"Dumb & Dumber" Aspies in Film

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Just watched Dumb and Dumber, for fifth or sixth time,( and, not seeing a thread about it on the first ten pages of Film and TV forum am starting one ! !) ; maybe I'm stunningly slow but it has only just occurred to me that if the two heroes first names are Harry and Lloyd after the great comic Harold Lloyd, then maybe it's not an accident that the only town mentioned by name, repeatedly, is ASPEN.
Nor that the heroes wear loose baggy mainly cotton clothing throughout and have awful trouble finding formal wear for the ball. Nor that the assassin has ulcer, says "can't kill someone don't know" "that's the rules" ! ! , can't bear noise, and is capable of killing someone who keeps on irritating them at phonebooth.
Maybe everybody knows this already. Maybe it's because I've only just recently found out I'm aspie, but was crying with recognition ( aswell as laughter) watching it this time. I cried with laughter the first time I ever watched it, went off it in first years of ( responsibility-freaked ) motherhood, and now feel love for it.
Remember quite liking "Something about Mary" , and also that one with Carrey " Irene" something.
What is it about the Farrelly brothers and aspie characters?
Others love their films , or have other favourite funny films featuring aspies? ( What about Laurel and Hardy? )
What about Otto ( and Dave?) in "A Fish Called Wanda" and which I now realise is the reason that I ADORE three-quarters of the film and utterly hate the last section, in which eminently NT lawyer wins at expense of all the others ( incl. aspies). And sad that , as is so often unfortunately the case , the aspies conduct war against each other.

NB: I don't mean this to be a thread about "real" people/actors who are aspies, but about comedy film characters/stories.
Aspies recognised and loved in comedy. ( personally I DON'T love Mr Bean.)

Last edited by ouinon on 07 Nov 2007, 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have this theory that every single fictional character ever depicted in any film, tv show, play, novel, etc, has Asperger's.

Dumb And Dumber aren't aspies.

They're just...dumb.

Because that film is responsible for the dumbing of America, does that mean all americans are aspies?

Don't quite follow logic here , if is any!!

But I don't believe it's simply that they're dumb. In fact they're NOT; their vocabulary is significantly above average, and they are sensitive and original. ( and they react to unexpected callers just like you'd expect AS to, me included! ) Their lives are ruins because they are aspie, not cos stupid. Why are you so sure they're not aspies? How many stupid people do you know who behave like they do? Really stupid people don't stick out like sore thumbs, they blend in automatically, do what everybody else does without thinking etc.
But maybe it's because dumb is what many aspies used to be called, and still are, that you think behaving like an aspie ( because are one ) is "being" dumb?! ...? ! !!
Have some compassion for AS people who aren't doing so well , whose lives are a wasteland of confusion and f**kups! At the moment if it was you the judge I'd be called "just dumb" too!! !


"-" person, ( hi! ) That is interesting; I was wondering something like that recently , whether something about being invented/created/constructed , in same way as many AS people painstakingly put together their social act/persona, means exactly that, that fictional characters will "be" aspie. And might be another reason why so many aspies love reading/watching films. Characters in books/films feel like us!!

Well, in the beginning of the film when Jim Carrey's character was hitting on the woman he was driving to the airport, she was blatantly uninterested in his advances but he didn't seem to notice. So I guess that's kind of aspie-like.

Also, I firmly believe that Napoleon, Kip, Pedro and Deb in Napoleon Dynamite have AS.

It is unlikely that they are intended by their creators to have Asperger's. If that had been the case, doubtless a lot of publicity would have stated that. I suppose characters in such films are just caricatures of people their creators have encountered at some time; and knowing how many Autistic spectrum people their are out there, it is not inconceivable that they have met some "Aspies" at some time.

Then again, any strange, socially inept character is bound to be called Autistic sooner or later. Not all geeks have Asperger's, but most geeks and weirdoes fit the stereotype for those with Asperger's syndrome.

Of course, most people don't even know what Asperger's Syndrome is.

I doubt the two characters have AS. They were just dumb and no one is that dumb in real life.

If Harry and Lloyd are just exaggeratedly dumb then so am I. Seriously that's almost true.
I think it's perfectly possible that if the Farrelly brothers are themselves AS, or are just familiar with ASD in friends, , (tho some of the stuff is so on the nail , perfect aspie dialogue and thought, and social reactions, it's difficult to imagine it being second hand), they wanted to make a film which allows you to enjoy it, without labelling it.
If anything they may have preferred to avoid pigeonholing like that, "messaging" it etc.
But so so much is so brilliant, and so much more moving too when seen from my newly conscious aspie state that I am SURE they are aspie.
And feel sad that sooo many on here say they're " just" dumb, because it means that even on WP the way aspies are and behave is still seriously scorned.
Or perhaps it's just a long time since you all actually watched the film?! !
Or am I missing something, and "dumb" is actually the new in-term for aspie, like gays reclaiming "queer" , lesbians using the word "dyke", etc ??! !

From the new movie.

http://youtu.be/P1j6tnX_Wzo

I didn't see anything aspie like in Dumb and dumber, they're just two morons messing up, like Alternative said. I didn't relate to them at all. Aspen is a ski place, I doubt it had anything to do with Asperger's (in the movie).

I haven't seen "Something about Mary" nor "Me, Myself & Irene", but the latter is about developing split personality.

There was nothing relatable for me in "A fish called Wanda". We were shown it in English class (without subtitles for educational purposes) in junior high, and I found it boring, I saw parts of it years later and was equally unimpressed then.

I've never seen Mr. Bean as an aspie or realistic character, just a fun very unreal character. I love the show though!

Oh yes they do.

Yeah, just enjoy the movie for what it is: a simple, funny and dumb movie. There's no double meaning to it, at least I don't think there is.

Now off to pop some popcorn and watch one of my fav movies of all time.

(chews popcorn) HAHAHA "Most annoying sound in the world" HAHAHA (chews more popcorn).

I don't think anyone would have known what Asperger's was in 1994 when this film was made.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I love the movie though, and can't wait to see the sequel which is out in the theaters now.

I notice in films or TV shows traits are always portrayed as part of being dumb but I think that is changing because they are now showing characters who are intelligent but yet do these "dumb" things like taking things literal or missing social cues.

I have wondered if Oskar from Hey Arnold is aspie but he is meant to be dumb and not very bright and he is not a nice person and he is a bum. he also didn't finish school and I know that was meant to be it was because he isn't smart. I do remember a scene where Oskar is trying to win his wife back and Arnold helps him with it so they have dinner on the roof and Oskar and Suzie dance and he keeps stepping on her feet unintentionally. Then she is soaking them in the tub and Arnold is about to serve them cupcakes but he trips and one of them falls in the tub. Oskar is about to eat his but thinks of his wife and asks if she didn't want it because it's so tiny and she goes "Not unless you want it for yourself Oskar" and he goes "Okay great" and eats it. Suzie gets upset and leaves and Oskar doesn't know what her problem is and Arnold tells him the same his wife told him, he only cares about himself. I also remember the part when Arnold says something and he winks and Oskar asks if he had something in his eye and Arnold sighs. I could always tell he was trying to think of other people and I felt sad for him he blew it. Suzie was obviously being sarcastic and Oskar took it literal. He actually thought she told him he could have it if he wanted it for himself. I know it's meant to mean it was because he was a self centered man. How many times have we been viewed as being self centered?

I do wonder if all these people actually had AS or traits of it but no one knew at the time so when they would make TV shows or movies, they would base a character off of someone they knew and they may not have realized they had AS.

What's with the Asperger's part?


I really do want to see this movie I might see it this weekend.

I think they knew, it just widely accepted or understood then.