Sheldon Cooper. Aspie, or offensive parody?

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The first time my mom saw the show she said "You're just like that guy!"
sigh. thanks mom..

I'm not offended by Sheldon (who does sometimes remind me of certain Aspies I've met) and find The Big Bang Theory to be amusing at times, but I agree. Abed from Community is a more realistic, better-developed, funnier and more likable Aspie character. Interestingly, the possibility of Abed having AS is alluded to by Jeff Winger (Joel McHale's character) on the pilot, but then afterwards his condition seems to be treated as more ambiguous by the other shows' characters. (Though Abed does rap, "On the spectrum? None of your business" on the Glee parody episode.) He seems pretty clearly Aspie to me, though.

Welcome to my world.

i <3 the show and Sheldon. We don't like that his so-called friends mistreat him but he does make it hard for them sometimes. Overall the show is just such a classic sitcom with a great Odd Couple dynamic. Is Sheldon a realistic character? Hardly. Even if we all know people with similar traits (and even if some of them live in my house lol). Same goes for the other exaggerated characters on the show. I don't care. I can't stop watching it.

I can't see how his friends mistreat him. He drives them nuts , understandably but they make a lot of allowances for him. If anything he mistreats them as he uses them for his own gain, even when he appears to do something for them it's normally to satisfy his own needs

I used to drive my friends nuts, too. And like Sheldon's friends, they could get fed up with me.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

My wife told me that I am like him when we first started watching the show. When I wiki'd him one day I saw people thought he may have AS, which was the moment I decided to look up AS on a more serious scale than before and led to everything else concerning AS with myself so far. I have a character named after him on Star Trek Online, along with a ship named the U.S.S. Wheatonbane.

Well, Sheldon mentions that he is aware of body postures and facial expressions being linked with stuff at the time it happens in one episode.

I didn't feel offended before, but now that my mom and counselor have related me to him so much, it's beginning to be a little bit offensive, considering that my mom laughs at Sheldon, which is indirectly laughing at me.

Well, my counselor has only brought up me being like Sheldon once when she was explaining that many people related him to AS, but my mom relates me to him a lot.

Not a fan of the show; is there an option for "extremely annoying ass, with a ridiculous caricature of Christianity for a mother"?

From the moment I saw the show I knew he was. They say not, but he is an extreme example and I do not consider it offensive. It's just a comical exaggeration.

This past week's episode of the Big Bang Theory (The Proton Displacement) was, I thought, the best example yet of Sheldon being on the spectrum. Much of what happened/what was said resonated with me. I particularly liked the scene where Amy is about to tell Sheldon how he comes across, and he responds with "Just say it. The words I've heard all my life. Say it. I'm annoying." After that the scene moved back into humor, but for that moment I felt really sad for him, because I've had the same experience in my life.

I think we all have.

I've never owned a TV, but my counselor recommended tBBT, and I enjoy watching the little excerpts I find on YouTube. If I could maintain Sheldon's confidence, I'd have been prone to acting much like him. (I tell my Counselor that his advantage is holding the apartment lease. :-)
Since AS is such a spectrum, I have no problem giving Sheldon that label, but of course, the lawyers won't let the writers do it.
What I like, besides the great jokes, is a chance to see myself as others have sometimes seen me, but also coping with it better. As difficult and demanding as Sheldon is, the show is about tolerance and co-operation. A negative approach would have been a show about the boys getting bullied when younger, from the point of view of the bullies. This show celebrates diversity, and reaches millions of people on our behalf. "All in the Family," OTOH, made men like Archie Bunker into pariahs.

To me, it's hard to hard to say. I've been watching the show more than usual and he may have many asperger's traits but he also has some social skills. Sheldon, to me, was more of a character made for laughs. He has his social circle for comfort, he has his anxieties and troubles similar to an aspie, but he is willing to try something new. That's just my opinion.

As far as Sheldon having certain social skills - to be sure yes, but so do I, which I acquired through years of trial and error navigating the NT world.

When I was young, I -was- Sheldon Cooper. Don't laugh. It isn't funny.

ruveyn