Drunken Roommates Discuss Aspergers

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So last Thursday night I'm in a social mood for once, and I go out for a few drinks. I swing by my neighbours for a couple hours because they're usually drinking, they're not, but have a drink with me just to humour me. After that I head home, thinking that I'm actually on my way to bed.

How wrong I was... I come home just as my roommate comes home with some of her drunken friends. We ended up having a lot of fun that night. However there was one key event that really ticked me off.

They start discussing a recent episode of Doctor Phil, about the kid who had "Ass Burgers." They were laughing their heads off at this kid and how he had "Ass Burgers." It took me about 5 min to realize what they were talking about, and I didnt clue in until the one mentioned that it had something to do with Autism.

Now with the exception of one of my good friends, I've never mentioned to anyone that I have (self diagnosed) Aspergers. The last thing I'd ever want is a label. But that night I had a few drinks in me, and I couldnt stand to sit there and listen to them call it "Ass Burgers."

So I speak up, I tell them "it's AS-PERGERS, not ASS BURGERS" but they laugh, tell me I'm wrong, and clearly I didnt see Dr. Phil. So I tell them I know exactly which episode they saw, and that it is Aspergers, and that I have Aspergers myself so I would appreciate it if they stopped degrading me by calling it "Ass Burgers."

This seems to go in one ear and out the other. Finally the one girl goes and looks it up on the internet (Dr. Phil's site I assume) and agrees with me that it is Aspergers. After that, the topic is dropped and we continue about our drunken endeavors.

Now I doubt they were in any state to actually remember this, so I'm not too concerned about reveling the fact that I have AS. Its more the fact that I couldnt believe they could be so ignorant.

Just curious, how would any of you have handled this situation? I'm just glad I was drunk, because that let me just roll it off my back. But normally I have a hard time dealing with stuff like this -- since I lack "communication skills" (as my mother would say) -- and the only way I can stop it from being bottled up is to go running until my legs fall off, or have a nice heart to heart with my punching bag.

It wouldn't have been the best thing to do by any means, but realistically what I would have done is shut up and listened very carefully until their conversation had run its course, gone off by myself, ranted to either WP or one of my friends, and then ditched them as friends.

Not sure how I would of handled the Ass-burgers thing. It would of bugged me alot.

Yeah, it certainly bugged me... that is for sure.
I just wish I had at least seen the episode, from the sounds of it, Dr. Phil did not paint a very good picture of those with Aspergers. So who knows what they are comparing me to now :S

People who think Dr phil is anything but dramatized hype and people who are my friends rarely coincide.

I'd have observed, been glad to be Asperger's rather than be *that*,
and a little dispassionate part would have wondered if it was unfair to class all NT's by this one example, as might be happening with Doctor Phil's programme.

Honestly I woulnd't have handle this well. It would have made me very uncomfortable. I'm not sure what I would have said, if anything. Chancees are I would have made an early exit and then come home, ruminated a bit and then posted something on WP.

I once was around some people who cracked a joke about "ass burgers" but it was at a school among teachers who knew me but didn't know I was AS. Fortunately the joke was harmless - they was making fun of the name "Asperger" adn not of the condition or of AS people. I just wrily said "Oh, that's why I make sure to pronounce it AH-sper-gers, some people didn't mistake me for saying I have 'ass burgers.'" They were amused, and things didn't get tense. Interestingly, I noticed that after that, they all started saying AH-sper-gers.

If they were drunk, I would have just steered the conversation towards something like illegal aliens or UFOs or something that will cause it's own absurd drunken tangent that didn't have anything to do with me.

Well I wouldn't do anything that would be useful at all, I probably would have sat in the corner quietly and listened whilst getting worked up inside. I might have said something or left the room if it got too much - nothing helpful at all. The problem would be that I would remember the way they discussed it and hold a grudge against them for a long while. I think that I'll take Sean's idea up if I get in that situation sometime, just change the subject to something random like that and see what happens.

Well none of them knew about my condition, and even if I did they certainly wouldnt be making personal attacks towards me. It was more of a shock thing for me, like I said, I didnt even clue in to what they were talking about until the one girl said the keyword "autism."

My sister made sure to point out that it sounds like Ass-burgers.
I was shocked, because before that after having read about it for quite a while, I did not associate the word with those sounds.

It does not help that my widely read psychology textbook spells it as "Asperger's Syndrome". And its not a typo either. Its spelt like that in the text, glossary, and index. What kind of person write psychology textbooks by sounding out the names of disorders??? And that pretty much the worst spelling mistake you can make. I mean... "Aslergers"... or "Asmergers" would have been better. It really annoyed me. I havent written the publisher yet, but I'm sure I will.
Now there is going to be tons of people out there reading that thinking that it is actually pronounced ASS-BURGERS.

I actualy kinda like to listen to dumb-ass conversations run their course.

I would have a compact Tape Recorder on hand, especially for drunking conversations, and I'd use it.

I'd wait a couple of days, and play the conversation back to the Guilty Party, with the intent of giving them the shock of a lifetime.

They were drunk, you are young, ass-burgers were hillerious to them. What im getting at is forgive it dammit. Let it go it happened, it lay only in the past. Learn selective memory.

I hate revealing myself as an aspie (especcially to idiots) so I would have just ignored it.

it's bad enough living through the hell of Aspergers. It's even worse that it sounds like "ass burgers" I think if I was there, someone would have left with a broken nose.