She joins us fresh from Brighton Comedy Festival, where she performed alongside peers and friends including Brett Goldstein and Nish Kumar. \u201cIt was five really fun, really great acts,\u201d she says cheerily, before suddenly adding in a hushed tone: \u201cCan I tell you a secret?\u201d<\/p>\n
She brandishes her phone and shows me the background photo: a stunning shot of Goldstein\u2019s Ted Lasso co-star, Hannah Waddingham. \u201cMy phone was on the table, Brett picked it up and was like, \u2018Whose phone is this? Who\u2019s got Hannah as their background?\u2019 and then Nish was like, \u2018of course it\u2019s gonna be Pervert Jones,\u2019 so Brett actually videocalled Hannah right there! Nish and Brett said they\u2019d never seen me so coy!\u201d we both begin laughing raucously, again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrighton, Sunday, was probably the best day of my life,\u201d she concludes proudly with a glint in her eye.<\/p>\n
![\""Rosie\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Rosie-Jones-comedian-581711d.gif?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Rosie-Jones-comedian\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Within just a few short minutes, Rosie Jones has made me laugh more than I usually do in a week. It\u2019s so refreshing seeing a disabled comedian, when we\u2019re all too often the butt of everyone else\u2019s jokes. Is comedy her way of taking back control and reclaiming the narrative around disability? \u201cYes, absolutely,\u201d she nods.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been disabled all my life. I can\u2019t really explain it, but it\u2019s odd knowing you\u2019re different before you can even talk or walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
We both learned to walk when we were four, by which time we were already well aware of how hostile the world can be towards disability.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, I grew my social ability,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI remember the joy it gave me when I realised that I could make people laugh. My first day at school I did a speech and I stood in front of my class and said, \u2018Hello, I\u2019m Rosie, I\u2019m disabled. [I have] cerebral palsy, it means that I talk a bit funny, and I fall over a lot, A LOT<\/em>.\u2019 And now I joke and say that was my first stand up gig.\u201d<\/p>\n She tells me she fell over on Sunday in Brighton and it really hurt \u2013 but, being Rosie Jones, she made a joke out of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t cry, and I didn\u2019t get annoyed, because even when I fall over, even when I\u2019m injured, my first thought is I don\u2019t want everyone else to feel awkward or uncomfortable. I want to own this. I am not the victim, I am the comedian on the floor, making everyone else happy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As well as performing stand up this summer, Jones is also on the promotional trail for two television programmes \u2013 the second series of Rosie Jones\u2019s Disability Comedy Extravaganza, airing on UKTV in August, and the Channel 4 documentary Rosie Jones: Am I A R*tard?, out next week.<\/p>\n There has been a lot of attention around the documentary, as it was recently revealed a number of disabled interviewees retracted their filmed contributions over concerns about the inclusion of a harmful slur in the title. Many disabled people took to social media to air their views, some of which \u2013 as you might imagine \u2013 were not so complimentary.<\/p>\n In the documentary, the comedian details her personal experiences being on the receiving end of online abuse as a disabled woman in the public eye. She wants it to open up a wider conversation about how, societally, we don\u2019t take ableist insults seriously \u2013 and how that\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n I ask Rosie how she handles not being able to please an entire community of people and being okay with knowing you\u2019re going to p*ss some of them off. \u201cYou should\u2019ve been in my therapy zoom ten minutes ago! My god, you can write an article about that,\u201d she laughs, then her face suddenly falls serious. \u201cIt is sh*t, it\u2019s been a sh*t week. But I am never gonna please everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has highlighted that the disabled community isn\u2019t one monolith, there isn\u2019t one person with the same opinion, it\u2019s so rich and wide.\u201d<\/p>\n Often shocking people and disrupting the status quo can be more effective than trying to play nice. Jones nods: \u201cThis little doc, this title, is hard-hitting, it\u2019s grabbing someone and going \u2018How do you like this?\u2019 but we\u2019re talking<\/em>. Did I like how much I was getting criticised on social media? No! But I have never seen such a huge debate and discussion about language, ableism and slurs. So, actually, we need that.\u201d<\/p> Rosie Jones might be sharing her experiences, but she isn\u2019t the<\/em> voice for the disabled community, nor does she want to be. \u201cWhen I found myself having a voice and a platform, it was incredibly important to me to bring people up with me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s getting less and less now, but when it comes to minorities, in any career field, I feel like there\u2019s a panic of thinking, \u2018Ooh there\u2019s only one space and I need to hold that space and I need to pull the ladder up with me\u2019, and I do not think that\u2019s the case at all.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s partly why she created Rosie Jones\u2019s Disability Comedy Extravaganza, which platforms up-and-coming disabled comedians. Stars from the first series of the Extravaganza have gone on to appear on Mock the Week and a host of other shows. \u201cIn stand up, on line-ups, on panel shows, I should never be the only disabled person flying that flag. Disability Comedy Extravaganza is my way to go \u2018right, stop looking at me, I\u2019m doing OK, let\u2019s shine a light on all the other brilliant disabled comedians out there\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard? airs 10pm, Thursday 20th July on Channel 4. <\/strong>The second series of Rosie Jones\u2019 Disability Comedy Extravaganza airs on UKTV in late August.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0<\/strong>Entertainment<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Streaming Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Comedian Rosie Jones speaks to Cathy Reay ahead of her Channel 4 documentary, Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35010,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/rosie-jones-on-reclaiming-the-disability-narrative-and-not-being-the-voice-for-a-community.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Comedian Rosie Jones speaks to Cathy Reay ahead of her Channel 4 documentary, Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/35009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Rosie\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Rosie-Jones-44b4571.gif?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"Rosie-Jones\"\\"\/")
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