Finally…Gluten-Free Humor Done Right

Celiac Humor

Jimmy Kimmel has tried. And failed.

Jimmy Fallon has tried. And failed.

Joy Behar? I have no idea what she was striving to accomplish. But she definitely failed (and made herself look like a jackass to boot).

Seth Myers. Jennifer Lawrence. Rachael Ray. Ryan Seacrest. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail.

What am I speaking of? Gluten-free humor.

Who finally got it right? The folks over at College Humor.

And how did they do it? By EDUCATING along with poking fun at the trend.

All the boneheads above just focused on the trend, leaving the celiac community out to dry. But these guys were smart enough to realize that “Hey…celiac is a real and serious disease. Let’s give them some due respect while still poking fun on the absurdity of the attention gluten-free has gotten.”

Here…take a look at the video:

Seriously funny and smart.

Two really, really small quibbles:

1) I think she calls it celiacs instead of celiac. Pet peeve of mine.
2) You wouldn’t know that gluten sensitivity is real by watching this video, but my take is that they were ridiculing the pretenders only.

But overall, they absolutely nailed it. Not only that, it seems we’re seeing less and less of the gluten-free idiocy that’s been the norm the past few years.

And THAT my friends…is progress.

Happy Friday!!

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22 thoughts on “Finally…Gluten-Free Humor Done Right”

    1. There are real situations where people have “self-diagnosed” via trying a gluten free diet out of desperation after years and years of being told nothing is wrong with them but somehow once on a gluten free diet their symptoms disappear. I am one of those “annoying” people. I wish I wasn’t. Not going to eat gluten for a month to be told what my body/mind has already told me (very loudly I might add). Maybe they are making fun of the hypochondriacs or attention getters, but many people won’t get that.
      Dude, the college humor video was good. It actually served to inform people I think rather than make fun of them. That’s the way to go! The gluten “sensitive” person in that video was clearly distinctive in that she continued to eat gluten. A rare but refreshing video, thanks!

  1. I think folks with Aussie/South African accents pronounce it a bit differently than we do for some reason. However, it totally is a pet peeve of mine. And yes, this was the best and funniest portrayal of life on a near daily basis for me. Thanks for sharing!

  2. “I can’t share a toaster with people.”
    One of those lines that might get lost to everyone else, but we get it. College Humor is almost always spot on. This is great!

  3. I saw it yesterday too and like it. Well done, aside from “Celiac’s”, that too is a pet peeve of mine.

    *my daughter has Lyme Disease and everyone says ” lymes” …drives me crazy especially when it is a medical professional

  4. Pretty good; this is definitely progress over the usual clowning.

    One might debate, who’s the most deserving target of the archetypes in this video?

    For me, it’s The Skeptic, hands down. The others, though all bothersome in their own way, seem to mean well in how they behave towards celiacs, but The Skeptic is alone as the one who’s being hostile, confrontational and condescending about it.

    The other skits/incidents referenced at the start of the OP (Kimmel, Fallon, etc) were mostly presented from The Skeptic’s point of view, and this is a large part of what made them all so objectionable.

  5. Speaking of progress, here’s another recent sign of progress I’ve noticed.

    I don’t know how widespread this is, but some local grocery stores, in their weekly flyers, are acknowledging May as Celiac Awareness Month. I don’t recall this a year ago.

      1. In New Zealand at some of our local supermarkets (grocery stores) they are holding gluten free shopping tours during Coeliac Awareness Week next week 🙂 pretty cool, hopefully someone in the US cottons on to that too!

        1. It’s happening here in the states, too. Here north of Chicago we get flyers from five supermarkets in the mail every week. This week one of them, a local chain with five locations, has a page in their flyer featuring GF stuff, and May 16 they’re having a “gluten free expo” at one of their locations. Another is having a “Gluten Free Sale”, with a number of GF items on sale, including all cider, GF beer, and gluten-removed beer at 10% off. Two of the others have a lot of GF items, although no mention of specials this week.

  6. Though, I would argue that the “gluten sensitive” is a broad term that can encompass both those with FODMAP sensitivities as well as those of us who have an immune response, just not an autoimmune response. A FODMAP sensitivity is generally the result of gut dysbiosis which means that avoiding those foods for a time and healing the gut means there’s a good chance the person can go back to eating that food. A person with an immune response which isn’t celiac disease, will probably never be able to go back to eating gluten. I had extremely high salivary IgA gluten antibodies but don’t have the genes for celiac disease (though I have two alleles associated with gluten sensitivity). I get systemic inflammation which results in sinusitis and migraines (and other issues stemming from the increased inflammation). And I’m sure there are some folks that don’t fall into either of those categories but just feel better off gluten and may be caused by some other vector related to gluten consumption.

    Some people loosely use the word “gluten sensitive” without a clear understanding of what that means or how people are affected by it. There are also those that dismiss it as a legitimate issue on the gluten spectrum. I get just as irritated by folks who say, “If you don’t have celiac disease, then there’s no reason not to eat gluten.” Actually, there are a lot of reasons not to eat gluten, even if you don’t have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Anyone can develop gut dysbiosis from eating gluten. And if you have *any* autoimmune disease, you should most definitely not eat gluten.

    The Paleo Mom wrote a post in 2013 where she discusses some articles that had been published on the health benefits (or not) of gluten free eating (http://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/02/gluten-free-in-the-news-some-yay-some-nay.html). She points out that gluten free eating need not be lacking in either nutrients or fiber. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne was a medical researcher before becoming a stay at home mom and blogger and so backs up her recommendations with scientific evidence (and where there is not a clear understanding of biological mechanisms, she is quick to point that out). Her two books, the Paleo Approach and the Paleo Approach Cookbook provide a detailed background on how the immune system works, healing your gut and how to maximize your health using both a diet and lifestyle approach. Sleep, stress reduction, and sun exposure as well as diet are all integral aspects of a healthy body and mind. We should all strive for a whole foods, nutrient dense and anti-inflammatory diet. What that means for individuals will vary depending on how well adapted their body is to specific foods.

    1. Agreed! I’ve been gluten free almost all month (joint pain, foggy brain, mood swings and splitting headaches) and as long as I eat my veggies and fruits I get all the fiber I need. 🙂 I’ve not gone Paleo, though. I love my rice, corn and pseudo grains, except for quinoa. Quinoa really messes up my digestive system for some reason.
      I haven’t been diagnosed with celiac, don’t have the money for that and I didn’t want to bear the pain any longer.

      1. Yeah, I can’t do quinoa either for the same reason. I have similar results from eating most legumes. As I started determining my own personal food sensitivities, I just naturally gravitated towards a Paleo lifestyle. And actually, Paleo is very forgiving and flexible. It’s no longer considered to be a strict set of dietary restrictions. As science has come to a better understanding of the variations in humans to digest different kinds of foods, the Paleo community has been shifting it’s stance on the diet. There’s a good article by Dr. Terry Wahls (she was able to reverse her MS symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes), that discusses the evolution of how we eat: http://easyhealthoptions.com/evolution-eat-changing-health/. For those that think Paleo is all meat all the time, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you go by volume, the bulk of your nutrition should come from veggies. One Paleo blogger calls it a plant-based, whole foods, inflammation-reducing diet.

  7. Betsy in Michigan

    Well, that was pretty darn funny! I thought it was very nice how it actually educated about celiac (well, “celiacs” – I agree that it may be an Aussie thing. Though here in Michigan, folks often add an “S”, like people who work at Ford [Motor Company] call it “Ford’s”; Kroger [grocery store] is “Kroger’s”, etc. I do agree it’s annoying when appended to medical conditions; maybe it’s the influence of diabetes, which legitimately has an s?). And until I get around to have the gene blood test (and maybe even after that), I am “only” gluten sensitive/intolerant. However, I have no problem with personally knowing that I CANNOT eat it ,and I don’t need to tell anyone else anything other than I will vomit on their shoes if I do. I’m not a dilletante about it like the clown in the video, so my serious approach to my eating habits (and willingness to bring food of my own or to share) speaks for itself with anyone worth any of my time.

  8. Haha. I agree – best video to date that I’ve seen! For the future best video, I have a few ideas: 1.) They need to include the one-who-doesn’t-get-it to say “Can’t you just take the bread off?” 2.) For someone to find everything about the disease awful. “OMG I’d just kill myself if I couldn’t have bread. Ack, I’d literally die if I couldn’t drink beer.” etc and 3.) The super inquisitive person, “Is gluten in salt? Is gluten in pepper? Is there gluten in sugar? Is gluten in that napkin? Is there gluten in water? Is there gluten air?? etc

  9. Good one! Funny story, at my work we have one of those “gave-up-gluten-cause-I-heard-it-was-bad” people, and a few weeks ago she brought in bagels and pastries for our support team for some work they did for her…. I walked by and she was munching on a bagel and saying how she hadn’t had gluten in a while…… mmmmmkay…..

    This video reminds me of that!

  10. Colette Sullivan-Ledoux

    The skit was cute, but for the love of helping to advance the cold, hard facts of this disease, could they not, at very least, get the name right? My blood pressure spikes when I hear someone say they have “celiacs” disease!

    I was tempted to send them a note, hoping they might redo the skit using the proper name for the disease, but then I really didn’t think my post would garner their attention, and if it did, I doubted they’d understand my frustration, and criticism.

    So, it’s better than most, but no cigar!

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Who I am. And who I'm not.

Who I am. And who I'm not.

I AM someone who's been gluten-free since 2007 due to a diagnosis of severe celiac disease. I'm someone who can steer you in the right direction when it comes to going gluten-free. And I'm someone who will always give you the naked truth about going gluten free.

I AM NOT someone who embraces this gluten-free craziness. I didn’t find freedom, a better life or any of that other crap when I got diagnosed. With all due respect to Hunter S. Thompson, I found fear and loathing of an unknown world. But if I can share my wisdom, tell my stories and make the transition easier on you, I’ve done my job.

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