Marlee Matlin of ABC Family's Switched at Birth Slams SNL Parody

Marlee Matlin of the hit ABC Family show Switched at Birth recently slammed the comedy skit show SNL (Saturday Night Live) for their "dumb" spoof of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sign language interpreter, Lydia Callis, and her extremely animated signing during the former's Hurricane Sandy press conferences. She tweeted "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." Well, being Hispanic myself, I've seem my share of people making fun of my language, and I don't really care about because it doesn't mean anything; it's just a joke. But Matlin, who's deaf and is an outspoken member of the National Association of the Deaf, was unhappy about it and explained why."I'm referring to sign language parodies. Sign is not mime; it is a legit language. That's why I developed an App ‪#MarleeSigns to teach it," she wrote in a follow-up post. "As I've said, I don't mind fun poked at me, as I poke back. But at the language that millions use? It feels childish and insulting." Again she added, "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. 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." Well, Matlin, they do all the time! They always get away with it because its not supposed to be discrimatory, just funny!