Does Abed Nadir have Asperger's?

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I watch a show called "Community" voraciously, and it's a very good show. Abed Nadir is a character in it who has a monotone voice and constant "eyes wide open" expression. He has a great deal of difficulty socializing and in fact developed a habit of referencing movies and TV shows to cope with it. He's got, as a result, a huge obsession with pop culture that propels the very show's plot along with references and manipulations, making him essential and a favorite of my whole family. He's also shown issues with changing fixed variables and has repetitive hand gestures and a stereotyped verbal pattern. ("Cool. Cool, cool, cool.")

When I mentioned to my mother that the show creator, Dan Harmon, was on the spectrum, she added that she thought of Abed as the most sympathetic and well-rounded of the Aspie characters in TV. (She has familiarity with TBBT and Bones.)

I like Abed due to his love of pop culture and imagination and his clear desire to have friends and be empathetic. I like how he doesn't change drastically and part of his adjustment is others learning to adjust as well. I remember a time in the third season when he had a "dreamatorium" that he took down so his best friend could move in, and then built his own mini version in his lounge. I don't know what eventually became of it, but I thought of it as the finding of a happy medium I want in my life.

I would like to think of Abed as definitely having Asperger's because I find him to be a more, yes, sympathetic and flexible person than, say, Sheldon Cooper. Does anyone here have anything to add or argue against?

Didn't they say he had it in the first episode?

Abed is never officially diagnosed, but I think it's very clear he's intended to have Aspergers. One of the things I love about the show is how much he cares about his friends, and vice versa, as opposed to the usual stereotypical portrayal.

I think it's interesting that the new character, Hickey, that they introduced in season 4 has a more common outsider opinion of Abed -- where Abed's friends do their best to accommodate his needs, Hickey thinks Abed is "spoiled" by always getting his own way. As someone who's heard "your son isn't autistic, he just has only child syndrome," and so on, I find the attitude very realistic.

It's the best representation Ive ever seen.b

I just watched Season 5 for "Community" and will be looking for the other seasons. It's a very good show, indeed, but Abed being autistic didn't cross my mind at all. I thought his obsession with pop culture was just there to give the writers an excuse to break the fourth wall every now and then. Perhaps there are other character traits that are better explored in other seasons that could allow for the conclusion of him being on the spectrum.

It's alluded to several times in the pilot.

At 1:50 when Abed is asked by Jeff about Brita, he says, "She's 28, birthday in October, two older brothers, and one of them works with with children who have a condition I might want to look up."

Then, at 20:30, Jeff insults Abed by saying he has Asperger's.

Among the plethora of metaphysical possibilities laid down by the shows mythology, is that Abed is like the Autistic kid at the end of St. Elsewhere who, as it turned out, imagined the entire show.

Community's final scene. Note the snow globe card at 0:30:


St. Elsewhere's final scene:

Yes, it's brought up very early on in the series. Abed is my favorite character for that reason. I'm very similar to him in a lot of ways.