Board index › General Discussion › Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation

AS in comedy

Page 2 of 2 [ 20 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

Previous topic | Next topic

the-comander
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jul 2014
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Posts: 236
Location: boston area

20 Aug 2014, 7:41 pm

random_girl wrote:
I feel like AS isn't very widely known, at least compared to classic autism. So I think that if the public's only exposure to AS is through a comedian joking about it, they may have a warped perspective about it or not take it seriously. There are already people who deny its existence.

Personally I'd be more okay with it if a comedian joked about AS behaviors or NT-AS interaction, versus actual AS people, which is just mean. And if the comedian talked about AS people as confusing, I'd accept it more than if he talked about them as bizarre or freakish.

Honestly id rather people not think about me as bizare or freakish although its certianly better then people thinking im ret*d or something. Honestly I dont really exspect anyone to be okay with who i am or have any idea whats its actually like and i think thats reall just something ive learned from experiance, its something i really wish i could change but as far as i can tell its been true my whole life and its probably not going to.



Hi_Im_B0B
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 8 Aug 2014
Age: 71
Gender: Male
Posts: 193

21 Aug 2014, 4:46 pm

Sharkbait wrote:
that the comedian themself is the Aspie (Carolla, a denier)
no idea whether or not he's AS, but i don't consider him a comedian - i've never found him to be even slightly amusing.



Dan_Undiagnosed
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jun 2011
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 645

20 Sep 2014, 6:22 pm

I still think Mitch Hedberg was probably on the spectrum.



Statto
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 7 Sep 2014
Age: 51
Gender: Male
Posts: 68
Location: UK

20 Sep 2014, 10:36 pm

Comedy is such a personal thing, so I think you have to judge if something is OK beyond just if you find it funny or not.

I think it comes down largely to that great word, intent. As long as there is no intent to offend, I'm OK with most subjects being in comedy. We need to laugh at ourselves, it helps. As we say "laugh or cry". People these days are too quick to take offence. The comment someone made about awareness was a good point also.

Now my son went through a phase of watching South Park. His favourite episode is the Cartman Ass Bergers one. I only watched it myself as I'd never heard him laugh so much, he sneaked into my bedroom one day to watch it. I know one parent that took offence at it for making fun out of Aspergers. However it never offended me because they make fun of everything so it wasn't singling it out and secondly it was mainly about Cartman being really stupid thinking another kid had burgers coming out of his rear end. Funny? maybe not, but I don't think they went after ASD anymore than anything else. If anything it was less.

Now Frankie Boyle. I used to love him, smart, witty, creative and on the line offence wise. The problem was he kept pushing against that line and the comments about the disabled lad were so far over the line and not even slightly funny. I haven't gone off someone so fast and to be fair it started a big career slide for him, it didn't go down well here at all.

Let's face it we all will have had times when AS has given us tough times. However I'm sure it's made most of us laugh too. I know it does in our household. My son can laugh at himself and we all laugh together at most of his crazy shenanigans. As far as I'm concerned that stuff needs to be in comedy, as long as the intent is honourable.