Good Doctor Memes And Autism (CONTROVERSY)

If you’ve been on social media recently, you’ve probably seen the Good Doctor memes making the rounds — and they’ve caused a lot of debate in the autism community. Are they harmless jokes, or do they promote stereotypes about autistic people?

In this episode of The Aspie World Podcast, I break down the Good Doctor memes controversy, how the autistic community feels about it, and why representation in media matters more than ever.

Whether you love the show, dislike it, or have never seen it, this episode dives into the bigger conversation around autism, stereotypes, and respect.

• Why the Good Doctor memes have sparked backlash online

• How the show’s autism representation impacts real autistic people

• The difference between healthy humour and harmful stereotypes

• Why media portrayals shape public perception of autism

• How autistic voices can guide better, authentic representation

Memes can be funny — but when they reinforce damaging stereotypes, they affect how autistic people are treated in schools, workplaces, and society.

• Autistic adults frustrated by inaccurate representation

• Parents wanting to understand the conversation around autism in media

• Allies who want to be respectful and supportive

• Anyone curious about how TV and memes shape public understanding of autism

If you’ve ever felt misrepresented, stereotyped, or misunderstood, this episode will help you make sense of the controversy and why it matters.

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If this episode helped you, please:
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Together, we can push for better, more authentic portrayals of autistic people — on screen and online. 💙

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
TV show The Good Doctor has beengetting a lot of controversy
around autism because of some memes falling out of the
Internet. Let's get into guys.
Welcome back to the Aspy world. My name is Dan and I have autism
and ADHD can make weekly videos all about this stuff.
So if you're new around here, make sure hit the subscribe
button down below, guys. So I've been seeing loads of
memes about the good doctor on the Internet.
And I thought, OK, whatever, youknow, and they're related to

(00:22):
this TV show and the TV show wascalled The Good Doctor.
Now the Good Doctor is a show that is portraying the life of a
young medical director or a a physician who is on the autism
spectrum, but is highly gifted, highly talented, and he goes to
this hospital and he's like justreally good at what he does.
However, the show features the main character who has these

(00:43):
doctor skills and he has, you know, social interaction
mannerisms that are kind of unique and, and and subject to
kind of autism because in it they talk about him being on the
autism spectrum. But then some of the
characteristics obviously are, are not all the characteristics
of autism and not everybody withautism will display like this
guy. However, a lot of the memes have
been coming out basically sayingthat the stereotypes of autism

(01:06):
are being kind of damaged because it's damaging the autumn
community that the stereotypes of autism are coming out in
memes like how he cries or how he outbursts, how he has
emotional, I don't know, like meltdowns and stuff like that.
Some of the individuals from whoare awesome advocates express
their concerns about the memes pushing the stereotypes and the
trivializing changes faced by people with autism.

(01:27):
I'm basically saying that like, because autism has very serious
implications and has very serious issues with like
meltdowns and burnouts and things like that.
By creating memes out of those, you kind of delegitimize the the
issues and the struggles that people on autism kind of go
through. And I kind of get it.
I get what they're trying to say.
At the same time, I think it's just a meme and it's kind of
like throw away, but I can understand how that would kind

(01:48):
of be detrimental to somebody and how somebody could take that
really offensively or somebody could just take that and feel
quite, you know, down about somebody making fun of their
their condition. Now, whatever the the scope is,
I think what this is doing is raising awareness of the show,
the good doctor, which I think is pretty decent.
It's a good show. And by doing that, you're
raising awareness of autism and people becoming more
understanding of the issues thatautism could face.

(02:10):
So I think there's good and bad on both parts of this.
I think it's good for outreach and good to spread the message
of autism. But I think maybe the way it's
being handled is, is is difficult.
So maybe we should start good campaigns for autism and unhappy
campaigns for autism, showing how kind of, you know, the
struggles are real and the struggles are really difficult
for us. I would love to know your
comments. Please put a comment down below

(02:31):
if you have anything to add to this.
And also if you are looking for my free Autism Life Acts PDF
book, that's right, free. You can get it from
autismhacks.net. All right guys, see you in the
next video. Peace.