An Ode to Three TV Shows that Did Hearing Impairment Right

Jokes about being hearing impaired and/or being deaf on television often include the following:

Jokes about the vocal tone about a hearing impaired individual
Gesturing wildly or physically moving the person
Screaming and/or talking loudly. Which is also an unfortunate sitcom technique sometimes used to speak to people who do not have English as their first language.
THE VOICE. THE VOICE THE VOICE.
Did I mention voice?

I am moderately hearing impaired. I grew up that way, having been diagnosed at age six. I taught myself how to read lips. This is actually how I passed hearing tests when I was little. The doctor would look at me and say words to me like “football”, “baseball” and I just repeated them back by reading his lips. When I was six, one of the doctors thought that he should probably cover his mouth and the jig was up.

I also never learned to sign because I never needed it. I went to school surrounded by the fully hearing and went to a hearing impaired support group once only to find it to be the most depressing thing I’ve ever been to in my life. They were all just complaining so much! I mean, come on, we can’t hear. It happens.

Although, I was told I talked too softly which was a fantastic compliment.

Now, I’ve always been worried about the tone of my voice. Is it too loud? Too soft? Does it sound like how hearing impaired people are often portrayed on television? I can’t always tell but I can tell when its become the butt of a joke and often, especially on a television sitcom, it is.

However, three sitcoms recently portrayed having a hearing impairment in a way which I found amusing, clever and it worked.

At least for me…..

1. Episodes

In a season two episode, Matt LeBlanc’s character Matt LeBlanc mimics what it would be like to have sex with a deaf girl much to the disgust of Sean played by Stephen Mangan.

Why it works?

By this point in the series, we already know the Matt LeBlanc character, not the actor, is a horrible person. At the end of the first season, he sleeps with Sean’s wife, Beverly. There had been enough character development by this point that instead of it being wildly offensive, it’s considered typical and oddly in character. The credit for this goes to the creators and writers, Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane, for building a strong enough character where mimicking sex with a deaf girl seems perfectly aligned with who Matt, the character, is. Instead of being outraged, my first thought was, “of course.” Additional credit, obviously, goes to the talent of Matt LeBlanc. It also helps that Sean, who is often the moral center, is begging Matt to stop. The combination results in making the Matt LeBlanc character look worse.

2. Life in Pieces

In a season three episode called “Treasure Ride Poker Hearing”, which by the way can we all just agree that Life in Pieces has the best episode titles ever, John played James Brolin gets hearing aids. He is reluctant to at first as he struggles with what it means for him to get them.

Why it Works?

John is the patriarch of the family and while it’s typical that losing your hearing is a sign of age and is often portrayed that way, the way it is shown here is relatable at any age. There were two moments in particular that I could relate to, well three if you count the hearing test.

Side note: Those hearing tests are stupid. I always fail them. They suck and they’re stupid. Oh, here’s your beep. What if I don’t wanna press the button when I hear the beep? Stupid tests. I like to pass tests, not fail them. Dumb. They’re dumb. You press the button when you hear the beep. That game is the worst.

Anyway, okay, so when family matriarch, Joan, played by Dianne Wiest, informs John that he can’t hear the doorbell he informs her that he heard, just didn’t feel like answering it. Yep. That does happen. The other moment occurs at the end of the episode when during a family gathering, John turns off his hearing aids to avoid hearing his family. It was not only perfect for the character, it was completely relatable.

Selective hearing loss affects all hearing impaired individuals and you can’t always tell when we actually can’t hear you or we just don’t want to hear you. I have often turned them off because sometimes it’s just easier and you don’t have to apologize for anything later. This final scene also felt like an inside joke from Justin Adler and the rest of the Life in Pieces team to the entire hearing impaired population. Almost as if they were exposing a rarely discussed perk to wearing hearing aids, which was appreciated.

3. The Mick

In this season two episode called, “The Dump”, after Mickey and Alba accidentally pick up an extra kid from a class trip they go to extreme lengths to return him. The situation gets worse and worse because the kid will not speak to them. The audience is not sure why at first but the reveal is that he is deaf and therefore cannot hear Mickey or Alba.

Why it works?

The Mick is produced by Dave and John Chernin who wrote on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They clearly ripped a page out of the Sunny playbook which clearly dictates that the joke must always be on the central characters. When Mickey, played by Kaitlin Olson, learns the child is deaf her non verbal response to Alba, played by Carla Jimenez, is one of almost relief. This lasts a brief moment as the situation deteriorates because not only have they basically kidnapped a kid, their phone calls to authorities include what one might call racist and/or stereotypical imitations of different races making both Alba and Mickey look just awful and also in a very hilarious way. The kid, however, is never the butt of the joke. It is always on Mickey and Alba and the lengths they go to get this kid back to the dump.

The final lessons in making hearing impairments work on television?

Set up the main character to be kind of an egomaniacal jerk anyway so it works because you can completely buy it.
Provide realistic moments that people with hearing impairments at any age can relate to.
Keep the joke firmly on the leads, setting up the hearing impairment to be more of an after thought and never the forefront of the episode.

So thank you to everyone involved in Episodes, Life in Pieces and The Mick for taking on hearing impairments in three very different ways and succeeding.

Luv,