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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW
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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW
International Autism Summit Session-Humor, Autism, and Advocacy Unwrapped with Andrew Bennett
What makes Stephen Wright's surreal humor so uniquely captivating? Join us as our friend Andrew, known for his sharp wit and keen intellect, takes us on a journey through Wright's world of deadpan delivery and bizarre punchlines. Discover how Wright’s offbeat humor resonates profoundly with the autistic experience, turning what many see as different into a source of beauty and laughter. Andrew draws fascinating parallels between Wright's jokes and the way those on the autism spectrum interpret rules and definitions, offering insights that will make you see humor in a whole new light.
But that’s not all! Andrew's wisdom extends beyond comedy as he navigates the challenges faced by autistic individuals, especially in the healthcare system. We highlight the alarming statistics and personal stories that underscore the urgent need for better insurance coverage. Through Andrew's anecdotes and light-hearted humor, we touch on serious issues with a sprinkle of laughter, advocating for a more inclusive environment. This episode is a heartfelt blend of comedy, meaningful reflection, and a call for better communication and care for everyone.
fantastic and I think, yay, mia is back too, and you know before. Um, I think that we have like what? One minute, or are we good to go? Andrew is is here and he is. Are you ready to go on to Andrew? Hi, hello, hi, andrew, wonderful One of my good friends, you know, someone who, when I met, I felt like wow. First of all, I just love his sense of humor. Sense of humor, I love his sense of intellect and just really like relatable to me as a human being. That is kind of, you know, on the same path of self discovery and and doing the best that we can for our community and, um, yeah, so, so great to have you here, andrew, so great to have you here, andrew. Looks like we're starting. We're going to get off this stage and let you take over.
Speaker 2:I guess is it the presentation that's starting and I'm going along with it and I'm going to be doing this material, or am I starting?
Speaker 1:I don't know. So we are definitely excited to hear what you have to share with us today.
Speaker 2:All right, well, you sound more excited than I do, but I promise this is just how I talk, at least on this, at least today. Because I'm talking about a comedian that a lot of people know that had that voice in his act the whole time, and a comedian that I personally found to have a lot of observations on my autistic experience and even the experience of so many other people. His name is Stephen Wright, so a man walking out onto the biggest late night TV show in the year 1982, the thunderous applause from the audience and responds with a timid thanks. It sounds like he's just woken up after only half a night of sleep and forgot his coffee. And the first proper words out of his mouth are I had a dream that all the babies prevented by the pill showed up. They were mad. Would you find him weird, insane or just different? Now, even before I was born in 1990, in a world that did not yet welcome autistic people, this now legendary droning voice was gaining such acclaim that Johnny Carson himself welcomed him back on the Tonight Show a week later for a second performance.
Speaker 2:This is Stephen Wright, legendary stand-up comic, recently author, but always the unwitting voice of autism. His comedic style is known for its deadpan, monotone delivery of absurdist, surrealist or nonsensical punchlines oftentimes just one line, maybe two, to write, soon became the most improbable star comedian, filling theaters with fans roaring at cerebral punchlines as if they were bluesy guitar chords from an arena rock band. If you made a family tree of modern stand-up, he would top one of the few major and expanding branches. Perhaps what attracted people most to Wright was how he defied expectations from his first word, how he stood for something atypical and found the humor, even the beauty, that since then we have found in the autistic experience. So what if what we laugh at is what we find absolutely beautiful? So now I'm going to get to show you a few of his jokes and how they actually applied to this experience. They taught me practice makes perfect, and then they told me nobody's perfect, so I stopped practicing.
Speaker 2:Autistic people take rules literally and when rules conflict it becomes logical to defy them. Cognitive dissonance can result for most of us, but for the autistic sometimes it leads to freezing up, unable to bear the idea of breaking a rule and even becoming unresponsive to future commands, like the time in Rain man, where Raymond sees a sign don't walk on the street and roots himself to the spot, even when traffic nearly hits him. In Wright's case, he hears the idea that nobody's perfect and sees no pragmatic use in practicing to make perfect. This conflict may lead to unexpected changes, even lack of thriving, with no explanation, unless you ask a question like why did you stop practicing? And you might get this as an answer Like why did you stop practicing? And you might get this as an answer.
Speaker 2:Number two it doesn't matter what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature. Autistics challenge arbitrary definitions of ideas in the world around them. What room is being used to define the phrase room temperature? We love to ask what do you mean, even when what is meant may seem obvious to others. We remember several rooms with our strong eidetic memories and notice the contradiction between a hot room and a cold room, and both can't be room temperature Unless we say what room temperature is, whatever temperature a room is, thereby rendering the term meaningless. Indeed, many things in the world are absurd when you put your mind to it, and it's autistic people who might notice that we're living in the matrix. Number three it's actually on my shirt. Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
Speaker 2:Autistics can do amazing things because of seeing beyond the arbitrary. Does walking distance mean one that an ordinary person however you happen to define that would ordinarily walk? Could one not theoretically walk across the United States? While not practical at all, it is possible, and believing something is possible may be the only missing piece of accomplishing it. Also, I found this joke to be a distinctly autistic way of expressing a fundamental motivational concept that no task is too big or difficult as long as you have the motivation and resources to do it and see beyond the barriers that others might place on it. I told my girlfriend I was going for a walk. She asked how long are you going to be gone? I said the whole time. Conversely, autistic people might pick up on lexical ambiguity and run with it. Does how long are you going to be gone mean just how long Stephen will be out of the house, or how long, within the time Stephen is walking, will he be gone out of the house?
Speaker 2:Number five you can't have everything. Where would you put it? Autistic people can focus on an aspect of something that others wouldn't notice to arrive at potentially an even sounder and more practical solution. Most people would dive into a grand philosophical treatise to prove the idea that you can't have everything and it could be done, but there's a simple practical reason you can't have everything that only a highly logical mind like the autistic mind would see, perhaps one that doesn't grasp the philosophical and abstract, as some autistic minds don't, and has to come up with another way to solve everyday problems. But however it gets done, if it works, we should honor it.
Speaker 2:Number six I've never seen electricity. That's why I don't pay for it. I write right on the bill Sorry, haven't seen it all month. It can be difficult for autistic people to grasp invisible or abstract things in the same way as other people. No-transcript Love may be felt better through actions, felt, but not fully understood. Like both of those things, electricity is invisible, but powers and energizes our lives, and we can come to an incorrect conclusion that they are real, because even if we can't see electricity, we can logically say it's real. If it's true, though, that this conference wouldn't be possible without it and we're at this conference.
Speaker 2:Number seven Winnie and I lived in a house that ran on static electricity. If you wanted to run the blender, you had to rub balloons on your head. If you wanted to cook, you had to pull off a sweater real quick. The premise that static electricity can power things is absurd. But Wright's exposition of his world is internally consistent and even otherwise consistent with our world, where electricity does power things. There is a fundamental difference, similarly, between the autistic world and the neurotypical world. That may seem completely illogical, but it is a world with its own internal logic that allows it to function otherwise, just like the world at large allows it to function otherwise. Just like the world at large.
Speaker 2:Autistic people not engaging in pleasantries or small talk, as often, may be off-putting to neurotypicals, but for us it serves the purpose of getting to the point Number eight, five years ago, watching TV only you can prevent forest fires. Oh no, every night I'm out the window with a bucket of water. The messages autistic people receive in their childhood might be even more internalized than the average person's and lead to unusual patterns of behavior. Even obsessions that were so characterized by Smokey. The Bear's famous phrase led Bright to believe that literally only he could prevent forest fires, unaware, without a theory of mind, that other people were seeing the message. Once I met an autistic boy who went to great lengths to avoid wearing bracelets and eventually learned it was because someone taught him only girls wear bracelets. It's always important to determine the reason for a behavior to best know how to respond. We could probably most likely conclude from that that he picked up an inaccurate message from some experience in his life and had to learn that boys could wear bracelets. It's much more plausible and provable. And when we explained that the dissonance was resolved Number nine I can't wait to be arrested and go all the way to the witness stand.
Speaker 2:You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help you God. Yes, you're ugly. Autistic people may follow the rules given to them to the point that it may cause awkwardness or offense, either because the consequence is not foreseen or it is, but preferred to betraying their rules or values. Does it indicate a problem with the person or with the environment? How can we meet in the middle to better explain to the autistic what it means to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, something that we hear every day in court dramas? If we're lawyers or if we're just around the legal profession in any way that not everything on our minds has to be said at all times, then how the world can benefit from our lack of filter to get the whole truth when it is necessary.
Speaker 2:Number 10, when we crossed the Canadian border, they asked me if I had any firearms. I said what do you need? Teaching autistic people social skills means that we have to be aware of and take responsibility for the potential side effects. Neurotypical society teaches that asking if you have something may be an indirect request for it. In the game go fish, that's exactly what happens. The literal answer to do you have any sevens is yes if you have them, no if you don't. But you're supposed to give your sevens in response to the question. But if someone asks you at the border if you have any firearms, they want a yes or no answer, not necessarily your firearms. If this had really happened, wright would have been questioned, searched and possibly even denied entry if he didn't have a firearms permit. All over a misunderstanding.
Speaker 2:Number 11. I saw a sign next rest area, 25 miles. I thought, wow, that's pretty big. People must get really tired around here. The relationships we see between words may be unclear or potentially multifaceted. The physical proximity of the words next rest area and 25 miles may imply that the rest area is 25 miles wide. You may think that someone would only understand it that way if it was written next rest area 25 miles wide, but one could instead write next rest area in 25 miles and communicate intent clearly. I in fact have my own web page on Facebook called Aspie Mind, where I post photographs of similar signs as interpreted by the autistic mind as a critique of societal ambiguity, and indeed I excel in any role that involves proofreading.
Speaker 2:These and many more of Wright's jokes became so iconic that I drew a common thread. Many more of Wright's jokes became so iconic that I drew a common thread A different way of perceiving the world, whose intersections with the neurotypical world led to potentially trouble and potentially growth, but always amusement and even validation that his mindset and reactions to everyday situations were perfectly reasonable within the context of the information given and, by extension, that the way I lived in thought was reasonable and a lot of times it was society that was flawed, not me. That as people's diaphragms widened in laughter, their perceptions were widening with every joke that anybody who laughed even once, but particularly many times, was a safe person to unmask around. Over time I actually began writing my own Stephen Wright-inspired jokes, some from real situations where I realized I reacted that way and some from things I observed and or my reactions that could realistically happen.
Speaker 2:Number one I got arrested last evening at a crosswalk. The sign said don't walk, so I ran. A common issue in education is educators teaching people what not to do rather than what to do. And it is even more important for autistic people who react unexpectedly to ambiguity in instructions. Just don't walk is not very clear as to what should be done instead. We know from maybe experience driving or walking, that don't walk is the opposite of walk in that context. But who's to say, absent that arbitrary rule, that the opposite of don't walk isn't run? In fact, there's even a movie called Walk, don't Run.
Speaker 2:Defying the norms of society might sometimes lead to opposition, but if you'd set an expectation and someone went outside of it in this way, would the solution be to punish or get mad at that person or make expectations clearer? Number two I went to the liquor store and the clerk asked me if I was born on or before February 28, 2003. I told him I didn't know because I was too young to remember. Some commonly asked questions may seem to have obvious answers, but to the autistic mind, would it be logical for someone to know the exact day they were born, if we all accept that we don't remember things that happened before a certain age, even if the subjective experience tells us we learned our birthday from everyone telling us, or maybe a birth certificate. In some situations, though, being entirely or mostly unencumbered by subjective factors and operating under objective logic may lead to better decisions. Number three we've been doing daylight savings time for so long and I've never seen us actually save any daylight. We should call it daylight borrowing time. We should call it daylight borrowing time. Many of us echo this sentiment and find daylight savings time an outdated concept and want it abolished, especially because the term for it is such a misnomer.
Speaker 2:Autistic people can be very purposeful If they don't see a purpose for something they aren't interested, or if something is named in a way that expresses a particular purpose, maybe it needs renaming to what it actually does, even if the new name doesn't have the same ring to it. Number four if it ain't broke, don't lend it money. Similarly, we may learn common sayings and truisms and see another situation where they apply A proclamation of acknowledgement of the world's expectations, but also a deliberate divergence from them into a different idea or unexplored territory, meeting people in the middle that we share a common human experience, despite the way we differ in neurology. That both, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and if it ain't broke, don't lend it. Money are valuable insights, and to have a successful human experience we need to know both. That the world needs all kinds of minds, from Stephen Wright to the people in his audience. Different in the way they see the world, but bonding over their shared amusement. His audience different in the way they see the world, but bonding over their shared amusement. Wright's last words today are the title of this presentation Hermits have no Peer Pressure.
Speaker 2:Autistic people might be seen as hermits due to their stereotypical tendency away from social interest, while this isn't always true.
Speaker 2:What if it was? Would this be a bad thing? In this short, pithy statement, we see that it might be a good thing in some ways less susceptibility to the trends of the world. Johnny Carson's introduction of right to the world came with a comment. I think you'll find him a little different, but different in itself is nothing to be ashamed of, for everyone is different. It's by being so unabashedly different that you can aspire to the fame that Wright has, while and because of still being fully yourself, fully yourself. Talk show hosts would fail to elicit any form of coherent interview with the still in character right and wonder out loud how the man had any friends or any kind of normal life. He is quite a private man and maybe a hermit, but as a result he has no peer pressure and that made him one of the most legendary comics of all time and my personal favorite for what he means to me in the autistic community. I could say many things to express that in closing, but perhaps the most appropriate is Thanks.
Speaker 1:I love that, andrewrew, what a fantastic presentation. I mean, oh my gosh, I actually posted in the middle of it like keeping us laughing, and when it just posted a reel of you during this, okay, it was so good and I was so happy to be, like you know, like I said earlier, mia, it's just been this like wonderful ride of up and down and exciting and all of time you handed people a lifetime of learning about how to relate and how to create communication easier and a space better for an autistic individual.
Speaker 1:And I love that, Andrew. Let's see what we got. I'm not sure what she said it about, but Brenda said that made so much sense. It was kind of towards the beginning. She also said true, so whatever you said was true. That's dangerous.
Speaker 2:This is good.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I said that was funny.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, I love it. I don't know what I said. That was funny, I forgot, right. I think she thought you were funny. Oh, no, fantastic, and just a wonderful way to kind of start our evening session tonight. And, andrew, I'm so grateful for you. Um, as you know, I'm lucky that you're my friend and I can, you know, just talk to you about things that are going on and you always have really wonderful insights and, um, you always make me laugh, like I, that I kind of joke, that you're kind of the best dad joke guy ever.
Speaker 2:Right Now, you know who the dad is that gave me those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to have to meet him someday yeah right.
Speaker 2:My dad taught me to have a special love for geography. It was a special interest of mine growing up. I learned a lot about different cultures and countries and memorized all the countries. It's also how I became a feminist, because I saw on the map a country called Turkmenistan and I thought it's not fair that there's not a Turkweministan.
Speaker 1:You can't even stop him, you't even like oh my gosh, I love it I was telling you earlier, celebrating this appearance with the bottle of german riesling.
Speaker 2:Germany is a very interesting country because when you drive on the autobahn you can't stop, and if you can't stop it's best not to get addicted in the first place. I love it. Another interesting country is New Zealand. I came from Texas and people boast about how it's so big. You can drive 14 hours in one direction and still be in Texas. But actually New Zealand's bigger because you can drive any number of hours in any direction and still be in New Zealand.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 1:You have just a folder full of them. I'm sure I can't even imagine that's so amazing. It's been so much fun. Thank you, Andrew. You know bringing us this important value, but with also some humor and some fun to have with it.
Speaker 2:It's really great that you know we can kind of celebrate all of this and one big I think it's very important that we make things that are harder to understand or that are important for people to appreciate and wrap them in something accessible, and I think that everybody's left in their lives At least Sarah has.
Speaker 1:Looks like Brenda's doing a good amount of laughing. She said, if you've had enough Riesling, new Zealand could be Texas.
Speaker 2:New Zealand is what happens when you're in Texas and you've had a little too much Riesling and you fall off the edge of the world and emerge on the other side. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been so much fun to have you here on the show today and the event oh my gosh, it's what a wonderful day it's been. Thank you so much, andrew, also for being a guest excuse me, an audience member and you know coming in and sharing and supporting the speakers throughout the day to day. It's just been wonderful to have you here.
Speaker 2:I'm so grateful to be here and I want to thank everybody for giving me these last 30 minutes. That's 15 minutes of fame before inflation.
Speaker 1:This guy.
Speaker 2:Well, I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1:It's great. Bye Andrew. Oh isn't he fantastic? Oh my gosh, I love the last one. Oh my gosh. Okay, yeah, what a way to start the evening. Miss Sarah. What a way Like yeah, I love this. Brenda's just right in there too. He missed it, but you need a drum beat. She said yeah. Oh man oh wow, yeah, so much fun we're having. Wow, yeah, so much fun we're having, and you know so um so special and it's all this important information, but we can have so much fun with it at the same time.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, it's, it's feeling really really good. Um, it looks like our uh next guest, jimmy, is in the background. Jimmy, how, how are things going? Everything going back there. You're getting your slides ready. Hopefully we'll see him. I don't know if we have any time in between that. We need to do any commercials. Hey, there's Jimmy. Hi, jimmy, hello, how are you doing? Are you ready.
Speaker 3:I'm always ready, I know you are. I are you doing Are?
Speaker 1:you ready? I'm always ready.
Speaker 3:I know you are.
Speaker 1:I know you are he's. You know this is Jimmy Claire, our crazy fitness guy. Oh, okay, yeah, so, and it's, I've been lucky to have Jimmy on my show. We've been on each other's shows, I think, and just have really kept in contact and in touch for the last couple of years and I've seen all of his growth and advocacy. So, yeah, it's great to have you here, jimmy. Thanks for your time today.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. I'm always happy to be a part of big things like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so nice to have you here. Do you have slides you're going to be using today?
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, did you pull those up yet?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't see that they're up there, but maybe you could share your screen with us and then we'll see them.
Speaker 3:I'm uploading them right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, wonderful.
Speaker 3:I think it went through.
Speaker 1:And Mia again. Thank you so much you are so just so incredible to jump on here with me. Danielle had a wedding she had to go to this afternoon and then I think I just forgot to schedule someone to be here. I am just honored and blessed to have you here by my side and it looks like um, there we go. There is his, his slides, ready to go. So if you're ready to go, jimmy, we will let you take the stage.
Speaker 3:I'm ready to go Cool. So today I'm going to be talking about the barriers, about the problems with the healthcare industry, with people with extra challenges. It's gone on far too long. It needs to change. It does not work, and here's why. So I don't know if you can see the numbers. I try to make them as big as possible without making it all blurry. But, as you can see very well, back in 1992, I was born in 1993, there's a steady growth of people being diagnosed with autism, people being diagnosed with autism. Now I made this presentation very broad to fit everyone on the actual challenges, autism included, et cetera. I know this is just from the Autism Paradigms magazine, so obviously it's a little slightly different, but I just wanted to show you that as the years progressed, there's more people with being diagnosed with autism, et cetera. We are currently in well as of last year, in 2023, it was one in 36. I believe now it's one in 34 in 2024. And so it's a steady pace. And because the autism diagnosis keeps expanding and growing and basically the spectrum keeps widening and widening and widening well, spectrum keeps widening and widening and widening. Well, that eventually needs to be revamped too. It might as well just be a spider web, because eventually the spectrum should run out at some point, so it should be branching off of each other like a spider web. But that's another story for another time later.
Speaker 3:But the problem doesn't just lie. It's not a problem that the autism diagnosis rate has skyrocketed. The problem is that the health insurance does not understand the extra help and care that people need with extra challenges, and I'll share another alarming statistic with you. So, according to the New York Times, 60% of people with extra challenges have trouble with getting the care that they need from their insurance. That is a lot, and that is coming from either this year or last year, I forget. Off the top of my head it was last year, I believe. Like 99.9% certain it was last year.
Speaker 3:60% of them could not get the insurance. 60% of them could not get the insurance, and I truly believe insurance simply does not understand that people with extra challenges need specialty kind of care, and here's why I'm sure many of you who are watching can agree that they have contacted their insurance at some point whether to get something approved or whatnot, and they deny you because of some person who says we have an expert. They don't tell you what they're an expert in. They just say we have an expert. They don't tell you what they're an expert in. They just say we have an expert who knows this. Well, I truly believe that those people. Yes, they have a doctor's degree, but I invest my. I have this thing called spinal stenosis.
