Thank you, @avclub-562d10f929f467ece23600f6598b5b9f:disqus - I had NO idea this was based on anything even resembling reality!!! Knowing this makes me appreciate K&P's sketch even more :)

Glad I could help! And thank YOU for adding "ecdysiast" to my vocabulary :)

I'm sure you mean that as a compliment because you don't think of Mat as being limited or less than, Karen, but it might be more helpful to broaden your expectations of what it means to be disabled. Mat's doing a great job of that! :)

Here's a photo: http://lovelace-media.imgix…

Fair enough :)

And now that I think about it, do you think the reason an Oscar hasn't been awarded to a non-disabled actor in a disabled role since 2004 is really due to a conscious change in Academy behavior or because there haven't been many(any?) films made with prominent disabled characters in the past 10 years?

I don't mean to nitpick, but I think the only way you can really argue that it's less of a trend is if you strictly define the cliche to be "play disabled, win an Oscar(TM)" as opposed to "play disabled, win an award."

Way to go straight to the source, Odduck! For anyone who doesn't click the link, the short version is, "(d)warfism is a recognized condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."

It depends on what you consider "a while," gesundheit; in 2012 John Hawkes earned 26 best actor nominations(!) for playing real life disabled poet Mark O’Brien. He didn't, however, win the Oscar - so there's that.