"Uncle" Jack Dorso; Arrested Development

The other night my wife was watching one of her favorite television shows--Arrested Development--for the millionth time. I was in the room, but working on other things and not directly watching the show. It was an episode called "Ready, Aim, Marry Me!", and guest-stars Martin Short as a character named "Uncle" Jack Dorso. I've seen this episode a number of times, and I would say that I like both the show and the few episodes with Short as Uncle Jack. In general, the show is full of exaggerated and self-centered characters, and there are very few characters that the audience is meant to connect with or relate to. Uncle Jack falls in line with this, with the addition that he is also disabled. According to the story, he lost the use of his legs on his 70th birthday while performing a feat of strength by lifting weights. He now has hired a large, dimwitted, muscular, and half-deaf man called Dragon to carry him around because he declares he "won't go wheelchair!"

Even having seen all this before, I still found myself responding differently to the show on this occasion. I suppose I can only attribute it to class. This time, I was quite conscious of how the show treated Uncle Jack and Dragon. Sure, they were lampooned the same way every character on the show is, but there was a significant difference: for these two characters, their disabilities played into the humor and built slapstick into the show. At one point Uncle Jack yells at the near-deaf Dragon to take him "To the nuts!" Dragon swoops Uncle Jack into the crotch of another character on the show before Uncle Jack corrects him loudly, "To the bridge mix! You fool!" At which point Dragon swoops Uncle Jack's head into the bowl of nuts sitting on the coffee table, where he eats a mouthful like a dog might even though he has use of his arms and hands. 

As irreverent as the rest of the show is, it seemed like there was an additional focus on making the disabilities seem absurd. Uncle Jack's choice to not use a wheelchair makes him feel less handicapped but arguably exaggerates his disability. It also dismisses the upper body strength he is otherwise so proud of. Dragon's near-deafness is treated as dimwittedness. 

I am left not quite knowing what to think of these outlandish characters because they are floating in such a sea of other outlandish characters and the nonsensical situations they get into as a result of their selfish choices. I can't tell if it's respectful that there is no respect given to their disabilities (meaning: there is no special treatment), or whether the show treats the disabilities of the characters with less respect than usual. That said, I know I won't be able to watch the Uncle Jack/Dragon episodes the same way again.