The office-American Version

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How many of you think that Micheal Scott from the TV show The Office is an Aspie?
What do you think his narrow interest is?

Actually, the wikipedia description of him makes him sound like a classic Aspie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scott_(The_Office)

I tried replying to this last night when the site crashed. I had forgot that it didn't get submitted. <sigh>

I posted that Michael is the opposite of an autistic, almost like Williams Syndrome. I've known people like Michael. The farcical extreme of the character does come off as "socially awkward" and "friendless". However, it's a caricature of a very socially adept but intellectually shallow, manager type. My husband had two bosses very similar to Michael. They had a huge circle of friends and family but sucked at managing.
If Dwight weren't so cliched or if Jim had more sensory issues, they'd be likelier candidates for being Aspies. Dwight has all the Aspie traits (black and white thinking, rigid sense of rules, regimented, poor at reading body language, literal, great memory). But he's too cliched and thus has too many special interests. Again, he's a caricature. It wasn't until JIm decided to go on vacation that I realized he's very Aspie-ish. He had worked in the same place for 3 years and had never left town. He ate the same lunch for 3 years. He was obsessed with the same girl for years. When they met, he thought he was on a date with her, despite her being engaged. (doesn't read body language or subtle talk?)
When he teases Dwight, he does a perfect impersonation of him, displaying a skill for mirroring.

My husband disagrees with me and has explained all of Michael's Aspie traits. Well, in tonight's episode he's talking about being creative. His talent is unrecognized and he describes an event in which he imagined something he had never seen before. He says, "and I was 5 and not speaking yet!"

So, maybe Michael is autistic. hmmmm. . . .

Right! I took special note of that offhand comment last night, as well.
When will Aspie lovers Dwight and Angela get back together, anyway?
The creative director of this show must be on the spectrum somewhere. We should all inundate the people involved with this show with cards on June 18th.
Sorry this post is so desultory!

There is also another espsiode where Micheal Scott makes reference to his childhood school days. He ends up saying that his only friend was the lunchlady.

was that when he showed the childhood footage of him where he says he'll have 100 kids so that they have to be his friends? omg, that was so sad. There are a lot of instances where Michael comes off as cold, insensitive and oblivious, but "when it counts" (Pam's art show, Jan's termination) he's warm and unconditional in his care for people.

No its a different epsiode, the one im thinking off is from season 3 i believe. Not sure of the name of the epsiode but its during one of Micheal's talking head segments.

Poor Dwight, he is in a lot of pain and slipping away from reality playing his second life game. Jim comes off very compassionate in that epsiode, despite all the pranks he plays on Dwight, by creating a character in Dwight's game. The epsiode before that showed a huge compassionate side from Jim when he went to talk to Dwight in the stairwell and shared something personal about Pam rejecting him.

My brother loves The Office. He even wants a Dunder Mifflin T shirt.

Epsiode- The Merger from Season 3. When the Stanford branch employees offically move into the Scranton branch is when he makes the comment about his only friend being the lunchlady. His talking head segment comes shortly after the scene were he lets the air out of his employees cars then blames it on Vance Refirgation to try and bring unity to the Scranton branch.

oh, okay. That was an awkward episode. I'll have to watch it again.

I thought that the British version was much better.

Ah, yeah! I love Jim! He is a sweetie sometimes! like the review they posted for Dwights B&B. He, Dwight and Michael are my favorite characters! One of my favorite moments is when, in the episode "The Injury" Michael and Jim are taking Dwight to the hospital because of a concussion and they are in the car trying to keep him from drinking some alcohol he forund! Dwight, also, can be sweet, in a way... Like when he tries to comfort a crying Pam, mistaking her sadness (I think something about Jim, I don't remember) for PMS.
I never thought about ANYONE on the Office being an Aspie, but there are some good points, especially for Dwight.

I've been arguing at home for a while that Dwight is too cliched to be aspie, he is too well-rounded and has too many special interests to be a real aspie.
Jim is the likeliest candidate. His nerdiness is coming out more and more. He's getting caught being socially inept because he's putting himself out there. He works really hard then has to decompress from working. He's obsessed with Pam and has made life decisions based on his relationship to her (including moving away and towards her). He eats the same things every day.

Did anyone watch last nights epsiode where Micheal goes into the wild by himself? Did anybody catch his comment about why he was glad to get outside? He gave two reasons, one happened to be fluorescent lights. Another possible hint that he might be an aspie.

The flourescent lights certainly caught my attention. Have you noticed, though, that they have halogen lights in the office? the kind that face upwards and can be dimmed? They're actually a fire hazard (unless there is a bug guard on them) because bug can fly in the bowl and it's so hot they'll catch fire. I had a moth fire once. blech.