AIBU to think this is out of order on a kids cartoon programme.

[mum0fthree]

I have also posted in special needs section but as it is busier here have reposted.

DS 7 (AS) asked me "Am I an anti-social freak?" of course I said no, why? I followed him into the living room to hear a character on Cartoon Network (Johnny Test) say "I am so glad we have a normal kid and not a weird anti-social freak"

I can't understand why a prog aimed at children would broadcast blatant disability discrimination and it is my view that it is really nasty thing to say.

ruined the post when the crossing out didn't work.

As mum to a 12 year old with AS issues I can see where the OP is coming from. It is not the one off incident of the programme that probably caused the upset so much as the drip drip drip effect of negativity towards ASD from people who sadly know no better. When your child has been ostracised, called a weirdo, freak etc, the media run articles questioning if autism is real and people feel free to openly criticise your parenting it does make you feel quite defensive.

My children have watched Johnny Test in the past (it's fairly crap tbh) and I would guess that the parent in question was calling Johnny Test or maybe one of his sisters 'a weird anti-social freak'. As I recall he is a fairly normal kid with genius twin sisters who invent lots of crazy stuff that they then test on him. He is very bratty and could possibly (at a stretch) have hyperactivity issues but as far as I can recall no one in the show is disabled. All the minor characters are quite stupid, but that's fairly run of the mill for children's cartoons.

I agree it's a bit of a nasty thing to say, but again lots of children's cartoons do include lots of low level abuse. We have quite a long banned in our presence list

I am not a troll.

Mayorquimby - re clairovyent, I am not sure if the phrase was repeated or he had rewound it on the + box.

Mauricetinkler - there is a big differance between being anti-social ffs and it actually hindering your life.

*clairvoyant

Maybe I am overeacting but I find the whole sentence together offensive.

OP I haven't seen the show, but you didn't see the whole thing either, and to me this line is shriekingly obviously either the set up to a joke in which the speaker's assumptions will be "hilariously" undermined, or a leaden attempt to set the speaker up as an unsympathetic character who will get their comeuppance.

In toddler TV nobody ever says bad and discriminatory things because they don't really understand about bad people saying bad things. But as children get older we gradually expose them to fictional examples of Bad People saying Bad Things. The Harry Potter books are a good example I'd say.

However - I wouldn't offer a total defence of this sort of thing without seeing the entire show, because well meaning people can still get things badly wrong; Warren Mitchell doesn't see the problem with 'Til Death Us Do Part to this day.

Oh Lord... Just how sensitive can some people get?

DilyPrice - your right I didn't see the whole show or the context the phrase was said in so I most probably have misunderstood what the phrase was implying.

Omigawd - yes I think I may be a tad sensitive, its quite hard not to be. I will have to grow a thicker skin.