Laughing at Leprosy

I'm kind of looking forward to Aardman animation's forthcoming comedy "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" (though I prefer the original title: "The Pirates! - In an Adventure with Scientists"), as it looks like another reasonably entertaining outing from the folks who gave Wallace and Gromit to the world. When I saw the trailer for the first time, I chuckled at one of the throwaway gags it offered up. The pirate captain has boarded another ship in the hopes of stealing their gold.

"Afraid we don't have any gold old man, this is a leper boat," one of the men on the ship declares. Then the man's arm falls off.

It's a silly, disposable gag, but one which has suddenly stirred up a great deal of controversy. Groups like the Leprosy Relief Association Health in Action, The World Health Organization and others have protested the joke, which they claim pokes fun at the millions of people who have leprosy. From their point of view, "The Pirates!" is encouraging audiences to laugh at people who are in pain.

On one hand, it seems a little odd that "The Pirates!" should be a target of widespread criticism, as this particular joke pales in comparison to... well, quite a lot of jokes, really. Just watch a random episode of "Family Guy" or "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" or a Judd Apatow flick or a stand-up routine from any comic this side of Jeff Foxworthy and you're bound to find something vastly more offensive within a matter of minutes.  On the other hand, I realize that "The Pirates!" is perhaps placed under increased scrutiny because it's a children's movie, and children are a bit more susceptible to simply accepting jokes based on stereotypes rather than recognizing their intentional absurdity.

Obviously, I don't find real-life leprosy amusing in any way. I would never laugh at someone suffering from that disease. However, I really don't think "The Pirates!" is cruelly mocking such people, but rather assembling a quick, Pythonesque gag built on the handful of facts the average viewer knows about leprosy (lepers have historically lived in leper colonies, the disease is infectious and it does rather horrible things to your body). The joke is on the pirate captain, who has come searching for gold and has instead stumbled upon something which makes him intensely uncomfortable.

Anyway, all of the fuss made the folks at Aardman nervous, so they've removed the joke from the movie. End of controversy. I doubt this will do anything to damage the quality of the final product, and such a tiny compromise (precisely the sort of little change made by countless movies after early test screenings) doesn't affect my desire to see the film one way or another. Still, it does make me wonder why certain gags generate such controversy while other, more flagrantly rough jokes are left alone.

My suspicion: the mistake was including the joke in the theatrical trailer.  Ron Howard made the same mistake not long ago with the trailer for his movie "The Dilemma" by including an awkward bit of dialogue about electric cars being "gay" (it wasn't particularly funny, nor was it particularly offensive). If the joke had been included in the film but not in the trailer, I doubt anyone would have noticed or cared. However, because it was being used to promote the movie, various gay rights organizations protested (Howard relented by releasing a new trailer which didn't include the joke, but did keep the joke within the film itself - by the time the movie was actually released, no one really seemed interested anymore). The moral of the story: it's okay for Seth Rogen to tell Helen Keller jokes in a movie, as long as he doesn't tell them in the film's promotional materials. It's hardly a lesson worthy of Aesop, but it's a lesson nonetheless.

Back at ya later