User Reviews

Whatever the reason, the Fox network really like to follow the band wagon of "offensive and ill-compassionate humor". This episode and many others with the recurring Busey characters offend me, as someone who was mistreated by the public school system and force to watch everyone else succeed while I was being left behind and forgotten and bullied. I know there are plenty of people who love these episodes, and there defense against anyone who finds them offensive is always the same response, "i don't believe for a minute that these kids are crazy or mentally challenged. It's over the top and just a joke". I just like to point out that this isn't the first time Fox indulged in this kind offensive stereotyping, because one of the most notorious and infamous episodes of The Simpsons, "stark raving dad", has been band, and rightfully so, not just because of its guest star Michael Jackson, but for another very important reason, which that episode and this Malcolm in The Middle episode, makes light of mental illness and are completely ignorant of the hurtful and real-life suffering people with mental illnesses have to live with on a daily basis. Mental illness is a full spectrum of conditions. Because much like how racial stereotyping is a big problem in our media, so is its approach to mental health issues. Because more often than not they either demonize mental health treatment or laugh off the idea or precaution that people should be getting help for their conditions because the alternative is suffering. Malcolm in the Middle thinks it's funny by having it's audience believe that crazy and mentally disturb people are easy to right off and label, and therefore don't have any human rights, because people don't want to help them. Alrighty as I'm writing this, i hear someone say, "Come on look at these kids, no real mentally ill person would behave this way, so it gets a free pass", and once more i have to remind that person, that this is still stereotyping and keeps spreading a terrible stigma. It's like the equivalent of someone doing black face, or having a straight person pretend to be gay by acting a ditz. This episode is offensive, and it hurts. Never in my life have i wanted cancel culture to help out those like me in the mental health community. It isn't funny, seeing this episode is the equivalent of watching one of those ancient roman vaudevillian acts who mocked real world events as a means to belittle and humiliate actual suffering.