The Fun Side of Deaf Culture

For many in the general public, when they find out someone is Deaf, the first reaction is usually of pity, awkwardness, and curiosity.

Many in the Deaf community have seen reactions like:

“I’m sorry”

“My [insert random person] is deaf too”

“My dog is deaf”

“I can never live being deaf”

“I’ll pray for you”

“You speak so well”

“You are so brave / strong / inspiring”

“You don’t look Deaf”

Then there are many News stories about Deaf people getting rejected or harassed at restaurant drive-thrus and other service places.

Lastly, there are our struggles to get proper accessibility, jobs and so on…

This probably would make some folks believe that the Deaf community is a hateful, bitter bunch (a few are, but that’s not the point here).

The truth is that we are a vibrant, social group with a rich culture and language. We have our own literature, poetry, stories, language, and so much more.

Many do have a great sense of humor, like me as a Deafblind person, so here are my mental responses to the above statements:

“Did you cause my Deafness?”

“Good for them” *shrugs*

“ Woof” (I honestly I’m baffled at how a deaf dog and a Deaf person are correlated)

“I can never live being stupid”

“Pray for my health, finances, family - but never to ‘heal’ me - I wouldn’t know what to do being hearing!”

“Thanks! That’s after years ‘n years of forced speech therapy”

“Like I have a choice? I’m just trying to get s**t done like everyone else”

“Crap, I forgot my sign!”

Yeah, my snark developed from years of dealing with this, but mind you these are just mental thoughts (and social media mentions), I’m polite and even shy in public.

Others in the Deaf community are able to express their humor in ASL videos and performances across the country.

There are so many Deaf comedians, writers, poets, actors, and much more talent to list but many can be found with the hashtag #DeafTalent.

I narrowed it down to two of my favorites:

The Flipside Show

One of my favorite Social Media Accounts is The FlipSide Show.

Brett Shaffer grew up being the “class clown” making his friends and teachers laugh, which inspired him to become a comedian and make everyone laugh. He created “The Flipside Show” to show more about the Deaf community in a fun, educational way.

Just in case you didn’t know, it’s only 1 person playing 2 roles, (yes, there’s been comments about this).

One of my favorite videos of his is “How to Sign Good Morning” it’s only a 7-second video, but shows what happens when you sign wrong.

It’s a light-hearted look inside Deaf culture and Deaf life. You don’t need to know sign language to enjoy them as they’re all subtitled (if you don’t see them, you just need to turn that option on in the video).

Queen Foreverrr

Some of the funniest videos I’ve seen by a Deaf performer are done by Queen Foreverrr.

Sheena Lyles grew up in a Deaf family in Pennsylvania and it was her excessive silliness, family members, and good friends that prompted her into making comedy skits.

She has so many videos on Deaf life and current events that are very relatable. Such as this YouTube video:

This shows what many Deaf people experience when hearing people meet them for the first time, I’ve experienced a few of these myself.

She has many videos about bad signers, Deaf life, and humorous outlook on current events.

By the way, the “correct” way to react to meeting a Deaf person is “Hi, what would be the best way to communicate with you?” If you have to, write it down (or type it on your phone). It’s that simple.

Sign Language Puns

Sign Language is a legitimate language with its own grammar and linguistic rules, and not “English on the hands” as many people believe. So, from this, we have sign language puns.

Just as spoken language has puns with similar-sounding words like “night, knight”, “a tire, attire”, and so on, sign language has puns based on similar signs and hand movements.

Take this one that went viral across social media at the beginning of the year.

For those unfamiliar with sign language, this is not going to make sense at all! Let me break it down for you:

CHICKEN / BIRD can be altered a bit (moving the hand position away from the mouth) to mean the number 20.

Courtesy of LifePrint

The number 20 in ASL:

Courtesy of Signing Savvy

FRANCE in LSF (French Sign Language) can be “read” as the number 19.

The number 19 in ASL:

So, the English translation would be:

“Today is the last day of 2019, and tomorrow is the first day of 2020.”

This was actually written by a good Deaf friend of mine and it was shared so many times across so many accounts. Some Deaf people are still commenting this way such as “This BIRD BIRD sucks”.

Final Thoughts

My hope is that after reading this that you’re more aware that Deaf people are the same as everyone else and we do have happy humorous lives and that people would stop feeling so awkward around them.

In other words, lose the “deer in the headlights” look.

"Respect those who are different than you"