Did Basil Fawlty have Asperger's?
- 11 May 05, 12:00 AM
And what about Mork in Mork and Mindy? Did Mr Bean display signs of autism? Or Taz from Taz-Mania? Lisa Simpson and Moe of Moe's Tavern in The Simpsons? Even Dilbert of, er, Dilbert fame?
These are just some of the famous people and characters from TV, films and even cartoons who are listed on the page. Fascinating stuff, even if I don't believe half of it, particularly when the page announces that the people featured on the list are there because: "some may have autism or AS, in their mild or severe forms. Others may be elsewhere on the autistic continuum. And others listed may just be unusual individuals".
Unusual individuals? Well, that narrows it down, doesn't it? Although I'm not sure that it's what you'd called a politically correct term.
Here at Ouch, we kinda love lists like this, mostly because they tend to bring up the unlikeliest of names. Up until now, our favourite has been the collection of from reddisability.org.uk, where you can find out which stars of heavy metal rock music have asthma (yes, really). But if you've found any more of these line-ups of the great and good of the disability world on the net - the sillier the better, of course - do let me know about them by sending the URLs to the usual address.
Comments
Ahh, interesting you should bring this up. Every time I see a really intelligent person on TV I have started to assume they have Asperger. Why is this? Is it because I now believe intelligence is not the norm? Rather something that makes someone 'different'? Take the children on Junior Mastermind this week for instance.
I am wondering if research of simon-baron is biased towards proving that ASDs are more intelligent ( Systemizing, in his own words). Perhaps this makes parents of AS's expect a genius out of their children. It also makes me (It's my fault),i'm self-diagnosed as having Asperger's, have too high a opinion of ourself particularly if we are achievers. Thanks to simnon-baron writings(Sorry for the excessive critism), now I wonder about every highly successful scientist as to have had this Asperger's.