Comedy Central’s animated series “South Park” is setting its sights on autism with an episode premiering Wednesday in which one character believes he has Asperger’s syndrome.
Cartman visits the nurse during an episode of "South Park" titled "Ass Burgers." (Comedy Central)
During the episode, titled “Ass Burgers,” Cartman suspects he may have Asperger’s syndrome and finds a “unique way of dealing with it,” according to promotional materials for the episode from Comedy Central.
Indeed, he heads to the nurse who proceeds to pull a hamburger from his pants.
Asperger’s self-advocates from the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership were cautiously optimistic Monday, since they had not yet seen the full episode.
“Anything that helps us to laugh at ourselves through a big picture lens helps everyone,” said Michael John Carley, the group’s executive director. “But of course there’s the risk that the ‘South Park’ creators will somehow invalidate the very serious experiences of individuals with Asperger’s. I hope not.”
“South Park” is known for pushing the limits, having faced criticism in the past for controversial episodes about everything from Jesus Christ to sex education and various racial and ethnic groups.
Representatives from Comedy Central did not respond to a request for comment about the episode.
Being diagnosed Asperger’s syndrome I personaly can’t wait. Been waiting for south park to air again after the break and what better way than an episode about ass burgers. I personaly belive no subject should be left untouched in humor. If you can’t make fun of one subject than you can’t make fun of any thing. South park has made a joke of more than one serious problem I have in my life and enjoyed every episode. You don’t like the jokes don’t watch it. Its that simple. Also check out the book every “All Cats Have Asperger’s Syndrome”, best book ever for adults and children with Asperger’s syndrome.
Bender Rodriguez AKA Michael Wallace
I too have Asperger’s and even recently wrote a humorous article for my newly started blog about how people pronounce Asperger’s because in truth, I hate the whole ASS-burgers thing yet I seem to be in the minority on this. Or at least, no one has said anything about it to my knowledge until now. Should I be surprised? I also work in special education–I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to uncomfortably endure unfunny ASS-burgers jokes from other teachers, paraprofessionals, diagnosticians and most of all, PARENTS. Parents by far are the worse offenders here, in my experience. Yet in the 12 or so years I’ve been dx’d, I have yet to hear anyone tell *these* people that such jokes might “somehow invalidate the very serious experiences of individuals with Asperger’s.” I perhaps would say something, if the jokes didn’t already make me feel socially awkward enough and I felt less intimidated about discussing having Asperger’s myself in such a working environment! So, am I detecting a double standard, perhaps? I’m a Gen Xer so I “get” South Park, even though I do think they walk a fine, fine line between smart, sharp humor and crass, gross-out stupidity. Judging by the above information, though, I think they may be aiming to lampoon how the autism community has unwittingly tolerated something that those literally make a joke of our experiences, rather than actually mocking us with Asperger’s (Matt and Trey are pretty geeky-nerdy themselves, so I’m inclined to think they’re more sympathetic to our lot than most people). They have managed to pull off such incise commentary with their humor before. We’ll have to wait and see if they can again.
Cade DeBois
This is why I hate the way most people pronounce Aspergers Syndrome. It is like finger nails on a chalk board to me. The second syllable should sound like pin instead of berg then we would have this problem to begin with.
“Ass burgers”, LOL…that is what my sister actually thought it was called at first. And the book on cats is indeed a great one. Maybe that is why I love those critters so much…
I love Comedy Central, and that includes South Park. I seem to recall an episode of “The Daily Show” where Jason Jones reported on the accessible currency issue. For those not familiar with this, I’m referring to making our nation’s paper money accessible to people who have low or no vision. Being visually-impaired myself, I could’ve been offended by that episode like a certain unnamed organization. But I wasn’t offended at all, and in fact found that episode quite amusing. Unfortunately my TV isn’t working properly, so hopefully this South Park episode about Asperger’s syndrome will be posted online in an accessible format.
The best show I’ve seen on Asperger’s is BIG BANG THEORY. It’s great!
I just saw this episode. I believe it’s one of the greatest they’ve ever done. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when I was 4 years old. South Park, however controversial, has been an amazing part of my life and I am so glad they finally made Asperger’s humorous. My only concern is the way they portrayed Asperger’s as a disorder where the people don’t have any social understanding whatsoever. However, people who take South Park too seriously are ignorant anyway. Great job, South Park. You made me laugh tonight
My teenage son got me into South Park and I love it. I saw the episode and it addresses a lot of themes in addition to Aspergers such as child depression, child drinking, divorce, etc. Only one part made me wince and that was when they portrayed “socially inept” autistic adults in a treatment (?) center. Ouch, I didn’t like that at all. A low blow. You can watch the episode on the Internet at
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e08-ass-burgers
I saw Book of Mormon and was laughing so hard that I almost had a stroke.
Loved it! Now on the DVR and filed with Temple Grandin, Adam, True Life, and various documentaries. My son couldn’t stop laughing. He finally was able to tell me in between bursts of laughter, “That’s how I thought it was spelled!” He often makes the ‘ass’ (point to butt) ‘burgers’ (point to hamburger) reference at his favorite fast food establishment. He likes South Park because, “They say jokes about everyone and everybody has something. I like them, they not afraid to make it funny so people not so afraid all the time about stuff.”.