Characters with Autism & Asperger Traits

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This is a topic for listing and discussing characters in movies and TV shows who you think might have traits of Autism and Aspergers?

My two examples would be Michelle from the American Pie movies and Gloria from Touched By An Angel.

Michelle is the "band geek" who Jim ends up marrying in the third movie and her two Aspie obsessions are band camp and sex. She's constantly telling stories about being in band camp by starting each conversation with "And this one time, at band camp". She also has an open obsession with sex which is kind of shocking for a geeky band girl and she ends up being the one to coach the inexperienced Jim because she knows all kinds of interesting facts. As she told him in the first movie "Half of band camp is sex ed".

And Gloria in Touched By An Angel reminds me of an Aspie. She's very intelligent and is curious about the human world but she's incapable of understanding why humans do anything and she takes things way too literally. Like when one man tried to bribe her "a hundred" (meaning $100) for information and she asked "A hundred what?" And he tries upping it to $200 and she says "What would I do with $200?" And he asks her "What planet are you from?" And she smirks as if he's asking her literally and she explains "It's not exactly a planet".

Characters are fictional, portrayed by actors with varying degrees of skill. Unless a character has been "outted" as having an ASD by the actor, a writer, a director, or a producer, whatever suspicions you may have could be explained away by nothing more insidious than mediocre acting.

Open your mind a little. It's fiction for God's sake not real life!

As you pointed out, it's fiction, not real life. Diagnosing fictional characters with real-life conditions is best left up to the actors, writers, and production staff.

As I implied, mediocre (or bad) acting is the simplest explanation of a character appearing to have an ASD.

For instance, conspiracy theorists have devised rationale to explain why Disney's Seven Dwarfs actually represent the seven stages of cocaine addiction or seven different types of drugs.

Fictional characters are also designed for the viewer to draw what they will out of them. A character is all things.

Really? So character development means nothing, is that it?A character is a fictional representation of a limited number of human conditions -- nothing more.

Ok now you're just being a smartass. Thanks for ruining my topic and I'm sorry your day is so sh***y that you feel the need to do that.

The topic is still open, and I'm sure that others would love to speculate on the mental states of fictional characters as if they were real people.

Well frankly I don't care because you already ruined this topic for me by being a smartass. Thanks.

Sheldon Cooper represents the irritating aspects of Asperger's.

Once any work of art or entertainment goes out to the public it is up to the audience to decide what "meaning" said work has. Misinterpretation of song meanings, characters, paintings occurs all the time. Archie Bunker was meant to be laughed at not laughed with, "Born in the USA" was written about how the US government and people screwed over Vietnam veterans, it was widely misinterpreted as a bombastic call to patriotism.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 26 Nov 2018, 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

@Fnord

please stop.

I already did ... about 5 hours ago.

Mailman Cliff Claven from Cheers. He can talk endlessly about various facts without realizing everyone else is desperately bored, and doesn't seem to understand when he's being offensive or insulting.

Kimmy gibler, "full house"


Milhouse, "Simpsons"

Urkel, "family matters"

Brick Heck from The Middle seems very Aspieish to me. He's very socially awkward & has a special interest which is books.

Hank Hill from King Of The Hill has some Aspie traits. He's very direct & straightforward, has a special interest which is propane & he has a hard time dealing with others emotions & expressing/showing emotion like affection.