Punch Line

A food allergy is a disease. A food allergy is a medical condition. A food allergy is not a cheap punch line.

Lately, there has been an influx of comedians using food allergies as a part of their bit  — during comedy specials, during late night talk shows, and on primetime network television. I am not an overly sensitive food allergic person, and I do believe that we should be able to find the funny in things that do not necessarily bring us joy, but the key to that is to “be funny.” Most of the time the person saying the joke has no clue what it is actually like to live with food allergies, so they come off looking uninformed and insensitive.

About a year or so ago, I saw a comedian in LA named Jonesy who has severe peanut allergies. He spent a lot of time that evening talking about living with food allergies, and it was hilarious. Sure, there is an argument to be made that you should not have to be food allergic to talk about food allergies, but at the very least you need to be sympathetic and informed.

Here’s some Food For Thought (brought to you by FARE):