The Tourette’s-afflicted John Davidson, whose personal saga is dramatized in Kirk Jones‘ I Swear, made a mess out of yesterday’s BAFTA awards. To no one’s condemnation, Davidson blurted out the N-word while Sinners‘ Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage. The BB1 footage has since been deleted, of course.
BAFTA host Alan Cumming: “You may have heard some strong and offensive language tonight. If you have seen the film I Swear, you will know that film is about the experience of a person with Tourette’s syndrome. Tourette’s syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you were offended.”
HE disagrees with the “no control over language” part. Cumming meant to say that that Tourette’s sufferers have no ability to control their tics, spasms and vocalizings, but it’s hard to believe that Davidson’s terminology had nothing to do with Jordan and Lindo being front-and-center. (Davidson is more specifically grappling with coprolalia, or “the utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.”)
Did Davidson shout out “peacock!” or “muff diver!” or “Lamborghini!” or “Cheerio’s!”? No, he shouted out a racial slur. How can anyone argue that this wasn’t a form of id commentary?
Consider the famous Tourette’s scene from Ruben Ostlund‘s The Square (’17).
During a one-on-one between Dominic West‘s Julian, a famous artist, and Annica Liljeblad‘s Sonja, a Tourette’s sufferer starts interrupting with sexually provocative taunts like “show us your boobs!,” “whore!” and “camel-toe!” These remarks were responses to Liljeblad, an attractive Nordic blonde with great gams. The Square guy didn’t blurt out anything racial or scatalogical — he went sexual for an obvious reason.
If I was producing a live awards show or on-stage interview and some Tourette’s guy started ruining the moment, I would tell the security goons to politely and gently escort the offender out of the room. I wouldn’t stand for it. I don’t care how insensitive this would make me seem.
Note the feeling of frustration in The Square when the wife of the Tourette’s shouter doesn’t lead him out of the room, and the feeling of immense audience satisfaction when the black-tie invitees abandon their composure and beat the crap out of Terry Notary for behaving like an overly aggressive gorilla.