Has autism become more popular to joke about recently?

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Specifically on the internet, I've been noticing over this past year that people make a LOT of autism jokes. By a lot I just mean a lot more than I would have expected, considering that growing up I rarely heard about autism at all, let alone from kids in my grade. Yet all over Youtube, I see lots of comments on weird videos like, "This is the definition of autism", "I am not going to watch this autistic crap, unsubscribed", "If autism was contagious this video would be the source".

I'm not particularly annoyed by it unless they're just being stupid (which I find annoying regardless); some of the jokes I even find funny. I just think it's strange that it's suddenly become funny to make jokes about it. What happened that made this the new thing? Or maybe it's always been happening and I only noticed now because I was recently diagnosed, and I consciously note every little mention of it that I see anywhere.

It's being talked about more in general so it's found it's way into pop culture too now. It's free game just like anything else is now. What with more people being dx'd with AS and more people finding out about it, and shows with characters on the spectrum, it's more in the mainstream now and while people are making jokes they are also seeing us and noticing us and not just to pick on us. Just because they use autistic as an insult doesn't mean they would insult us. It's the same as using gay or ret*d as an insult, it doesn't mean what it sounds like it means and I know plenty of gay people who use "gay" that way. Also, most of the kids I know who are my kids friends are very much against making fun of others or being mean especially to special kids but even they use ret*d as an insult. It's not meant to imply that gay people or ret*d people are bad. It's acknowledging that those two words were used as different kind of insults toward people in the past and now they are just used mainly about objects or slightly silly things about people. Autistic is becoming one of those "insults" and it doesn't bother me at all. I suppose if I had been called any of those things on a regular basis as a kid and it was a knee jerk reaction for me to get upset with hearing it, then I would but as it is it doesn't bother me a bit.

Also, more kids with AS are being dx'd and talking about it and growing up into teens and young adults who have it and aren't ashamed of it. One of the kids in my youngest daughter's group has it as well as somebody in my oldest daughter's group. The guy in my youngest daughter's group is the singer for some metal band that some of them are in. They are all college kids of various ages. He's got AS and doesn't care who knows. Nobody makes fun of him. They don't even make fun of the one guy who is an actual furry in the group and wears a freakin' tail around. She gets mad when I joke or laugh about that in private around her. Like she recently said the furry guys bday is coming up and she was wondering what to get him and I suggested taking him to Build a Bear and buying him a blowup doll lol. She laughed but disapproved pretty quickly and called me an as*hole. But come on, a furry. I can't help it. Nothing bad about him, I have my quirks, god knows, but I don't walk around wearing them like a tail.

Anyway, that's why I think it's happening. We are becoming more mainstream and with the good parts also come some bad parts. We can't have it both ways you know. I'd hope we could show that we aren't as sensitive as things like ED says we are and maybe not throw a fit when "autistic" is used lik "gay" and "ret*d" because it's not used that way all the time.

I was asked this exact question by someone just yesterday... I don't think so, though. I've been seeing it on and off for several years.

Autism seems to be entering the mainstream imagination.

I don't hear too much about autism in my comings and goings, though.

Yes I have noticed the sudden surge in autism jokes amongst my NT peers and online too. Autism has become the replacement for the word "ret*d". Which is quite disappointing tbh.

I don't think it's a replacement. I think it means it's own thing. Kind of a socially ret*d although not mentally ret*d kind of thing, along with an extreme pickiness or being overly enthusiastic for nerdy type activities. It's autistic to dress up and go to the Star Trek convention but it's ret*d to still be an emo. And it's gay to be goth. Whatever lol. I don't know. But autistic seems to have it's own vibe in the vernacular.

I like the fact that it's out there and while it's being kicked around and settling down to mean something we can kind of steer that you know. Use it to mean somebody has thought of something incredibly smart that you wish you did. "That new app is totally autistic!" or to mean techy or nerdy type leisure activities "We got an autistic weekend planned. Gaming and then a Dr Who Marathon and then we will play Pathfinder!" Of course other people will use it to mean other things, but when people hear you use it like that then they may think it's cool and use it that way too. Especially if they know you are autistitc and they see it's not making you go cry in the bathroom and make a psychiatrist's appointment or something. Help steer it to mean it's own thing, and the thing you want it to.

Few things press my berserk button harder than ignorant NT's saying making such "jokes". I have blocked several people on YT just for saying "autistic" when they mean "stupid", even when it wasn't directed at me. I am so sick of it that sometimes I wish I had never gone on the internet at all. It makes me so depressed that sometimes I cry when I go to bed. I think these so-called jokes are bullying and verbal abuse. And if they think I take it too seriously, then they should try and think about what it's like when people say garbage about you for something you can't help being constantly.

Why do humans hate everyone who's different from them? Why are they so judgmental? Nothing has changed since the Middle Ages when they burned epileptic people on the stake. Nothing.

It's 4chan infecting the mainstream. People have been slinging "autism" around as an insult on there for ages, and it's starting to leak out into the rest of the Internet, along with other aspects of 4chan culture. So, if anything is contagious, it's not autism... it's 4chan.

It annoys the living piss out of me, but what am I supposed to do about it? As much as I hate to admit it, it's hard to fix ignorance and stupidity. In fact, it's pretty much impossible to fix stupidity, and ignorance is only slightly easier.

I'm pretty much on board with the first couple of replies that talk about autism awareness being mainstreamed. To be honest, I've never seen the term used in any form as an insult. Maybe I'm not cool enough to hang out in the right forums. I've heard of 4Chan, but honestly have no clue what it actually is. So maybe I'm just too old.

A younger coworker sometimes jokingly refers to me as being a "ret*d," except he says it "ruh-TARD." I really don't take offense to it as maybe I should because I realize he knows I'm not intellectually disabled, even if I am socially "challenged" in certain ways. If I thought he was truly insulting me, I suppose I might take offense. It's good-natured stupidity, and I can handle that.

In general, though, I regard the broader public awareness of autism as mostly a good thing.

I haven't really noticed anything myself, though I limit my contact with people. Those who know I have Alsperger's generally treat me like I'm normal. Suits me.

Yup, pretty much.

It's also used to describe anything on the internet that's cringe-worthy. To be honest, I couldn't care less if people use the word in such a way, and it serves no purpose to get butthurt over such trivial things. Much like the word "f***ot", you have to understand the context that the word is used in.