"Well, then. What's this?"
"I DON'T KNOW! I mean, seriously! What's with you people?! I'm blind!"
"I DON'T KNOW! I mean, seriously! What's with you people?! I'm blind!"
Peter: Kick, Joe, kick!
Lois: Peter, he's a paraplegic!
Peter: That doesn't mean he can't hear. Kick, Joe, kick!
Lois: Peter, he's a paraplegic!
Peter: That doesn't mean he can't hear. Kick, Joe, kick!
— Family Guy, "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire"
When a disabled person has lived with their handicaps for a long enough time, they usually develop a good means of compensating for it. And sometimes they compensate for it in a manner or to a degree that they can appear "normal" to others. In fiction, this is usually exaggerated by way of the person having a Disability Superpower that mostly or entirely makes said handicap a non-issue, like getting around with levitation despite being paralyzed from the waist down. However, there are still instances that are more realistic and are Truth in Television, such as a blind person being familiar enough with their environment that they can navigate it with relative ease thanks to their other senses and ample practice, or the disability simply not being "visible", such as having a prosthetic limb or a learning disability.
Because of this, running gags and moments of awkward silence are born from the times when the characters around them are suddenly reminded that one is disabled.
Sub-Trope of Disability Gag. Compare with You Know I'm Black, Right? and Prosthetic Limb Reveal; contrast with Ignore the Disability.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Fullmetal Alchemist: In the manga and 2009 anime, Ling asks Edward if he has athlete's foot, forgetting that Ed's leg is completely made of metal.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio asks his blind swordsman Usui if he saw a man with a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek or a man who looks wolf-like, putting up two fingers describing "those two".
Comedy
- Christopher Titus told a humbling story from his time on USO tours during the The War on Terror where he met a young officer who'd been severely injured to the point of losing both eyes from an IED, who wanted to personally thank him for coming out to entertain the troops. Titus recounts that he was speechless and close to tears from the gesture, when a private from the officer's squad walked up and asked if he wished to get a picture taken with the comedian. The officer paused for a beat, gestured to his missing eyes, and pointedly asked: "...Who the fuck is this picture FOR, Private?"
Comic Books
- Daredevil: Characters will frequently forget that Matt Murdock is blind, immediately apologizing afterwards for being insensitive. Though Matt always casually brushes it off while acting amused by the mistake.
Fan Works
- Since the Izuku of The Devil of UA is blind, there are jokes centered around this.
All Might: That is the power that is growing inside your body now. You are now the next chosen bearer of One for All. The powers that which I had are now yours also. Take it in young one! This is who are you now! Feel the illumination of the great ball of fire down upon you and the view of the crystal water beach that which you yourself have created! Do you not see the beauty of which it possesses? Izuku! TELL ME, DO YOU SEE IT!
Izuku: I can't, I'm blind remember?
All Might: Oh… right. - In Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K, Anakin tries to offer a handshake to Iskandar Khayon after they agree to help each other escape the Inquisitor's warship, forgetting that his newfound ally is both blinded and armless.
Khayon: [amused] Did you… just extend your hand towards me?
Anakin: No! Obviously not! I was, uh, swatting a fly! - In Chapter 14
of Waiting is worth it, Izuku's classmates commend his win over Tenya when he used his quirk to telekinetically tie his shoelaces together. He explains to them that he learned how to do that with his own shoelaces because he could not reach them himself (being handicapped and all). This creates an awkward pause with the others.
Ochako: Sometimes we forget that you are paralyzed.
Films — Live-Action
- In Happy Gilmore, Happy seems to constantly forget that Chubbs has a prosthetic hand and keeps knocking or pulling it off by accident before apologizing afterwards.
- In Mandy, people sometimes forget that Ellis is deaf, and she has to remind them to look at her when they talk to her.
- Before making love to Rita, Betty in Mulholland Drive, asks if she's ever done such a thing before. The amnesiac Rita sensibly answers, "I don't know."
- In Oddity, Yana keeps walking into this in her interactions with Blind Seer Darcy. At one point she asks if Darcy's seen her keys anywhere, and is flatly reminded that Darcy hasn't seen anything in many years. Later, when they are debating the mysterious murder of Darcy's sister Dani, who supposedly let a stranger into her house in the middle of the night, Yana insists that she would never do such a thing, rhetorically asking "Do I look stupid?" Darcy reminds her that she has no idea what Yana looks like.
- In Psych-Out, Jenny's new friends sometimes forget that she's deaf.
Ben: [yelling from a car] Hey, Jenny!
Stoney: Hey, it's not gonna do you any good to yell, you know.
Ben: Oh yeah, that's right. - A Quiet Place Part II: Emmett chews Regan out early in the film for running off without telling him… except that he's not facing her and she's deaf. Finally, she grabs him by the head, points him toward her face, and whispers, "Enunciate."
- In Rogue One, Chirrut Îmwe is a Guardian of the Whills, a Warrior Monk and Blind Weaponmaster who fairly effortlessly takes down a squad of Imperial stormtroopers with his skills. When a group of Saw Gerrera's Partisans captures them and shoves a sack over their heads to take them to Saw, Chirrut snaps out an indignant, "Are you kidding me!? I'm blind!"
- See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989): David is handcuffed, necessitating that Wally, who is blind, drive the car. When he turns to David to speak, David tells him to watch the road.
Wally: Oh, if it makes you feel better.
- Tom Stewart of Tormented is talking with Mrs. Ellis, a blind resident of the island, about a strange supernatural event that occurred in the past, and he absently asks her if she saw anything herself; she quips back, "It's been many years since I've seen anything." Tom replies that he keeps forgetting her blindness.
Literature
- Played for Drama in The Ship Who... Searched. Having fallen in love with Tia, whenever he's out being her brawn and she's Mission Control Alex imagines her as sitting in a chair watching screens and instruments and speaking into a microphone — not suspended in a People Jar encased in the machinery that keeps her alive. It makes him feel warmed and cheered to imagine her waiting for him as someone he could have a physical relationship with, and it reaches the point where any reminder that she's not just out of sight and they Can't Have Sex, Ever depresses him.
- Small Favor: After the second time Harry comes home to find some kind of Mexican Standoff between Morgan, Molly, and Luccio, with only Mouse, Harry's Tibetan Mastiff dog, preventing it from escalating to violence:
Harry: I can't believe I'm about to say this… So think real careful about where this is coming from. Have you people ever considered talking when you've got a problem?
Mouse: Uh… woof.
Harry: Sorry, four-footed non-vocalizing company excluded.
Live-Action TV
- Ask Rhod Gilbert: Lloyd Langford talks about how people missing fingers or other body parts is always a sign of being clumsy or accident prone. It takes some time for him to recall that fellow comedian Adam Hills, who is sitting next to him and smirking, was born with only one foot.
- This has happened to the character who is disabled in Better Call Saul. Chuck McGill, the older brother of main character Jimmy, is convinced that he has developed a painful sensitivity to all electronics and anything that uses or conducts electricity, which has turned him from one of the most prestigious and influential lawyers in the state to a rather pitiful shut-in. Although Chuck's symptoms are purely psychosomatic, at times he has gone into a catatonic state reminiscent of locked-in syndrome. On a few occasions however, Chuck has been so distracted by other things that he has failed to react to those same external stimuli and situations that otherwise cause him so much grief. Jimmy ultimately uses this against him when Chuck tries to have him disbarred, by having someone sneak a fully-charged phone battery into Chuck's pocket, then having Chuck take it out while he's on the stand, showing everyone that it's psychosomatic. The real damage, however, comes when Chuck goes into an outraged Motive Rant.
- The occasional scene in later seasons of Grey's Anatomy which feature Arizona limping or otherwise drawing attention to her being an amputee for a short period of time — beyond this, the rest of the time she is just as effective running to crashing patients or dodging her co-workers as everyone else despite only having one leg.
Podcasts
- Nerdist Podcast: The Radiorama special with the Futurama cast has a subplot in which Fry buys Leela a custom 3D-projected sculpture, which offends her because, as a cyclops, she's incapable of viewing it properly. She forgives him at the end of the episode when he explains he doesn't define her by her disability.
Video Games
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Wu Zi Mu is first met during a car race, and The Reveal that he's blind comes as a surprise to CJ. There are a few scenes where the joke is that he's blind (running into a wall or shooting randomly) and a few where other people forget about it, such as the heist planning scenes.
Woozie: Hey, are you pointing again?
Visual Novels
- In Case 3 of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the blind singer Lamiroir is assaulted with a blow to the forehead.
Trucy: But they hit her on the forehead, right? That's right in front of her! How could she not see… Oh.
Web Animation
- Happy Tree Friends: A running gag involves Handy trying to do a task, only to look down at his amputated arm nubs and scowl in frustration.
- This occurs in RWBY Volume 6 when Cinder tries to come to an agreement with the mute Neo:
Cinder: Okay, let's talk.
Neo: [deadpan, points to mouth]
Cinder: …Right.
Webcomics
- In Beyond the End, End constantly forgets that Roman is severely (can barely see a metre in front of him) short-sighted and will keep asking him about things he can't see.
- Unsounded: Jivi seems surprised when he learns Matty, who is blind, can't read. When Matty reminds him that his sight aid only lets him see the outline of objects so words on a page are beyond him Jivi realizes he's been a bit ridiculous in his assumptions.
Web Videos
- In The Funniest Minecraft Videos Ever with the Better End Mod, Tommy and Phil find a biome with wildly colorful crystal spires. They bring some crystals back and excitedly show them to George… forgetting that George is colorblind.note
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Toph is blind, and while she can sense people and objects through vibrations with Earthbending, the rest of the Gaang regularly forgets how this differs from actual sight. She usually uses this as ammo to snark or make a joke at their expense, but she does occasionally voice actual annoyance at their forgetfulness, most notably in the episode "The Runaway'' (page image) after several instances during both that episode and the previous season where the others forget that she can't read because she can only perceive paper as colorless, featureless shapes.
- Although her hearing is very good, Toph can only feel vibrations through solid surfaces, so to her, traveling on the group's flying steed Appa is like floating in an endless void. During one flight when they searching a desert for the episode's titular library, she passive-aggressively expresses her growing discomfort by yelling that she saw what they're looking for, knowing the others would react before realizing that's impossible.
Toph: THERE IT IS!
[the others rush to see nothing, then glare at her]
Toph: ...That's what it'll sound like when one of you spots it. [waves hand in front of eyes] - Played with in the series finale, where Toph mistakenly interprets a request made by Sokka as being addressed to her due to not realizing he's since switched to talking to the third member of their attack squad.
Sokka: Good work, Toph! (scene cuts to Toph) Time to take control of the ship. Take the wheel.
Toph: (smirking sarcastically) That's a great idea! Let the blind girl steer the giant airship!
Sokka: (deadpan) I was talking to Suki.
Toph: (stops smiling) Thaaat would make a lot more sense.
- Family Guy does not want you to forget that Joe is "dead from the waist down". When Peter tells him to kick, Lois reminds him that he's paraplegic, only for him to reply, "That doesn't mean he can't hear!"
- Lynx-O of ThunderCats briefly gets some humor of this nature in "Thundercubs Part II":
Wilykat: Anyone entering [the Jungles of Darkness] might as well be blind.
Lynx-O: Of course, that wouldn't make much difference to me, but the rest of you…
