Two Broke Girls Autism Joke

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Did anyone notice in the premiere of CBS' new sitcom Two Broke Girls Monday Night, the derogatory reference to Temple Grandin, when the blonde girl was awkwardly and stupidly moving ketchup bottles around because she didn't understand the phrase 'marry the ketchups'? The other girl referred to it a 'a Temple Grandin moment' - not a blatant demeaning of autism, but clearly not intended to be a compliment, either.

Do we not put up with enough bullying throughout our lives, without autism becoming the new reference for 'ret*d'? Or should I be pleased that the writers thought Temple Grandin's name was such a hip cultural reference that a mass television audience would recognize it?

I just remember when Ted Danson spent an entire episode of Becker laughing hysterically at the phrase 'Ass-Burgers.' I didn't even know what it was at the time and I thought it was a cruel thing to make fun of a condition that someone couldn't help having.

Yeah, I noticed it too. My family and I were sitting around watching TV like we do every night, and my mom was flipping through the channels when I caught the reference to Temple Grandin. I didn't know the context, but I knew it was probably an insult due to the fact that I knew that 2 Broke Girls is a "comedy" show. Note that I put the word comedy in quotes, because anybody who sinks low enough to make fun of autistic people is obviously trying way too hard to be edgy to be funny.

The Writers probably were just trying to say that the character was being overly literal. Aspies (like Temple Grandin) do this.

I had my own "Temple Grandin Moment" so to speak a while back.

My cool friend exclaimed, "Dead Mouse" and I looked around for a dead rodent on the floor. She was not referring to a literal dead rodent, she meant the waaay cool dj "Deadmou5" who plays club music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGoL4V7Zf0

She heard on the radio that Deadmou5 would be playing at an event nearby and she was hyped and wanted to go. She got a good chuckle out of the fact that I thought she had seen an actual dead rodent.

Jokes are usually funny because they are true...if this is a comedy show it was meant as a joke, not an insult. I suppose i don't really feel obligated to be offended if I hear a joke about AS, I might even laugh myself. I mean if someone tries to degrade me for having AS then I would be offended but I don't feel like that was the intention of the people responsible for that episode or whatever.

You know that dead mouse thing you said there doesn't make any sense. If someone said dead mouse I might say 'what?' or 'where?' unless they pointed somewhere. That you thought there was a dead mouse somewhere isn't surprising or illogical especially if you had no idea who deadmaus was. That they'd take that as funny is abominable.

I don't care what their intention is. That only counts for so much compared to what they actually do. And I think that was just a pretty bad joke in the end. Tasteless rather than offensive, banal rather than... banal.

a joke would be ok,if people said something good about us once in a while.i have a crazy sense of humor myself and am saprised some of my jokes didnt get me in trouble here.i love to collect lawyer jokes to tell to my brother who is a lawyer,but i also say more good things about him too.i wouldnt have a problem with temple grandin jokes if there was something good said once in a while. so why did california get all the lawyers and new jersey got the toxic waste dumps.new jersey got first pick

There is a difference between a laughing AT someone and laughing WITH someone. My friend was laughing WITH me. Trust me - I was laughing too - it was funny.

It didn't sound funny. Also she was laughing at a characteristic of yours displayed by your reaction. So technically she was laughing AT you. Indeed you were laughing AT yourself. Laughing AT someone isn't wrong in of itself, but to be honest it was just well, low.

yeah i noticed it too i was like ehhh not cool but i still dont get what she was supposed to do what does marrying the ketchup mean anyhow?

I actually like autism jokes but I don't watch many TV shows so I haven't noticed.

But in Miss Consanguinity (sp), this one woman was crying and said she answered the question like Rain Man. In the show, she was asked what be her perfect date and she took it literal and said April and why but the man meant on a date you know where you go out with someone and go somewhere.



I don't know what marry the ketchup means either but I sure wouldn't be doing what the character was doing.


I have also noticed in the media that when characters take things literally, they are portrayed as stupid. I don't know if this should be an insult to the autistic community. I know the characters in the TV show are not autistic and nor do they mention autism or any characters with it or real people with it to make a reference to their behavior. But I like literal jokes. I just think it gives people the wrong idea that people who take things literal are dumb. So I guess if they reference it to autism, then it's better because then people will know autistic people take things literal so if someone takes something literal, they might be autistic, not dumb. So that is a good sign there what TV is doing now.

Well, that's kind of my problem with this particular instance - a character who clearly is not autistic, but is obviously stupid, takes something literally and the other character makes a sarcastic quip comparing her to a famous autistic - thereby equating the literalness of autism with stupidity. That's offensive to me.

Now, on the other hand, if Big Bang Theory would come right out and admit that Sheldon is autistic (as he blatantly is), I wouldn't find that offensive, because even though he comically displays many frustrating and often ridiculous autistic behaviors, he is very clearly not stupid.

I actually wish the creators of BBT would admit Sheldon is autistic, it would go a long way to demonstrate to the NT world what High Functioning Autism is really like.



A Google search turned up this explanation:

Apparently he isn't: http://www.aoltv.com/2009/08/14/come-up ... -aspergers

There were articles online when the show started indicating that the person they're now referring to as 'the guy' they based Sheldon on, did in fact have AS.

Sounds like they're just backtracking now to avoid controversy.

Oh well.

I think this is probably accurate, and the character source did have AS. The show has become a hit so they'll likely want to tread more carefully.

So unfortunate that they are afraid of portraying one of us in a good light for fear of offending some monster.