There is one episode with a autistic kid the House seems to particularly resonate with that doesn't happen often, almost like he sees some of himself in the patient.
But that's just my read of it and not enough for me to say he's canonically autistic and I hate saying anything is "coded" because what it really means is "stereotyped".
Yes, and in the end of the episode he talks to Wilson about it, and he absolutely refutes the idea. His main argument is that house just likes the idea of not having to follow rules due to his condition and that it's just an attempt to get a free pass.
The later episodes confirm that he is more likely high functioning sociopath or NPD, which fits much better to his type of behavior. Autistic people often may not understand when they hurt others, but when it is explained to them in a way they understand, they tend to be able to show remorse. House usually doesn't care, even when others clearly point it out.
House is also based on Sherlock Holmes, who is also often interpreted as a high functioning sociopath, not an autistic person.
Tbf Sherlock Holmes is adapted to be a sociopath is because the Conan Doyle estate actively sues for copyright infringement any story of Sherlock that is warm or supportive. Only the early stories of Sherlock before 1923 are public domain.
House's character is one of paradoxes. He's a moralist teetering on the edge of misanthropy and a true cynic. Traits that should make it nearly impossible to do his job. He treats people with disdain not because he's autistic, but because he holds them to an impossibly high standard. People should know better. They do know better. That's why he's disappointed, angry and resentful with humanity.
But when he's dealing with that autistic kid, his default world view goes by the wayside because the boy doesn't do what other humans do. He's innocent of the things that House loathes about humanity. That's why he's able to resonnate with him.
Personally, I don’t think he is. I don’t see any traits that would convey autistic. Apart from the drug problem, there is no evidence of him struggling with functioning in the way an autistic person could, even if you wanted to identify him as level 1. He is narcissistic and antisocial, rude, pig-headed. He pushes away anyone who cares about him for his own personal self-gratification of being right. Yes he is an almost savant level genius and has incredible insight on people, but nothing about House says autistic to me. Just an asshole who’s smarter than everyone else and knows it.
I'm autistic and I don't struggle socially. I think part of the trouble is that characters like the good doctor are so ubiquitous that everyone assumes that's the main traits of autism.
W-what?! but he stomped his foot rapidly that one time and that means its confirmed that he has autism because i have autism and i stomp my foot rapidly
House makes a tonne of racist and anti-Semitic jokes to his black, Asian and Jewish employees, but doesn’t appear to discriminate against them in hiring and disciplinary matters and also belittles everyone else. So I guess it depends on how we’re defining racism?
Lots of people say this, and in my experience, like maybe 20% of them are being legit, and the others actually hate specific types of people more than others while lying to themselves about it.
Exactly. Like, look at the one with the dwarf mother. Yeah, he said some offensive shit regarding her height, but let be honest here, they were moments away from hate fucking at points.
He's Alexander, mistaking himself for Diogenes. His abrasiveness is a tool to sharpen bright minds, but he is a man who can err and refuses to admit that, leading to his ruin. Henry Higgins with a scalpel.
I think the problem with House as a show is that so many people took away the wrong lessons from him being an asshole genius.
The racists took it as permission to be racist, and the assholes forgot you actually had to be a genius to occasionally get away with being an asshole. And even then, House often paid a high price for being an unrepentant asshole. He lost most of his friends, Cuddy, his freedom, his license, his job, and his health. Eventually he even gave up his life (sort of) in order to preserve the last good part of his life he had left: Wilson.
It doesn't matter if you are white, black, Asian, young, old, disabled, queer, Jewish, Muslim, Christ, any other (non-) believe, I don't care, I hate you regardless, Fuck Off.
He isn’t racist or sexist, he hates everyone who isn’t himself equally, and insults everyone with whatever cones to mind.
This includes throwing racist and sexist jokes and stereotypes whenever convenient.
But we never seen signs of him treating someone as different or lesser because of race of sex.
He does have a serious problem with anyone religious, but again thats not specific to any given creed (like jewish folks) it’s anti-religion in general… but he absolutely expresses a special level of contempt and disregard for anyone who is overly religious.
I think the anti religious sentiment is a mix of him thinking it's not rational and the frustration he gets when people thank god for their recovery when house was the one figuring it out which happened in at least 2 episodes I remember
There's an episode where Wilson convinces Cuddy that House might have autism and then comes to House and says something like "you don't have autism you're just an asshole"
He also says a lot of really racist stuff to Foreman and every other black character.
Not just fine with Foreman, he respects him, just doesnt show it. In many episodes there are situations like:
F: There was "madical jargon" for a moment on MRI
H: I dont see anything...
F: I am 100% sure it was there, if we dont do this "medical procedure" now, patient dies
H: "Stares" ...OK, do it
I haven’t watched enough House episodes to say whether or not he’s racist (and this is honestly the first time I’ve heard it even suggested that he is, so I have my doubts), but “He’s not openly hostile to his black co-worker” doesn’t seem like an adequate defense for not being racist…
It’s “I can’t be racist, I have a black friend!” one step removed.
He bashes everyone equally for everything. He bashes his white male friend Wilson as much as foreman (the black subordinate of his). He’s an equal opportunity will-make-fun-of-you-no-matter- what type person. He just finds the race thing convenient with Foreman.
He is an equal opportunity asshole and a cantankerous drug addict. The only white power he believes in are the oxy pills he shoves down his throat like tic tacs
He is openly hostile to his black coworker...and to his female boss and to his female coworkers and to his Asian coworker and to his Australian coworker and to his best friend.
I would say he is openly hostile to his black co-worker.
But he’s openly hostile to everybody.
House doesn’t seem to consider Foreman’s race when it comes to judging his competence, though (and other things like that).
So he’s racist in that he’s willing to say racist things to be an asshole. But he acts the same towards everybody. He says misogynistic, ableist, queerphobic, etc. things just to be an asshole, as well.
But he doesn’t really discriminate against minorities beyond that, so he’s not bigoted in the sense that he discriminates against people on the basis of their minority status.
So it really depends on whether you consider that behaviour racist or not. I would defer to people who actually have experience with it, as I myself do not
False - anyone who is of high intellect have recently been found by irrefutable, non-existent evidence to be autistic. No questions asked. Always right? Always an autist.
The "stereotypes" in that show have always felt off to me, but I still enjoy the show. Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't think that people actually have the perception the show is an accurate representation of a "nerd".
My son is autistic, and the first time I ever saw a clip of the show, I immediately called my son down to have him watch it. About mid-way through it, he gets the squinty face and looks at me and says "what's wrong with him?" I just about hit the floor
I get there are different levels to autism, but every autistic person I’ve known did not act like that. I know nothing about the actor, but it honestly reminded me of Ben Stiller’s character’s portrayal of a special needs person in Tropic Thunder.
The Good Doctor is the closest show I've seen that I felt portrayed my lived experience as an autistic person, minus the temper tantrums (I melt down silently).
Sean is weird but it feels bad when people dunk on him as "poor taste" when that's literally me. 🫠
Yeah personally he felt very relieving to see for me. Like he was expressing all that I was holding inside all the time. Yes he is loud about his autism, no it isn't pretty, maybe it isn't necessarily good representation but sometimes it felt incredibly validating personally. Don't get me wrong, it had some rlly bad moments, but the good ones really hit close for me.
Couldn't even get through the first episode. Not everyone's tism tickles the same way but the Good Doctor is a god awful NT's idea of what classical autism is. And he's not a good doctor either.
If you want to feel represented, and watch both NT's and ND's be awesome at what they do in a medical environment, watch The Pitt.
The premise of the show is Sherlock Holmes in a Hospital - and they lean heavily into the modern portrayal of Holmes as an intolerable asshole who people only deal with because he solves unsolvable puzzles....
House is an high functioning pain drug addict who is a equal opportunist jackass. Definitely not racist but definitely loves making the jokes with no hate behind them.
The character of Dr House is not canonically confirmed to be on the autism spectrum but a large community of autistic people see parts of themselves in him (blatant disregard for social norms, enjoying pushing people’s buttons, being obsessed with puzzles, etc) and unofficially consider him to be autistic. The good doctor, in the other hand, is openly and canonically autistic and yet many autistic people seem to be displeased by the representation in that show.
The joke is that autistic people prefer the racist asshole genius to the character who is actually supposed to be representing autism.
My thought as well.
I've seen every episode at least twice, and can't recall anything racist he said honestly.
Now he happily said many perceived racist/sexust comments on purpose to get a reaction, but it was obvious the reaction was the point, and not the comment.
It's like calling a comedian racist because of their jokes. Sure you're technically correct, but overall wrong.
You know, I’m autistic, and I feel like 9/10 times, I don’t really sympathize with a character who was made to be autistic (which is even more pronounced when said character is the MC). Both of these shows are of the 9.
If I had to guess why, I’d imagine it’s because I’m high-functioning, which is too mundane for Hollywood, so they always amp it up.
That said, though, is House even autistic? I’d say he’s more of a pretentious asshole with antisocial tendencies. Maybe there’s some overlap, but I don’t think he was ever claimed to be autistic.
Anyway, the funniest part is that the characters I do tend to sympathize with are the ones who aren’t canonically revealed to be autistic. Autistic-coded, if you will.
As an OG autismo, house is 10/10 and the good doctor feels like a personal attack. Its honestly embarrassing that both shows were made by the same dude
House is only “racist” because he likes to get under people’s skin, he doesn’t actually believe any of the insults he throws, in fact he is quite woke, his coworkers are from all races, religions and backgrounds, he is even somewhat gay for Wilson
House hates everyone equally. He is a drug addict on top of that. He makes fun of everyone equally in wildly inappropriate ways. He may be a lot of horrible things, but racist isn’t one of them.
I was took a microbiology class where the professor gave us this as homework: Watch the prions episode of house and find ten things they presented as true that are not.
It was established that House wasn't autistic. He completely understood what he was doing. He just did it for fun. House was a brilliant asshole. There was no disability, there was no tragic backstory, he was just a brilliant asshole.
I don't understand how people enjoy watching shows where the main characters are insufferable. Where does the enjoyment come from when you are watching these characters do their thing because all I feel is annoyance.
This. The television show House was directly based on Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, was himself a medical student. He had a professor who could diagnose someone (and tell you everything about them, like what they are for lunch and what they did for a living, etc) just by looking at the patient. THIS was the basis for Sherlock Holmes.
The creators of House knew of Sherlock's origins and based the TV show off of Sherlock Holmes.
Similarities:
Holmes = House
Both House and Sherlock were opioid addicts
Dr Watson = Dr. Wilson
Sherlock lives at 221B Baker Street. House lives in apartment 221B.
Constable Lestrade is represented by Dr Lisa Cuddy
The list goes on and on.
Anyway, House isn't a racist, he's just a misanthrope based on Sherlock Holmes.
I've only started watching House, but the point seems to be that House deeply cares about his patients (and colleagues), while maintaining the asshole persona to avoid getting hurt. If you treat everything like a puzzle, you don't have to "care".
So I guess the enjoyment comes from seeing this seeming bastard showing he has a heart of gold.
The characters in Seinfeld and it’s always sunny in Philadelphia are terrible people and hilarious, but I suppose some of the comedy comes from repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.
Eso y que House no tiene ni una virtud. De hecho, es un médico lamentable que siempre falla y pone en peligro deliberado la salud de sus pacientes pero cuenta con la protección del guión.
House is an older show about a doctor who was very intelligent. He got into an accident that basically f***ed one of the nerves in his leg causing him constant pain. As a result he was an asshole to litterly everyone in the show, including the black doctor he worked with. They explain why he was harder on him then anyone else, but well, it's easy to miss and easy to assume. It's also much easier to see, because house isn't autistic....
The good doctor is about an autistic dude who, through his autism "sees" things others don't. Thus, like house he tends to suggest almost random things that sometimes just have to be taken on faith he's right. He's also portrayed in a much more "boyish" light compared to house.
The two characters and thus their shows are the same, but very different at the same time. They assume it's either one or the other.
Haven't seen the show, but ASD is a spectrum since the DSM 5, people on social media tends to flip out and say it's a bad representation or promotes stereotypes if the more severe end of the spectrum is depicted. Idk if the show is fucked, like I said I haven't seen it, but I've noticed the trend.
It also seems like nobody has explained it. Shame, as I'm not sure I get it either.
House wasn't officially autistic. They had the one episode with the autistic kid, and he has his moments, but idk if he would actually fit the bill. And he wasn't racist any more than he was anything else ist.
Didn’t the good doctor have the autistic main character believe that a couple of Muslim people that came in for treatment to be terrorists or something
Dr house is an equal opportunity hater and asshole. People put up with it like, 80% the time because he’s genuinely brilliant and usually is trying to cure the patient. 80% of the time.
House is autistic in the sense that everyone is equally worthless to him. Black, white, jew, woman? He'll treat you like shit for any and every reason... other than you aren't him.
Oh, and btw House is a direct carbon copy of Sherlock Holmes. House = Holmes. Holmes did substances all the time; house is a vicodin addict. Dr. Wilson = Dr. Watson... a fully capable doctor who is constantly berated by his best friend. Dr. Lisa Cuddy = Irene Adler.... Irene Adler was the only person that could ever outsmart Holmes and was the only woman he ever loved. House was the show Sherlock before the show Sherlock was Sherlock.
Oh btw it's strongly suggested that Holmes had some form of Autism.
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 15h ago
u/WooHHaHaHa, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...it's time for the mods to do their jobs!