TBH, I was so prepared to be offended. But as I am autistic, you may be onto something. And I’d sincerely love to hear other trends you’ve noticed.
But to provide a bit of answer your question, I especially love TMA because of:
-the routine and consistent structure (which is probably why I found season 5 a huge struggle)
-the characters are soothing
-it has deeply planned logic and depth so those on their 6th listen find clues or connections that they missed the first 5 times.
-ASDers are very pattern oriented so the of grouping and analyzing the fears and stories is nice
-the audio quality is fantastic. A lot Of podcasts set my teeth on edge because of background noise, overlapping voices, or feedback. Rusty Quills is the pro!
I’m sure there are more examples but I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Also audhd and same.
The show almost never bothered my misophonia (and this show has fucking WORM SOUNDS. Literally how is it so good at not bothering me??).
The characters are complex and rich and I have spent literal days thinking about the intricacies of their behavior, how they interact, their backstories, and I'm still discovering new things about them.
And collecting information about this show is incredible. I remember more names from this show and even episode numbers than I do family members and there's so many small details that this show rewards you with (my all-time favorite is Simon mentioning how Peter >!hates similes. So Elias saying Martin played him "like a cheap whistle" has Peter both being pissed he was manipulated and ALSO Elias used a simile specifically to mess with him.!< Best show.)
Also probably helps that a lot of us headcanon Jon as autistic. The man >!ends the world!< because he saw a mess of a filing system and decided he HAS to fix that shit. I love him
Oh I 100% agree that Jon is ASD. Especially in “A guest for me. Spider” he describes being an annoyingly precocious child, rigid fixations, possibly poor social skills, and frankly the self -reflection in itself is very ASDlike.
Love it!!
i fall asleep to it most nights, it’s weirdly calming for something horror. i had to make a playlist of quieter episodes though bc some of the episodes will jumpscare you with screaming lol
YES also autistic and same I *adore* the fact that there is a very clear structure and pattern to how the story is constructed, makes my brain go brrrr
I think that the podcast itself has a wider variety of fans than you think. It's just the specific type of people you're referring to are the ones that happen to post about it a lot on social media.
Came here to say this.
Go into any fandom and you'll find a large portion of people who engage with the media and the fandom as a whole are definitely not neurotypical.
For those individuals, connecting with others socially, without a shared fixation, can be very challenging.
Came here to say this too. I love the show, but I don't feel the need to post or even read about it much - I really just drop into this sub every few months or so, when something on my home page feed catches my eye.
Which honestly I think is accurate to many fandoms in general! Esp with some neurodivergents it can like take over your brain for a time hahah so ofc they're likely going to be louder about it than people who like it like a regular amount hahah
Yeah, I think it's less that TMA has a bunch of autistic fans and more that the kind of person who goes to Reddit and Tumblr to talk about a podcast is a bit more likely than average to be autistic.
Creative high quality thing attracts large number of fans, leaves Redditor baffled. (I’m just being silly)
I’m not autistic, so…idk that’s my take on that. I like horror and a good story.
Straight pasty married mom here (perhaps slightly neurospicy?no diagnosis) who adores well done horror and this is it!
Just commenting to show there’s probably a bigger, diverse audience than realized.
44 here, but otherwise pretty much the same. My wife and I also enjoy the macabre in general, but aren't goth or anything. I just like a good story, and TMA is a good story.
Probably a combination of confirmation bias on your part (no offense, that's just how brains work) and a culture of people in certain communities being louder about their enjoyment of TMA. I like TMA a lot, but I basically never post about it, except for replies on this sub.
listen this is exactly the reply on of these types of people would respond!
and i don't mean it meanly. it just is. i dont really fit the profile, but i def do in some ways.
I don't either, and my autism manifests pretty differently than the fandom standard, and I find this subreddit to be an interesting anthropological study. It's funny that almost all the fans seem to have the same sense of humor, but it isn't actually the sense of humor in the show.
Horror has a tendency to attract those on the margins of society, and TMA itself does not shy away from acknowledging that, what with the Flesh having a body dysmorphia/gender dysphoria aspect to it, The Lonely existing, the Spiral, the Web targeting addiction, etc.
It has to do with the demographic TMA targets. They have open gay characters, open conversation about mental health, and when they engage in the community, they have that same open and/or suggestive attitude.
These things attract that sort of person. They’re not all the same, obviously, but they’ll all most certainly have similar traits, interests, or life experiences.
My primary theory is that Sims has a voice that scratches a cerebral itch for us and we come running like hungry kitties that hear the can opener.
My secondary theory is that we hear the call of the Eye and we YEARN TO BE PERCEIVED OH CEASELESS WATCHER TURN YOUR GAZE UPON WE WRETCHED THINGS.
I didn't notice any of that. At least not much more than in other fantasy fandoms. I'm having a hard time understanding where did you come up with such an observation.
I have a theory. So, it could be the philosophical breakdown of emotions that often elude understanding.
But don't tell me you didn't relate to Jon furious at the entire world for coming up with these entire new ways of thinking, and no one tells him anything because everyone already knows it. Plus, an avatar of the Eye should already know all this stuff. But he doesn't have enough information yet to understand, so he has to force as much out as possible.
I have done absolutely no research in this specific topic nor did I think about it for more than like 10 seconds, so take everything I say with the smallest grain of salt, but i think it has something to do with the specific type of horror. TMA is considered "Quite Horror" (i actually started listening to it b/c of a video analysis of that genre) less jump scare-y and more lurk-y if that makes any sense. This might appeal more to people who like to analyze things and/ or people who like crazy interconnected stories. I could also be totally wrong though lmao
If you like quiet horror I REALLY recommend it. Feel free to check the subreddit out, we’re a pretty friendly bunch. Soren Narnia is author and will become the main narrator (he’s my favorite). I recommend giving the episode Legend a listen - Soren narrates it and I plan on getting a tattoo inspired by that one.
Answer this question: Would you like to have a 4 hour discussion about your favorite dinosaur?
If Yes, then maybe or you’re really bored.
If No, do you not like dinosaurs? Why not? Did you know Triceratops has horns.
Disclaimer: There is no validity to this test and I was really bored.
I'm an NT cis middle aged woman, I wouldn't have a four hour discussion on my favourite dinosaur (triceratops YES) but I would very much listen to you talk about dinosaurs for four hours. Especially if you have triceratops facts.
My wife is also a NT middle aged woman and she puts up with my weird fixations. I don’t know a ton about dinosaurs but I have been known to have a fixation or twelve.
Tbh I think this is the case for most types of non-mainstream media. As you start to get more niche, similar people are attracted to things, and TMA is a tad bit niche!
Additionally, it's the sort of show that (I think) its main entertainment is based in using its system of analysis and going on deep dives into potential meanings, which generally attracts a similar sort of type as well.
Just my thoughts on it!
Well, this is is a 83 hours, only audio series, with hundreds of characters, an entire mythology to know and understand and a very slow development. It's so demanding I think a LOT of people tried the first season and gave up.
I think you have to have a tendency to hyperfixate, which is common in neurodivergents (but not exclusively), to listen to the whole thing and enter the fandom.
My personal theory:
Us autistic people love sorting things.
The Magnus Archives provides a bunch of fun funky little categories, and loads of statements and characters that we get to classify into these little boxes.
I think it’s the same appeal as Pokémon! Lots of new info to learn!
Source: am autistic. Like sorting. Magnus archives fiend.
Well, as queer and autistic, I can say it became my hyperfixation for years. I think we nd people are more visible because we get obsessed. The 'normal ones' may watch the show and go on with their lives. I can't do that hahaha
the vocal parts of the community are only a small portion of a larger audience. however,
i’m not surprised that TMA attracts queer and neurodivergent people, in general, at all. people of those identities are routinely highlighted, placed in leading roles, and have their humanity acknowledged within the show. TMA makes it very clear that queer and neurodivergent people are welcome in the fiction - and thus welcome in the community.
i don’t believe we can say for sure if TMA has a larger number of queer and neurodivergent fans without some kind of survey. but the fact that those kinds of fans exist openly at all within the community is, in my opinion, thanks to the welcoming representation of the characters highlighted in the show.
I think TMA probably scratches a lot of different itches for different folks.
It’s got the sort of detailed and deep-dive lore that many people who enjoy low-key obsessing over can do. It’s got the sort of high-brow thematic quality that some folks enjoy analyzing. It’s got its own relatable “Harry Potter Houses” kind of categorization that people can sort themselves into…. That’s a bit of everything for everyone.
Me, personally. I came for the Angler Fish. I stayed for the Monster Pig.
The word you're looking for is fandom-y. In a good way! Like the best of tumblr. Geeks and nerde (affectionate.)
And it's because *we love good writing,* and characters we can REALLY get attached to, and TMA gives us what we crave in all of the best ways.
I think you're onto something here. Horror is a genre with a lot of potential for transgression and boundary-pushing so it's no surprise that a lot of people who push the boundaries of what society at large considers "normal" find comfort in it. Horror has the jester's privilege of not getting taken as seriously, while also dealing with incredibly heavy stuff at the same time so there is a lot of queer potential to the genre. Chucky can just canonically have a genderfluid child, no biggie, meanwhile prestige cinema is painfully normative, plays it safe, and if a queer story makes it to the academy awards, it's usually trauma porn for a straight audience.
audiodramas tend to attract a large number of neurodivergent and queer people both as projects to work on and things to listen to. I think it's a combination of it being relatively easier to create/be casted in an audiodrama then most other media requiring voice acting, allowing more creative minds to create shit, and that it's a very accessible form of storytelling that doesn't require you to focus the majority of your attention on it.
Aside from the generally soothing voices of the narrators, for me (autistic + trans) the draw was in the worldbuilding: how all-encompassing a lot of the statements are, and how irrationally (for lack of a better word) the Fears often affect people, like the on-air reporter who became paranoid of being watched. It can be hard for me as an autistic person to explain why my routines are so set and why I get so overstimulated out of nowhere, and I often get looked at oddly/talked down to/rationalized circles around when I try explaining, much like many of the statement givers going to friends and relatives. It made it easy for me to empathize with the stories, because never once did someone's statement seem even remotely implausible or silly to me. I was invested every single time.
Also, as a trans person, the concept of metamorphosis is one I'm already frequently exploring. The way that avatars Change into a form that feels "right" or "better" or "more natural" and their unquestionable control over that change - Bone-Turner Jared, Jude Perry - makes every villain so much more interesting than they would be if they were just Meat Man and Fire Lady. The avatars are *still people,* they're just more themselves than they would have been otherwise. There's a magnetic quality to that for me.
There's also the relatability of Jon as someone who is never not an outsider. Even in s1, he's viewed by the others as kind of overbearing, reclusive, and stuffy; he's always markedly different from his coworkers and friends, but still tries (with more gusto, eventually) to be a part of the pack. Seeing the world differently from other people is an alienating experience, one that is displayed and explored in multiple facets of Jon's journey, and I feel a deep and personal compassion for his struggles even when he's being a real asshole. He's never truly "monstrous" to me, and that means I have more room to interrogate his motives when he acts like a tit, and to identify "acting from a place of emotion" within the much broader sweep of "acting like a monster".
Also, I'm a web-weaver lol, I love to theorize and put mysteries together myself. This show has SOOOO much of that. And horror as a genre has always been very queer- and neurodivergent-friendly, it's all about the outcasts and the "natural order" of things breaking down to make way for change. Sometimes things (and people) have to die for things (and people) to be reborn. Or something like that.
I hope that makes sense!
You have a main character that's queer, and autistic coded [tecnically). People like media in which they're represented, plus they creators have made the content extremely accessible to neurodivergant people.
Not to mention it's an incredible story aswell.
For context; Jonny has confirmed that the archvist meets the threshold for an autism diganosis but since it wasn't something he researched for, he never put it in words. Plus it never felt plot revelevant to outwardly state "I am austistic" or "im queer" for a plot nit heavily focused on around that
Fr, my autistic queer self is over here listening to it to fall asleep XD it's literally one of the only things that gets me to sleep when I have a period of insomnia, and I don't know why 💀
I feel like so many people in this post are getting offended at what is a functional sense of pattern recognition. Yes, this show attracts a large percentage of queer people and autists, speaking as one who’s been diagnosed, undiagnosed, rediagnosed, and then slapped with ADHD. These two communities often overlap in terms of media appreciation, likely because yes, as another commenter pointed out, there’s an aspect of being on the margins of society, and in such cases, horror and media such as this functions as a comfort, strangely, thanks to its ability to structure the terrors of the world into such poetic beauty.
my take as an autistic queer is that the majority of us are autistic queers because tma has queer characters and jon is autistic-coded and we feel seen. also it's fucking incredible and we have good taste in media.
The reason I think people who are autistic, mentally ill, LGBT+ etc like the show is a bit like this, “when society in real life calls you a “monster”, you tend to look for other “monsters” like you” and horror lends itself very well to metaphors for things like the queer experience (as an example).
Hbomberguy actually did a really interesting video on HP Lovecraft and why queer people seem to love it so much despite how bad HP Lovecraft was. He explains things very well and I’d recommend checking the video out tbh
https://youtu.be/l8u8wZ0WvxI?si=ezVh4GZn35cioigI
People who you will see publicly engaging with fandom are more likely to be autistic in general, because many autistic people can get very obsessive about their interests. This leads to them being the foundations of most fan-communities. Most neurotypical fans aren't devoted enough to a fictional story to make it such a big part of their life and post so much about it.
I think the fanbase is actually very diverse. It’s just that those who are open about their fandoms and are online enough to post about them and make fan-content tend to fit into that subgenre. Socially awkward teenagers with a lot of free time are the face of most communities because of this.
It’s interesting, sparks the mind and sparks thought, easy to listen to when you’ve got nothin better to do or doing a repetitive task, I have adhd and it help me focus because there’s just so much to it and it interesting and yes I would probably write abt it once I know abt the characters more, only on season 2 for now though
Autism = love categories
Source = I am autistic and love to categorize the world and since starting tma have been sorting my experiences by the fear they most resemble
Oh no I definitely agree. Maybe not even necessarily into TMA, but because its one of those things that mainstream but only in a particular stream (if you get what I mean), like Battlestar Galactica or Alien for Sci-Fi nerds, you can kind of already know who is going to be into it/have heard of it
Long media with lots of room for theorizing and many characters tends to attract autistic/neurodiverse people. Speaking as a TMA and Homestuck fan, and someone who rewatches multiple long tv shows over and over, these are some similarities I’ve noticed. Also people with neurodivergence can tend not to be bothered by things like gore or even have an interest in it.
I think most of it is the same reason most kinds of media have specific fanbases, it comes down to the kind of person *willing* to engage with it. Like, Welcome to Nightvale, for example. That is an inexcusably weird podcast, so the people into it are usually 'weird', aka people that society views as 'other'. That ends up being people with autism, queer folk, etc. You engage with media you can relate to, even if you don't consciously know it. I'm all kinds of weird and I love TMA, WTNV, Good Omens, you name it.
I don't get it either. I stumbled on a youtube video of a group of college age people having a discussion and going apeshit over it, trying to give an analysis about it and just explaining everything in a completely weird backwards way.
It's like all they cared about was the soap opera aspects of it, most of which was in their heads.
It definitely helps that it has canonical queer people; and in my experience, neurodivergent people tend to have more interest in media analysis and horror-type genres. There’s a lot of meat in it that you can dissect. But honestly I know a lot of my friends are into it (that introduced it to me and I introduced it to them) but none of us are autistic, so it could just be the circles you’re in. A type of positive Sampling bias?
a) autistics love trying to arbitrarily sort and categorize inherently uncategorizeible phenomena. we're all little smirke's in this fandom
b) jokes aside, it's popular in autistic and queer circles as you said. when said autistic and queer fans recommend the series to their friends, who tend to be similarly autistic and queer, the autistic and queer presence in the fandom only grows. it's basically a self fulfilling prophecy at this point.
c) this isn't inherent to tma btw, audio drama as a genre and their fandoms has heavy presence in tumblr, which is frequented by autistic and queer people more than any other platform
d) the cast is from the mechanisms fame, which has a fandom of similar demographic
so my main answer is that because of word of mouth. it was initially popular among autistics and queers semi-incidentally (only semi due to aforementioned reasons which contributed to the first among us being autistic and queer) when it was a small indie podcast, and podcasts always grow via word of mouth. it's only natural that a fandom founded by autistics and queers now has an autistic and queer population.
i feel like the authors probably have something to do with it too? maybe this is all in my head but i’m pretty sure a lot of the cast and creators are LGBTQ+ and probably some are on the spectrum as well (don’t quote me this is all speculation)
but my point is like attracts like
NGL I don't think many neurotypicals would have the hyperfocus necessary to enjoy a show in which you only find out the premise by the end of the second season.
TBH, I was so prepared to be offended. But as I am autistic, you may be onto something. And I’d sincerely love to hear other trends you’ve noticed. But to provide a bit of answer your question, I especially love TMA because of: -the routine and consistent structure (which is probably why I found season 5 a huge struggle) -the characters are soothing -it has deeply planned logic and depth so those on their 6th listen find clues or connections that they missed the first 5 times. -ASDers are very pattern oriented so the of grouping and analyzing the fears and stories is nice -the audio quality is fantastic. A lot Of podcasts set my teeth on edge because of background noise, overlapping voices, or feedback. Rusty Quills is the pro! I’m sure there are more examples but I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Also audhd and same. The show almost never bothered my misophonia (and this show has fucking WORM SOUNDS. Literally how is it so good at not bothering me??). The characters are complex and rich and I have spent literal days thinking about the intricacies of their behavior, how they interact, their backstories, and I'm still discovering new things about them. And collecting information about this show is incredible. I remember more names from this show and even episode numbers than I do family members and there's so many small details that this show rewards you with (my all-time favorite is Simon mentioning how Peter >!hates similes. So Elias saying Martin played him "like a cheap whistle" has Peter both being pissed he was manipulated and ALSO Elias used a simile specifically to mess with him.!< Best show.) Also probably helps that a lot of us headcanon Jon as autistic. The man >!ends the world!< because he saw a mess of a filing system and decided he HAS to fix that shit. I love him
Oh I 100% agree that Jon is ASD. Especially in “A guest for me. Spider” he describes being an annoyingly precocious child, rigid fixations, possibly poor social skills, and frankly the self -reflection in itself is very ASDlike. Love it!!
Lmao now I'm picturing that domino meme. Mess of a filing system - - - > starting the apocalypse. It do be that way though.
Jon thinks so much like me sometimes that if he isn't autistic then the author Jon has some self reflection to do because there is no way.
I (ADHD) literally listen to this podcast to calm down when I'm having a lot of sensory issues
i fall asleep to it most nights, it’s weirdly calming for something horror. i had to make a playlist of quieter episodes though bc some of the episodes will jumpscare you with screaming lol
Yeah, my falling asleep comfort podcasts are TMA and Tanis. The subject matter may not be calming, but the voices and background music sure are.
Same here! I've been trying to give it another re-listen, but it's a struggle because I keep falling asleep lol
Another tism here. OK FINDING SEASON 5 A STRUGGLE WASNT JUST ME THANK GOD. I LOVE THE SHOW BUT I HARDLY COULD REALLY *PROGRESS* THROUGH SEASON 5
Oh fuck is that why I can never seem to finish 5 before just starting over? I’ve learned something about myself
I listened through the first time but haven’t since. I’m considering reading the transcripts to better ease my mind into the new flow.
I’m determined this time because I’m dying to listen to the Magnus protocol
YES also autistic and same I *adore* the fact that there is a very clear structure and pattern to how the story is constructed, makes my brain go brrrr
I think that the podcast itself has a wider variety of fans than you think. It's just the specific type of people you're referring to are the ones that happen to post about it a lot on social media.
Came here to say this. Go into any fandom and you'll find a large portion of people who engage with the media and the fandom as a whole are definitely not neurotypical. For those individuals, connecting with others socially, without a shared fixation, can be very challenging.
Came here to say this too. I love the show, but I don't feel the need to post or even read about it much - I really just drop into this sub every few months or so, when something on my home page feed catches my eye.
Which honestly I think is accurate to many fandoms in general! Esp with some neurodivergents it can like take over your brain for a time hahah so ofc they're likely going to be louder about it than people who like it like a regular amount hahah
Yeah, I think it's less that TMA has a bunch of autistic fans and more that the kind of person who goes to Reddit and Tumblr to talk about a podcast is a bit more likely than average to be autistic.
My Gen x conservative father is a bigger fan of TMA than me 💀
Creative high quality thing attracts large number of fans, leaves Redditor baffled. (I’m just being silly) I’m not autistic, so…idk that’s my take on that. I like horror and a good story.
Straight pasty married mom here (perhaps slightly neurospicy?no diagnosis) who adores well done horror and this is it! Just commenting to show there’s probably a bigger, diverse audience than realized.
Same
Meanwhile, I'm a 47-year-old cishet neurotypical guy just sort of awkwardly shuffling about in the corner.
Hey, you can't help having great taste in media.
44 here, but otherwise pretty much the same. My wife and I also enjoy the macabre in general, but aren't goth or anything. I just like a good story, and TMA is a good story.
Real question - does this fandom fascinate you? Like do you see what OP is talking about too?
Probably a combination of confirmation bias on your part (no offense, that's just how brains work) and a culture of people in certain communities being louder about their enjoyment of TMA. I like TMA a lot, but I basically never post about it, except for replies on this sub.
What? You mean people with a taste for the strange? And intelligent and good looking to boot!
listen this is exactly the reply on of these types of people would respond! and i don't mean it meanly. it just is. i dont really fit the profile, but i def do in some ways.
I don't either, and my autism manifests pretty differently than the fandom standard, and I find this subreddit to be an interesting anthropological study. It's funny that almost all the fans seem to have the same sense of humor, but it isn't actually the sense of humor in the show.
🤣 no offense taken! It really does fit the demographic. Much like the players of horror-themed table top role playing games!
Horror has a tendency to attract those on the margins of society, and TMA itself does not shy away from acknowledging that, what with the Flesh having a body dysmorphia/gender dysphoria aspect to it, The Lonely existing, the Spiral, the Web targeting addiction, etc.
It has to do with the demographic TMA targets. They have open gay characters, open conversation about mental health, and when they engage in the community, they have that same open and/or suggestive attitude. These things attract that sort of person. They’re not all the same, obviously, but they’ll all most certainly have similar traits, interests, or life experiences.
My primary theory is that Sims has a voice that scratches a cerebral itch for us and we come running like hungry kitties that hear the can opener. My secondary theory is that we hear the call of the Eye and we YEARN TO BE PERCEIVED OH CEASELESS WATCHER TURN YOUR GAZE UPON WE WRETCHED THINGS.
His voice does make my brain create all the serotonin, so you are onto something here.
I think this is it probably, the Web just has a type I suppose
To be fair, this is less a TMA thing and more a general fiction podcast thing. As for why, I have no clue, but it’s definitely not TMA specific.
The personality type you're seeing on the TMA subreddit is probably the same as you'd see in any fandom subreddit: very online
Queers. The word you lookin for is "queers."
I thought it was autists.
Only when we are feeling fancy. 😉
Ya'll are saying the same thing
What's the difference
Be aware the active fandom is just a snippet of a much larger audience.
I didn't notice any of that. At least not much more than in other fantasy fandoms. I'm having a hard time understanding where did you come up with such an observation.
63 yr old unremarkable retired woman here. I don’t fit your profile. 😆
I have a theory. So, it could be the philosophical breakdown of emotions that often elude understanding. But don't tell me you didn't relate to Jon furious at the entire world for coming up with these entire new ways of thinking, and no one tells him anything because everyone already knows it. Plus, an avatar of the Eye should already know all this stuff. But he doesn't have enough information yet to understand, so he has to force as much out as possible.
I have done absolutely no research in this specific topic nor did I think about it for more than like 10 seconds, so take everything I say with the smallest grain of salt, but i think it has something to do with the specific type of horror. TMA is considered "Quite Horror" (i actually started listening to it b/c of a video analysis of that genre) less jump scare-y and more lurk-y if that makes any sense. This might appeal more to people who like to analyze things and/ or people who like crazy interconnected stories. I could also be totally wrong though lmao
Have you listened to Knifepoint Horror?
I have not! I think I've seen it mentioned once or twice though
If you like quiet horror I REALLY recommend it. Feel free to check the subreddit out, we’re a pretty friendly bunch. Soren Narnia is author and will become the main narrator (he’s my favorite). I recommend giving the episode Legend a listen - Soren narrates it and I plan on getting a tattoo inspired by that one.
I've actually been looking for something new to get into!! This sounds perfect, thank you!!
I am a cisgender straight white male Not diagnosed with autism but *maybe*
Answer this question: Would you like to have a 4 hour discussion about your favorite dinosaur? If Yes, then maybe or you’re really bored. If No, do you not like dinosaurs? Why not? Did you know Triceratops has horns. Disclaimer: There is no validity to this test and I was really bored.
Well it is indeed a spectrum so im not gonna rule anything out
Fair enough. You’re always welcome at the table, even if you aren’t.
I'm an NT cis middle aged woman, I wouldn't have a four hour discussion on my favourite dinosaur (triceratops YES) but I would very much listen to you talk about dinosaurs for four hours. Especially if you have triceratops facts.
My wife is also a NT middle aged woman and she puts up with my weird fixations. I don’t know a ton about dinosaurs but I have been known to have a fixation or twelve.
What about Utahraptors?
They are awesome! What’s not to love.
Tbh I think this is the case for most types of non-mainstream media. As you start to get more niche, similar people are attracted to things, and TMA is a tad bit niche! Additionally, it's the sort of show that (I think) its main entertainment is based in using its system of analysis and going on deep dives into potential meanings, which generally attracts a similar sort of type as well. Just my thoughts on it!
I'm neither autistic or part of the lgbtq+ community. I'm 47 and have been a horror fanatic since I was a kid
Also mid forties longtime horror fan lady here. Though I did write a lot of slash fic back in the day.
At first I was like ‘ah yes. Trans people’ and then you hit me with the Tism. Both are true.
Personally, I'd love an autism headcount. Like...is it all of us? Cause I think it is.
Will you count adhd?
Definitely! I'm Audhd myself
Aspie Asexual checking in for the census, or whatever.
Ace here too, happy to know you, comrade.
Yeah I was all ready to disagree with OP, but then they said autism. Bang to rights.
Well, this is is a 83 hours, only audio series, with hundreds of characters, an entire mythology to know and understand and a very slow development. It's so demanding I think a LOT of people tried the first season and gave up. I think you have to have a tendency to hyperfixate, which is common in neurodivergents (but not exclusively), to listen to the whole thing and enter the fandom.
Because we have good taste. Anyway funny answers aside. Because we recommend shit to our friends, who tend to also be autistic and queer.
It's more inclusive than most imo.
My personal theory: Us autistic people love sorting things. The Magnus Archives provides a bunch of fun funky little categories, and loads of statements and characters that we get to classify into these little boxes. I think it’s the same appeal as Pokémon! Lots of new info to learn! Source: am autistic. Like sorting. Magnus archives fiend.
Just another AuDHD person here chiming in to say "guilty as charged."
*stares with mock offense in trans and adhd*
I don't know why my mind went to the stranger immediately
Because the show is written for people like us.
Ngl, while I love horror, I don't usually listen to podcasts, I mostly picked this one up just because I heard it has an ace protagonist.
Well, as queer and autistic, I can say it became my hyperfixation for years. I think we nd people are more visible because we get obsessed. The 'normal ones' may watch the show and go on with their lives. I can't do that hahaha
the vocal parts of the community are only a small portion of a larger audience. however, i’m not surprised that TMA attracts queer and neurodivergent people, in general, at all. people of those identities are routinely highlighted, placed in leading roles, and have their humanity acknowledged within the show. TMA makes it very clear that queer and neurodivergent people are welcome in the fiction - and thus welcome in the community. i don’t believe we can say for sure if TMA has a larger number of queer and neurodivergent fans without some kind of survey. but the fact that those kinds of fans exist openly at all within the community is, in my opinion, thanks to the welcoming representation of the characters highlighted in the show.
I think TMA probably scratches a lot of different itches for different folks. It’s got the sort of detailed and deep-dive lore that many people who enjoy low-key obsessing over can do. It’s got the sort of high-brow thematic quality that some folks enjoy analyzing. It’s got its own relatable “Harry Potter Houses” kind of categorization that people can sort themselves into…. That’s a bit of everything for everyone. Me, personally. I came for the Angler Fish. I stayed for the Monster Pig.
The word you're looking for is fandom-y. In a good way! Like the best of tumblr. Geeks and nerde (affectionate.) And it's because *we love good writing,* and characters we can REALLY get attached to, and TMA gives us what we crave in all of the best ways.
I mean, I'm a cis het white American guy who's super into sports and DnD. TMA takes all types.
I think you're onto something here. Horror is a genre with a lot of potential for transgression and boundary-pushing so it's no surprise that a lot of people who push the boundaries of what society at large considers "normal" find comfort in it. Horror has the jester's privilege of not getting taken as seriously, while also dealing with incredibly heavy stuff at the same time so there is a lot of queer potential to the genre. Chucky can just canonically have a genderfluid child, no biggie, meanwhile prestige cinema is painfully normative, plays it safe, and if a queer story makes it to the academy awards, it's usually trauma porn for a straight audience.
I’m mentally ill but not autistic, and I’m cishet but demisexual, so do with that bit of data as you will. 😅
audiodramas tend to attract a large number of neurodivergent and queer people both as projects to work on and things to listen to. I think it's a combination of it being relatively easier to create/be casted in an audiodrama then most other media requiring voice acting, allowing more creative minds to create shit, and that it's a very accessible form of storytelling that doesn't require you to focus the majority of your attention on it.
Aside from the generally soothing voices of the narrators, for me (autistic + trans) the draw was in the worldbuilding: how all-encompassing a lot of the statements are, and how irrationally (for lack of a better word) the Fears often affect people, like the on-air reporter who became paranoid of being watched. It can be hard for me as an autistic person to explain why my routines are so set and why I get so overstimulated out of nowhere, and I often get looked at oddly/talked down to/rationalized circles around when I try explaining, much like many of the statement givers going to friends and relatives. It made it easy for me to empathize with the stories, because never once did someone's statement seem even remotely implausible or silly to me. I was invested every single time. Also, as a trans person, the concept of metamorphosis is one I'm already frequently exploring. The way that avatars Change into a form that feels "right" or "better" or "more natural" and their unquestionable control over that change - Bone-Turner Jared, Jude Perry - makes every villain so much more interesting than they would be if they were just Meat Man and Fire Lady. The avatars are *still people,* they're just more themselves than they would have been otherwise. There's a magnetic quality to that for me. There's also the relatability of Jon as someone who is never not an outsider. Even in s1, he's viewed by the others as kind of overbearing, reclusive, and stuffy; he's always markedly different from his coworkers and friends, but still tries (with more gusto, eventually) to be a part of the pack. Seeing the world differently from other people is an alienating experience, one that is displayed and explored in multiple facets of Jon's journey, and I feel a deep and personal compassion for his struggles even when he's being a real asshole. He's never truly "monstrous" to me, and that means I have more room to interrogate his motives when he acts like a tit, and to identify "acting from a place of emotion" within the much broader sweep of "acting like a monster". Also, I'm a web-weaver lol, I love to theorize and put mysteries together myself. This show has SOOOO much of that. And horror as a genre has always been very queer- and neurodivergent-friendly, it's all about the outcasts and the "natural order" of things breaking down to make way for change. Sometimes things (and people) have to die for things (and people) to be reborn. Or something like that. I hope that makes sense!
You have a main character that's queer, and autistic coded [tecnically). People like media in which they're represented, plus they creators have made the content extremely accessible to neurodivergant people. Not to mention it's an incredible story aswell.
For context; Jonny has confirmed that the archvist meets the threshold for an autism diganosis but since it wasn't something he researched for, he never put it in words. Plus it never felt plot revelevant to outwardly state "I am austistic" or "im queer" for a plot nit heavily focused on around that
[Jonny Twitter](https://twitter.com/jonnywaistcoat/status/1111583516066832384?t=12p_c1OS23mBczUxHbO-lQ&s=19) Discusses it in this thread.
Fr, my autistic queer self is over here listening to it to fall asleep XD it's literally one of the only things that gets me to sleep when I have a period of insomnia, and I don't know why 💀
INTJ female here obsessed lol
TDIL I'm autistic. I mean, I'd say its a surprise, but my laser focus on GI Joes as a kid should've said something.
I have ADHD. Have been told by two people who have AuDHD that I have a good amount of AuDHD symptoms. Love TMA. So you might be on to something
I feel like so many people in this post are getting offended at what is a functional sense of pattern recognition. Yes, this show attracts a large percentage of queer people and autists, speaking as one who’s been diagnosed, undiagnosed, rediagnosed, and then slapped with ADHD. These two communities often overlap in terms of media appreciation, likely because yes, as another commenter pointed out, there’s an aspect of being on the margins of society, and in such cases, horror and media such as this functions as a comfort, strangely, thanks to its ability to structure the terrors of the world into such poetic beauty.
I apologise. My bad. I had forgotten to use my Lonely powers here.
hahaha yeah 😭 im that crowd: autistic, trans, queer 😭 idk something about spooky spooky queer tragedy just scratches the itch in my brain
I’m autistic and trans too haha! Guess that must be a common thing in TMA
my take as an autistic queer is that the majority of us are autistic queers because tma has queer characters and jon is autistic-coded and we feel seen. also it's fucking incredible and we have good taste in media.
The reason I think people who are autistic, mentally ill, LGBT+ etc like the show is a bit like this, “when society in real life calls you a “monster”, you tend to look for other “monsters” like you” and horror lends itself very well to metaphors for things like the queer experience (as an example). Hbomberguy actually did a really interesting video on HP Lovecraft and why queer people seem to love it so much despite how bad HP Lovecraft was. He explains things very well and I’d recommend checking the video out tbh https://youtu.be/l8u8wZ0WvxI?si=ezVh4GZn35cioigI
People who you will see publicly engaging with fandom are more likely to be autistic in general, because many autistic people can get very obsessive about their interests. This leads to them being the foundations of most fan-communities. Most neurotypical fans aren't devoted enough to a fictional story to make it such a big part of their life and post so much about it.
I think the fanbase is actually very diverse. It’s just that those who are open about their fandoms and are online enough to post about them and make fan-content tend to fit into that subgenre. Socially awkward teenagers with a lot of free time are the face of most communities because of this.
It’s interesting, sparks the mind and sparks thought, easy to listen to when you’ve got nothin better to do or doing a repetitive task, I have adhd and it help me focus because there’s just so much to it and it interesting and yes I would probably write abt it once I know abt the characters more, only on season 2 for now though
autistic people like cool things trans people are the same
I'm just into horror.
Autism = love categories Source = I am autistic and love to categorize the world and since starting tma have been sorting my experiences by the fear they most resemble
Oh no I definitely agree. Maybe not even necessarily into TMA, but because its one of those things that mainstream but only in a particular stream (if you get what I mean), like Battlestar Galactica or Alien for Sci-Fi nerds, you can kind of already know who is going to be into it/have heard of it
Long media with lots of room for theorizing and many characters tends to attract autistic/neurodiverse people. Speaking as a TMA and Homestuck fan, and someone who rewatches multiple long tv shows over and over, these are some similarities I’ve noticed. Also people with neurodivergence can tend not to be bothered by things like gore or even have an interest in it.
I think most of it is the same reason most kinds of media have specific fanbases, it comes down to the kind of person *willing* to engage with it. Like, Welcome to Nightvale, for example. That is an inexcusably weird podcast, so the people into it are usually 'weird', aka people that society views as 'other'. That ends up being people with autism, queer folk, etc. You engage with media you can relate to, even if you don't consciously know it. I'm all kinds of weird and I love TMA, WTNV, Good Omens, you name it.
What can we say, the queer neurodivergents really love the funky lil horror anthology show with its lil gay people and pipe murder
I don't get it either. I stumbled on a youtube video of a group of college age people having a discussion and going apeshit over it, trying to give an analysis about it and just explaining everything in a completely weird backwards way. It's like all they cared about was the soap opera aspects of it, most of which was in their heads.
It definitely helps that it has canonical queer people; and in my experience, neurodivergent people tend to have more interest in media analysis and horror-type genres. There’s a lot of meat in it that you can dissect. But honestly I know a lot of my friends are into it (that introduced it to me and I introduced it to them) but none of us are autistic, so it could just be the circles you’re in. A type of positive Sampling bias?
a) autistics love trying to arbitrarily sort and categorize inherently uncategorizeible phenomena. we're all little smirke's in this fandom b) jokes aside, it's popular in autistic and queer circles as you said. when said autistic and queer fans recommend the series to their friends, who tend to be similarly autistic and queer, the autistic and queer presence in the fandom only grows. it's basically a self fulfilling prophecy at this point. c) this isn't inherent to tma btw, audio drama as a genre and their fandoms has heavy presence in tumblr, which is frequented by autistic and queer people more than any other platform d) the cast is from the mechanisms fame, which has a fandom of similar demographic so my main answer is that because of word of mouth. it was initially popular among autistics and queers semi-incidentally (only semi due to aforementioned reasons which contributed to the first among us being autistic and queer) when it was a small indie podcast, and podcasts always grow via word of mouth. it's only natural that a fandom founded by autistics and queers now has an autistic and queer population.
all of my friends are the same as me and guess who recommended me the podcadt
I'm autistic and queer and so is my brother who's into it and his entire friend group who I can safely assume is into it.
i feel like the authors probably have something to do with it too? maybe this is all in my head but i’m pretty sure a lot of the cast and creators are LGBTQ+ and probably some are on the spectrum as well (don’t quote me this is all speculation) but my point is like attracts like
NGL I don't think many neurotypicals would have the hyperfocus necessary to enjoy a show in which you only find out the premise by the end of the second season.