tgwdlm but it's just paul being autistic 

SHIT I MISSED AN OKAY AT 13:51 edit: i should’ve made the spoiler warning at the beginning more obvious in retrospect. if you’re reading this before finishing the video and you don’t want nightmare time spoilers, turn back now!! ♥️

no-one in this town is neurotypical because no-one in the writers’ room is neurotypical

9:34 I think this is more them referring to the archetypical everyman employee as "Pauls" but I like the idea of this being related to nightmare time somehow :)

I quote “whaaAAATT???” so often it’s a problem

3:16 you're so real for this

9:22 yo Paul being bi is technically canon!!! Jon Matteson said he thinks Paul is definitely bi!!!! He drops that bit of lore right at the end of his TGWDLM watch party

12:37 I like to think that it's, like, an anti special interest. he hates them so much that he needs to know everything about them. to quote one of my friends, a special disinterest /silly

The "okay" quote has actually become a vocal stim for me when I'm overwhelmed/stressed lmao

Jon plays a neurotypical person(Level Impossible)

Honestly, the failure of Pokey to capture Paul's personality after the apotheosis always had a reason in my mind. His manic joy feels incredibly forced, and I always read it as Paul's entire personality being antithetical to Pokey's whole vibe with the plan. So while Pokey's in control, Paul's still fighting, even if unconsciously, and Pokey just can't nail down a good replication of his personality. After all, Paul's the only person we see get infected that is able to fight it for any period of time. Like- just look at Paul's face in the final scene with Emma. It doesn't look happy, it looks contorted into a smile. And his singing sounds strained. It just reads to me like it's taking everything Pokey's got just to keep Paul in control, especially tormenting Emma with Paul's failure to save the world.

I like to think him being forced to see Godspell was caused by his boss pulling the "if you don't, you're fired" card as some kind of coworker building/bonding thing.

Fun thing is, Paul doesn’t mask a lot with Ted, that long stare when Ted was teasing him for example. so maybe they are kinda best friends! Paul is at least comfortable enough to drop his mask a bit with Ted at least

i like to imagine that pokey decided on a musical hivemind just to target paul specifically

I had heard people saying Ted’s lines to Bill about Alice for sure being dead were also him thinking the same thing about his brother, but I never realized that we actually do see that peter was already possessed.

2:30 Me personally, I headcanon that Ted has ADHD, but i can see it

He is my absolutely favorite starkid character, and one of my favorite characters period. Tbh, I didn't make the autism connection until someone else had pointed it out, but the second I did it becomes absolutely impossible to read this character any other way. It actually has major implications for the themes of the whole show too!!

ALSO the fact that the "What do you Want Paul" song is truly Paul NOT KNOWING WHAT MR DAVIDSON MEANS WITH "WANTING", and that's something I struggle so much with??? Like, I just want to coast by life, exist like a energy ball floating around, I don't know what I want in specific, that's so subjective and I hate anything subjective and it's so -tism coded.

something about how naturally jon portrays those tiny "stimming" behaviors that would only be detected by another autistic person tells me hes not entirely neurotypical himself tbh

“yeah i think paul might be bi” - actual genuine quote from jon matteson that is as good as canon to me

Thank you so much for this video. I'm currently in rehearsals to play Paul in July '24 and this pointed out a lot of little nuances I never noticed. Going to incorporate these into his character! I'm rehearsing off book for the first time this Monday.

i just- it has to be intentional?? IT'S SO SPESIFIC, THE STIMMING AND ALL THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE IT MOST OF THE TIME BUT IT'S THERE. IT'S THERE. they had to have made him just a bit overcooked you can't tell me otherwise lmfa o

i say "Okay. Okay. Okay" SO MUCH ITS BAD also i love how you covered that one actor's face that's hilarious (i forgor his name and i don't care enough to google)

Man, the little banging your hands together stim at 8:34 is just like me fr. Absolutely peak content. Autistic Paul rights fr fr.

Absolutely agree with all of your remarks - and you picked up on stuff I didn’t realize! It always frustrates me that people say that Paul’s a jerk or a shut in when he refuses the softball game - he has boundaries and doesn’t really know how to respond! Definitely relate to this autistic coded legend in some aspects (though I’m the opposite when it comes to musicals, singing and music stuff is a self regulating thing for me)

The scene at Beanie's in the digital ticket version is somehow the most romantic scene in all of starkid for me. Just the way she looks so him is so amazing.

Hatchetfield more like NDfield amiright

for the moana thing I feel like the reason he probably doesn't like them is because he gets sensory overload from all the loud singing and being in the audience. I bet its easier for him to just watch a movie ❤

the :( following pete killed me

Haha! Awesome video! I love the fact you counted the "okay" response, definitely my autistic response for social akwardness

Headcanon: Paul has PDA and THATS why he doesn’t like musicals. As someone with PDA I see it SO HARD

Minor thing about Paul knowing the words to Moana the best; I have a friend who also isn't super into musicals (he watched them sometimes, but he doesn't seek them out because he finds them a bit boring) and he can usually tell you at least some of the lyrics as long as the singer isn't in falsetto. When you don't really care about the musical happening, you might just take on the lyrics as lines :) This is ofc just an observation from my life with one friend, but it could be why Paul knows the words at least to the opening. I highly doubt he'd absorb much of "How Far I'll Go", haha

Jon said that depending on the performance he either believed that Paul was either completely gone or still fighting and for the Pro shot we got a Paul who had completely lost to the hivemind.

Well, I spent 95% of this video wondering if I have undiagnosed Paul

i have no reference for this but as a fellow NeuroSpicy, he's literally just ND, how do ppl think he's an asshole??

This was so good, no misses only hits also was progressively losing my mind as i realized what was happening with the strategically placed captions, kudos for that it was absolutely hilarious and effective

I have decided to belive that Paul is a fan of silent films, and he has a collection of them. Alice, as someone who wants to make plays, thinks this is Cool As Sh1t.

10:25 something about preempting potential reactions to set the tone/test the waters before actually saying the thing

at 11:38, he just kind mouths "Okay" (Or so I think). He really does just use the word Okay as a stim huh?

it took my twice as long to watch this video bc I kept pausing to read the annotations. such wisdom

12:41 i remwmber heariv somewhere that when paul babysat alice, they would always watch disney movies so thats why he knows the words and stuff

his stimming. HES SOOO NEURODIVERGENT THAT SCENE IS SO SPECIAL TO ME

Forgot how much I love Paul and Emma, I'm so glad I remembered

6:14 he actually did! In NPMD Pete is freaking out about getting caught by the police in this scene

THAT "OKAY" WITH THE LITTLE HEAD NODS IS SO FUCKING ACCURATE!!!

"is anyone in this town neurotypical" lmfao I felt that in my BONES

He's just a guy

4:17 the fact that i genuinely couldn’t pick up on the flirting on all of my five (in this week) watches says something about

even tho i havent watched the musical i... love this sm. we need more videos like this where ppl highlight characters' autistic traits, it feeds the happy chemical in my brain

I don't know if I have autism or not(I don't want to self-diagnose with this video lol) But every single details you pointed out about paul in this is so relatable it's crazy. All the distant stare, the stimming(especially when he presses the corner of that table), the practicing your speech before a casual interaction. It's all so me holy cow

Yay a new tgwdlm autistic headcanon video! And in 2023!? Im so happy to see other people have the same autistic headcanon as me, it makes me so disappointed when i have a headcanon i just want to talk about with the fandom but others say im reaching or "ruining the character" and it makes me so mad that tohers have such a problem with someone else seeing a character as autistic. Anyways.. great video 10/10 ❤

woah i KNEW there was a reason why mariah's facial expressions reminded me of my own

should've just been the entire musical

So basically every time Paul is on screen :D (also So Many People ship Paul with Bill and it's honestly pretty sweet how they're portrayed together)

12:01 I AM DYING AT THE AWE OF HIS TISM I'M DYINGGGG

Paul’s just like me fr, starkid is so good with nd characters

It may be a good thing to be offputting to Melissa, but Melissa's just doing what's demanded of her. Hopefully she understands.

6:21 Even if they have name badges, Emma was never gonna be wearing it. I mean like you said she loudly s***talks her coworkers. Ain't no way she's going to be wearing a name badge lol

12:36 personally ive always interpret this as Paul hating physically going to theaters to see musicals - he probabaly doesn't like being around in a crowd and seeing people sing/dance in front of him. Meaning he could like animated musicals if he watched them at home. Or maybe he just likes that specific Moana song and not the movie lol.

He’s just like me frfr (Also this video is amazing I love)

I thought this was just gonna be a copy and paste of the entire production, somehow it’s better

13:31 The little point and bounce on the heels as he says Okay #23 is SO REAL. I do that when my thoughts are scattered and I'm finally settling on a decision: bodily turning myself in the direction I need to go, pointing executively, and bouncing once to pick up momentum for the first step. It's so helpful somehow. I don't think Jon tried to purposely emulate autism (haven't heard anything on this) but I bet he chose to model habits he'd seen in other people that he thought were applicable to Paul - and I bet you 100% that those models happened to be autistic.

THE OKAY COUNT i'm screaming with joy i love that you counted that for us!!! as someone who counts the fucks in starkid shows, this just made me really really happy to see what else can be counted!!

12:44 maybe Richie (trans or not) really liked Moana. If were going with Paul is Richies uncle. And he was just kinda. Forced to watch it over and over because Richie is definitely also autistic.

Bruh I watch it a few weeks ago and in some of these scenes I said in my head “fuck he’s me”☠️ lmao

"Little does he know it's probably a good thing to be offputting to Melissa tho" as if that would stop her /j

1) i think the best autistic characters are the ones who were not deliberately written to be autistic 2) i don't have a source, but jon matteson said that paul knows the lyrics to moana better than bill because he was closer to alice after bill's divorce and reluctantly watched it with her because she wanted to (which is sweet on paul's end and sad on bill's end)

11:36 i had to pause and drum on the table w my hand because you're so fucking right. why are they like that. just say what you want from me fr

12:54 ITS ME…. IM THE GUY WHO LOW KEY SHIPS THEM 😔🙏 Also Paul is literally me it’s no surprise I think I’m autistic

I can not tell you how pivotal "La Dee Da Da Day" has become to my stimming. I sing it all the time to improve my mood at work. XD Paul and I have a very different brand of autism, yet I relate to him 100%. He says "okay" I say "all righty". We're bluntly honest, adverse to unexpected touchies, easly startled, over apologize for things that aren't always our fault, etc. I love musicals because a good one has songs that go so hard for the express purpose of more emotion to be injected into a scean. Which means I love musicals for the exact reasons Paul hates them. XD

“Yeah, I don’t want to though” was so me

fun “fact” (theory) about tgwdlm! there are two death scenes that go relatively unnoticed, because they are the character’s last moments before pokey consumes them entirely. mr. davidson’s is when he forgets what he was going to say, assures his wife that “maybe someday i’ll remember”, tells her goodbye, and then collapses over himself for a few seconds before perking up and singing again. that’s also why his face looks so distraught when he forgets what he’s going to say - he knows he’s dying and there’s nothing he can do about it but to try to make the last moment with his wife is a nice one. the other one is sam, who’s final moment is when charlotte begs him to talk to her and he takes off his sunglasses and goes “charlotte?” and then stares at her with something like terror for a few seconds before, well, pokey consumes him and he goes back to singing. i roll this around in my brain a lot so now you can to, the apotheosis is upon us 😘

I’m autistic with adhd so you can tell I was a easy kid *sarcasm*

12:56 DUDE I WAS THINKIN ABOUT THIS WHEN I WATCHED IT

As aan autistic person myself I don't see how not always unerstanding sarcasm prevents autistic people from being sarcastic themselves, for me personally I come off as most sarcastically funny when I don't keep a filter on as the words just fload out of my mouth and almost anyone in the room who might have heard it feels stunned cause they find it unusual for me to say whatever's on my mind cause I'm afraid I might inevitably say something offensive which I'm aware of I come off as blunt more than I like to admit.

This is everythinggggggggg

I watched a live show here in the uk and the guy who played Paul said he wanted another Harry Potter book in Want Do You Want, Paul? Which if that isn’t tism idk what is

Paul brings a sort of “I dont like musicals” vibe that hatchetfield doesnt really like (hes just like me fr fr)

I didn't know how much I needed this. I loved Paul before but now.. tism buddies :)

i am paul, paul is me, paul is we

12:29 i swear i can hear him saying “now is not a good time for this”

Wait there are people who interpret Paul as an asshole? I hope these people don't meet me because if they think he's an asshole then they'll think I'm absolutely the worst. Dude is just vibing

peanuts the pocket squirrel is pauls special interest lol

I hadn’t really seen this before, but man was it obvious. I loved this and related so hard!! P.S. Am I missing something? Is Ted somehow the homeless guy, or is the homeless man also named Ted?

I think the events of NPMD happened in TGWDLM up until the day that the meteor drops in the theater its just that the timelines of the universe is on a sliding scale that's why NPMD happened five years later. so basically both shows events happen until the meteor drops and then we get TGWDLM plot but if the meteor doesn't drop, we get NPMD. At least that's what makes sense to me.

good news it’s semi confirmed now! Jon agrees that Paul is autistic coded but said hecan’t confirm it as fully canon because the langs didn’t say they wrote him as such

In sing Moana part, I wondered if Paul knows all the lyrics because he just has a really good memory? That could also be why he doesn't like musicals (or anything that has music in it) because he memorise it all directly and the echolalia + the songs being stuck in his head make him go crazy

Bow before the KING of the tism rizz

i think this may explain why i liked paul so much from the moment he came on-screen lmao

Still wondering does anyone know what Ted said in that one part?

Emma and Paul are really perfect for each other

Came across this by accident, and i do not mean to be rude even if this comes off that way, but this video just seems like an extreme stretch to the point where it's very visible that you are grasping at straws to prove that Paul is autistic. I do not know if you have autism, but if you do, it is totally fine to relate to a character who is allistic, it doesn't disprove your autism. There is this terrible trend in fandom where people will armchair their favorite characters with whatever they have just because they relate to them. Fuck, i have seen it in real life where people will just armchair their friends and random people they only know on a speaking basis like classmates or teachers because of one odd behaviour that they also have due to their illness or disability. This just medically pathologizes normal human behaviours like for example disliking certain things or being slightly blunt. Throughout watching tgwdlm i never even considered the option that any of the characters could be neurodivergent, especially autistic, because they simply do not fit the criteria to be considered that. And throwing that aside, none of them struck me as such, because they behave like neurotypical individuals and you can very clearly see that they were not intended to be autistic or even autist coded. Videos like this make me concerned for the future when it comes to autism awareness because if armchairing is so prevelant now, how will it be in 5-10 years? I am geniuenly scared that soon people will start proclaiming that they are "neurospicy" and "acoustic" (or whatever other slur that will rise in the meantime) just because they have a hobby or bite down with their jaw when nervous WHICH IS A TOTALLY NORMAL BEHAVIOUR FOR A NERVOUS PERSON, and says nothing about their neurotype. Also many autism sympotms can also come from different things, for example c-ptsd is often misdiagnosed as autism and vice-versa. There is geniuenly no shame in liking or relating to a mentally abled character as a disabled person, there is also no shame in being mentally abled. This is just a display of pathologization of normal behaviours and also a bastardization of autism as a diagnosis.

hes literally me dude

No wonder I relate to Paul even though musicals are one of my special interests. Also, off-topic, but I love how TGWDLM subverts the trope of "turning on a radio or tv and getting just the info you need/what's going on in the plot" by having Paul listen/watch news that are completely unrelated to the musical apocalypse, and turning off the tv right as the relevant news are about to startXD I know this trope exists because of how important it is to be concise and conservative in how you decide to orchestrate the time spent in media, but Starkid's subversion of the trope was done really well and Peanuts makes me happy

just like me fr, god bless

he's so me

i want you to know this video is everything to me. paultism.

this is my favourite video

9:50 XD I [CENSORED]ing LOVE John Malaney! XD

8:33 I don't relate to paul in the way that I personally really like musicals so me and him are probably nothing alike interest-wise but instead in the way that i do actually do this stimming motion when i'm nervous or saw/heard something really absurd right before doing it and sometimes keep repeating "okay"

I'm sorry I'm very new to the fandom. Why is the actor of professor hidgens always coverd? Did he do something?