By: Shani K. Collins, Your Black World
There are some sensitive subjects that are acceptable comedic fodder — according to some, epilepsy is not one of them. Brett Ratner, director of ”Tower Heist,” the upcoming flick starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller asked for Universal Studies to pull a seizure joke from the movie’s trailer after catching heat from actor, Greg Greunberg, whose son is epileptic.
In the film, Murphy says to Stiller: “You were the little seizure boy having seizures all the time! You would have seizures on a regular basis! All the kids would be cryin’, your eyes would be rollin’ back and the foam was coming out. It was very scary.”
Eurweb reports that Gruenberg called for a boycott of the movie and vented on Twitter: ““Making fun @ people w/ seizures is NOT FUNNY & WRONG! ‘Seizure Boy!’ REALLY?”
Although the Ratner has requested that Universal Studies pull the joke from the trailer, the joke will be featured in the movie. Gruenberg was satisfied with this and stated: “Just for them to reach out to the epilepsy community and say, ‘We mean no personal harm to anybody,’ which of course they don’t. They probably just don’t even realize the people they are offending and how this could possibly offend people.” Ratner did apologize for the slight, saying: “I am so sorry you are offended … I sincerely feel bad.”
Tower Heist will be released on November 4. The movie is about hotel employee workers seeking $20 million dollars after being defrauded by a wealthy businessman. Academy award nominee, Gaborney Sidibe is also featured in the movie.
Shani K. Collins is a freelance writer. You may visit her at www.shanicollins.com
