Has the Big Bang Theory TV Series raised Asperger awareness?

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Has it? with the star of the show Sheldon Cooper being the poster boy for Aspergers on the show has it raised awareness and acceptance of the condition?

I have to say no. No one really understands it any more than they would have had the show not been popular. They just think his awkwardness is funny. In fact, it's not helping at all.

For those viewers who identify him as having an ASD, they are already aware. Those who are not aware are unlikely enough to know that he is likely to be on the spectrum are probably not going to find out unless someone tells them. So it is unlikely that very many viewers are going to come away with it with any more than a few laughs.

He is never identified on the show as having aspergers.

So I dont see how it makes people "aware" of the condition.

But if aspergers comes up in a converstation then yes- because he is such a well known character in such a well known show- you can point to him and say 'Sheldon on the BBT displays behavior that is a kinda cartoon version of aspergers" to folks who have become aware of it but dont know much about it.

This says it better than I can:
http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/p ... ang-theory

I find the show unwatchable. Hahaha. The canned laughter hahaha every few seconds hahaha is a massive turn off. Hahaha. Load of rubbish!

I think they mock Penny too. The "nerds" are doing well on their jobs (some of them really well, Howard is on space). Penny was a typical Queen of the Ball when she was a teenager and a failed actress as an adult (but I recognize that living alone with only a waitress salary is a triumph). Moreover, the four main characters plus Amy and Bernardette have teased her plenty of times.

I think what makes the big difference between Penny and the rest of characters is that Penny is not a caricature while the rest of the characters are (Leonard is the exception, he is not caricaturized either). I'm agree with the article on that. Penny is never funny, sometimes she is like their angry mother, sometimes she is a manipulative person.

Agreed. That's a very well-written article and fully explains how I first found it funny, but later saw it as something much darker.

This has been a bit of a realisation for me, actually. There is a little boy in a tv show called "The middle", his name is Brick who is definitely portrayed as having Aspergers (highly intellligent, loves reading, has no friends, attends a social skills group and even has echolalia). I think it's a great show, funny and cleverly written and every member of the family is 'cliched' and mocked to an extent. Now that I know this child has Aspergers, it makes me uncomfortable to laugh at him though, a little too close to home I guess.

Thats interesting.
I started a thread about brick here on wp ( TV and Films Forum) suggesting that he was a possible aspie.

Has he been actually IDENTIFIED on the show as having asperger's?

I do not own a TV but I have watched clips of this show on YouTube out of curiosity.

Apparently it is not canned laughter at all. It is filmed in front of a studio audience. However there are apparently suspicions / allegations that the laughter is edited afterwards to make the laughter sound more enthusiastic.

I have always been rather puzzled about the apparently spontaneous laughter that occurs during "live studio audience" sitcoms, because from what little I know about filming for TV, you have to do lots of takes. The take we're seeing in the final edit is very unlikely to be the first take, and the audience will therefore have had to sit through the same jokes many times. Their laughter during take eleven is unlikely to be as spontaneous and loud as it was for the first take. So I'm not surprised the producers have to edit the laughter.

Here you can watch it with and without laughter to compare the two:

http://thefw.com/big-bang-theory-laugh-track/

Personally I don't mind the laughter sound, as long as it isn't laughter that sounds the exact same each time, like a computerised ringtone or something. I like the fact that you can hear individual giggles sometimes in studio audience laughter, and it's obviously a different reaction each time. As a person who struggles to pick up on jokes and subtleties in conversation unless someone holds up a flashing neon sign saying "this is a joke" I actually find the laughter very helpful to help me follow what's going on. If I hear laughter, my brain concludes: "what that person just said must have been funny. Analyse it." The laughter actually helps me to get the joke.

Whether the reaction of laughter being played is actually the laughter that corresponded to the particular joke it is being matched with is anyone's guess. I suppose that is something we can never know, and I'm sure the producers play around with it a lot.

The Aspergian behaviour of Sheldon is more coincidental than anything else. I think he was just written as an anti-social person with no labels intended. That said, I can relate to many of his actions.

It is the sheer frequency and hyped up enthusiastic laughter at what are mostly very lame jokes than bugs me. Maybe it is a cultural thing and the jokes just don't travel that well to a non-American audience? I find the laughter intrusive; like someone heckling and interrupting every few seconds which distracts me and stops me getting engrossed. To be fair I've never watched more than a minute of the program at a time while channel hopping; but after one minute of watching it my irritation limit is reached and I flick on to the next channel. I have tried watching it due to the alleged Aspergers link but as I mentioned, the over the top laughter is just too irritating. Hahaha.

It's never officially revealed that Shelden has AS. The closest they get is his mother saying "We had him tested" but they never say for what. That said, a few people who know me said I remind them of Shelden at times.

As for the wall of text article about why he hates Big Bang, it hurts to read with those colors so I'll pick out a few things.

I like the position of Penny. It's in a way hopeful for those people who are smart but left out to see that it will eventually flip. She was the popular girl, partying and having sex, and now she's a waitress.

Raj and Howard, I don't really think it's mocking their friendship with the gay jokes.

And Amy and Shelden and sex, well let's not pull punches, a lot of people with AS are uncomfortable with sex.

I borrowed the DVDs from a friend until the end of the season in which, in the last episode, Amy is introduced. I never was interested enough to go on from there. Maybe it's because I suspected it would be too awful. I found that article to be very interesting. Thanks, Aimless, for posting the link. I think I'll pass that along.

I think, in live comedy shows, they do multiple tapings with different audiences paying to see the episode performed each time. That's what gets edited together in the end, with the best run-through of each scene being used. The audience is probably prompted to laugh by a sign that's flashed in front of them, and they may even be coached by a practice before the show is performed, to get them to notice the sign and applaud or laugh in response, with the idea that they're helping the audience that will eventually watch at home to enjoy the show better. This is an old practice. That's why the audience response may not always seem natural, though audience response may be another consideration as to which performance of a scene gets edited into the final show to be aired, not just actor performance.

My grandfather always hated canned laughter and wouldn't watch any show that had it.

He`s a positive stereotype, that does make the issue more easily understood by the regular person.

This type of stereotyping can be very beneficial, creating likable associations with certain traits.

If you compare it to being gay there are alot of comparison. Both groups got exposure through, television, and require positive role modeling.

The problem is sheldon isn`t a very diverse role model.

Just as not all gays are flamboyant and obnoxious, not all Aspies are geeky and obnoxious.