Sheldon Cooper. Aspie, or offensive parody?

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And you can tell him that I said so!

I heard that Temple Grandin believes Jim Parsons, the actor, has aspergers himself (From here) . It's quite possible that the way the character developed was a result of the actor having, at the very least, autistic tendencies. He is very different in the unreleased pilot, as well as the released pilot. He developed his signature traits as the show went on.

He seems more gay than autistic.

Offensive parody? More like affectionate parody. Yes, the character does appear to be an exaggeration of various Aspie traits, but he still comes across as a lovable character despite this, and I think he's friggin' hilarious.

He was chosen because he looks like a freak. That's the appeal of the show.

I am not sure what the writers of Sheldon intend him to be but he comes off as a hodgepodge of tired, worn out cliches. He would be entertaining if he wasn't so darn predictable.

With the right clothes and hairstyle, that actor would be anything but a freak. It's just the part he plays, even if the actor is a lot like Sheldon in his mannerisms.

He's an actor, so I imagine he has the skills to convincingly play a suave ladies man, or a thug. He would just need the right script and costume.

Look at Neil Patrick Harris. He is an openly gay man, married, and they either have kids or are tryig to adopt I believe. I read something about that but can't remember it. They may have kids already. He plays a guy who uses women for sex constantly. His partner has been on the show as Lilly's high school bf, Scooter. The actor from BBT probably just plays up the Sheldon part in interviews, because that's what he's known for. The guy who plays Raj seemed to be like his character too in interviews. The Leonard character has been almost always the same in everything I've seen him in.

I think aspies are actually all pretty unique. We're all pretty much what most nts would label eccentric, but does that mean we all become eccentric in the same way? Not at all, we're all of a type but beyond that ive seen a LOT of varieties of aspies. I've got no doubt that there are sheldon coopers out there so I'll only get offended if that's the only example people see.

Last edited by somerandom15 on 27 Nov 2011, 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

He is gay in his real life, what is your point?

The guy who plays Sheldon is gay? I didn't know that. Then again, I'm not up on Hollywood stuff at the moment.

I don't think Sheldon seems gay at all. Most gay guys I know are pretty social and understand fashion, even if they don't follow it.

Frances

Actually he sounds kind of gay on the show. I thought that was part of his character and he wasn't really gay, just worked it in the way Johnny Depp did for Captain Jack Sparrow.

Wait, which way were you using that word? Gay as in homosexual, the way I was meaning it, or gay as in loser which is how people I know, both gay and straight, use that word.

Apparantly it has two meanings now. I was offended the first time I heard people use it in the sense that it means "loser". They didn't mean gay people were losers, it's just a word co-opted to mean that.

It's become standard almost, for the 25 and under crowd around here, no matter their orientation. One night I was showing a friend of my daughter this YouTube video of a beautiful song with one of those videos of a particular nature scene all through the seasons, and it was taken a day at a time and ran into each other so you could notice the trees turn colors and the leaves fall and the snow, etc. Well the computer kept freezing. She said "Yeah, the internets being really gay with me too lately. I think it's the storms for the wireless".

The girl is a lesbian. She just threw that out there like it's completely not offensive.

I also don't know what to do or how to act when black people use the n word in conversation with me either.

I went totally off topic here. I'm sorry. You can delete this if you want. I just wanted to ask that question about how the word gay was meant about Sheldon.

Frances

Gay as in Keith Richards.

I still don't understand. Gay as in Liberace, or gay as in Betamax?

Frances

Gay as in Liberace.

Ha, I never knew that. Yeah, it's interesting he brings that to the character.