Joke about "Chronic Epstein Barr Syndrome" on Fox

[TheMoonIsBlue]

Just happened to be flipping through the channels and caught Dennis Millers joke on Fox about a solider theoretically complaining that they couldn't fight due to "Chronic Epstein Barr Syndrome" (aka "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", was called Chronic EBV Syndrome many years ago).

Every time I hear this it's like salt in a wound......I've heard "EBV Syndrome" and "Chronic Fatigue" mentioned by several other comedians in the last year and every time I do I think, This illness really is a COLOSSAL JOKE to many. And, may I add, an antiquated one! Like, get some new material, preferably one that isn't about any illness. Is sickness of any type funny?


No matter how much work goes into education and public awareness efforts about ME, millions more people will see this stupid joke than will ever read a quality news article (I guess there are a few out there...) about ME and all the people's comments about how this illness has destroyed their lives.

 

[mellster]

I just saw that too - but I wasn't sure about the context as I did not pay full attention, didn't trust my ears. Unfortunately this is freedom of speech which I support, but a really bad and tactless joke. I hope people will take notice and give FOX some negative feedback. I cannot believe that they claim to be patriotic and then bash disabled service-men - shame on them!

 

[TheMoonIsBlue]

I didn't exactly have my ears glued to the TV (I think that is an expression....?) But I know I caught it as a joke about Dick Cheney, and a solider complaning about not being about to fight due to Epstein Barr Syndrome (theoretically).

Our service men and women risking their lives are as vulnerable as anyone to "EBV syndrome" or "Chronic Fatigue" or whatever inaccurate name a PUNDIT on TV wants to call it.

Oh wait..........Hmmm.... Gulf War Syndrome. That's a joke too, right?

 

[ixchelkali]

There's a reason why the phrase for something very un-funny is "funny as a crutch." Yeah, let's all laugh at disabled veterans. But it's okay, because everyone knows Chronic Fatigue Syndrome isn't real, it's just a bunch of malingerers. :Retro mad:

 

[Ernie]

Well I guess they think it's all a joke until they or one of their family members get sick with it. Then I guess the jokes on them.

 

[TheMoonIsBlue]

Well I guess they think it's all a joke until they or one of their family members get sick with it. Then I guess the jokes on them.

Yeah, then someone new comes along and keeps the joke rolling....

 

[Carrigon]

Somewhere along the years, Saturday Night Live made fun of us a few times, and I boycotted the show after that and don't think I ever watched it again. I was disgusted and fuming mad.

It should be illegal to make fun of ANY disease on public television.

 

[Marg]

I remember when it was called Yuppie Flu. I have never heard any other illness made fun of. Shame on them is right. I never did like Fox and some of their people.

 

[TheMoonIsBlue]

I actually think Dennis Miller IS funny sometimes.

But.............. this isn't the first time Dennis Miller has made a joke about EBV Syndrome or CFS on Fox, in primetime, where millions of people will see it. I remember a while back he made a joke saying something to the effect of: Under ObamaCare, People will be able to get treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and not Cancer


I don't know why Mr. Miller finds this illness so funny???? Maybe if he has an Email, we could inform him how NOT funny it is.

 

[*GG*]

Somewhere along the years, Saturday Night Live made fun of us a few times, and I boycotted the show after that and don't think I ever watched it again. I was disgusted and fuming mad.

It should be illegal to make fun of ANY disease on public television.

I think we have enough uselss laws on the books.

GG

 

[*GG*]

I just saw that too - but I wasn't sure about the context as I did not pay full attention, didn't trust my ears. Unfortunately this is freedom of speech which I support, but a really bad and tactless joke. I hope people will take notice and give FOX some negative feedback. I cannot believe that they claim to be patriotic and then bash disabled service-men - shame on them!

Well he is just a guest, he doesn't actually have his own show, so harder to "control" him, I think.

GG

 

[*GG*]

I actually think Dennis Miller IS funny sometimes.

But.............. this isn't the first time Dennis Miller has made a joke about EBV Syndrome or CFS on Fox, in primetime, where millions of people will see it. I remember a while back he made a joke saying something to the effect of: Under ObamaCare, People will be able to get treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and not Cancer


I don't know why Mr. Miller finds this illness so funny???? Maybe if he has an Email, we could inform him how NOT funny it is.

I wonder how he even knows this damn disease exists? I believe he does talk radio, not sure how far reaching it is? But I think he is based in California. I think he was on O'Reilly, and you can email him, he reads emails on TV, perhaps he will read yours? Keep it short and interesting though!

GG

 

[Forbin]

Here is the clip referencing "Epstein-Barr Syndrome." It comes between 0:30 and 0:45.

http://youtu.be/KlQCzZq6Dto

There was an actuall WWII incident in which Gen. George Patton slapped [and kicked] a soldier he felt was a malingerer. Patton was later forced to apologize. It was dramatized in the 1970 film "Patton."

Here is the clip of that scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJcAeJ8YRo

In real life, it was later discovered that the soldier had chronic dysentery and malaria.

 

[Battery Muncher]

Fox News is just an awful TV channel, tbh.

 

[Doogle]

IMO shows and people like that are best ignored.

 

[ixchelkali]

Here is the clip referencing "Epstein-Barr Syndrome." It comes between 0:30 and 0:45.

http://youtu.be/KlQCzZq6Dto

There was an actuall WWII incident in which Gen. George Patton slapped [and kicked] a soldier he felt was a malingerer. Patton was later forced to apologize. It was dramatized in the 1970 film "Patton."

Here is the clip of that scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJcAeJ8YRo

In real life, it was later discovered that the soldier had chronic dysentery and malaria.

That's the difference: The public was outraged and Patton was forced to apologize. The public isn't outraged by jokes about ME/CFS (or "chronic Epstein-Barr virus") and Miller won't be forced to apologize. The only people Fox or Miller will hear from are those with ME/CFS and they can dismiss that because they think we're a bunch of nutters anyway. Or if they didn't already think so, the BBC will be happy to explain it to them.

It's not bad enough to have a disease that rips your life apart and leaves you forever sick and in pain, you also have to walk around with a big ol' target pinned to your back, and a sign that says "kick me." Big, funny, friggin' joke.

However, it's not true that we're the only ones. Remember Rush Limbaugh making fun of Michael J Fox's Parkinson's? And not only do people with dysautonomia get labelled "spaz," but they get to hear spaz used as an insult when someone does something clumsy. And even though it's considered in bad taste, people with developmental disabilities still get jeered at. Once again, the difference is that those insults aren't generally considered acceptable behavior, and the general public will show righteous indignation about it. But the general public seems to think jokes about ME/CFS are socially acceptable, as though our illness were some kind of moral flaw.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Fox News, they may as well all be wearing black shirts and kicking puppies named "Liberal"
Phone hacking scandal in Uk should show folk what the real evil underneath that sick media empire is actually like.

Conservatives are gonna have ot "man up" and clean their own house, before it gets pushed right off the deep end into Hell!
There's a good reason the political spectrum is described as a "horseshoe" because the extremes bend round to become almost indistinguishable from each other.
Extremism *SUCKS* and the "Right" has long since parted company with "conservative" in US and UK.
Obama is a Centrist, for goodness sake, he is NOT a "Socialist" and not on the "Left" (except in some social ways), good God, that's how far the spectrum's got pushed to the Right.
COme back Nixon, all is forgiven!!
seriously, "crook" maybe, but he cared too much and his fears lead him down that path, and was the last US Conservative president, not a sociopath, "face man" front for whackjobs, or a moron...and hey, I know the Democrats are full of crap too, Bill Clinton's Administration bombed water treatment plans in iraq which is a WAR CRIME and everyone dman well knows it was. But "crap" and "wiping out the middle class and starting wars of conquest" are very different things

 

[jimells]

A reporter asked Gandhi what he thought of western civilization. He replied, "I think it would be a good idea".