The Jerry Lewis Telethon? You realize how controversial that telethon was, right?
They displayed kids with MD as if it was a freak show, made jokes at the expense of the disabled, and wouldn’t even acknowledge the many adults with MD. The former “Jerry’s Kids,” when they became adults, would be tossed aside by the Telethon, becoming “Jerry’s Orphans.”
And Jerry Lewis didn’t help matter when he wrote that insensitive “If I Had Muscular Dystrophy” essay. Basically, the telethon made people fear the disability, rather than understand and sympathize.
People diss the telethon for a good reason: it was a “poster children” show of inaccuracy and insensitivity; a grossly manipulative and “pick and choose” pity party. The Telethon did not fully or accurately represent the lives of people (especially adults) with muscular dystrophy. They paint not only people with MD, but all disabled people, as pitiable, needing the charity for help or a cure. Watch the Documentary The Kids Are All Right (2005) if you don’t believe me.
I think that’s part of the humor.