Comedian Denis Leary decided to flex his humor muscle on autism – at the expense of Autistic people. In Leary’s Book “Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Lazy, and Stupid” he says autistic people are …”not autistic. He’s just stupid. Or lazy. Or both.” Read more to read the entire quote
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.”
I have to say I personally think this is extremely uncalled for and I fail to see how this could even be humorous. I can see poking fun at Autism in a humorous way but calling autistic people stupid and lazy and their parents inattentive is extremely rude.
To me it appears Leary is trying to get a cheap laugh at expense of quite a few people – and this sort of humor is no better then the humor a school-yard bully practices on an elementary playground.
Leary’s Book is set to be released November 18, 2008 to readers everywhere. Readers are already taking note of the cheap schoolyard bully humor shown by Leary in this book on the book.
I think now is a good time to turn that 1 in 150 figure that Autism Speaks so loves to use into good use. I figure if anyone that is effected by autism writes the publisher of this book to complain about this school-yard bullying the book may be pulled before it even reaches the shelves.
The publisher Viking Adult is a division of Penguin Press. The following are some contact details for Penguin Press
- Telephone Switchboard: 212-366-2000
- Mail Address:
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10014
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea, Zach! I agree that what this asshole is doing is not cool. I know some autistic people who work really hard just to get by and who are not by any means stupid or lazy. In fact, many people think that Albert Einstein was autistic!
Autistics ARE lazy and stupid. Trust me, I knwo plenty of them. They are incapable of working, because they are such retards.
Wow…. anyone else wanna take a whack at this guy? I’m at a loss for words.
Autistics are stupid and I hate them.
*whacks jeff*
To the two haters: Every time you talk crap like that about people with autism, your IQ goes down 10 points. I am autistic and I graduated high school and college and I can drive a car and hold down a job. And you two are probably low-lifes.
To the psychotic haters: Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Isaac Newton, Beethoven, Mozart, and W.B. Yeats were all autistic. Want to live in an autism-free world? Stop using your computer, ipod, and internet…never listen to the BEST classical composers, oh and never go outside your house because we’re EVERYWHERE and we will not back down to those who hate us because of our success.
to begin, yeah I am autistic (PDD-nos) but I am also Dutch, and had only 4 years of english lessons in school, so excuse me for my bad english.
thank you Denis, thank you Dave and Jamie, you just opened my eyes! I AM a stupid, lazy autist, who doesn’t even WANT to work. I mean, I am sixteen years old, and I am going to go to school for another fourteen years if everything will go the way it’s planned… yeah, that’s a while. I also like to sit behind the computer and play pointless games, and post pointless messages. I should change. I should stop posting in reaction sections like this,
because trolls WILL ALWAYS keep posting offensive post that just make me mad. I am not a dumb, whinning baby. I like to play multiplayer games, and I want to become a doctor, what is really possible if I pump up my grades a little bit. (well, for that I actually REALLY should become a little less lazy.) I am just glad that I am not like you.
it’s better to be a nice autist then to be a neurotipical jerk.
Both, trust me. I’ve met heaps of autistic people, they get easily aggravated just by asking them a question and sometimes don’t even talk.
Hi, I’m not autistic but I’m doing research on autism for an essay and a speech. I’v been reading and you (Dave, Jeff and Jamie) should be ashamed of yourselves for what you said. I believe that autistic people arent the smartest people in the world, but their also not the dumbest. The dumbest people in the world aren’t people with diseases, their normal people that think they’re too good for everyone else or the people that have diseases, such as you 3, Dave, Jeff, and Jamie.
You three have nothing challenging your lives and yet still you probably choose not to become surgens, pediatricians, or great scientists. People with autism don’t always challenge themselves to become great either, but in most cases they can’t becuase thats how they were born. It’s not their fault thats the way they were made and born. 1 in every 100 babies that are born are autistic for no apparent reason.
Hint:treat others the way you want to be treated
That is a very important lesson to learn in life, apparently you havent learned that yet. Sad.