Michael J. Fox has the perfect response to trolls making fun of his medical condition
Whether you remember Michael J. Fox from “Family Ties” or Back To The Future, he’s been an entertainment icon for over 30 years.
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You may also remember that in 1992, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 29. That’s incredibly young – most people don’t show symptoms until they’re roughly 60 years old.
Since the ’90s, Fox has been dedicating the majority of his time to raising awareness about Parkinson’s and helping to raise money for research via The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Trolling in the age of Twitter
It takes a pretty big jerk to make fun of someone with Parkinson’s Disease. The neurodegenerative disorder affects the firing of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain, causing a variety of symptoms, including body tremors, limb rigidity, and loss of balance.
It’s been clear for many years that Fox suffers from tremors and rigidity – he hasn’t been hiding it. In fact, having people see his illness is part of his advocacy.
Alas, people still think it’s funny to mock someone with such a disability. Or at least they did in 2016.
That was also the year of the infamous “mannequin challenge.” In case you missed it, it was a trend largely among teenagers to make videos of themselves holding perfectly still. A group of people would be in action, then stop what they were doing while someone walks through the scene panning around with a camera. The videos were often set to Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles.”
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Of course, holding perfectly still is virtually impossible for someone with an uncontrollable tremor like Fox.
That’s why it was so rude when a Twitter user asked if he would be participating.
The response was far funnier
In a more recent appearance on the “Graham Norton Show,” the 59-year-old recalled the moment, which he wrote about in his memoir No Time Like the Future.
“Somebody said something nasty about Parkinson’s and I usually let that stuff just go by me. It doesn’t happen that often (and) when it does I don’t really care about it,” he said. “But I wanted to answer this guy in some way.”
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That’s when he turned to his now-31-year-old son Sam, who helps oversee his social media account.
How does one respond to something so cruel without starting a flame war or just generally making things worse?
Luckily, Sam had the perfect retort.
“…my son said ‘Just do this. Do SMH’ and I went ‘What do you mean SMH?’ He said ‘Just trust me do SMH,'” Fox explained.
Smh
— Michael J. Fox (@realmikefox) November 7, 2016
Trolling the trolls
In case you don’t get it, SMH stands for “shaking my head” and is used when something is so unbelievable (usually in a bad way) that there’s nothing to say.
Of course, shaking is head is both something Fox does as a result of his Parkinson’s and the exact opposite of the goal of the Mannequin Challenge. And readers were quick to point out how clever it was as a response – even the original troll.
“He answers me back ‘That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read in my life. You’re the king of the internet. I apologize for anything I said to you,’ blah blah blah,” Fox explained.
And while he knew his son’s advice worked, he still wasn’t entirely sure why. That’s parents for ya!
His son explained and Fox got a good laugh.
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According to TODAY, the actor wrote in his memoir he plans to retire from acting, in part due to the extent of his short-term memory loss.
“In fairness to myself and to producers, directors, editors, and poor beleaguered script supervisors, not to mention actors who enjoy a little pace, I enter a second retirement. That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.”
Hopefully, we can still look forward to seeing him on social media.
Be sure to scroll down to see snippets from Fox’s interview.
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Source: TODAY, YouTube – BBC