Hey Matt Rife – People with Disabilities as the Butt of Your Jokes Isn’t Funny

Comedian Matt Rife has a new comedy special now out on Netflix, just released yesterday. He’s an up-and-coming comic whose shows, until now, have largely been self-produced and — to the chagrin of this elder millennial – he’s super popular with the TikTok set. But hey, it’s all good. My husband and I are big fans of stand-up comedy. But before I even had a chance to watch it, I woke up today, logged onto social media, and I saw it.

Matt Rife is one of those comedians. The ones who use my kids as the butt of his jokes.

Let me back up. I have two kids with special needs – a daughter on the autism spectrum, and a son with Down syndrome. I’m part of a lot of online special needs communities, because we all need our people who just get it, and there was a tsunami of grief and upset this morning. I had to check it out for myself, and it was… well, not only was it not funny, but it was offensive as all hell.

READ: The Loneliness of Being a Down Syndrome Family

First up, Matt Rife took aim at autistic people, in a segment that I think he thought would be uplifting somehow. Yet it reeked of ableism.

I actually think it’s kinda cool to see the way God works. If you pay attention, God always finds a way of evening things out. God always replaces a negative with a positive. Anytime you see somebody who was born… less ‘fortunate’… in a certain aspect, you don’t gotta worry ’cause God’s gonna bless them with an attribute, a quality about themselves, sometimes even a skill set. Kinda evens that playing field a little bit.

Isn’t it nice to even know that the less fortunate among us can do things, too? Here’s a little education moment out there for Matt Rife and anyone else who didn’t already know: people with disabilities are people. I know, right?! Isn’t that crazy? But they’re actual people, just like us regular neurotypical able-bodied folks. They have talents and strengths, right alongside their flaws and their weaknesses. People with disabilities! They’re just like us. Who woulda known?

Of course, Rife was just getting started –

I noticed it first with my nephew, Chase. He’s a teenager now, but he’s autistic as f***, which is probably not the medical term, but he, um, he… he got it, for sure. He’s non-verbal. That’s his thing. Unless you are his mom, he will not speak to you, no eye contact, won’t even acknowledge you’re in the room. It’s pretty rude, but that’s… that’s his symptom, you know. But get this: his blessing is that he can paint. As a teenager, he paints better than any art teacher I’ve ever had.

I couldn’t help but wonder, listening to his description of his “rude” non-verbal nephew being “autistic as f***,” if Rife bothered to talk to his sister about what he was going to say about her son – not just on a Netflix special, but on a cross-country tour as well. Clearly, we know he isn’t going to bother speaking to the actual autistic person himself, because judging by this description, Rife has already written off his nephew. He certainly doesn’t mind using his own family member as the butt of one of his jokes, without ever knowing or seemingly caring that, hey… those people with disabilities? They can hear you, Matt Rife. It’s as if he believes someone being non-verbal means they’re incapable of thinking, hearing, understanding, communicating. I see it all the time, especially people who get into the Autism Speaks brand of so-called advocacy, where family members go on and on about how terrible having an autistic child is and how it’s ruined their life, right in front of said autistic child. Matt Rife just did the same thing, but in front of literally millions of people.

Frankly, I don’t know how he can even look at himself in the mirror after that.

Also, what Rife was doing here is perpetuating a stereotype — you know, the autistic savant. The autistic person who can’t speak, can’t interact with so-called “normal” society, but hey, they’re like, SO good with numbers/music/art/whatever. It’s actually an extremely harmful stereotype, and an inaccurate one at that. Remember how I said people with disabilities are like, actual people? Yeah. We don’t lose our minds because a neurotypical person can paint well or do a great job in math. We do that with people with disabilities because, societally, we see them as inherently inferior. They’re less than us “normal” people, so when they are able to do… well, anything… it’s a huge deal, as opposed to a human person having a talent like every other human person out there.

Oh, but don’t you worry, Down syndrome families. Matt Rife was coming for you next.

There was a kid, Alex, in our high school. Alex was the same age as me. We entered high school together, freshman year. Had gym class together. He was special needs, and he… he had, uh… he had a diiiick on him, man. I don’t know how else to tell y’all that. That boy was blessed, man. People felt sorry for him! I’m like, ‘f*** that, dude. He’s been terorizing us in the locker room the whole semester.’ Got us all backed up against the lockers. It’s like, ‘G****n, Alex! That’s where the extra chromosome goes?! Good for you, man!’ Until this day, he’s the nicest person I’ve ever met. I hope he’s out there hurting somebody now. I really do. She needs the helmet. You know, they don’t always… they don’t always know their own strength. You know what I mean? But he’s a good dude, he deserves every inch of it. We used to say he had dick-you-Down-syndrome. Big shout out to Alex, man. Big shout out to Alex. Short bus, but a long dick.

Aside from the fact that Rife felt empowered to talk about someone else’s genitals in front of millions of viewers, presumably without Alex’ knowledge or consent, does that even sound like he’s describing a person? He’s talking about him — an actual person — as if he was an animal at the zoo, with his giant terrifying penis everyone gawked at and high-fived over. Then he adds in the whole notion of people with Down syndrome “not knowing their own strength,” and it’s like, are you KIDDING me?! That’s exactly the kind of thing that leads to the murder of people like Ethan Saylor at the hands of police. Because, you know, those people with Down syndrome, man, they don’t know their own strength, you never know what they’re going to do!

Ugh.

Matt Rife will likely have no shame or remorse about this. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but in his trailer, he openly laughs at the idea of people wanting to cancel him for being offensive, so it doesn’t bode well for any potential introspection. But all the same, I’ll just say this. Joking about people with disabilities? It’s not funny. It never has been. It never will be. Good comedy punches up, not down. And recycling hurtful stereotypes about an already disenfranchised community isn’t funny; it’s gross. Do better.