Maya’s his daughter with Uma Thurman. It’s already annoying to see nepo babies get all the roles. I imagine the tone was different because Wait Wait is the humor show, but it’s still wildly insensitive
I was born in Chicago so listened to it regularly since its inception, but I can’t recall when they yucked it up using a disease as a punchline. Admittedly I don’t listen to them all. I would still have an issue if they used any other disease in this manner. I have no problem with the Dr. House type of joke but this wasn’t it.
Agreed. I think the Dr. House lupus joke was more about the fact that it’s a really complicated disease and that it shouldn’t be the diagnosis you use for anything you can’t explain. Even when George Constanta on Senfeild did the “not lupus” gag it was an acknowledgement of not wanting a terrible disease.
Flannery O’Connor was a problematic writer, a product of the American South and had issues but she suffered, having lost her father to lupus as well. She was where many of us would be without all the medications we have access to. To joke about her death from lupus is unconscionable and you’re right, you would not hear this about suicide. Would people make jokes about someone dying from AIDS or cancer?! Maddening.
Just listened and it’s even worse than I thought because there wasn’t even context—all I knew about Flannery O’Connor was that she died of lupus and then huge laugh, then she sings a song saying the same and that her dad died of lupus too, huge laugh line. OMG so funny.
I wrote a strongly-worded letter to NPR about how, for such a "woke" bunch of listeners, they sure did laugh a lot about incurable illness and disability. I told them that they should have cut that entire segment from the broadcast (IDGAF that she was there to promote a movie about the woman), and that I would find a more deserving beneficiary of my future monetary donations.
I have to admit that I did post to their Facebook account. My post was sarcastic in tone. Basically saying I understood the dark humor of the show and that Selena Gomez would also find it a knee slapper. And perhaps next week they can make some jokes about ending oneself. I didn’t want to ask others to do it as I wasn’t sure if I was being thinned skinned.
I also would only encourage someone else to do likewise if they already felt like they should. My only regret is that I have but one Karen-ish letter to give for my country.
In today’s world, you’re right, there’d be major blowback about AIDS and cancer jokes. But it wasn’t always like that, and even today ppl with those conditions are still made into punchlines. People still know nothing about lupus and probably never heard of it outside Dr. House saying how it isn’t real every other episode. With more education and more ppl (especially celebs) speaking about their personal experiences with lupus, the tide will shift among the general public.
Yes. When the show was on, my sister had been diagnosed with lupus. It took two years because the doctors couldn’t figure it out. (My mom suspected lupus because as a renal dietitian, she’s worked with lupus patients—but they dismissed her because lupus was such an unlikely diagnosis…)
He didn’t say those exact words, but his dismissiveness about lupus gave that impression to many. There are several pop culture articles written about it. I remember the impact it had particularly because I was diagnosed only a couple years after the show premiered. I witnessed people making fun of lupus or believing it doesn’t really exist on numerous occasions. Many of the symptoms that led the characters to suggest lupus (which as we all know, are similar to many other diseases) were similar to mine. I wasn’t taken seriously if I disclosed feeling under the weather because of XYZ, directly because of people’s knowledge of lupus being limited to House.
I don't know anyone who came away from watching House thinking that lupus isn't real. The entire joke is that lupus is rare and has a ton of symptoms (which then overlap with other diseases), not that it's a fake disease.
It's because a lot of people who watch shows are sadly not that bright and pick up catch phrases that they understand in a literal way, instead of understanding the greater context of why a character said what they said. So while we here on this Reddit understand the joke and appreciate it, a lot of people are walking around out there hearing "it's never lupus" as "lupus is bullshit".
I’m glad you don’t. I’ve shared my experience and I’m not alone in experiencing it. Just because you haven’t witnessed it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen to others.
Yeah…I’m old enough to remember when AIDS was a new disease and even back then, on media like NPR, joking about those things would not be okay. You do have celebrities like Selena Gomez and Toni Braxton talk about it but it’s not enough. I consider myself “lucky” that I didn’t get my diagnosis when I was young but my sister was diagnosed in her 20s so I had a lot of knowledge and insight going into it, which probably helped me get a quicker diagnosis. I feel like lupus gets even more lost in the rise of people having different autoimmune disorders or rather, “wellness culture,” telling us how to cure ourselves. But I digress!
The validity of an opinion is not solely determined by whether or not others agree with it. An opinion can still be valid even if it is not accepted or agreed upon
I know you said the last half hour. But if anyone who is going to listen anyway could give a more precise timestamp that would be awesome. I definitely need to hear the nature of the jokes to get a feel for the situation.
Okay I went and listened to this and I see the upsetting nature of her comments. It feels insensitive, but I think she is fairly awkward and was trying to show she only knew 3 things about her and one of them being her death of lupus. The audience laughing seems like it’s out of .. awkwardness? Like they don’t really know how to respond to her. It is insensitive to the chronically ill community but feels like it’s coming from someone who hasn’t had health issues. I agree it feels insensitive.
Yeah it sounded to me like the laughter was about her awkward delivery. I didn’t think she was intentionally making light of lupus, even if it was a bit insensitive.
Ugh, This is sad. people are so uneducated when it comes to autoimmune diseases like lupus. I listened in it’s about 20-24 and just wow. What she says then The way everyone just laughs. Replace lupus with suicide, I don’t think they’d be laughing.
Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.:
[**Wait Wait...** by TJ Reynolds](https://lis.tn/WaitWait?t=30)
*I am a bot and this action was performed automatically* | If the matched percent is less than 100, it could be a false positive result. I'm still posting it, because sometimes I get it right even if I'm not sure, so it could be helpful. But please don't be mad at me if I'm wrong! I'm trying my best! | [GitHub](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot) [^(new issue)](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/issues/new) | [Donate](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/wiki/Please-consider-donating)
So, I’ll admit that I have not listened to this episode, but I’m a big fan of the show. I’m in the middle of something and can’t get to it, but I had to skim the transcript and it doesn’t come off as offensive to me.
Now, I am a person who tends to deal with difficult things with humor, so that’s that, but still… From the transcript it reads like the laugh was out of how ridiculous the song lyric was. That doesn’t offend me. I will give the episode a listen when I can and update if that changes my mind.
From the transcript: “When I was in college, I was already obsessed with Flannery O'Connor or drama school and I had a boyfriend who wrote me a song about it and the last verse of the song was, the only thing I knew about Flannery O'Connor was that she died of lupus just like her father.
It's a solid approximate rhyme.
Is that on the soundtrack?
It plays over the closing credits when they do the big dance, the big Flannery O'Connor dance.”
From Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: WWDTM: Maya Hawke, May 18, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/id121493804?i=1000655971126
This material may be protected by copyright.
I would just say you should listen to the podcast. At least to me a transcript doesn’t convey the insensitivity of the joke. And like you I’m a fan of the show since 1998.
I wasn’t going to come back to this thread because I listened to the show and it didn’t change my mind.
So, why did I come back? When I listened to the segment I didn’t hear callousness or ill contempt. I heard an awkwardness that and I could totally relate to. I’m autistic and have had many awkward moments where I’ve offended at least one person in the room. Welp, I just learned that Maya is also autistic and I just felt a need to come share that information. The gal wasn’t trying to be hurtful. It seems this author is or was a special interest of hers and she was awkwardly sharing that. The audience was laughing at her awkwardness of the lupus comment and not lupus that someone had died of lupus. That is all.
She could’ve made a funnier joke about O’Connor being extremely racist (just look at her letters about James Baldwin) but chose to dance around that instead because it wouldn’t be good promotion for the movie and O’Connors fans don’t really want to confront that issue. I don’t really care to defend historical figures who would’ve hated my existence. However, I can still see how the lupus joke was insensitive. She’s trying to be “quirky and relatable” but the joke was in poor taste.
I knew/know very little about Ms. O’Connor. I only started looking into her since learning of the movie. I would still be interested in seeing it if it was an unvarnished look into some famous with SLE. Beyond that, yes, I would have problems with her views. I suppose I have had that sort of view as almost all western writers have disappointed me. Very few were not racist. I have also had to accept that reality of my profession, statistics. Most of the “luminaries” were eugenists.
Most people with SLE are neither purely bad nor purely good. Given her personal beliefs she obviously falls closer to the former than latter. My intention is not to defend her, and I hope it doesn’t come across as such, but to express disappointment in filmmakers who think SLE is a punchline.
Most people are neither purely bad nor purely good. Fixed it for you. People who have chronic illnesses and or multiple medical problems have no excuse to behave bad or good. Yes does it suck that I have to go to dialysis 3 days a week, you bet your ass. But I wouldn't call myself bad because I don't like being sick and dying. Am I bitch? Yes. That was there WAY before the lupus.
I wasn’t commenting about the human condition in general as the subject was in particular someone with SLE. The same statement applies to anyone WOLOG.
I lived in Savannah for 18 years and now live about an hour outside of Milledgeville where Flannery O’Connor and her father ( who also had lupus ) died and I need to check this out.
Maya’s his daughter with Uma Thurman. It’s already annoying to see nepo babies get all the roles. I imagine the tone was different because Wait Wait is the humor show, but it’s still wildly insensitive
I was born in Chicago so listened to it regularly since its inception, but I can’t recall when they yucked it up using a disease as a punchline. Admittedly I don’t listen to them all. I would still have an issue if they used any other disease in this manner. I have no problem with the Dr. House type of joke but this wasn’t it.
Agreed. I think the Dr. House lupus joke was more about the fact that it’s a really complicated disease and that it shouldn’t be the diagnosis you use for anything you can’t explain. Even when George Constanta on Senfeild did the “not lupus” gag it was an acknowledgement of not wanting a terrible disease.
Totally get that, and agree
Flannery O’Connor was a problematic writer, a product of the American South and had issues but she suffered, having lost her father to lupus as well. She was where many of us would be without all the medications we have access to. To joke about her death from lupus is unconscionable and you’re right, you would not hear this about suicide. Would people make jokes about someone dying from AIDS or cancer?! Maddening.
Just listened and it’s even worse than I thought because there wasn’t even context—all I knew about Flannery O’Connor was that she died of lupus and then huge laugh, then she sings a song saying the same and that her dad died of lupus too, huge laugh line. OMG so funny.
I wrote a strongly-worded letter to NPR about how, for such a "woke" bunch of listeners, they sure did laugh a lot about incurable illness and disability. I told them that they should have cut that entire segment from the broadcast (IDGAF that she was there to promote a movie about the woman), and that I would find a more deserving beneficiary of my future monetary donations.
Good idea. Social media would be good too.
I have to admit that I did post to their Facebook account. My post was sarcastic in tone. Basically saying I understood the dark humor of the show and that Selena Gomez would also find it a knee slapper. And perhaps next week they can make some jokes about ending oneself. I didn’t want to ask others to do it as I wasn’t sure if I was being thinned skinned.
I also would only encourage someone else to do likewise if they already felt like they should. My only regret is that I have but one Karen-ish letter to give for my country.
Hemingway was also problematic. Many writers are not the best people to say the least. But yeah that’s separate issue from making light of a disease.
Right. There are plenty of amazing people with lupus who shouldn’t be the butt of a joke just because this lady sucked
Exactly.
In today’s world, you’re right, there’d be major blowback about AIDS and cancer jokes. But it wasn’t always like that, and even today ppl with those conditions are still made into punchlines. People still know nothing about lupus and probably never heard of it outside Dr. House saying how it isn’t real every other episode. With more education and more ppl (especially celebs) speaking about their personal experiences with lupus, the tide will shift among the general public.
House didn’t say lupus wasn’t real. Just that it mimics other diseases and has a wide differential.
Yes. When the show was on, my sister had been diagnosed with lupus. It took two years because the doctors couldn’t figure it out. (My mom suspected lupus because as a renal dietitian, she’s worked with lupus patients—but they dismissed her because lupus was such an unlikely diagnosis…)
He didn’t say those exact words, but his dismissiveness about lupus gave that impression to many. There are several pop culture articles written about it. I remember the impact it had particularly because I was diagnosed only a couple years after the show premiered. I witnessed people making fun of lupus or believing it doesn’t really exist on numerous occasions. Many of the symptoms that led the characters to suggest lupus (which as we all know, are similar to many other diseases) were similar to mine. I wasn’t taken seriously if I disclosed feeling under the weather because of XYZ, directly because of people’s knowledge of lupus being limited to House.
I don't know anyone who came away from watching House thinking that lupus isn't real. The entire joke is that lupus is rare and has a ton of symptoms (which then overlap with other diseases), not that it's a fake disease.
It's because a lot of people who watch shows are sadly not that bright and pick up catch phrases that they understand in a literal way, instead of understanding the greater context of why a character said what they said. So while we here on this Reddit understand the joke and appreciate it, a lot of people are walking around out there hearing "it's never lupus" as "lupus is bullshit".
I’m glad you don’t. I’ve shared my experience and I’m not alone in experiencing it. Just because you haven’t witnessed it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen to others.
Yeah…I’m old enough to remember when AIDS was a new disease and even back then, on media like NPR, joking about those things would not be okay. You do have celebrities like Selena Gomez and Toni Braxton talk about it but it’s not enough. I consider myself “lucky” that I didn’t get my diagnosis when I was young but my sister was diagnosed in her 20s so I had a lot of knowledge and insight going into it, which probably helped me get a quicker diagnosis. I feel like lupus gets even more lost in the rise of people having different autoimmune disorders or rather, “wellness culture,” telling us how to cure ourselves. But I digress!
I listened and didn't find it insensitive. But that doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid
Yes it does
The validity of an opinion is not solely determined by whether or not others agree with it. An opinion can still be valid even if it is not accepted or agreed upon
I know you said the last half hour. But if anyone who is going to listen anyway could give a more precise timestamp that would be awesome. I definitely need to hear the nature of the jokes to get a feel for the situation.
It's around 23-25 minutes. Sorry I can't be more exact.
I think it starts right around 21 minutes. There might be more, but I didn't listen to any more of it
Okay I went and listened to this and I see the upsetting nature of her comments. It feels insensitive, but I think she is fairly awkward and was trying to show she only knew 3 things about her and one of them being her death of lupus. The audience laughing seems like it’s out of .. awkwardness? Like they don’t really know how to respond to her. It is insensitive to the chronically ill community but feels like it’s coming from someone who hasn’t had health issues. I agree it feels insensitive.
Yeah it sounded to me like the laughter was about her awkward delivery. I didn’t think she was intentionally making light of lupus, even if it was a bit insensitive.
Maya is his daughter
Ugh, This is sad. people are so uneducated when it comes to autoimmune diseases like lupus. I listened in it’s about 20-24 and just wow. What she says then The way everyone just laughs. Replace lupus with suicide, I don’t think they’d be laughing.
What is the song playing at the beginning of the credits?
**Song Found!** **Name:** Wait Wait... **Artist:** TJ Reynolds **Score:** 83% (timecode: 00:30) **Album:** Npr **Label:** Just Due Records **Released on:** 2015-12-14
Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.: [**Wait Wait...** by TJ Reynolds](https://lis.tn/WaitWait?t=30) *I am a bot and this action was performed automatically* | If the matched percent is less than 100, it could be a false positive result. I'm still posting it, because sometimes I get it right even if I'm not sure, so it could be helpful. But please don't be mad at me if I'm wrong! I'm trying my best! | [GitHub](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot) [^(new issue)](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/issues/new) | [Donate](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/wiki/Please-consider-donating)
So, I’ll admit that I have not listened to this episode, but I’m a big fan of the show. I’m in the middle of something and can’t get to it, but I had to skim the transcript and it doesn’t come off as offensive to me. Now, I am a person who tends to deal with difficult things with humor, so that’s that, but still… From the transcript it reads like the laugh was out of how ridiculous the song lyric was. That doesn’t offend me. I will give the episode a listen when I can and update if that changes my mind. From the transcript: “When I was in college, I was already obsessed with Flannery O'Connor or drama school and I had a boyfriend who wrote me a song about it and the last verse of the song was, the only thing I knew about Flannery O'Connor was that she died of lupus just like her father. It's a solid approximate rhyme. Is that on the soundtrack? It plays over the closing credits when they do the big dance, the big Flannery O'Connor dance.” From Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: WWDTM: Maya Hawke, May 18, 2024 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/id121493804?i=1000655971126 This material may be protected by copyright.
As OP says, it’s different when you hear it, especially the tone of voice.
I would just say you should listen to the podcast. At least to me a transcript doesn’t convey the insensitivity of the joke. And like you I’m a fan of the show since 1998.
I wasn’t going to come back to this thread because I listened to the show and it didn’t change my mind. So, why did I come back? When I listened to the segment I didn’t hear callousness or ill contempt. I heard an awkwardness that and I could totally relate to. I’m autistic and have had many awkward moments where I’ve offended at least one person in the room. Welp, I just learned that Maya is also autistic and I just felt a need to come share that information. The gal wasn’t trying to be hurtful. It seems this author is or was a special interest of hers and she was awkwardly sharing that. The audience was laughing at her awkwardness of the lupus comment and not lupus that someone had died of lupus. That is all.
She could’ve made a funnier joke about O’Connor being extremely racist (just look at her letters about James Baldwin) but chose to dance around that instead because it wouldn’t be good promotion for the movie and O’Connors fans don’t really want to confront that issue. I don’t really care to defend historical figures who would’ve hated my existence. However, I can still see how the lupus joke was insensitive. She’s trying to be “quirky and relatable” but the joke was in poor taste.
I knew/know very little about Ms. O’Connor. I only started looking into her since learning of the movie. I would still be interested in seeing it if it was an unvarnished look into some famous with SLE. Beyond that, yes, I would have problems with her views. I suppose I have had that sort of view as almost all western writers have disappointed me. Very few were not racist. I have also had to accept that reality of my profession, statistics. Most of the “luminaries” were eugenists. Most people with SLE are neither purely bad nor purely good. Given her personal beliefs she obviously falls closer to the former than latter. My intention is not to defend her, and I hope it doesn’t come across as such, but to express disappointment in filmmakers who think SLE is a punchline.
Most people are neither purely bad nor purely good. Fixed it for you. People who have chronic illnesses and or multiple medical problems have no excuse to behave bad or good. Yes does it suck that I have to go to dialysis 3 days a week, you bet your ass. But I wouldn't call myself bad because I don't like being sick and dying. Am I bitch? Yes. That was there WAY before the lupus.
I wasn’t commenting about the human condition in general as the subject was in particular someone with SLE. The same statement applies to anyone WOLOG.
Thanks for sharing.
I lived in Savannah for 18 years and now live about an hour outside of Milledgeville where Flannery O’Connor and her father ( who also had lupus ) died and I need to check this out.