You can't find the video of Chelsea Lately's sign language "side kick" interpreter joke on YouTube due to copyright violation. However, the whole video can be viewed legally on the xfinity tv website. The joke was conjured up by Chelsea when she saw Mayor Bloomberg had his own "interpreter sidekick" during his emergency meeting with the media and public about the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. As with comedians, they often push the envelope in pushing out "edgy" materials. This was one of them. People may chalk Lately's use of that comedic skit due to ignorance or are not familiar with sign language. But there are a couple of things to remember. Marlee Matlin was on Chelsea's show back in 2009 which means Chelsea was and is familiar with sign language. So, no excuse there.
Also, back in 2009 Seth McFarlane of Family Guy did a live tv comedy show that mocked the voice of Marlee Matlin. After the joking Marlee comes on stage and delivered them a taste of their own medicine, obviously all set up and staged at that point. Of course, many found it offensive mocking the voice of a deaf person and at the same time many found it to be hilarious if you read the comments. Of course, you get the same people who found it hilarious also made fun of other deaf people's voices, too. Go figure. But Marlee Matlin did say "lighten up!" when people objected to the comedy skit that made fun of her voice.
Were you aware of being mocked on previous Family Guy episodes?
Mocked isn’t the right word. I was just part of the joke. I learned a long time ago from when I did Seinfeld never to take anything seriously and to be part of the joke is the best way to show what a good sport I was.
Were you ever offended by those jokes, or did you always think they were funny?
I personally have dealt with any adversity in my life with humor. That’s why I told America to “Read my hips!” on Dancing With the Stars or was happy to play along with Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld in the great restaurant scene on Seinfeld. I know a lot of deaf people might have been offended when they made fun of my voice but remember, it was MY voice they were making fun of. I was more than happy to show up and show them that I could dish it as well as I could take it and that being offensive works both ways.
What about this skit — offensive or funny? (Or both/neither?)
It was sick. It was twisted. It was rude. And it was very Family Guy. People love [MacFarlane's] stuff. They don’t pay him the big bucks for nothing and I was glad to be part of it. I want to do it again and BE the voice. BTW, it only would’ve been offensive if I hadn’t laughed and I loved that you couldn’t quite figure out if I was seriously angry at Alex or not!
As a very visible member of the hearing-impaired community, were you hesitant to be involved in a skit like this?
No. If I were, I wouldn’t have ever done Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Howie Mandel’s hidden camera show, My Name is Earl and this show. And it’s why I’m developing a very politically incorrect and very funny show for Showtime with Mario Cantone and Carol Leifer (who, BTW, wrote my episode for Seinfeld).
Granted, it was HER voice they were making fun of, and not that of the deaf and hard of hearing community. Although some people would disagree with that.
A few years ago I blogged about David Armand, a brilliant English comedian who uses quasi-sign, more like universal gesturing of sorts, to make his visual joke to the song "Torn." He's not trying to be like a deaf person but more like a hearing person who cannot speak and he's miming/gesturing his way through a song full of visual sight gags. Watch the video with captions and you can see how some of the captioned words related to his "signs." Even for David Armand's comedic skit did it upset some Deaf thinking he was making fun of sign language. Hardly. What David did was use a very visual but funny form of miming and connected that with the words to the song, "Torn."
Now, this brings me back to Chelsea Lately's "interpreter sidekick" joke. I have mixed feelings about this. Maybe all this would be better clarified if Chelsea Lately would invite Marlee Matlin again to her show again and have a discussion about the whole "interpreter sidekick" joke and get Marlee Matlin's input. Although Marlee tweeted to Chelsea on Oct 31, 2012 on a video response saying that Chelsea should apologize for doing that interpreter joke finding it "offensive." Maybe more accurately that it was painfully unfunny rather than "offensive"? Marlee thought otherwise.
Frankly, I find Marlee's message a bit confusing when you look at what she did on Seth McFarlane's tv comedy skit mocking a deaf voice of Marlee's when other people commented saying it was offensive or painfully unfunny by painting a brush on how deaf people talk. Both Lately and Matlin went that route using a different format. One on making fun of how people sign, another making fun of how deaf people speak. Comedians are known to make mimicking an ethnic group they way they speak but off limits when it comes to mimicking how deaf people sign?
I suppose when it comes to making "edgy" jokes it either flops or succeeds. Marlee tried it. So did Chelsea. And the SNL version was tame compared to Chelsea's and Marlee thought SNL was bad? Mon Dieu!
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