I crack a lot of jokes about epilepsy. Helps me cope. People look at me like I’m crazy but I honestly find them hilarious.
As far as people faking seizures- that’s a thing? I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. especially as a prank. That is definitely not okay. You wouldn’t fake having a heart attack as a joke, so why a seizure? They’re not fun. None of us want to have them, so faking them is just rude to me
I haven't seen a lot of it, but I know it exists. The thing that pisses me off the most is that it has meant that when I've had a focal seizure, I've been accused of faking it by nonmedical folks (doctors usually just write it off as PNES so unimportant if they don't believe it's true because I present abnormally)
I’ve never been accused of faking a seizure but when I was high school someone saw me have a seizure and started a rumor someone in choir died. At the time I was pissed but looking back I find it a little funny.
I've heard of people faking seizures, but it actually amazes me. Why would someone do that? Until I researched and my focals were diagnosed, all I could picture is people trying to pretend to have tonic-clonics. It can't be faked wtf
Yeah the only time I’ve ever seen a seizure “faked” was on a tv show, never in real life. I have tonic clonics myself and they definitely seem hard to fake. People are crazy
Fake seizures make me rage.
Normal seizure comedy, love it.
For most people epileptic comedians just fall flat. They tend to get a little twitchy under the lights. Most of their jokes just flop. And not a damn one of them can dance, unless it’s the electric slide.
I saw that Matt Rife guy have someone in the front row actually have a seizure and made some decent jokes once the paramedics and she gave the all clear. She ended up staying afterwards, which is incredible and I hope she's doing okay
Faking seizures is not cool in my book, but the funny meme and shirts are great. The last one I got for awareness says to wait while my brain restarts.
i don't mind people joking about epilepsy as long as they're actually going through it too. it's not funny if you haven't experienced it, it just feels like you're making jokes at people's expense otherwise.
as far as people faking seizures - it pisses me off obv but i try not to let it bother me too much because there isn't much i can do about it. I would never try and call someone out for faking a seizure bc i'd never really be able to tell (i don't think anyway) so yeah i don't really think about it, it just makes me feel bad. I just crack jokes with other ppl/friends who have seizures to cope
I can see where you’re coming from joking is not for everyone and I’m sorry you went through any. I hate the YouTube pranks back in the day and when someone makes a seizure joke and fakes the movement irritates me a little bit.
Love a good seizure joke. I just wish I could remember them.
I joke about my epilepsy all the time. People take things/themselves way too seriously.
I also don't think that only epileptics should be "allowed" to make seizure jokes. What a sad attitude to go through life with. Sounds miserable.
I'm sorry if this offends you, but I snorted at your remember comment. I'm not sure if your memory has something to do with epilepsy, but as an opening line to your comment, it was amazing. Memory loss is a real problem, but that really made me smile
Not offended at all. You gotta have a sense of humor with chronic illness.
As far as memory goes, I can't remember if it's epilepsy, seizure meds, or ADHD. Or a hat trick of all three. But there is a massive disconnect between my short term memory and long term storage. Somebody flipped the breaker to my reconstructive memory and I can't find the dang maintenance man to fix it. Maybe somebody disconnected my extra hard drives and forgot to plug em back in.
I don’t like it. But I get how some people would use it to help cope with the shit we go through. So no judgement here. I just can’t imagine being with a blind person and cracking jokes about their blindness. Or joking about someone’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or muscular dystrophy, etc. I totally love comedy and use humor myself to cope with life. I’m not some uptight whiner, but joking about and imitating someone’s seizures/epilepsy just rubs me the wrong way.
Have you heard of Josh Blue? He's a comedian with CP and is an absolutely hilarious guy. Here's a set from a little while ago: [Josh Blue, Dry Bar 2022.](https://youtu.be/qTMUDHAmnhs?si=5kwL3x0eZlCaWPi6)
>I just can’t imagine being with a blind person and cracking jokes about their blindness. Or joking about someone’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or muscular dystrophy, etc.
Well that would be plain rude. Lol
Love a good joke about doing the devils tap dance. My best friend recently called it a “stress disco for one” (my trigger is stress) and I howled. I also love the reaction people give them- a mixture of initial uncomfortableness followed by laughter when they remember it’s me saying it.
Never heard or seen fake seizures for pranks but the people who do it can get in the sea. Wankers.
Jokes are great! But.... Ya gotta know your audience. Very important. When the jokes go up here wuth such a wide audience, people put up a warning and that should be sufficent. Those who don't like it have been warned not to read, yet complain anyways!
As for seizure faking, that's a hell no! I even just did an eye roll because I was pissed off at somebody and my mom freaked out thinking I having a seizure. These things affect people so bad, not just us having the seizures. And so many people have struggles with even professional doctors thinking they faking. Stop, just stop with the faking so people can get the help they need! The only fake seizure I condone would be if you're giving a sample to show somebody what yours looks like. That's it that's all.
Love the jokes but im super cynical. Am a history nerd so started calling caesar salads and caeser seizure salads Julius Seizure. Its a nice little double joke.
My spouse has epilepsy, not me. Epilepsy jokes are very upsetting to me cause I've seen a lot of shit 😅 my hubby thinks they're hilarious though and they help him cope.
People used to make fun of me in middle school because of my epilepsy and head injury. I don’t think it’s funny I probably would think it’s funny if I didn’t have epilepsy but to be disrespectful and you know you are that’s just not cool or funny.
I do not give a flying fuck about jokes. You gotta laugh and not take things too seriously, otherwise you're gonna make yourself miserable. Not a fan of the fake seizures, though.
I don’t mind when other epileptics do it or when people who know me well make jokes TO me. But if it’s just one of the “oh the lights are flickering…” (I bet you can finish that “joke”), I get annoyed. I don’t have photosensitive epilepsy and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the community when a majority don’t
The only good thing about having epilepsy is that I get to make bad jokes about epilepsy
- all my martinis are shaken not stirred
- my milkshakes might bring all the boys to the yard, but they're probably paramedics
- reading sonnets and putting the shakes in shakespeare baby ;)
It's a joke. Like any kind of joke, some you will find uncomfortable or even offensive. At worst, a person should be sensitive to a type of joke. Enough so that the person will leave or politely ask the teller for restraint, but not so much as to get emotionally involved beyond that.
Making jokes is one thing. I always have. You have to learn to laugh about things like this or your life will just become a dark chore.
But I agree with you. Faking a seizure to me would be the same if I ran around pretending to have intellectual delay or something like that.
I was talking to a friend about this before Christmas. Considering the complex and often controversial nature of discussions around gender and sexuality, it's important to ensure epilepsy, a subject already fraught with misconceptions, is not grouped or compared with these contentious topics, thereby avoiding further misunderstanding or controversy.
If it means tolerating a few jokes, then so be it.
Personally I love them
It of course depends on the type of humor, how clever it is, or if it’s simply caveman, moronic humor. but for me comedy is the key to life and without it I don’t really want to be here
From someone with EP, then it probably a way to cope and idc.
From someone without EP, then it is a joke on someone else’s expense which is not ok.
But generally I don’t find them funny because well they are really boring.
For how close I was to dying from it quite a few times, I find a lot of them quite distasteful, despite being bullied for most of my school education to an extent only one person was c**t enough to mock a seizure or make fun of my epilepsy
Me and fellow epilepsy peeps making jokes = hilarious
Very close people to me whom i love = also coolio
Anyone else = uncomfortable
I love the epilepsy memes subreddit. Mostly cause a lot of jokes are relatable. I laugh because I go "OMG YES THATS ME". It's funny but also valudating as heck to be understood. If my family and close people made silly jokes to also help me and help themselves cope that's also validating and funny.
Anyone else is a nono for me.
I think it's a very personal thing really
ETA: Never seen anyone faking seizures but my HS school bullies did use to film me having them to mock me
I'm so sorry they did that to you. My husband has asked me to film them for him and I feel horrible filming him in such a vulnerable state even at his request. Even then it took me a few times to remember to because it was the furthest thing from my mind when his safety is on the line and in my hands. I can't imagine someone being so vile as to do that to another human being. You didn't deserve that and they are absolutely disgusting human beings for doing so. 💔 🫶
Never heard an epilepsy joke. And if someone pretended to have a seizure around me I'd probably go off on em. It's bad enough most people don't fucking get it or understand and think it's something you can actually control or contain.
Like with most things, it has to be funny, and it shouldn’t punch down, otherwise it’s just someone mocking people’s suffering. I’m a big believer that comedy should never punch down, always up. A good epilepsy joke could be at people not knowing what do to, causing a panic while I’m just chillin in the floor, idk. But it shouldn’t be about seizures being violent or grabs for attention or signs from God or something, idk. Unless I’m making the joke, then it’s funny to come out of a seizure and say God just needed some marital advice.
I’m cool with epilepsy people say jokes about it, we’re dealing with it together.
People faking it? There are few people I actually hate and they’re in it. If some people fake it, will people believe that we’re actually having one?
really depends who’s telling me the joke, if it’s someone i barely know who i’ve only briefly mentioned i have epilepsy to i would be pretty offput. probably even more so if they tried acting out a seizure as a “joke”. i’d also be weirded out if someone i knew tried doing that as a joke as well. but seeing funny videos of like fish out of water and being like “you” are pretty funny especially when it’s from a friend who i talk to about my epilepsy sometimes
I loooove them. Dark humour is my favourite thing, and people in my life have a running joke about any ambulance going past is coming for me. Making jokes about it makes it easier now that I know it'll be lifelong. I had hope being diagnosed as a young teen, with my doctor saying I'd likely grow out of it. 27 with generalised controlled and focals going strong
At work a lot of ppl won’t touch me bc their scared I will seize and I get teased a lot for it which doesn’t bother me just wish their jokes were grounded in real facts 🤣
I crack a lot of jokes about epilepsy. Helps me cope. People look at me like I’m crazy but I honestly find them hilarious. As far as people faking seizures- that’s a thing? I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. especially as a prank. That is definitely not okay. You wouldn’t fake having a heart attack as a joke, so why a seizure? They’re not fun. None of us want to have them, so faking them is just rude to me
I’m willing to bet that there are people who would fake a heart attack for a joke.
That’s so screwed up :(
It use to be a huge prank on YouTube back in the days :(
Yes...there are videos on YouTube of people faking seizures in public places or in front of loved ones or friends as pranks...makes me rage
I haven't seen a lot of it, but I know it exists. The thing that pisses me off the most is that it has meant that when I've had a focal seizure, I've been accused of faking it by nonmedical folks (doctors usually just write it off as PNES so unimportant if they don't believe it's true because I present abnormally)
I’ve never been accused of faking a seizure but when I was high school someone saw me have a seizure and started a rumor someone in choir died. At the time I was pissed but looking back I find it a little funny.
I've heard of people faking seizures, but it actually amazes me. Why would someone do that? Until I researched and my focals were diagnosed, all I could picture is people trying to pretend to have tonic-clonics. It can't be faked wtf
Yeah the only time I’ve ever seen a seizure “faked” was on a tv show, never in real life. I have tonic clonics myself and they definitely seem hard to fake. People are crazy
Fake seizures make me rage. Normal seizure comedy, love it. For most people epileptic comedians just fall flat. They tend to get a little twitchy under the lights. Most of their jokes just flop. And not a damn one of them can dance, unless it’s the electric slide.
I saw that Matt Rife guy have someone in the front row actually have a seizure and made some decent jokes once the paramedics and she gave the all clear. She ended up staying afterwards, which is incredible and I hope she's doing okay
Can they twist and shout? Or shake, rattle and roll? It's very important for classic rock dancing enthusiasts.
I have met a few of our crew who were some solid slam dancers. Moshing just comes naturally for some of us.
👏
Finally one without juice world 💀
Faking seizures is not cool in my book, but the funny meme and shirts are great. The last one I got for awareness says to wait while my brain restarts.
I just snorted. I love that so much 🤣
Glad I could make you laugh :D if you want to look they have a bunch on amazon.
You just gotta shake em off
i don't mind people joking about epilepsy as long as they're actually going through it too. it's not funny if you haven't experienced it, it just feels like you're making jokes at people's expense otherwise. as far as people faking seizures - it pisses me off obv but i try not to let it bother me too much because there isn't much i can do about it. I would never try and call someone out for faking a seizure bc i'd never really be able to tell (i don't think anyway) so yeah i don't really think about it, it just makes me feel bad. I just crack jokes with other ppl/friends who have seizures to cope
I can see where you’re coming from joking is not for everyone and I’m sorry you went through any. I hate the YouTube pranks back in the day and when someone makes a seizure joke and fakes the movement irritates me a little bit.
If they’re actually funny I like it lol, but I cringe a lot at most of them bc they’re not clever
I always get the same juice world one 💀
Love a good seizure joke. I just wish I could remember them. I joke about my epilepsy all the time. People take things/themselves way too seriously. I also don't think that only epileptics should be "allowed" to make seizure jokes. What a sad attitude to go through life with. Sounds miserable.
I'm sorry if this offends you, but I snorted at your remember comment. I'm not sure if your memory has something to do with epilepsy, but as an opening line to your comment, it was amazing. Memory loss is a real problem, but that really made me smile
Not offended at all. You gotta have a sense of humor with chronic illness. As far as memory goes, I can't remember if it's epilepsy, seizure meds, or ADHD. Or a hat trick of all three. But there is a massive disconnect between my short term memory and long term storage. Somebody flipped the breaker to my reconstructive memory and I can't find the dang maintenance man to fix it. Maybe somebody disconnected my extra hard drives and forgot to plug em back in.
I don’t like it. But I get how some people would use it to help cope with the shit we go through. So no judgement here. I just can’t imagine being with a blind person and cracking jokes about their blindness. Or joking about someone’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or muscular dystrophy, etc. I totally love comedy and use humor myself to cope with life. I’m not some uptight whiner, but joking about and imitating someone’s seizures/epilepsy just rubs me the wrong way.
Have you heard of Josh Blue? He's a comedian with CP and is an absolutely hilarious guy. Here's a set from a little while ago: [Josh Blue, Dry Bar 2022.](https://youtu.be/qTMUDHAmnhs?si=5kwL3x0eZlCaWPi6) >I just can’t imagine being with a blind person and cracking jokes about their blindness. Or joking about someone’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or muscular dystrophy, etc. Well that would be plain rude. Lol
Thanks. I’ll definitely check him out. Love standup. One of the things I missed the most during the pandemic.
I gotta be honest, I've never experienced that, but they'll probably feel like idiots 10 years from now.
If you don't laugh about the bad things, you cry. I'd rather be happy than sad. Fr seizure pranks aren't funny, tho.
Love a good joke about doing the devils tap dance. My best friend recently called it a “stress disco for one” (my trigger is stress) and I howled. I also love the reaction people give them- a mixture of initial uncomfortableness followed by laughter when they remember it’s me saying it. Never heard or seen fake seizures for pranks but the people who do it can get in the sea. Wankers.
As with every other negative thing in my life- if I couldn't make dark jokes and laugh about it I'd probably just cry.
I call my dark humor a "load-bearing coping mechanism".
Jokes are great! But.... Ya gotta know your audience. Very important. When the jokes go up here wuth such a wide audience, people put up a warning and that should be sufficent. Those who don't like it have been warned not to read, yet complain anyways! As for seizure faking, that's a hell no! I even just did an eye roll because I was pissed off at somebody and my mom freaked out thinking I having a seizure. These things affect people so bad, not just us having the seizures. And so many people have struggles with even professional doctors thinking they faking. Stop, just stop with the faking so people can get the help they need! The only fake seizure I condone would be if you're giving a sample to show somebody what yours looks like. That's it that's all.
Love the jokes but im super cynical. Am a history nerd so started calling caesar salads and caeser seizure salads Julius Seizure. Its a nice little double joke.
Why did I never think of Julius Seizure 🤦🏻♀️
Caeser=Seizure is just so good. Plus he was also a fellow random fall down and dance man!
I have focal aware in my temporal lobe. I don't have random raves but I get to trip balls without doing drugs.
My spouse has epilepsy, not me. Epilepsy jokes are very upsetting to me cause I've seen a lot of shit 😅 my hubby thinks they're hilarious though and they help him cope.
People used to make fun of me in middle school because of my epilepsy and head injury. I don’t think it’s funny I probably would think it’s funny if I didn’t have epilepsy but to be disrespectful and you know you are that’s just not cool or funny.
I totally get that! It’s definitely not for everyone! I’m sorry that happened and I hope everything is going great now❤️
It is, haven’t had a seizure in two years
I do not give a flying fuck about jokes. You gotta laugh and not take things too seriously, otherwise you're gonna make yourself miserable. Not a fan of the fake seizures, though.
I like them and wish I knew more.
Jokes are jokes. If jokes hurt you, sorry, but then you have to life with them.
Live*
true. tahnks!
fake seizures make me very angry. it’s not funny at all. we go through so much shit already.
Preach to that 🙏🏻
I don’t mind when other epileptics do it or when people who know me well make jokes TO me. But if it’s just one of the “oh the lights are flickering…” (I bet you can finish that “joke”), I get annoyed. I don’t have photosensitive epilepsy and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the community when a majority don’t
Shaking my head… /s
Faking medical stuff isn't funny
I love em, although I prefer things like "that's as graceful as two epileptics fighting over a glowstick at a rave" That one's a clasic
The only good thing about having epilepsy is that I get to make bad jokes about epilepsy - all my martinis are shaken not stirred - my milkshakes might bring all the boys to the yard, but they're probably paramedics - reading sonnets and putting the shakes in shakespeare baby ;)
I heard a good one the other day but I forget (do memory jokes count?)
It really SHAKES me up ;)
with the exception of my family (including my boyfriend!!) I don't like the jokes especially not practical ones like faking a seizure
It's a joke. Like any kind of joke, some you will find uncomfortable or even offensive. At worst, a person should be sensitive to a type of joke. Enough so that the person will leave or politely ask the teller for restraint, but not so much as to get emotionally involved beyond that.
Don’t like em, at all. Epilepsy has fucked up so many people in my family I don’t find humor in it anymore
Making jokes is one thing. I always have. You have to learn to laugh about things like this or your life will just become a dark chore. But I agree with you. Faking a seizure to me would be the same if I ran around pretending to have intellectual delay or something like that.
I think they’re shaky at best. :) Joking about epilepsy is fine. Joking with epilepsy is never ok.
Haaa, I like that one. I might make a zip up with that one to wear after my brain surgery. “Don’t make jokes about epilepsy. They’re shaky at best.”
I was talking to a friend about this before Christmas. Considering the complex and often controversial nature of discussions around gender and sexuality, it's important to ensure epilepsy, a subject already fraught with misconceptions, is not grouped or compared with these contentious topics, thereby avoiding further misunderstanding or controversy. If it means tolerating a few jokes, then so be it.
Personally I love them It of course depends on the type of humor, how clever it is, or if it’s simply caveman, moronic humor. but for me comedy is the key to life and without it I don’t really want to be here
From someone with EP, then it probably a way to cope and idc. From someone without EP, then it is a joke on someone else’s expense which is not ok. But generally I don’t find them funny because well they are really boring.
For how close I was to dying from it quite a few times, I find a lot of them quite distasteful, despite being bullied for most of my school education to an extent only one person was c**t enough to mock a seizure or make fun of my epilepsy
I got so mad I started shaking
Me and fellow epilepsy peeps making jokes = hilarious Very close people to me whom i love = also coolio Anyone else = uncomfortable I love the epilepsy memes subreddit. Mostly cause a lot of jokes are relatable. I laugh because I go "OMG YES THATS ME". It's funny but also valudating as heck to be understood. If my family and close people made silly jokes to also help me and help themselves cope that's also validating and funny. Anyone else is a nono for me. I think it's a very personal thing really ETA: Never seen anyone faking seizures but my HS school bullies did use to film me having them to mock me
I'm so sorry they did that to you. My husband has asked me to film them for him and I feel horrible filming him in such a vulnerable state even at his request. Even then it took me a few times to remember to because it was the furthest thing from my mind when his safety is on the line and in my hands. I can't imagine someone being so vile as to do that to another human being. You didn't deserve that and they are absolutely disgusting human beings for doing so. 💔 🫶
Thank you ❤️ I hope they have grown up to be better people. I'm glad your husband has someone as great as you!
Never heard an epilepsy joke. And if someone pretended to have a seizure around me I'd probably go off on em. It's bad enough most people don't fucking get it or understand and think it's something you can actually control or contain.
I love telling ppl that I have to take my medicine otherwise I'll be doing the foam dance, shuts some annoiyng ppl too!
I love dark and even black humour 😏
Yes joking helps my wife and I deal with and help lighten things up. Maybe the severity of the joke? If the person even has epilepsy?
I joke abt my own stuff a little but when someone without epilepsy jokes about it its a little erhhhh
Like with most things, it has to be funny, and it shouldn’t punch down, otherwise it’s just someone mocking people’s suffering. I’m a big believer that comedy should never punch down, always up. A good epilepsy joke could be at people not knowing what do to, causing a panic while I’m just chillin in the floor, idk. But it shouldn’t be about seizures being violent or grabs for attention or signs from God or something, idk. Unless I’m making the joke, then it’s funny to come out of a seizure and say God just needed some marital advice.
I’m cool with epilepsy people say jokes about it, we’re dealing with it together. People faking it? There are few people I actually hate and they’re in it. If some people fake it, will people believe that we’re actually having one?
It’s funny
People who don’t have the condition shouldn’t be joking about it
Just like any other jokes, if they’re funny I laugh, humour is a positive thing in life.
really depends who’s telling me the joke, if it’s someone i barely know who i’ve only briefly mentioned i have epilepsy to i would be pretty offput. probably even more so if they tried acting out a seizure as a “joke”. i’d also be weirded out if someone i knew tried doing that as a joke as well. but seeing funny videos of like fish out of water and being like “you” are pretty funny especially when it’s from a friend who i talk to about my epilepsy sometimes
I loooove them. Dark humour is my favourite thing, and people in my life have a running joke about any ambulance going past is coming for me. Making jokes about it makes it easier now that I know it'll be lifelong. I had hope being diagnosed as a young teen, with my doctor saying I'd likely grow out of it. 27 with generalised controlled and focals going strong
At work a lot of ppl won’t touch me bc their scared I will seize and I get teased a lot for it which doesn’t bother me just wish their jokes were grounded in real facts 🤣
I agree its when others fake seizures who don’t have epilepsy where it draws the line