Poll of the Day > CBS is making a Big Bang Theory spinoff: Young Sheldon

(+) Yeah! (+)

The writers claim he's not but a lot of people think he's a thinly veiled jab at autistic people. He's the go to example of autistic people in fiction, regardless of what the writers claim, it's kind of left their hands at this point due to how iconic he is.
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DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

Sheldon does seem to show many signs of autism. Highly intelligent yet almost retarded when it comes to social behavior as well as the other odd behavior all point to a form of autism.
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DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

I've never met an autistic that acts that weirdly. If he is meant to be autistic, it's probably as a parody done by writers who never knew anybody with the disorder and instead based it off shit they saw on tv written by people who hadn't met one either. Honestly, it's just one more awful thing about the show.
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Zeus posted...

DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

I've never met an autistic that acts that weirdly. If he is meant to be autistic, it's probably as a parody done by writers who never knew anybody with the disorder and instead based it off shit they saw on tv written by people who hadn't met one either. Honestly, it's just one more awful thing about the show.

Actually, autistic kids can be much worse then sheldon. They all have different personalities and functions of autism. Some can't even function. I used to watch a couple of autistic kids and my friends step son is autistic. His step son's half brother is severaly autistic. Like sheldon, things can jsut set them off but they throw much bigger tantrums then sheldon. If anything, sheldon's intelligence is what keeps him from being as bad as he could be.
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DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic?

No but the actor has said he plays him that way.
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DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

He's what Hollywood writers think autistic people act like.
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yutterh posted...

Zeus posted...

DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

I've never met an autistic that acts that weirdly. If he is meant to be autistic, it's probably as a parody done by writers who never knew anybody with the disorder and instead based it off shit they saw on tv written by people who hadn't met one either. Honestly, it's just one more awful thing about the show.

Actually, autistic kids can be much worse then sheldon. They all have different personalities and functions of autism. Some can't even function. I used to watch a couple of autistic kids and my friends step son is autistic. His step son's half brother is severaly autistic. Like sheldon, things can jsut set them off but they throw much bigger tantrums then sheldon. If anything, sheldon's intelligence is what keeps him from being as bad as he could be.

The problem with that statement is that you're talking about non-functioning individuals whereas Sheldon is clearly a functioning individual. Most of Sheldon's traits aren't so much autistic as they are just weird. At least with Tony Schaloub's Monk -- a gross parody of OCD -- many of the behaviors weren't completely out of line with an OC, it was more a matter of having too many traits at once and the extreme traits being played for humor.

If we're talking high-functioning autism done right, you could probably take a cue from Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes which is very clearly identifiable and the traits aren't overplayed so they can be mocked.
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I know Drax has gotten a bit of attention for being a cool portrayal of an autistic person (and one of the few portrayals of non-genius autistic person) but that's technically just his culture I think. Also I'm not sure how in line his behaviours are with real autistic people.
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lol let's all bash it before we know anything about it. What if it's funny? Fing parasites.
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OneTimeBen posted...

lol let's all bash it before we know anything about it. What if it's funny? Fing parasites.

Have you even read this topic, anonymous troll? Not to mention that your insult doesn't even make sense.
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Zeus posted...

OneTimeBen posted...

lol let's all bash it before we know anything about it. What if it's funny? Fing parasites.

Have you even read this topic, anonymous troll? Not to mention that your insult doesn't even make sense.

Read the topic title and saw a few posts that's enough. Like anything else people jump to conclusions and hate something they don't even know
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OneTimeBen posted...

Zeus posted...

OneTimeBen posted...

lol let's all bash it before we know anything about it. What if it's funny? Fing parasites.

Have you even read this topic, anonymous troll? Not to mention that your insult doesn't even make sense.

Read the topic title and saw a few posts that's enough. Like anything else people jump to conclusions and hate something they don't even know

And if you read more, you'd realize how wrong you are.
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Sheldon is, like, aggressively annoying. Real high functioning autistic people just lack self awareness. TBBT (and it looks like this new show) portray his awkwardness as something to laugh at rather than a struggle to sympathize with. If I was autistic I can't imagine I'd be very flattered by the portrayal.

Zeus posted...

yutterh posted...

Zeus posted...

DorkLink posted...

Is Sheldon canonically autistic? He doesn't even seem like any real "nerd" I've met, autistic or not, which is why I find the character so annoying.

I've never met an autistic that acts that weirdly. If he is meant to be autistic, it's probably as a parody done by writers who never knew anybody with the disorder and instead based it off shit they saw on tv written by people who hadn't met one either. Honestly, it's just one more awful thing about the show.

Actually, autistic kids can be much worse then sheldon. They all have different personalities and functions of autism. Some can't even function. I used to watch a couple of autistic kids and my friends step son is autistic. His step son's half brother is severaly autistic. Like sheldon, things can jsut set them off but they throw much bigger tantrums then sheldon. If anything, sheldon's intelligence is what keeps him from being as bad as he could be.

The problem with that statement is that you're talking about non-functioning individuals whereas Sheldon is clearly a functioning individual. Most of Sheldon's traits aren't so much autistic as they are just weird. At least with Tony Schaloub's Monk -- a gross parody of OCD -- many of the behaviors weren't completely out of line with an OC, it was more a matter of having too many traits at once and the extreme traits being played for humor.

If we're talking high-functioning autism done right, you could probably take a cue from Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes which is very clearly identifiable and the traits aren't overplayed so they can be mocked.

Thanks for that, that makes a lot of sense. Also explains why i like sheldon so much, reminds me of monk, gosh i miss that show : /
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