Has the Big Bang Theory TV Series raised Asperger awareness?

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I doubt the people who watch it think that far.

So, no.

I watched it once last week for the first time.
He does not appear as an aspie to me, he is too calm and evenly modulated.

Its the normal bollocks you expect from television. I dont watch the idiot box any more...

Idiot box was a phrase I grew up with in the 70's....... not much has changed??

I find The Big Bang Theory to be filled with nauseatingly neurotypical humor. My mother's a big fan of the show and has watched it from the start. When it first aired, she couldn't wait to show me some of the first episodes, because she thought I'd love all the science jokes and such. The first two episodes amused me, because the episodes really did center on geeky humor. I liked seeing the guys' Periodic Table shower curtain and things like that. But very early on, when they introduced Penny, the show shifted towards being neurotypical humor covered in a thin layer of stereotypical "geekiness."

The only character I find cool on the show is Howard. He reminds me of Sol in A Beautiful Mind. I feel his character is realistic and not too over the top.

I absolutely cannot stand Sheldon. I find his voice grating, and I am irked by how condescending he is to EVERYBODY, even his fellow geniuses. Something that really irritates me is when some "super smart" person drops some sophisticated term in the conversation and then proceeds in defining the term, automatically assuming you don't know what it means. Sheldon does this all the time, and it annoys me. I think it's done as an easy way for the writers to get to have the characters actually talk about theoretical physics and such. The laymen audience wouldn't know half of what the physicists are talking about, so they can always just slip in a term and explain it for the audience by having Sheldon patronizingly define the subject matter.

I really, really don't like this "I was tested!" nonsense. To me, it's like the character is "normal" neuropsychologically, due to these "test" results, but he is a huge AS stereotype. So, I feel it's like saying that, if Sheldon were "abnormal," his quirks wouldn't be funny. They'd just be "weird." It angers me how the character keeps on quoting that he was "tested," like some arbitrary score makes his quirks "okay."

Something I've noticed about TBBT (and this is something that many shows with stereotypical "smart" characters do) is that they act like every science-related term is this really hard concept that non-scientists wouldn't understand. Like, the other night, I was in the other room while my mom was watching the newest episode on DVR, and Sheldon uses the term "homeostasis" to Penny. He asks something like, "Do you know what homeostasis is?" And Penny responds with, "Does ANYONE but you?" That kind of comment just irks me. First of all, I find it unrealistic that Sheldon would choose to use a biochemistry term over "status quo" or the like, considering that he is a physicist. Secondly, "homeostasis" is not all that hard of a concept, and I don't feel that it's one of those words that the vast majority of the viewing audience wouldn't have heard before (unlike, say, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). I think I first learned what homeostasis was in high school biology. Come on!

Finally, since I don't actually watch the show (what I know of it comes from overhearing the dialogue when my mother watches it), I can't say for sure, but it seems to me that Amy has very few of these Sheldon-type moments where she talks about science. At least, I rarely have heard her talk neuroscience on the show. And the actress (don't know her name) IS a Ph.D neuroscientist in real life, so I think that they should definitely be using the actress's ACTUAL knowledge much more so on the show.

But in summary, I think TBBT is just another example of "geek" stereotypes, and the show makes me roll my eyes rather than laugh.

As a lot have said, no. Asperger's is never mentioned at all in the show, to my knowledge, so really I don't see how it could be raising awareness for it.

According to the show's co-creator, it's not Asperger's: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/inde ... _from.html

You know what I like most about TBBT? The actor who plays Sheldon is very obviously an Aspie himself. And he is accepted and admired for it. I'm sure that will baffle most of you.

I think so. Sheldon Cooper is so so cute. I wonder if he will marry Amry someday. Many geniuses have AS, too.

http://www.autism-world.com/index.php/2 ... teristics/

Yes, a huge deal. I think so.

I think the show is funny and not offensive at all. But has it raised AS awareness? I don't think so.

By the way, I find Sheldon to be really irritating, albeit funny. I would hate to be his friend in real life.

Yes and no. On the one hand, Bill Prady has said multiple times that Sheldon isn't an aspie, but on the the other hand if it walks, quacks and looks like a duck (well, in this case an aspie), it's a duck. It was not intentional, but Sheldon has become one of the most cited examples of an aspie in the country; you can't just ignore that. But, if Sheldon was actually (by which I mean officially) labeled, around seventy percent of the show's jokes (regardless of the fact that they are not malicious) wouldn't be funny any more because then he'd be "disabled". It's a bit of a catch-22 awareness wise.

Side note: IMO, Prady didn't set out to write an Aspie character, but based Sheldon on someone he once knew and is now uncomfortable with considering that person (and by proxy, Sheldon) to be possibly "disabled".

I never watched the show for longer than 5 minutes, but....ummm.....my sources who know what to look for are convinced of it. If the series creator admitted it, the show would be ground zero for a media storm. I'm going with the idea that the writers know full well what they are aiming for, but they can't admit to it. Wait a few years after the show is over and ask the question.

Thing is....there are more than a few shows and movies lately that have gone beyond the "young computer geek" sterotype and gone into actual stimming gestures, voice patterns, and other details where it's hard to not think they are working off of the DX critera. If you admitted to that, you take your show/movie from "regular entertainment" to "disability issues", and that's not helpful for the bottom line.

Maybe it has raised Aspie awareness because it is not just on WP but, it seems, quite broadly, it has opened the 'is he or isn't' he conversation. So, there is no education to go with it, per se, but I guess it would at least amount to 'oh, yeah - I heard of that'. There could be worse 'poster-child (ren)' than Sheldon - at least the public seems to like him. This seems like a beneficial cultural meme - to some extent - if it sticks: Asperger's = like. Ah, the masses are so easily programmed