The Muscular Dystrophy Association is bringing back its signature event: the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Running from 1954 to 2014, the show, which could last as long as 23.5 hours, defined the genre. Crying mothers and disabled children were trotted out along with a variety of entertainers and celebrities to convince an audience of millions to donate. And they raised a lot of money to search for a cure—an estimated $2 billion, according to Time magazine. In 1989, NPR’s Scott Simon described it as “the largest single-day, private fundraising effort in the world.”
Now hosted by the comedian Kevin Hart, the October 24 telethon will be a star-studded affair with appearances from Michael B. Jordan, Jack Black, DJ Khaled, and others. The show hopes to reignite MDA’s fundraising efforts, which have lagged during the pandemic.
That same day, activists with muscular dystrophy, many of them former MDA poster children, will protest the telethon with their own counterprogramming, including a Twitch stream to raise money for Neuromuscular Disabilities United, a disabled-led nonprofit. One protest group released an MDA telethon bingo card, highlighting the ableist cliches of disability charity events. At first glance, this may seem baffling: Why would anyone protest a disability charity and its fundraising efforts?
Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/telethon-jerry-lewis-protest/