ok I just want to say again how much I love Abed. Seriously. Here’s a main character with high-functioning autism, and they don’t romanticise it or demonise it. Yeah, he’s the king of pop culture references, but he also admits he can’t read faces or social interactions and has absolutely no filters on what is and isn’t “socially acceptable” behaviour. (in fact, he uses movies as a method to try and dissect human behaviour in a way he can understand)
They also don’t shirk away from the non-cutesy side – more than once he’s stormed himself into reacting with screeches or complete non-responsiveness. He’s also been shown to be what you would term a complete selfish manipulative arsehole” but again, that’s because he lives in a very differently structured world to neurotypicals.
His life hasn’t been easy. His interactions with people haven’t been easy, or even always kind. And they don’t shrink away from any of that.
But the best thing – the best thing is that while his autism is an integral part of him, it’s not all of him. And his friends work with it, not around or against it – and they will occasionally get frustrated, occasionally get angry, but the anger is directed at the fundamental difference in how they all interact and handle the world around them. It’s a realistic viewpoint, he isn’t broken, and neither is anyone who might occasionally get frustrated when dealing with him.
And as much as his friends help him to see the world as neurotypicals see it, the door swings both ways.