Tag: deaf

The irony is deafening

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Let me set the scene. I drive home via the same street every night from class. When you are familiar with a certain route, some details of your surroundings tend to get lost. I remember seeing a certain billboard a few weeks ago, but I don’t think I read it or at least I didn’t pay attention to it. So color me surprised when I was stopped at a red light and re-read the billboard.

Billboard: a large sign-like display to promote goods

So whose bright idea was it to put an advertisement for the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library on a billboard. The promotion is neither in braille nor is it talking! Plus, blind people shouldn’t be driving, let alone driving AND being distracted by a billboard. It’s like advertising DEAF on the radio…it doesn’t make sense. You might be saying well someone will see it and tell a blind friend about it. Hardly anyone pays attention to billboards (except if you are at a red light) and by the time the person gets home, there is barely a chance they will remember the billboard, let alone any of its information. Maybe the advertisers at DEAF should hire the marketing manager from Perkins!

They are deaf…not stupid

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Earlier this evening I was on the treadmill doing my speed walking thing and watching Cash Cab while listening to my iPod. Yes I am a multitasker, but that’s another story.  So Cash Cab is on with closed captioning and Ben Bailey is being his wise ass self in the outro.  (The situation will take a little bit to set up so bear with me)

In case you don’t know about Cash Cab, it’s basically Jeopardy! in a taxi with the last question being a video bonus.  You can double your money if you win or leave with nothing if you’re wrong.  It was about a monkey that his long arms and legs that it almost never needs to touch the ground (as you can tell, I wasn’t paying complete attention.).  Two Jerry Garcia wannabes outfitted in stoner gear guessed Gibbon. WRONG meaning no cash for you!  The answer was spider monkey. OK now to the point of this post.

So Ben is making his wise ass outro by saying: “Sometimes it is gibbon, and sometimes it is taken away.” What a clever twist of words, right.  If I’m a deaf person, I’m guessing I would get the joke since no other part of the captions contained horrendous mistakes.  But no, the closed captioning people don’t give the deaf much credit.  They caption it as: “Sometimes it is gibbon [given], and sometimes it is taken away.” Way to take ALL the fun out of wordplay…geniuses.  Was it really necessary to spell out the joke, literally? The only reason I can think to justify it is that the captioners didn’t get the joke, were extremely confused and thought that everyone else would be as well.  WRONG AGAIN!

I swear, if I needed to write out all the meanings of my sarcastic comments, the [ ] buttons would be the most used on my keyboard!  I don’t….do I?