South Park gets Aspergers wrong

Post Reply New Topic

I stopped watching that show because of that tasteless joke

In a way though they got it right. One of the hallmark symptoms of having Aspergers is taking things literally, like literally thinking Aspergers meant having burgers on your ass.

Despite everything, I still watch both South Park and the Simpsons, because conservatives hate those shows. If those shows ever go off the air, I will start watching porn.

I have a long-standing criteria that I will not date any woman who doesn’t watch those shows. In fact, I hope to relocate to Seattle, San Francisco or NYC to meet those types of women, because I absolutely, positively won’t meet them in Houston.

I thought it meant in my ass..

Ok, I HATE that episode. Like, bro, it's not a joke. Making jokes about ANYTHING works how the "n" slur does. You can't use it if you don't live it. So the makers of that show need to stfu.
I will say this though. I don't like how you used the "r" slur.

I watched it and didn't get one bit offended. I put all reality aside while watching the episode and just laughed. I've known South Park since I was 8 and I love the way they make fun of everything. It wouldn't be South Park if they didn't.

The Asperger's episode in Arthur annoyed me more, because in that it wasn't meant to be a joke, so kids watching it will see Aspies as these robotic nerds with no social skills at all and are scared of harmless toys like toy giraffes and are obsessed with trains. Asperger's is more complex than that, it wouldn't have been so bad if the character was described as "low-functioning autism", although it still illustrates a stereotype. But as an Aspie kid I was nowhere near like that at all. I was more like DW. And maybe George in school.

But the South Park episode is just hilarious, and if more people just laughed at these jokes on TV instead of getting all offended, this world would be a much better place, like it was years ago. South Park is aimed at adults, so the episode isn't exactly teaching anyone anything, it's just there for laughs. For those with a sense of humour.

Same.
Little personal there though...
The subject...
I love trey Parker and Matt Stone
(ever since 1998)
They can do no wrong
In my eyes..
(show isn't what it once was tho....I don't actually follow it anymore..lol)
I probably watched this show the week it came out...

I feel the same way. Although I really want them to release the newest season on DVD because it's about the pandemic and I must watch. But otherwise, I did prefer the show between seasons 4 and 13. I like seasons 1 and 2 but the characters were underdeveloped back then. But I still watch them for nostalgia sake.

This may sound weird but I wish they'd do season 1 again but in the same format (is that the right word?) as the new seasons are, if that makes sense.

Reminds me of...
George Lucas Special edition... @2:06

"The simple funny aliens are now super badass and kewl"
Yeah i love the early seasons..
Nostalgia overload..

I kind of think the joke was that people with Aspergers take everything literally

I agree. This & the whole thing is meant to be a joke. People get sensitive about medical things getting made fun of don't they? I suppose Autism is no exception.

I think there are a lot of people who have missed the idea of parody. South Park is not literally trying to tell you that Aspergers is a fake condition. (Though I'd also argue the autism spectrum is just that, a spectrum, and there's no reason to drag a Nazi's name into it.)

Read Randy's dialogue here:

"It's pretty sh***y when you work so hard to be a great parent, and then the "government" comes along and with one shot turns your child into a "mentally incapacitated" freak! I mean look at him. He's disinterested, depressed, self-loathing. It's most likely the reason his mother and I got divorced!"

The joke here, not counting the one about antivaxxers (Mr. Mackey "diagnoses" Stan with Aspergers just because he got the flu shot last year), is that parents do more to harm their child when they talk about the child like they're a disease.

When Stan finds out the Aspergers group is a fakeout, "Morpheus" tells him "If there was a social development disease, you wouldn't call it Asperger's! That's just, that's just mean!" And he's got a point. This is the commentary South Park is making about autism and Aspergers, not literally telling you it's fake or that everyone who has it is a freak. (I am all for inflammatory commentary about Hans Asperger.)

If Cartman thought that's what Asperger's is, then maybe he has Aspergers himself