, which lesser educated people will likely glom onto when faced with local and federal tax increases going to special education and genetic research. And I’m not writing it as someone who thinks that certain topics are off-limits to comics, because I don’t—Bill Hicks’ "Your Children Are Not Special" bit is phenomenal; George Carlin’s incendiary, fearless skewering of religion; Sarah Silverman kills with jokes about everything, including rape. I firmly believe anything is fair game, so long as the joke works.
Which is the problem with that autism "joke": It’s not funny. It doesn’t bring anything to the table aside from a desire to denigrate without perspective. It doesn’t expose a truth, in the way that Sam Kinison, Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle did. And, as such, it qualifies as a galactic fail.
So, f— you, Denis Leary. The fifth season of Rescue Me starts in Spring 2009.
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That stinks. As I have autism myself, and I attend college and am friends with Leary’s son, he and Leary (who I had the pleasure to meet when he dropped off his kid last month) just got put “on notice”!
Just my opinion, but it does seem like you’re angry because he joked about something that affects you personally.
Because the reaction of someone to an unfunny joke is not “F*** you”. It’s not to laugh. The reaction of someone who was offended by a joke is “F*** you”.
Which is not to say you can’t be offended by a joke — you absolutely can. It just doesn’t seem like you’re being intellectually honest. You’re pissed because Denis Leary made fun of autistic kids and their parents. Which is fine by me, it’s just that that is exactly the persepctive you are writing and reacting from…so why go out of your way to say it isn’t.
From that passage, it sounds like he’s not talking about truly autistic kids, which would be pretty low. He’s talking about our over-medicated and over-diagnosed society where we can’t just accept that not everyone can do everything equally well, so we give a deficiency a name and call it a disease. Very different things. Though his rant is a bit Tom Cruise-ish, I agree with the broad strokes of his argument.
My son’s step brother as Asberger’s. I am so disappointed in Leary – he should know better – even if he really believes this he should have never put it in writing. Such a jerk thing to do.
I am smack dab in the space as LJ. I seriously doubt Leary was referring to true autistic kids. Given the title of the book, he is no doubt targeting that sizable chunk of our population that completely fits the description. So yes, you could say the joke fails – if you take it at its literal wording and not the likely intent/context of his statements.
Dennis Leary like so many other individuals in show business, is mis-informed and disillusioned by the millions of dollars Hollywood has to offer.
I like Leary for the most part, but I have to agree with Bernardin on this one. If Leary would’ve said A.D.D.(which IMHO is way over-diagnosed) instead, I might defend, but not autism.
Well, Kathy, I respect what you’re saying but, to me, the only defense for this would’ve been if it WAS funny. That would’ve been the saving grace, if he’d punctured through the bile to touch humor. But without that, it’s just knee-jerk cruel.
Mr. Bernardin, I am not a parent of an autistic child. I am not even a parent. It doesn’t matter. The only people who could glob on to what Leary has said are a mix of stupid, ignorant, and heartless. Even people w/o kids know that autism is a huge problem that needs to be figured out and dealt with to help the new generation of children. Leary should be ashamed and embarassed by his mix of stupid, ignorant, and heartless.
What an a**hole. I’ve never liked that guy. What an idiot.
I agree with the fact if he used a different diasease it could have been funny. I understand what he’s trying to get acroos, but the truth is autism is a growing problem. I don’t know if it’s overdiagnosed, but I don’t think most parents just assume their kids have it if they’re a little slow.
It’s not a joke so much as a rant, from what I can tell from the above. It doesn’t seem like a funny rant, though.
That’s pretty messed up, but Leary did say in an interview that anyone who read the chapter fully would know that he is actually very supportive of parents of children with autism. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say.
What this sounds like to me is a repurposing of a now-cliche “overdiagnosing ADD” rant, where he just swapped in autism to make it “edgy,” without any real sense of what the disease involves. Because, honestly, anyone who’s ever met a pre-verbal fourteen-year-old is never going to confuse autism with overanxious parenting.
Funny thing about learning disabilities is how often people who have them are incredibly intelligent people.
I went to a magnet arts high school and one day a friend of mine asked everyone at our table if they had AD/HD. Out of eight kids two didn’t have it.
Maybe if he had used something like ADD instead of autism maybe he would have been able to make his point instead of just coming off like an ignorant a**hole. That was really not the right thing to use as an example.
Well, I haven’t read the book, the chapter or anything but the quote, but I have a good idea where he is coming from. I don’t necessarily disagree. It is a fact that in many parts of this country, in order for your child to get the extra educational services offered by a school district your child must be diagnosed with something. Whoever said that Autism is the current stand in for ADHD was absolutely right. A decade ago, all these same children were being diagnosed ADHD. The current fad in child diagnosis is autism. I think Leary has a definite complaint about parent’s working the system.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1576829,00.html
Remember every politician, actor, actress, comedian, or shock jock who needs a boost seems to use autism as a “sound bite”! It smacks of a disingenuous tactic, kind of sad.
Mr. O’Leary tells us to now read the book to get the whole story….DUH! He wants to sell books! The best answer we can give is “No way”
Ok, I’m actually going to take the other side here. He’s not denying the existence of autism, just that everybody’s kid has it.
As a mother of a child with Asperger’s syndrome, I’ve witnessed first-hand how my family members use the “runs in the family” excuse every time their children act out, even though there’s no similarities in behavior.
I think that’s kind of what he’s getting at.
AUTISM IS NOT ADD NOR IS IT NEW. THE CURRENT DEFINITION IS RELATIVELY NEW BECAUSE WE UNDERSTAND IT BETTER BUT ITS BEEN AROUND FOR WELL OVER FIFTY YEARS AS A GENUINE DISORDER Pharmacologic agents cannot cure autism because, in most cases, the brain has undergone atypical cellular development dating from the earliest embryonic stages. THERE IS NO MEDICATION PRESCRIBED FOR AUTISM. DIAGNOSIS ARE NOT JUST HANDED OUT TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY, THIS IS A SERIOUS LIVE ALTERING DISORDER THAT AFFECTS EVERYONE INVOLVED. ITS TESTING, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT IS ALL TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY. THERE ARE NOT SCAMMY DOCS OR LAZY PARENTS BENEFITING AT ALL BY GETTING SOME KIND OF FALSE DIAGNOSIS. WHAT COULD THEY BENEFIT FROM THIS?
Yes, people did abuse the system on ADD in the 90’s when Ritalin came out ( it had such a good result on the kids with genuine cases that other parents thought it could solve all their problems with their kids too, so they went out in search of getting a diagnosis and when they pushed most of the time doctors didn’t push back) but… AUTISM IS NOT ADD. They are very different disorders and using the ADD issue as example, shows that you really don’t understand Autism.
Autism can be crippling – obviously one end of the spectrum is more debilitating than the other (ie: Aspergers), but none the less, it devastates families. I know of a family here in my country (australia) who through seeking diagnosis, counselling & early intervention therapies are about to sell their home, as they have fallen so financially behind. They’re on the brink of divorce. They’re child wasn’t doing badly at school, in fact, quite the opposite … but academic success isn’t the be all & end all. He had a range of other problems – health, emotional, social, seizures, etc. Idiot parents? I don’t think so. Idiot parents would be those who sit back & say “well he’s 5 now, but he’s never said a word, we’ve always assumed he’s just being.’ If you ever have grandchildren, Denis, better hope they’re not ’stupid, lazy morons’. If you don’t know anything about the disease, ppl shouldn’t be commenting based on an ‘impression’ they get from a sensationalist media.
Amen, Marc! As someone with (finally diagnosed) ADHD, I can totally understand where you’re comign from. I’m not lazy, and I’m not stupid, and I’m not autistic, I just get distracted super easily, and find it difficult to motivate myself to complete tasks. Not everyone has autism, and not everyone has ADHD. But those who don’t have it, don’t understand. So, yea, I agree 100% with you, Marc, and I’m glad you wrote a popwatch blog about this, because I wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise.
What about the boom in peanut allergies, Dennis Leary? Got an explanation for that? Maybe that’s the parents’ fault too? Maybe kids just don’t like peanuts and so fake allergic reactions? What about the increase in false positive breast cancer tests? What explains the increase in that?
What a jackass.
also, before people start freaking out about adhd or add, i’m not saying they are the same thing. i have inattentive add which makes me seem LAZY and not hyperactive. it IS a serious condition, especially for women – most mothers don’t realize they are, and go around their entire lives thinking they are no-good, lazy bums. so, no, add is not as bad as autism, but there ARE people with serious, diagnosed add, and it’s not a joke. just because you’re on medication doesn’t mean you paid a doctor to give it to you, and it doesn’t mean that’s it off the black market or whatever. while it’s not crippling, it does affect people’s lives. so, i’m nOT saying its the same thing, but you can’t just brush off everyone who takes add meds as lazy, rich, stupid kids who use it to stay up and study. some people actually need it. not. how. it. works.
Wow. So not funny. Spoken like a true a-hole. An a-hole who probably should not test fate with another offspring. Would hate for him to become a lazy parent with a slow kid. And no, my kids are not autistic. But if they made comments like Mr Leary’s they would be burping soap for a week.
No more commenting. Let’s not give this d-lister anymore press than he deserves.
Denis Leary has been irrelevant for a long time now. His in-your-face toughguy style was old 15 years ago.
He’s just trying to get some attention. He sucks and he’s a dickhead.
Denis – go away.
Denis Leary has been irrelevant for a long time now. His in-your-face toughguy style was old 15 years ago.
He’s just trying to get some attention. He sucks and he’s a jerk.
Denis – go away.
I was in the movie theater, and they had a PSA type of thing for Down Syndrome, and there was Dr. Cox from Scrubs with his adorable kid who has the disease.
This has nothing to do with anything, but it just made me think of famous people using their powers for good, not evil. (and no offense, TV connoisseurs, Rescue Me is a little creepy…)