Bad Singers on American Idol Autistic??!

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I'm AS and I plan on auditioning one day. I'm from a family who sings, though I gave up the choir route after Freshman (sophmore?) year. I didn't want to be seen as a choir geek and whatnot. sides, choir people don't have lives. our lives are singing.

I almost thought about being a music major for college.........yeah. not. choir three hours a day. right. not happening. not in my life time.

I am AS and I know I can sing, and if I couldn't sing, I'd know it too. This sitzmann guy was obviously AS of maybe HFA, he thought he could sing just like many people who can't sing but are told by their family and friends they can. It was right for the judges to say "no" to him, but just that, not the "what was that?" "that was awful!! !" ---> BTW, Sitzmann did realize he couldn't sing (and Just a simple "you are not good at singing would have been enough), he said "this was a wake-up call"...

The other two guys, the guys who became friends, were disabled and anybody would have found out a mile away. There's no excuse for the "bush baby" comment by Simon, not even the "we can't check all the audition formats" or the extremely stupid "this is what makes A.I. A.I." made by the producer of the show - the guy was in front of them, they got to talk to him and watch him sing and stuff, so unless they are blind and deaf, they would be able to tell the difference between a person with a disability (the autistic guy was evidently mentally challenged as well) and an attention whore. If they can't tell, then they shouldn't be judges, because that's an essential part of being a judge.

Besides, one thing is to make fun of a person's awful voice, bad moves, horrendous clothes... and other thing is making fun of someone's appearance, DNA, etc... if Simon dislikes the guy's eyes so much, then he should pay a plastic surgey for him now that he has money to throw to the sky... at least the guys showed dignity, unlike a lot of NT contestants...

P.S.: Do you know what would make fantastic t.v.?: an autistic or mentally challenged person who can sing... that'd be the bomb...

Another thing that bugs me about American Idol (has nothing to do with AS or autism) is that, apparently, during some background checks for contestants that actually made it to Hollywood, there was one guy who had a misdemeanor pot charge from 2004, and a chick who filled her boyfriend's gas tank with sugar fairly recently. Guess which one was barred from the competition? Not the unreasonable one with anger problems and a history of vandalism (or whatever putting sugar in a gas tank would be). Of course not.

Of course not.

most people sing badly on purpose just so they can get on TV. 90% of the bad singers you see on the show are just acting I think.

Singing in public is the last thing IMHO that a typical autistic person would do. I find it hard to speak in public let alone sing and doing when I feel 50 million people are watching me would be totally insane. I find it hard to even sing to my immediate relatives and they mum the whole time, even when they are singing happy birthday. I would think the profiles these contestants would most likely fit a bi-polar NT extroverted party animal who should be dragged off to rehab.

I agree with Paul that most of the failed contestants are extroverted NT's. Some of them can't take no for an answer and then insult the judges for stating the obvious about the lack of musical talent.

However, I believe the contestant, Nick Zitzmann from metropolitan Salt Lake City, Utah is indeed an Aspie. Unless I am mistaken in my interpretation of a previous comment, I do not believe Mr. Zitzmann is "mentally challenged". If I am mistaken and misread the statement, I apologise in advance.

Mr. Zitzmann was encouraged by his friends to join the Seattle auditions based on his instrumental music. He is also a computer programmer and his online website displayed various computer programmes. The programmes displayed show an expert-level proficiency in the Apple Macintosh computers and programmes.

I cannot speak for Mr. Zitzmann, obviously, but as for myself, I do hear my voice differently than everyone else. This could have led to a false sense of confidence in his musical abilities.

At the end of his audition, he accepted the expert opinion of the judges. Mssrs. Cowell and Jackson are record executives so they are indeed experts in their field. He was calm and rationally accepted the simple truth without conceit nor denial and conducted himself with a grace bereft of the vast majority of failed contestants.