MJ Bienvenu in “Reflections of American Deaf Culture in Deaf Humor”

NOTE: I have been kindly informed that MJ Bienvenu is female. I've been rather busy, but I plan to make the corrections soon.

How very senseless we all are sometimes. How infrequently we even glance outside that ubiquitous box in which we tend to place ourselves.   MJ Bienvenu in “Reflections of American Deaf Culture in Deaf Humor” explains very well how often being part of a minority group forces a person to step outside that box on a daily basis. There’s not that comfort of being able to just blend in with the crowd. One can’t always do things the way that everyone else does it. The majority perspective is out there. It is in the papers, the movies, the television shows, the billboards, the store windows, the flapping lips of passers-by, the AIR. Minority groups are forced by the nature of their position in society to look for different perspectives, to be more senseful than those in the majority. Translating a language can be a difficult task, but to day in and day out be required to translate culturally is oppressive. MJ Bienvenu in his explanations of Deaf humor illustrates to the for the hearing world there sometimes dangerous and often hurtful sense deficiency, the inability to change perspective.

Bienvenu explains that while at an ASL retreat for non-Deaf people The movie King Kong was playing without volume “and for the first time, they realized what Deaf audiences have known all along: the actors’ expressions are hysterically funny.” (Bienvenu, 99) I’m assuming that these non-Deaf people watching the movie obviously had full use of their visual capabilities, but such a long time had experienced what could be easily described as deficiency. We begin to see as Bienvenu point of view “Of course, Deaf people can’t hear, and this causes many people to view the Deaf as deficient and deprived. But nothing could be further from the truth...” (Bienvenu, 99). This idea of five senses that “normal” people have is an artificial construct someone made up. We need to forget about the artificial constructs and remember what having senses really mean. Having senses means having awareness. And just because Deaf people lack hearing doesn’t mean they are any more lacking in awareness, in sensefulness than any person constructively described as “normal”.

In the section labeled “Can’t Hear” Bienvenu gives humourous examples that illustrate that hey, at least Deaf people are aware of their deafness and aren’t afraid to use it to their advantage.   He relates the “popular tale” of how Deaf newlyweds are honeymoon and the new husband comes out drinking to calm his nerves, but hen doesn’t remember his room number upon his return. Aware of his and his new brides deafness, he cleverly hunks his horn until all the room lights flip on except for those of his Deaf bride. Thus his room is located! (Bienvenu, 100). Bienvune also comments on Roy Holcomb’s book Hazards of Deafness, pointing out that it is not Deaf centered and places a “disturbing... emphasis on hearing and ehte dependency on sound”. (Bienvenu 100-101). In the book there a joke about a Deaf person using a vacuum cleaner to run over the same dirt spot again and again before realizing the vacuum cleaner is unplugged. (Bienvenu, 100). Bienvenu points out that in reality the Deaf person would have known the vacuum cleaner was not plugged in due to the lack of vibration and responded appropriately. Holcomb book plays to and reinforces the majority’s limited perspective and lack of awareness.

I wonder how many hearing people would realize the amount of Deaf humor that is based on a play on words or more accurately a play on signs. American Sign Language is just that a language and Deaf humor naturally creates materials based on its linguistics. Yes, Deaf people have humor particular to their language. Bienvenu relates the joke about a giant who finds a pretty girl, lifts her up into his palm and asks her to marry him. (Bienvenu, 101). Of course the sign for “marry” involves a clap of the hands so the giant squishes his would be bride. He goes on to comment on the irony of the giant’s statement that, “See, oralism is better.” With oralism there would been no signs, no crushing of the would be bride. The irony comes in with the fact that the Deaf community is strongly opposed to oralism. American Sign Language has humor unique to its language and culture the same as the language of any other culture would. Sure there is a strong relationship with English, the same as many languages have strong relationships with others, but they are still seen as separate and distinct.

Finally Bienvenu highlights how Deaf culture, as do other minority cultures, uses humor as a response to oppression. One of the jokes he relates reminds me of a time in highschool. My girlfriends and I, frustrated with immaturity and insensitivity of the boyfolk around decided to form a Pit Committee. We would throw all the males into a deep, burning probably endless pit, of course saving out few as pets and others because of their oh, special skills. I’ve heard others women speak of having a similar Pit Society at some point in their lives. Bienvenu says someone told him a joke about where three people on a train are throwing various things out the window because they know they can always get more because the objects are so common in their culture. So the Deaf person takes a hearing person passing by and throws him from the train remaking that there are plenty of hearing people in the world. (Bienvenu 102-103) Bienvenu ends his articlewith joke as will I.