Encouraging Scripting?

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I was in a group for autistic adults and the leader got bothered by me because I kept talking about cartoons, movies, and other popular culture with quotes in them that other members started quoting from and scripting as a result. He said that by talking about cartoons all day, I was encouraging scripting behaviors in the other members and that I couldn't socialize with these people in the same way that I "would normally socialize with my college buddies." I decided not to continue with the group because I did not want to negatively influence the others or continue to be seen as an obstacle to their social skills but I wanted to know whether you think that talking about cartoons encourages scripting in other autistic people, because this was something I had never heard before.

That's stupid. I guess since he's the leader it's their loss that you left, you should find a new group. But still, that's dumb. The problem was with the leader. And he or she is going to make the rest of them worse, not your quotes.

Not that I don't have my own issues with scripting that aren't as obvious because for the most part they are mental and not verbal but are often quite painful. See viewtopic.php?t=352364

What is "scripting"?

Why is it considered bad?

And how does talking about cartoons cause it?

And how does talking about cartoons cause it anymore than talking about sports? Or about the weather? Or about anything else?

Because for instance, I'd be talking about SpongeBob and quote a line like "Can we say that PLANTS from Texas are dumb? Can we say that SHOES from Texas are dumb?"

And then for weeks on end, someone else would keep repeating "Can we say that PLANTS from Texas are dumb? Can we say that SHOES from Texas are dumb?" because I had said it once.

That sounds more like echolochia (however the heck it's spelled). Compulsively echoing what you hear someone else say in an inane way.

I see folks here talk about "scripting" and I imagined that it meant something like rehearsing lines beforehand to say in social situations (stuff that might come natural to NTs but that autistics would have to consciously think about). Small talk stuff, and responses to things. Which would seem like a good thing for autistics to do. Good coaching.

But I guess it doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

You need to create original material. Quoting from entertainment is cheating. Sure maybe the others were familiar with the quote and said it too, but it is not genuinely talking with someone else.

I was guilty of scripting in the past so get what the group leader is saying.
In a dire need to fit in many will repeat the one line they remember from a show regardless if they get the reference or not. It's not uncommon, and you might have been seen as enabling it.

I don't think it warrants your removal from the group, though. That is their loss to deal with. If they are so worried about the impact and social development of the group then that leader should, you know, start doing leader stuff and provide solutions rather than just point out the problems.

EDIT: Said same thing twice in a sentence. Mojo Jojo moment.

I did a little scripting today when I got home from a friend's house after we had spent the day together. I called her notifying her, "I'm here now." (I borrowed the line from a You Tube interview with Denis Istomin).

I disagree with discouraging this. I do not believe, like so many other people*, that this hurts one's ability to learn other forms of communication.

*For a long time, people have been saying things like, "Native Americans will not be able to speak English if they use their native language"; "Deaf people will not be able to speak English if they use their sign language"; or "Nonverbal people will not be able to speak English if they use any augmentative and alternative communication."

I have only ever seen evidence that additional languages, modes of language, and forms of communication HELP in learning others. We should be encouraging this especially for people with difficulties in hearing, speech, or language.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

^^^^[

Am inclined to agree.

Also I think that the problem is not that the OP "parrots", but that he picks the wrong things to parrot.

He should watch less SpongeBob and watch more classic cinema. If he parroted the dialogue between Bogey and Becall in "Casablanca" folks would have a higher opinion of him then they do now when he parrots SpongeBob.

Much of the normal conversation of adolescents used to be quotes and minor variations on a solidarity theme. When I was young, the absolute lords of pop culture were stopping at red lights and announcing to the air "As it is." The sage in the next car would then say "As it was." The first would finish with "As it shall be" and, solidarity confirmed, they would drive on, perhaps to join a group saying "Mee-dah" while looking askance at something agreed to be uncool, in reference to the mythical MacMeeda Destruction Company. Was this supposed to be a class of creative geniuses? Maybe you were just helping the class more than the teacher, and became a threat.

Speaking of parroting the wrong things, if you parrot the so-called "party line" in job interviews, you're in. If you don't know the in thing to say, you're immediately sunk like a stone. I wouldn't know where to study the right thing to say.