To be pissed off at Michael McIntyre

[Stayinin]

So I just saw the show where they made people who needed glasses take them off and see what they could see (not much), for laughs and prizes.
I have very low eyesight and that really made me really cross that they make fun of peoples disabilities like that. They wouldn't ask someone in a wheelchair to just 'crawl along the floor, go on, just for our amusement '? Aibu to be so sensitive or was it banter? Xx

People with poor eyesight are one of the most discriminated against groups in the world today. All those anti-glasses protests and how much higher unemployment is for the poorly-sighted. It's a disgrace.

I've been pissed off with the cunt ever since he first disgraced my TV screen ten years or so ago

Ultimately it was a lovely proposal...the bit where she said 'is it a dog?' Had me in creases! It was lovely as her bad eyesight is clearly something her fiance finds adorable and contacted Macintyre to make a feature of.

Not sure I'm that enamoured of the idea of somebody finding bad eyesight "adorable". Wouldn't be too happy about a partner finding my mild asthma or dodgy knee "adorable" either. It's… odd.

Massive difference between playing a light hearted game (that from what I can gather the woman fully consented to) with someone who is short sighted without glasses. Bit different to dragging up someone on stage like yourself OP who is completely bewildered without their glasses and registered blind and making you do the same.

I have a few disabilities, as does my eldest and the way I react to things completely depends on my mood and how sensitive I’m feeling at that particular moment, as you’ve mentioned previously.

What some vipers on here don’t realise is that discussion and asking opinions doesn’t actually have to turn into a top trumps/ableist-disableist thread and thoughts/opinions can be respectfully disagreed upon.

Hope you cheer up soon OP 💕

Glasses = disabled. Righty-oh then.

I really dislike it when he creeps into someone's bedroom in the middle of the night. It makes me feel ill and I can't understand how it is allowed to happen for TV 'comedy' purposes. It's a sick idea.

He's the most odious little man....so YANBU. I can't stand him. NO idea why people love him.

@Stayinin

Way to sensitive. I'm blind in one eye and would find that funny. If it was last nights show, it's in the planner, so I'll be watching it.

I even take the piss out of myself sometimes.

BTW, he also does wear glasses when not on stage, so he could have taken part himself.

What annoyed me was he took the ladies glasses and held onto them in a way which could bend them or cover them in finger marks. I don't allow anyone to touch my glasses and would be really angry if he tried this with mine.

"What some vipers on here don’t realise is that discussion and asking opinions doesn’t actually have to turn into a top trumps/ableist-disableist thread and thoughts/opinions can be respectfully disagreed upon."

You don't think it's a bit off to compare wearing glasses to having a disability? You know, something that actually impacts your life and causes people to be a victim of discrimination?

Apparently 70% of people wear glasses, it's hardly some kind of minority group, is it?

over sensitive

I'm quite shortsighted, with a moderate astigmatism. I don't wear lenses as even the very expensive sorts can't correct my vision properly and I get headaches from trying to cope.

But glasses? Brilliant things. Even at -8 and -7.5 they fully correct my vision. I can paint, drive (even at night), I can work. I'm fully aware how lucky I am to live now, when that is possible. Without my glasses I would be disabled by my poor vision. But as I put them on the moment I wake up I never face that reality. I am not disabled.

Not everyone who wears glasses has their vision corrected to such a degree. Many who wear glasses remain disabled by poor vision.

This skit was not taking the piss out of them. Just simple correctable short sightedness. Which is not a disability

My eyesight is so bad that I’m classed as partially sighted. I didn’t see the show (pun intended) but doesn’t sound like it would have upset me. It’s something I often do with friends, take my glasses off and assure them that now I can’t see them even though they’re 2ft away.

Oh and to the poster who mentioned about getting free glasses at a certain point of eyesight. I think it’s -10.

Though it’s not free glasses, it’s a voucher towards the cost and also free eyesight check. I get this and have done since I hit -10, now at -12.

There’s a lot of misunderstanding of visual impairment here.

Having a refractive error (long or short sighted) is just one of many ways that your vision can be impaired. When it comes to getting a certificate of visual impairment, it’s based on your visual acuity with your glasses on. If the glasses mostly correct your vision, you will not get that certificate.

There are myriad other ways your vision can be. Problems with individual parts of the eye. Problems with the optic nerve. And even If your eyes work perfectly, you can have a cerebral visual impairment which means difficulties with your brain processing the vision that comes through. You can have visual field defects, where part of the vision is absent.

So you can have a refraction that can be corrected and very little vision even when corrected.

My son has a certificate of visual impairment - he has a refractive error, an optic nerve disorder and a cerebral VI. Likely a visual field defect too. Wearing glasses doesn’t mean someone can see well.

Having said that, it sounds like these were people with moderate refractive errors corrected by glasses, and no other vision issues. I don’t agree with calling that a disability.

Lol far too sensitive, so many people need glasses and I have never found myself thinking I have a disability. It was all for the proposal anyway so fgs lighten up

Talk about sucking the joy out of life.

I also think that all his “games” are set up...the “send to all” text messages and when he went into members of Westlife’s hotel rooms when they were apparently sleeping...all set up!

I've been at two recordings of the Big Show. I didn't get any sense at all that they're set up. I saw Craig R-H talk about being woken up for the Midnight Gameshow and there's no way he was faking it when talking about his surprise at being woken up etc.

@BonnesVacances A partner performed on his show (not unexpected star of the show), contestants know they are going to be on the midnight game show, they are given a range of dates e.g 1-7th of December that they have to be available for it to happen.

YABU for still watching Michael McIntyre. Was there not something else on tv to watch or a book to read?

I agree that poor eyesight is not something to make fun of.

It's clear the partners know, but the actual contestants themselves? ie Did Craig R-H know he was going to be woken up? Did all of West Life know, not just Shane?

I am sure the contestants agreed to it!

We used to do this at college when pissed.
We all wore glasses and would take them off and attempt 'challenges' The loser in each round had to do a forfeit.
Little did we know that we were being 'disablist'.
Towards ourselves

I didn't see the show, so can only comment based on the information here.

I don't agree that moderate short- or long-sightedness is a 'disability'. But I do think that taking someone's glasses away is not a form of entertainment. It sounds Victorian, like visiting asylums to laugh at "lunatics". I'm -6 in my worst eye and -5 in the other. I had an ex who once took my glasses from me as 'punishment' during an argument and I still remember the panicky feeling it gave me.

I worry about my sight all the time, because my father, grandfather and great-grandfather all eventually lost the sight in one eye, so it seems likely I might go the same way. It's not a joking matter.