http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodAutism

The Critical Drinker reviewing reviewing The Predator "Why does this kid display no actual evidence of autism apart from disliking loud noises? But then later he's around gunfire and explosions, and it totally doesn't bother him?"

In Real Life, autism (now officially referred to in the DSM as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD) is a complex spectrum of developmental disorders and anomalies that can affect an autistic individual's social interactions, among other areas as detailed in our Useful Notes for Asperger Syndrome and Autism. However, autism also has its advantages. Autistic people tend to have a unique perspective of the world, which has impacted how people understand the universe, technology and physics, advertising and clothes, outer space, and even this Wiki (hello from your friendly autistic editor!)... The world would be a very dull place without autistics' perspectives of things from a new angle.

Advertisement:

On top of this, many autistics are quite knowledgeable about certain subjects about which they are passionate, termed special interests (usually differentiated from allistic people's interests in that they are much more thorough and act as something of a guiding tool in life for autistic individuals, which can lead to considerable irritation at best from autistic individuals when allistic people call their own interests "special interests," which among the autistic community is something of an equivalent of Pretty Fly for a White Guy). In spite of most Hollywood portrayals displaying autistic people as being gifted in math or science or music, the interests and talents of real-life autistic people vary, meaning autistic people can be talented in or passionate about Creative Writing, painting, and performing arts. Not all autistic people have one specific area of talent or interest — some are quite the Renaissance Men and Women. Additionally, in most cases any talents an autistic person has is the result of constant passion and practice — same as any allistic person — rather than being inherited excellence (autistic savants do exist, but as of 2009 only take up 10% of the autistic population at most).

Advertisement:

While there are more males than females diagnosed with autism, there are plenty of autistic females out there. Research shows that autism presents in all sexes at a relatively even rate, merely being more apparent in males due to male socialisation and research bias. Autism lasts forever, and there are countless autistics who work, go to college, live on their own, and have healthy relationships. Furthermore, autistic people in Real Life are, well, actually real autistic people.

In contrast, the pop cultural representation of autism, called Hollywood Autism, which is most likely to be portrayed as a white, cisgender, heterosexual male note Centres for Disease Control and Prevention postulates "socioeconomic or other barriers" may impede diagnosis in some communities and by an allistic person, especially in Live-Action TV and Film. It is most common for an autistic character to be a child and if he is an adult, he's most likely to be The Rain Man, the Idiot Savant, a creep, or simply a Manchild/Kiddie Kid.

Advertisement:

He is portrayed as almost completely lacking emotions, empathy, and compassion. He either doesn't talk a lot or talks too much. Folks in his life think he's boring, annoying, nerdy, weird, or even creepy. Additionally, he is totally unable to live what most people would call a normal life and is ultimately a burden on those around him. They are also portrayed by actors, ones who probably weren't picked for an experience of living with Autism, or, considering the accuracy of their portrayal, knowing somebody with Autism.

Most controversially, their lives are rarely depicted as being as fulfilling or as much of a life as that of someone who is not autistic, although there have been more examples of autistic adults in media whose lives are depicted as non-tragic and even find romance and have children, but they are still far rarer than examples of children and adults whose autism is shown as tragic. Finally, due to the overwhelming attitude that autism is automatically a tragedy in all cases rather than a different way of being or a disability that can be lived with and managed, it is common for an autistic character to miraculously be cured of his autism, usually through Applied Phlebotinum. While commonalities between most individuals do exist, real-life autism is much more complex than how this trope portrays it, branching out in a wide variety of ways from person to person, making this trope's Truth in Television status too questionable for real life examples.

Characters with Hollywood Autism are commonly Literal-Minded and may be Insufferable Geniuses. Not only do they get really into their interests, but these interests tend to be something no neurotypical/allistic person would ever be interested in, like naming every piece of a train-engine. In contrast, they will often show zero interest in sex, relationships, sports, and other "normal," mainstream interests. This character may also be a Cloudcuckoolander or have Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.

If this type of character has Animal Motifs, they're often associated with catsnote This is a point of comparison that many autistic people and autism rights advocates actually endorse , owing to the bevy of behavioral similarities between cats and what is common among autistic individuals (including stimming, special interests, adherence to routines, sensory sensitivity, and highly subtle and easily misunderstood/overpathologized body language) to the point where the cat has become an unofficial mascot of sorts for the autism rights movement.

Expect him to be Inspirationally Disadvantaged or for his Hollywood Autism to be a Disability Superpower. He might also be part of a Five-Token Band, if he's being portrayed as the brains of the group or the token disabled character, and may even vacillate between one and the other. If the exact disorder the character has is not explicitly spelled out, see Ambiguous Disorder. The difficulties inherent in depicting autism and other neuroatypical conditions is one reason for the popularity of Ambiguous Disorder, which gives creators more leeway in interpretation.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Anime & Manga

With the Light focuses on a mother raising her autistic son, Hikaru, in modern-day Japan. However, this is mostly an aversion of Hollywood autism. Hikaru develops different talents such as cooking, mixing colors, and memorizing train schedules, and goes to a regular school. However, he is still clearly disabled by his autism, such as that he is unable to cope with loud noises and is in the special education program at school. The author's ultimate goal for the story was for Hikaru to realize his parents' hopes for him to be "a cheerful working adult"; sadly, Author Existence Failure meant that it ended as he was adjusting to junior high.

Comic Books

Fan Works

Either subverted or averted in Luna Lovegood and the Chamber of Innocence. In the story, Luna, Hermione, Neville, and Arthur are all stated and/or heavily implied to be autistic, whether by themselves or by another character. Luna is shown to be stimming in-story a few times, such as in chapter 5 where she repeats the phrase "you two!" several times consecutively, and tends to take some things literally (such as in the first chapter when Ginny says they just need to keep their heads on straight, she replies with, "I don't think you can take off your head." There's also a section later on in the chapter that has her thinking over and analyzing certain expressions she's heard), but unlike a lot of Hollywood portrayals, she displays a lot of compassion and empathy for others and is very capable of seeing the gray areas of some situations. On top of it, she is also very perceptive and capable of reading certain people very well. Hermione also states herself to be autistic after Luna brings up the disorder. Ginny tells Luna that her father, Arthur Weasley, is also autistic as well as mostly non-verbal. The author, JadyneFarrow, has also stated on her profile on FanFiction.Net that she, herself, is autistic.

Averted with Nepeta Leijon from the Homestuck fic Brainbent, who is clearly stated as autistic and having a sensory processing disorder. While she definitely has her quirks, like despising purple and pretending to be a Cat Girl, she's one of the more popular and well-liked characters for being the Only Sane Woman and just for being adorable, and is capable of forming strong friendships with people, provided they understand her and aren't mean to her.

Averted in Tammy Billingham's series of Emergency! fics . John Gage is portrayed as mildly Asperger's, but though he has some classic symptoms (even in show canon, really), he still functions fine as a paramedic. His problem is that a traumatic childhood does cause him to withdraw when he experiences severe trauma as he often does here. Roy uses rage reduction and touch therapy to help him at times.

. John Gage is portrayed as mildly Asperger's, but though he has some classic symptoms (even in show canon, really), he still functions fine as a paramedic. His problem is that a traumatic childhood does cause him to withdraw when he experiences severe trauma as he often does here. Roy uses rage reduction and touch therapy to help him at times. Voltron: Duality averts this, as the author themself is autistic.

Generally averted in Pokémon: A Marvelous Journey, both with the author, who is autistic herself, and the main character of her fan fic, Julia Parisa. In-story, Julia is a sweet, shy, generally nice kid who absolutely loves Pokemon, and has a very strong sense of justice. She's sensitive to loud noises such as crying babies and yelling, hates wearing dresses and skirts because of sensory issues, is often anxious when faced with something unfamiliar, and still has a slightly black and white view of the world. But she manages to form strong friendships while on her journey, is very smart, can hold her own in a bad situation when needed, and is deeply caring and empathetic, often impulsively so, and her compassion for her loved ones is considered one of her greatest strengths.

Quiververse: Played with in the fifteenth story, Scars of the Quill, which explains that Quiver Quill's late younger brother Regal Grace was a low-functioning autistic, but while the disorder is elaborated upon, there's very little shown of his symptoms beyond his lack of ability to really communicate (his communication ability was mostly limited to wailing) and his being rough with pretty much anything he touches.

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Video Games

The eponymous AMY has elements of real autism and this trope. She's mute and has superpowers, but she also needs the protagonist Lana as a Living Emotional Crutch and frequently gets bored if you leave her in the same place for a long time.

This is generally averted with all four Alices (yes, all four of them are stated to have autism) from Les Quatre Alices, as the creator of the game herself is autistic.

Warframe gives us Rell, the Tenno that the Red Veil worship. Throughout the Chains of Harrow quest there's many hints to Rell's autism; from flashbacks to Rell learning emotions to the Donda that Rell used to use to stimulate himself. When Word of God confirmed his autism, no one was surprised.

Web Comics

Daisy Archanis in Last Res0rt is an autistic adult who also happens to be one of the smarter members of the cast, having both managed to figure out that Jigsaw was a vampire (and managed to inform Jigsaw of that fact before Jigsaw could accidentally out herself). It's not a true portrayal of autism, however. In-universe, mental diagnoses like autism and schizophrenia are considered symptoms of being "Light Children" — people who have similar abilities to the Celeste, but lacking the same access to training and education (and thus causing their powers to manifest differently).

Jiro Sasaki from Ruby Nation is a deliberate deconstruction. His physical and cognitive abilities have been greatly advanced by nanomachines, but his social skills remain arrested. He doesn't relate well to people, and the world he lives in gives him no reasons to like them. He finds love with Ruby and companionship with her other friends, but he still has difficulty with more subtle, emotional interactions. It's clear he cares about people (especially Ruby), defying many of the stereotypes of autistic people, but he's not good at expressing it, and is prone to unexpected emotional outbursts.

These comics by Rebecca Burgress set out to defy this trope, such as by getting rid of the linear autism spectrum image and replacing it with a round spectrum full of several traits or ways the brain processes information.

by Rebecca Burgress set out to defy this trope, such as by getting rid of the linear autism spectrum image and replacing it with a round spectrum full of several traits or ways the brain processes information. Dina Saruyama from Dumbing of Age is a sort-of aversion. Implied, but never actually stated in-universe to be "on the spectrum," she displays obsessive interests in dinosaurs and severe deficiencies in social skills, but is quite shrewd in some ways and certainly interested in sex — Joe appears at one point wearing what appears to be her t-shirt, and she ultimately forms a lesbian relationship with Becky. Of note is that while author David Willis didn't have autism in mind when writing her character, he injected a lot of his own self into her portrayal, and after realizing that he himself was likely autistic (having never been brought in for a formal diagnosis and only noticing the similarities after readers began bringing them up), concluded that Dina was similarly "Aspergery" but undiagnosed.

Western Animation