South Park gets Aspergers wrong

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No, they did that in the last episode("you're getting old") during a movie preview thing... It's basically poking fun at the fact that a lot of times they use the same actors with the same damn character types doing the same damn things, but in some slightly different setting. At least that's how I took it. And I can totally see where they're coming from with that. A lot of movies seem to follow a similar format like that, so whether it's aliens, robots, vampires or whatever, it doesn't really matter. The only point of using the matrix was to make the whole drinking-alcohol-to-see-differently thing f***ing hilarious. I don't know if I'm explaining this right, and if you don't get it, I'm sorry. The episode made perfect sense to me, and I totally get it, but I'm not very good at explaining things sometimes. Either way, this was pure comedic genius.

kind of how i feel a lot of the time that i have to be intoxicated in order to be around other people...it's not right nor a good thing to do but have felt that way for quite some time.

also i dont think it's is aspergers but i can definately relate to hearing everything as sh**.....i mean the music today is sh**...the way people dress is sh**....the way people talk about minute meaningless details is sh**....the tv today is sh**....the news today is sh**....politics today is sh**....massive celebrity media craze is sh**....parties are sh**...and i could go on but i am tired of this sh**.

So then, let's pretend we are all writers on South Park...

(Are you there yet? Do you see yourself sitting in the writer's room with Matt and Trey? They are paying us to tell them stories about our childhood so they can turn them into an episode!)

So... What are they missing that you wanted to see and hear? How would you write about AS differently?


Me? I'd start with this question:

"How should we make this so that it will actually give kids on the spectrum not only something to LAUGH at, but also give them some information that will HELP them (rather than just ending it by saying, essentially "you will need to become an alcoholic in order to survive in this world made mostly of doo-doo)?"

Because a lot of us older aspie's DID grow up to get addicted (to alcohol, sex, prescription and/or illegal drugs, video games, etc..) all because we thought we were abso-f****-lutely crazy for being the only ones who FELT how sh***y things were, and needed a way to ESCAPE.

Being a kid with AS in a school full of NT kids and teachers who thought we were "weird" or "disruptive" or "ret*d" made us feel like we were literally gonna PUKE! And our muscles tightened and SQUEEEEZED like we had just had our tongues shoved in a power outlet. It felt WRONG. Every single second of it. And yet, it didn't stop.

When I RAN home when the bell rang, do you know what I did? Not homework! Pbbffffttt... I could finish that simple stuff in the 3 minutes I waited to eat my bowl of Golden Grahams in the morning (any longer and it would have gotten too soggy). No, I watched TV. From 3pm until I was literally DRAGGED into my room to go to sleep (or carried semi-willingly when I'd fall asleep on the couch). Why was I watching? Because I wanted to forget about all the miserable stuff and laugh? Yeah. But mainly, I was hoping I'd find ANSWERS!

Answers to why I KNEW that all of the groanups in my life (parents, uncles, grandmothers, teachers at school, sunday school teachers at church) were miserable, and LYING to my face when they told me that they were "fine" (well, of course I couldn't look them in the eye! The eyes are the window to the soul, and I could SEE their soul crying and begging for help as it was dying in their wrinkly old bodies! There's not something wrong with me, there's something wrong with YOU! ADMIT IT! I KNOW I'M RIGHT! I CAN FEEEEEL YOUR SOUL CLAWING AT ME TO ESCAPE, BEGGING ME FOR HELP! But I don't know how to help... Help me learn how I can help!).

Answers to why I had to go to a sh***y public school with sh***y teachers who wouldn't let me learn about "why people do the things they do" (had I known to specifically ask for books on psychology and neurology and anthropology and philosophy at the time, I surely would have read them all), and --instead-- made me sing songs about dead white people that called "heroes" and "founding fathers," who owned slaves (huh?!) and killed people so they could take their land ( "Hey! Wait... That's not nice. Why did they do that? Huh? I'm the only one who thinks that's mean? What? Stop Interrupting the class? But it's all I can think about. I can't make my brain stop wondering about it?!?! But you teach us that we should be nice, but you're telling us that these are people we should call "heroes?!" Whaaaaaat?! Whyyyyyyyyyy? Nooo... I don't want to go to the principal's office again! I swear, I'll be quiet. Just let me draw pictures to get my frustrations out! Uggghhh... Why not?! But I don't want to pay attention to the poo-poo pouring out of your mouth!! !!")

Answers to why the church my mom made me go to said that everyone who doesn't think the exact same way about god and the bible will burn in hell for ever and ever and ever ("Hey! That seems mean. So he's going to kill my hindu friend, Sandip just cuz his parents were born in India? This god guy sounds like a real bully... But that's what bullies do! They beat people up who don't do exactly what they want them to do! He's a jerk and a bully... Huh?! Why would I go to hell for knowing how to read a dictionary and knowing a bully when I see one? Spanking?! With a paddle?! Aaaaahh!! Why is my brain too smart?!?! Why is your brain so dumb?!?! Why do I have to get beaten just because you are getting offended because I'm making valid points?!?")

South Park is right in that there is a particular AS trait to notice just how sh***y a lot of reality is (I am currently in grad school studying developmental cognitive neuroscience to see if I can understand why). But I think that they are absolutely WRONG if the only answer they have is start drinking in 4th grade (or insert _"go to the psychiatrist and get pills to make this neurotypical world tolerable_" if you want).

I hope that they continue this story arc. I hope they have a better solution than social skills instructors and improving our "theory of mind." But even if they don't, I'm actually already in the middle of making my own cartoon about having Aspergers ( DGSWM DOT ORG...wanna help me make it?). Because I think kids deserve to watch something better than all the...

***FAAAAAAAAAAAAART

Um, yeah, I have no f***ing idea what you're talking about.

Aliens, robots, whatever, f**k you!

I don't see what was offensive about that at all. Every misconception about asperger's they used in the episode also involved some character showing stupidity, pointing out that the misconceptions are in fact misconceptions. Also, in a way, it kind of suggested that people with aspergers see things more clearly, and the rest are stupid or have to get drunk all the time to enjoy the sh***y things they enjoy. That episode made me laugh my f***ing ass off. It wasn't insulting or offensive at all. It was pure comedy gold, as is to be expected from Matt and Trey. I also really loved how each and every time "morpheus" referred to the "bad guys" as something different, then Stan questioned it, and he just went "aliens, robots, whatever, f**k you!"

South Park is the best damn show ever made, hands down. I think one important thing it portrays but it doesn't make incredibly obvious is that you can't take yourself or most things too seriously. You have to learn to laugh at yourself and see both sides of things, and stuff like that.

Well it actually is.......there is an area called South Park in Colorado which contains multiple small towns. Can't remember which one is supposed to be the basis for the town of South Park in the show.

It's South Park. This is a television show that makes jokes about everything. It doesn't surprise me.