I remember joking with my mother that I like to call the character in this commercial “Aspie Santa”, because he misinterprets the customer’s question as a sincere inquiry (instead of the jokey sarcasm it actually is) and starts doing the conversion calculations from hp to “reindeer”…a total “Aspie” move.
But online opinions actually are divided as to the interpretation of this little scene. Some people say that Santa is whipping out his “naughty/nice” list and quickly adding this sarcastic douchebag to the “naughty” list. I hadn’t considered that interpretation but I suppose it works, though I think Santa’s introspective facial expression and body language (yes, we Aspies can *learn* to pick up on these things with enough observation through life experience + intellectual analysis, even if it’s not intuitive to us) belies that interpretation.
I was taking a walk last night and thinking about this commercial and “Aspie Santa” and imagining for myself what “NT Santa” would look like by way of contrast. What I came up with on my own would be “NT Santa” responding immediately with an equally sarcastic comment about the customer checking out coal-fired vehicles because he just might find himself with an unexpected supply of it very soon.
It didn’t occur to me until I researched a bit more online that “Aspie” and “NT” interpretations are possible for this very scene without any changes at all, though I think the case is stronger for “Aspie Santa”, based on the visual evidence available.
The Houston Aspie Blogging Collective 