Big Bang Theory.

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Nope!

hm...when did they start?

This is probably my favorite show. Is really funny if you smoke some weed and watch it too.

I love BBT (although it's been lacking some in the last season).

Yes, much of it is lampooned, but that's a common tactic in comedy...take something to an extreme to illustrate the humor.

I'm guilty of being like Sheldon over having a "spot" on the sofa. It's not my 0,0,0,0 but I'm a creature of habit, so once I pick a spot to sit, I pretty much feel compelled to always sit there and am not comfortable sitting elsewhere.

I never miss a new episode, and rarely a rerun.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Big Bang is one of my favourite shows; Sheldon is definitely my favourite character, I find him in all his aspie quirkiness to be adorable. I just feel bad for him because none of his friends realise he has AS and are therefore harsh regarding things he has difficulty with, such as being touched and understanding sarcasm. They do put up with a lot of his blatantly abusive comments though, so it could be worse.

I don't usually watch comedy with 'canned laughter' - I' have a good sense of humour and don't need to be told when to laugh. I make an exception for the BBT though although like most shows, I don't think it's as good as it used to be...

I do that too, kind of. I always sit on the stairs or the floor at two of my friends' houses. They protest a bit but it's just where I'm comfortable.

On TBBT... I've never really watched it, but I've been told many times it's a show where geeks are portrayed as something to point and laugh at. I'd have to watch it to decide if I liked it or not. As for Sheldon... I gather he despises Babylon 5. This displeases me.

I'm guilty of that habit too.
With regards to the humour, it's quite clever at catching two audiences.
If you are not a geek, it is an opportunity to laugh at funny geeks, but this audience miss out on a lot of the jokes.
There are a lot of obscure jokes intended for the geek audience,
and also low brow pot-shots at geeks and non-geeks alike that both can enjoy.

As for Sheldon, I like having a character that can present extreme versions of my own traits that other people may or may not notice about me. It provides a way to laugh at myself and relax about my own character and presentations. Quite often it can provide both an insight and some humour for other people too.
With my recent diagnosis the subject of autism in my life is very much a serious thing, so its nice for people to be able to discuss it in a more relaxed way provided by the humour in BBT

Me! I've never had any problems with eye contact at all.
Personally I find the program very, very insulting to aspies and don't know how anyone could think otherwise. It's a different thing to laugh at yourself doing something than it is for it to be made a deliberate joke. That's what cartoons used to do with black people!

I do wish people wouldn't compare characters on TV as having AS when it's not brought out in the show that they have it. It's an apples to oranges comparison at best.

It's like talking about Spock or Data as a person with AS. Um, no. The characters are an alien and an android, respectively. They are good for illustrating how an person with AS might feel and interact with NTs, but the characters are not examples of AS.

zer0netgain: Sheldon Cooper is not an alien or android. He's a human man who displays - to a comedic extreme - every single one of the traits and behaviors associated with high-functioning autism. If you sent him to be evaluated, based on his behaviors and the way he describes his life, he would be diagnosed without a shadow of a doubt. After all, the only thing the "experts" have to go on when they evaluate us is our behaviors and descriptions of our lives - which is precisely what we have on the show. In fact, he often explains his difficulties very clearly on the show. For example, the episode where he disappears to a locked room once per day and his friends investigate to find out what he's up to. Without spoiling the joke at the end, he gives a speech to his friends about how, although it might not always be obvious, he has a difficult time interacting with other people and processing the world around him, and he needs time alone to recharge. I believe that not only did they have a list of "autistic traits" in front of them when they designed the character, but, based on some of the things he says, they must also have consulted with at least one person on the spectrum to get such a good understanding of how our minds work.

I don't see anything wrong with the character, and I totally understand and appreciate that the show's creators don't want to officially state that Sheldon is autistic. If they did, the show would become all about that. It would be discussed as a commentary on autism, analyzed and criticized for its (in)accuracies and portrayals instead of just being a funny TV show. I think they're actually making people more accepting of someone with autistic traits without having to wave an AUTISM AWARENESS flag. Most of my friends and family who watch the show think Sheldon is great, if odd. Several of my friends find him downright sexy. I often use his behaviors (and Amy's - she's so much like me, I love her) and things that happen on the show to help explain what I go through on a daily basis. It's very helpful to me.

And I just think it's funny. I appreciate the nerd in-jokes as well as the laughter about Sheldon's social awkwardness - I have learned to laugh at myself and recognize that while I'm happy with who I am and it's okay to be different, I am also pretty damned awkward and inappropriate sometimes, and it's normal to find it funny.

Perhaps, but many "wonder child" types are not at all autistic and just as awkward. It's as if the trade off for being so brilliant is that they don't think or act like more "normal" people do.

As Sheldon says, "I'm not crazy...my mom had me tested."

I just tire of people trying to make AS connections with characters that simply cannot be (e.g., Spock & Data) or characters that are not somewhat directly portrayed to be as such (e.g., referred to as "special").

Lots of "nerds" are not autistic at all but are equally socially awkward.

Or are said nerds undiagnosed Aspies?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I still kind of like the show but everyone at work is saying I'm like Sheldon and have taken to calling me Sheldon or Shelly, what his Mum and Sister calls him. They don't 100% know I am autistic but I'm weird enough they compare me to him, so that's enough to say the show can make people stereotype us even worse.

Weighing in on this, I saw someone say that autistic people often make INAPPROPRIATE eye contact, in one direction or another...when I worked as a peer mentor with a guy who was in fact much lower-functioning (though I dislike that term) than me, he would make very intense eye contact. I, meanwhile, am uncomfortable with eye contact altogether, so it would actually make for funny situations in which my eyes were pretty much running away from his chasing them when we talked.