Blog by Voon Pang
Sept. 26, 2012

The ongoing discussion in the stuttering world about Saturday Night Live’s drill sergeant skit has been interesting to watch from afar. It was only last week that I got to view the segment online courtesy of someone posting the video on YouTube. Since then I have watched the video three times, once on my own and the other when I was showing a colleague at work (she didn’t stutter and found it slightly amusing, though she did comment that it was bordering on offensive and not the most sensitive way to demonstrate stuttering in the public arena) and the third time while writing this blog entry.

What’s my own take on it? I felt the skit was mixed at best. To me, as a SLP who doesn’t stutter, it was difficult to watch a person who stuttered be in denial about his difficulties with speaking. It was also difficult to watch how the corporals responded because there was so much uncertainty on how to react. Perhaps this was where the humour was for some, in the awkwardness of the situation… And this is how our interpretations of the skit all becomes a bit grey. Each person has a different life story on how stuttering has effected them. Each person is also at a different point in his or her stuttering journey (we know that there are ebbs and flows of easier communication, feelings of inadequacy/adequacy as a communicator and and denial/acceptance of stuttering). On top of this each everyone has a different humour dial – what I might find funny could be vastly different to what you find amusing.

If you haven’t seen the clip, I would invite you to click on the link below to watch the segment:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/drill-sergeant/1417080

Whatever your take on it is, I would like to encourage you to answer three questions I’ve created on Survey Monkey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q9PNM38 and leave your additional comments below. 

One thing that I’m certain about is that we should be thankful we have organisations that advocate for people who stutter.  In the light of this blip in the stuttering world, it was always going to be difficult for organisations such as the Stuttering Foundation of America or any of the other major organisations, e.g. National Stuttering Association or the British Stammering Association to release a statement which represented everyone. Lets just be appreciative that for those who are in a difficult place that there is a helping hand to stand up to those who just don’t ‘get’ stuttering.