Marlee Matlin is very unhappy with Saturday Night Live.
The Oscar-winning deaf actress took to Twitter this week and slammed the show for one of its most recent skits, during which the series mocked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sign language interpreter, Lydia Callis, for her animated expressions.
“Millions of deaf people use sign. Why poke fun/fake it? Poke fun at ME but not the language. Would they do that to Spanish or Chinese? FAIL,” Matlin wrote.
Matlin is a member of the National Association of the Deaf and explained there’s a contrast between actual signing and the parody depicted on SNL.
“Here’s my point. Deaf people HAVE a sense of humor. Ever see me on Family Guy or Seinfeld? But faking signs that we use isn’t the same,” the Celebrity Apprentice finalist said, adding: “Imagine if a show started making fun of Spanish (using fake Spanish) or Japanese. Do you think they’d actually get away with it? Uh, no.”
What do you think? The Saturday Night Live sketch was…