The other night I went to a comedy show – Stewart Francis, Into the Punset. The show was really good, but unfortunately my tourette’s played up and this didn’t come unnoticed by the comedian. Before my tics started increasing in volume, there were two Tourette’s jokes. One about a Tourette’s specialist and how his patients swear by him. The other, ‘a pun about facial spasms? Tic!’
I do see the humour in jokes like these but, unfortunately, if comedians continue to place such misconceptions on conditions like tourette’s, we will never move forward with awareness. In addition, Tourette’s in a neurological disorder. Making fun of it is just like ridiculing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Dementia. You wouldn’t be impressed with jokes about these, so why are you ok with Tourette’s jokes?
When Stewart Francis finally noticed my tics, he stopped the show, looked in my direction and said ‘There is a young drunk lady. If I was in that section, I would be annoyed having paid for a ticket. Even I am annoyed by it and I am on stage. Some people!’ He then complained a few more times during the show, before he realised that I could have something like Tourette’s. He left the stage for a couple of seconds, came back and then apologised. He said ‘to the drunk young lady, I’m sorry. I realise that there could be something else going on besides being drunk and this show. Did you like the Tourette’s joke?’ From then, he did acknowledge the tics. He said stuff like ‘look she’s with me!’ and ‘yes exactly.’ My tics can be extremely conversational so quite frequently they reacted to his jokes.
I am in two minds about this. On one hand, Tourette’s can be funny. I understand why people feel that making jokes about it is acceptable, to them it seems like nothing more than a swearing condition. On the other hand, it is a debilitating neurological disorder and ridiculing it only delays awareness