Sheldon Cooper. Aspie, or offensive parody?

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Neither have I...

It's interesting in many ways, it's got a lot of references to movies, series, books, theater....it parodies some. And it's executed in a way that focuses on many details....you can spot a lot of things in one scene. More to the content....very very different to BBT. There's also one character who's an Aspie.

While I hope my social skills are a little bit better than Sheldon's, I'm pretty sure all four guys-- not to mention most of their coworkers-- are on the spectrum somewhere.

Penny gets as many unofficial "stupid NT jokes" as Sheldon does "f**ked-up Aspie" jokes.

The first time I saw Big Bang Theory I almost fell off the couch laughing.

OK, it's gotten old since then, but-- Hey, if you can laugh at yourself, living in this world probably isn't going to kill you.

He's a bit of an arse hole, but he DOES remind me of Aspies at my school, but I find him easier to tolerate than the Aspies at my school because never have I watched an episode where he would actually blame anything on Asperger's.

So I'm watching BBT online right now and I have to say, I don't get it. It's like all the jokes have been written by people who have no clue about the subject matter. Like they went to Wikipedia, and said "this sounds interesting, let's make a joke about this!" Not funny. At all. And on the subject of Sheldon, he might be an Aspie in the show and he might not be. All I know is Jim Parsons is clearly playing a character who has nothing in common with who he really is IRL.

I showed my aspie boyfriend The Big Bang Theory last night and he thought it was funny and realised that Sheldon was a bit of an exaggerated stereotype of many of his own traits. It's important that people don't just think of Asperger's in terms of made-up, one-dimensional comedy characters. However in a way, I think a character like Sheldon might make Asperger's seem less 'strange' and more accessible to the NT element of the public and many people do find Sheldon cute, even attractive - though I suppose there's the danger that people will want as 'aspie' friend just because it's cute; sort of like what happened ome years ago with young girls thinking it was cool to have a gay male best friend!

Sheldon is clearly supposed to have Asperger's (even if they never say it on the show). His character is exaggerated but so are all sitcom characters IMHO. I love the show and while he's not my personal favorite character I don't find it offensive at all.

I watch the show a lot, I really enjoy it. Sheldon definitely seems aspie, to varying degrees in different episodes. Obviously, for TV entertainment his quirks are more exaggerated as comic than a lot of normal aspie traits.
It might technically be offensive to aspies, but I find it funny normally. Episodes where his mother are involved seem to be a bit past the line though, they seem to portray him as a crazy person or something.
His social skills are evidently not great, he asks whether or not things are said sarcastically, and offends people without meaning to. (realistic enough)
However, he is also very arrogant because of ahigh IQ, which I find seems to be connected to his traits in the show, although that is massive stereotyping of aspie personalities because I, for one am not particularly of a massive IQ or feel superior to people around me.
I could carry on all day, picking out every little thing about him which is or isn't offensive or accurate, but at the end of the day he is the character most people keep watching for, so even if he is a little offensive, he is still pretty funny.

I agree with this. And I'm grateful that he hasn't been "officially" diagnosed and that the show creators have shown no interest in officially connecting him with AS, because I don't want him becoming the poster child for AS. Fascinating character, but still a complete jerk.

Netflix?

It's no more offensive than black face portraying black people or a ret*d person being a part of a parody. So yes, it's highly offensive. But that doesn't mean it's not funny. The funniest things tend to be the most offensive.

The sheldon character also has his own personality on top of having aspie symptoms. Seems that hes a bit of a jerk sometimes, and its kind of unreal that his friends put up with a lot of it and that he even has friends. But they probably made the character that way for good ratings.

I think Sheldon is definitely supposed to be Aspergers. Jim Parsons says he developed the character the way it is after reading Look Me In the Eye. He's exaggerated; he seems to have nearly all the clinically-defined aspects of Aspergers. I love his character because I grew up with people who acted very much like he does; he's almost my uncle to a T.

I also think that, even though the characters sometimes do crappy things to each other, they're portrayed as basically good people who are, in the end, there for one another. I think they act a lot like real-life guy friends.

Don't find it offensive, but more of a highly exaggerated parody.


I find it funny.

No, he tends to blame it on everyone else being stupid compared to him.

Although I thought it was pretty funny when he claimed to be "too evolved to drive" (i.e., couldn't get the hang of driving)...

Which is something that I've seen people do a lot on this forum in my time here.