Did You Know 'Arthur' Had a Character With Asperger's?
The PBS Kids show “Arthur,” which follows the adventures of a cartoon, glasses-wearing ardvark, once explained Asperger’s syndrome in a way that children can understand.
A 2010 episode of the show, called “When George Met Carl,” has resurfaced online thanks to the Ruined Childhood Tumblr account. In it, a character with Asperger’s syndrome named Carl is introduced, BuzzFeed reported.
In an effort to understand Carl more, the character George asks his friend Alan about Asperger’s. Alan responds that his uncle has Asperger’s, and goes on to describe how his uncle has explained the condition to him in the past. The analogy Alan uses is that of an alien planet with different customs and behaviors that his uncle can’t always understand, but over time he has learned to adjust to it and make sense of it more and more.
“Imagine you’ve crash-landed on an alien planet,” Alan says in the video below. “It looks like Earth, but there are lots of differences. For one, a lot of people seem to talk really loudly. And even though you speak the same language, you sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean.”
Check out a clip of the episode in the video below:
h/t BuzzFeed
Melissa McGlensey is the former News Editor at The Mighty. Her writing can also be seen in Ms. Magazine, on the Ms.Magazine blog and in The Huffington Post’s Good News, Comedy and Impact sections. Melissa is also a New York City comedian who does sketch, improv and stand up. She is passionate about social justice, politics, Thai food, literature, disability rights and more. She is currently in a long-distance relationship with her cat, Sneakers, who lives in California. You can follow her on twitter at @OhHeyMeliss.
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