"ass burgers".

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Why does Asperger syndrome have to have such a humiliating name?

The term Asperger syndrome was named after Hans Asperger, an Austrian paediatrician who, in 1944, described a group of children with social‑communication differences but strong verbal and cognitive skills. His work wasn’t widely known until the 1980s, when psychiatrist Lorna Wing popularised the term in English

I wish it was still in the DSM.

Move to the UK we pronounce it asperjers here. :p

I recently learned that hans asperger's advisor was called frans hamburger. If only people with cooler names studied us.

I rather Asperger's to Asperjer's. I don't know why but the UK way seems to make me flinch more when I hear it.

The name did become a joke. It became a big deal when the satirical parody comedy show South Park aired the ‘Ass Burgers’ episode in 2011. It implied Aspergers was a fake disease and also poked fun at anti vaxxers. At the time Wrong Planet members criticized anybody who was offended noting that South Park is an equal opportunity offender. At the time, I did not watch South Park, was undiagnosed, and not a WP member.

Fast forward to 2014. It was a whole different situation. The DSM had eliminated the Aspergers diagnosis the year before and there were hard feelings between those members who wanted usage of the terms Aspergers and Aspie stopped and those who did not. One reason cited for dropping the usage of Aspergers was the usage of ass burgers in bullying of autistics.

Now it’s 2026. The episode is now 15 years old. I can’t remember the last time I read the words ass burgers. Wrong Planet is much more of a live and let live place. To me it is a footnote in the history of Wrong Planet.

I watched that episode of South Park but was rather disappointed in it because it kinda diverted away from Asperger's/autism and more about Stan seeing everything as crap. I was expecting it to be more like the Timmy episode where kids faked ADD to get out of doing homework or something like that.

I don't really become offended by TV shows though, if it's meant to be satire that is. I can watch anything and laugh, even jokes about cancer. Anything. As long as it's satire and not false fact (which even then is more irritating to me than offensive).

^That's exactly how I feel as well.

Sometimes health things get named after the first known patient which might be more embarrassing for said patient.

Aspergers, autism or whatever...it's just a name. I don't think it's important what you call it as long as you get what it is right. And that is a lot trickier!

I just remembered there's been some debate on here in the past because some were calling themselves Sperg which tends to be used in a derogatory way. The users calling themselves that were hating on themselves for having issues instead of being more functional & normal

I live in Canada but I pronounce the G like a J, too. Not that I think it fools anyone.

And I hardly ever say I have Asperger's or call myself aspie because people are offended by everything. It makes them think I'm a nazi or an aspie supremacist who sees herself as better than autistic people, even though Asperger's *is* autism, it's just like I have a dash of it, the way a recipe for a cake calls for a dash of salt. Which is pretty amusing when you know that the dash of salt is was brings the flavor out in a sweet food like cake. But I'm much more salty than sweet. But I digress. I usually define myself as having ASD, although I worry people will mistake it for ASPD and think I'm a sociopath. They wouldn't be completely wrong.

This is not a serious comment, so why comment? Because I am an Ass Burglar

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An Ass Burglar - Could be a hobbit with a wide girth derriere, or a Hobbit that is so incredibly annoying.

I think it is a nice word. asperger - to sprinkle water.