The Incredible Hulk: Example of Audism?

Transcript:

I'm having a "Ridorish moment". I want to discuss a comic book. Not "Green Lantern", but The Hulk. The reason is because on Facebook, my friends and I were being silly, having a back and forth, and someone mentioned the Hulk. That got me thinking back to when I would read the Hulk comic book. You know in the comic, Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk when he gets angry. The Hulk is stupid, but he can talk, saying things like "Hulk not like! Hulk smash!" Stupid, but he can talk.

Later on, there was a TV series in the '70s, which was based on the comic book. In the series, David Banner (they changed his name for TV) becomes the Hulk. But in the TV series, the Hulk does NOT talk.

You know who played the Hulk in the TV series? Lou Ferrigno, who is Deaf. Back then, before I really understood my Deaf identity, I was excited to know that Lou was Deaf like me. I always watched the show to see him. The "talky" parts with David Banner were kind of boring for me, but when I saw someone starting to beat him up or push him or argue with him and he would start getting angry, I perked up at that because I knew that soon the Hulk would show up. I liked the Hulk because of Lou and the fact that he was Deaf also. When I would see David's eyes constrict, I would cheer "it's Hulk time!" and watch him change into the Hulk, with his hair going all raggedy and his clothes bursting at the openings of his shirts and pants (how his pants stayed on, I never understood) and he changed into the Hulk.

Growing up, I never had any strong feelings about Lou. But later, I was disgusted with him in his role in "King of Queens". In that show, he plays himself, but he NEVER mentions anything about his being Deaf or acts Deaf in any way. For example, I remember one episode where he was bent over doing something and had his back turned to Doug, his neighbor, and turned around immediately to respond to Doug's greeting. That puzzled me because Doug hat spoken behind his back, and Lou was able to respond appropriately from that. That is not acting Deaf. It is not typical Deaf behavior. I doubt he can do that in real life. So that's why I don't look at Lou so favorably now. But that is not my point here.

So, I wonder why in the comic book, the Hulk can talk, but in the TV series, the Hulk never talks, except to say GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! I'm thinking it is either:

The writers found the Hulk would be played by Lou Ferrigno, and assumed that he can't talk, even though Lou was raised orally and can talk.

OR

The writers wanted to emphasize the Hulk's lack of intelligence, so they wrote it so the Hulk can't or doesn't talk in order to emphasize his stupidity. That is, muteness is equated with stupidity.

Either way, that's audism, right?

Category:

People & Blogs

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• Hulk

[ChudFapper]

Is this a joke? Audism? You honestly think people discriminate you because you're deaf?

If this is a common belief in the deaf community, then there is certainly something very wrong with you. Your self centered, deluded views and accusations of discrimination where there is none, only serve to create conflict. I've never thought of deaf people as anything but regular people, but this BS has certainly put you in a much worse light. If anything, you assholes are discriminating those who can hear.

[DrDonGCSUS]

@ChudFapper I'm guessing you're Hearing, and hoping you're just ignorant. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and suggest you read "The Mask of Benevolence" by Harlan Lane. He outlines many ways in which Deaf people are discriminated against, culturally, linguistically and educationally.

[darthsordus]

Just an FYI, Lou did the VOICE acting in the latest hulk film... the one with Abomination. In an interview Lou said it was funny that he was originally told NOT to voice anything while Hulk and only to be "big and menacing" and then was called back almost 30 years later ONLY to do his voice. "Hulk Smash!" "Betty." "No!" etc. . . It does bother me some, but your thoughts?

R

[DrDonGCSUS]

@darthsordus Interesting. I didn't know he was told not to speak in the old series. It is ironic.

[DrDonGCSUS]

Respond to this video... And it is interesting they would use his voice for the new movie. Deaf voice? More "hulk-like" than Hearing voice? Hmmmmm....

[aslnikki]

Hmmm. I thought Lou was hard of hearing and uses hearing aids. Richard has a video of him and Arnold. In that video, he behaved like a typical HOH. He never identified himself with the Deaf community. Not my point here......mute Hulk symbolizes deaf and dumb? Dunno.

[DrDonGCSUS]

@aslnikki I think he's really Deaf, but because he has hearing aids and can talk, he is portrayed (and probably thinks of himself) as HH. You know how it goes. And in any case, HH is just a shade of Deaf.....

[ASLeslie]

Hi there...To be honest, I never thought like that, but it could be the reason why the writers decided that HULK does not talk due to the actor's being deaf? This is a good question, but again, it would consider audism.

[Banerika]

In a word, yes. It is audism either way.