In 2017, during an appearance on “The Tonight Show,” host Jimmy Fallon introduced Jamie Foxx as the night’s guest, teased a performance by Niall Horan, and begged viewers not to switch channels. As he did so, the actor began moving his hands in what appeared to be an imitation of sign language (via TMZ). It seemed as though Foxx was pretending to be a sign language interpreter, and his random hand movements made Fallon laugh. However, Nyle DiMarco, a winner of both “America’s Next Top Model” and “Dancing with the Stars,” didn’t find Foxx’s behavior funny. In a post on Facebook, DiMarco, who is deaf, criticized the comedian for being disrespectful to the deaf and hard of hearing by seemingly mocking sign language. “We simply do not make fun at the expense of other cultures, especially those with a history of being marginalized,” he wrote.
On “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Foxx confirmed that he was purposely making gibberish signs. He also said, “As I was doing it as a joke, I didn’t know that the person that [Fallon] was talking about happened to be deaf.” (Foxx presumably thought Fallon had introduced Nyle DiMarco as the musical guest, not Niall Horan.)
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“CODA” Oscar winner, Marlee Matlin, also weighed in on Foxx’s finger contortions on Twitter, writing, “I’d be happy to give you sign language lessons so you could be funnier.” At least Foxx resisted the urge to apologize by belting out “Please Excuse My Hands.”
