I love that Brennan is a warm, lovable, jovial, beautiful human being but, there is that undercurrent of “I’m not afraid of physical violence and if I catch you victimizing someone I will fight you”.
I love that Brennans reaction to Lou not liking crows is “well obviously he’s just wrong and ignorant so if I give him an endearing enough fact he’ll change his mind!”
Im like that about all of my many interests, "you aren't stupid or wrong, you just don't get it. Let me explain it to you." and everyone thinks I'm just being a know-it-all.
Adults are mean, once a lady pushed in front of me at the fricken food bank, i was so much shorter because i was in elementary school. My mom yelled at her for doing that.
I don't have ASD, but like most of my family does. And that was also the moment where I went like "Wow yeah. I don't know if the diagnosis is necessary now 😅"
Peep me trying to laugh away the fact that the 3 places I eat from near my office all say "see you tomorrow" when it is their turn in the rotation, and "see you soon" when their turn in the rotation is ending.
I think the main reason he doesn’t have a formal diagnosis is that his parents were AWESOME and he didn’t grow up in trauma. Like, maybe this is the brain he’s got, but he had this rare gift of being around caregivers who went, “no, this is not disruptive. I treasure my kids.” And they MEANT that shit.
@@emilysmith2965 As the youngest and only allistic in a house of ASD kids, it sucked seeing my parents be so cruel to them for no reason. They didn't explain the diagnosis and their unique signs of ASD and used my ignorance as an advantage to generalise their flaws as autism related and villainise them to me. I knew they were doing this. It took a while to realise how much. And made sure to advocate for them, especially once I looked up more and more information about the symptoms/signs that ASD (which matched up a lot with each of them). I'm away from home, but one of my sisters is still home dealing with a new mood disorder and alcoholism/sobriety. It's not like it's just the autism stigmatising stuff, but my God is that part strong! Apologies for the rambling. I hope it helps you feel less alone in your experience, like your comment did for me
He once said that he doesn't particularly like winning, he just hates losing and that if he could play a game where nobody has to lose, that would be preferable to him.
I 100% agree with this video. Sometimes you look at an online person and you're like "I don't wanna para socially diagnose you or put shit on you, but you must know that my autism has latched onto how you are"
the “not hitting a joke because you got too excited thinking about the logistics of a hypothetical invention that was originally the setup to a joke” thing is SO REAL it’s genuinely not even funny.
My favorite yada fact is that she wasn't initially written as autistic, but the fans kept pointing it out like "wow! clearly she's autistic coded, right? :)" and Brennan just went "that's brilliant, and she is now!" Just the idea that he made a fun character and then a bunch of fans connected with them so hard we got him to retroactively change the lore. Which is only posable when the person making the character is someone like Brennan (and the media in question is live play)
@@monicaclark8453 I especially love that he went out of his way to do a bunch of research when it was brought to his attention that she seemed autistic-coded. And he put the effort in to understand autism and did a really good job incorporating that research into Ayda's character development.
Brennan is like if an autistic person had all of the special interests and conviction, but none of the social deficits. He’s ascended. Edit: I feel like I should clarify. Deficit was definitely too harsh of a word, but it is generally harder for autistic people to pick up on subtle social cues than it is for neurotypical people. Obviously, autistic people can thrive in social situations, but they often have to try harder than others. My comment was from a place of love, as I’m autistic and recognize a lot of my own traits (mostly just the special interest info-dumping, and the over-analysis of jokes in a goofy way).
Oooh I think he has lived with social deficits in some way or form, he has just also poured years into learning how to be charismatic and be a performer. And those are the situations we most often see him in.
The trick, I think, is putting a lot of energy into improv comedy 😭 That and being homeschooled enough to skip the trauma around socialization caused by being autistic in school. If you watch his interview on Study Hall it makes sense IMO. I did something similar, being homeschooled, and having a long standing special interest in communication. But I'm no commedian so I just have the superpower of appearing as a well adjusted normal person 😭.
Social deficits are a social construct. Just like how one autistic person might really like trains because they make sense to them, another might take the time to understand the underlying mechanics of being funny.
@@bodkie This - being able to recite train facts or sports facts or an entire standup special all come from the same place of special interest but how socially awkward each one makes you seem is based solely on cultural norms.
“I am unfailingly nice. Like, nice and kind to the point where it might make you uncomfortable how sincere I’m being.” Two of my friends in college were talking about the first time they came over to my house and spent time with me and my family. One friend couldn’t put her finger on the right adjective to describe how our love made her feel. I thought of positive adjectives (welcome, safe, surprised, etc.) The other friend volunteered another adjective: Intimidating. As I was reeling from such a weird suggestion, the first friend said “Yes! Intimidating!!” BLeeM rarely fails to make me feel seen.
If you ever make a part 2, there is a clip you should include of Brennan saying that playing Ayda Aguefort (a canonically autistic character) was “really liberating” and “felt very natural to him” 👀
@@phoenixdragon1258getting better at unmasking literally helped me make better friends and become closer with the existing ones They wanted to get to know MEEE
I feel like he also said something like “I didn’t intend to make her autistic, I just thought about all the coolest people I’ve met and based her off them” or smth?
It’s so hard to realise how much work you are doing to mask how your brain actually works until you’re in an environment with people where you don’t have to do that anymore.
"...Do you think I fuck around?" I have appropriated this for personal use, placed it in my tournament deck, and tapped it as an instant for three red manna, so many times. It has literally changed the entire meta of my conversations hence forth.
idk if you're also autistic but describing that using magic terminology is the most autism coded thing i've seen since i looked at my entire friend group including myself
I see Brennan as more a blue mana wizard. Alatar or Pallando. (Without reading the Silmarillion, I had to find out the names of the 2 blue Wizards. Thank God for Wikipedia. I am the only one in my social group who gave them money. Despite all of us using it regularly...)
Were getting Thai food? great ill have spicy chicken pad thai. west african? Jolof rice and puff puff. Vietnamese? ill have beef noodles. Chinese? whatever their house dim sung is and some sweet sour chicken balls...etc etc
No though because places will put some ungodly ingredients in your favorite dish and you wouldn’t have it be ruined if you just read the menu and were able to ask them to remove it! (Eg seafood olives or blue cheese)
Like my absolute favorite thing to get at sushi places are yakiniku rolls with cucumber but I can’t eat them when they put pickled onion, avocado or a lot of mayo in there
Nah I'm too anxious for that. Plus memory stuff, especially when anxious or stressed. I look at the menu multiple times to make sure I'm not going to forget what it's called sometimes because I'm paranoid about that happening. Plus got made fun of so much for just picking a safe food that I'm basically incapable of not looking at one now. I blank completely without a menu.
Like, all those desert island questions, I always gotta have the right answer. I’m always the one answering “a boat” or “a house” so I have the best odds of surviving the hypothetical island…
I think its funny how in the escape room episodes when sam first comes on the tv and Brennan is unfazed he holds an empty cup in his hand like he’s gonna drink from it while processing whats in front of him just so his hands can do something. Now THATS autism
especially the stuff where he’s more aggressive and focused on information: *leans forward* “you think I fuck around?” “PEOPLE TAKE ADDERALL TO BE LIKE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW” “Isn’t the thing I said also correct and not the thing????” *reading verbatim with unending fascination from wikipedia* *gets WAY too excited about the mechanics of playing space pool*
This is a shot in the dark but like I've been scrolling the comments and so far this is the only comment I've seen on this bit, but do you happen to know the name of this sketch, or what series it'd be from or anything?
Brennan: my fiancé says adderall would do nothing for me because I’m like this all the time! (7:20) Also Brennan: I constantly drink coffee and need to be caffeinated at all times. Me: hmm, well, I guess he’s getting the stimulants he needs anyway 😊
oh my god. that makes so much sense. i've read about how coffee has more of a relaxing effect on some neurodivergent folks. maybe it really is the equivalent of adderall to him
While we’re not obsessing corvids, here’s some surprising facts about ravens and crows: 1. Mourning Rituals: - Crows have been observed engaging in what appears to be mourning rituals. When a crow dies, other crows will gather around the body in a behavior known as a "crow funeral," often cawing loudly. This behavior may help them learn about potential dangers in the area. 2. Regional Dialects: - Ravens and crows have regional dialects in their calls, much like human accents. Birds from different areas have slightly different vocalizations, which they learn from their parents and community. 3. Strategic Deception: - Crows and ravens are known to engage in deceptive behaviors. For instance, a crow might pretend to hide food in one location while actually hiding it somewhere else, misleading potential thieves. 4. Gift-Giving to Humans: - Crows have been known to bring gifts to humans who feed them regularly. These gifts can include shiny objects, small trinkets, and even tools like screws and bolts. This behavior demonstrates their ability to recognize and respond to individuals. 5. Facial Recognition and Sharing Knowledge: - Crows can recognize individual human faces and remember them for years. They can also share this knowledge with other crows, alerting them to friendly or dangerous humans. 6. Playful Antics: - Ravens have been observed playing in unique ways, such as snowboarding down rooftops on their backs, playing fetch with other animals, and even sliding down snow-covered hills for fun. 7. Tactical Hunting: - Ravens have been seen using teamwork to hunt large prey. For example, one raven might distract a larger animal, while another goes in to steal food or even attack the prey. 8. Problem-Solving Puzzles: - In experiments, crows have solved complex puzzles that involve multiple steps and tools, demonstrating their problem-solving abilities and cognitive flexibility. 9. Ecological Impact: - Ravens and crows play a crucial role in their ecosystems by cleaning up carrion and waste, which helps prevent the spread of disease. They also help control insect populations. 10. Learning and Teaching: - These birds are capable of cultural transmission, where they learn behaviors from other birds and pass them on. For example, young crows learn about dangerous humans from observing the reactions of older crows. 11. Use of Symbolism: - In ancient cultures, ravens were often associated with gods and prophecy. In Celtic mythology, ravens were seen as messengers between the living and the dead, and they were linked to the war goddess Morrigan. 12. Interspecies Communication: - Ravens have been observed communicating with wolves. They will lead wolves to carcasses they cannot open themselves, then benefit from the wolves' ability to tear open the tough hides.
For no reason at all the thought that peeing in a pool from the edge is the most agresive thing you can do in a pool not involving actual violence keept looping in my mind.
I’ve never related to anything more than when he said “whatever the fuck this is…” about the rabbit/tree tying your shoes metaphor as a kid during adventuring party. I used to get SO frustrated with my parents over that. It took me ages to learn to tie my shoes because of it. It wasn’t even that I didn’t understand the metaphor; I knew it was a metaphor, it just seemed like a fundamentally unhelpful one. Like just tell me how to actually tie my shoes! Just give me the steps!
Further moments: - another burrows end adventuring party bit when they were talking about Brennan getting asked to stop gasping at a magic show and Erika says well even though it’s genuine, people might think you’re patronizing them, and Brennan completely serious goes “I’m not, I *love* magic” - the recent fantasy high junior year intro where he talks about how awful it was for adults to call you shy when you were a kid
20:40 I don't know about y'all, but I'm definitely on team menu. Who knows what their prices are, it might be more worth it to just get two orders of egg rolls depending on what the regular meals include. And I'm certainly not just gonna give some random pizza place my ideal pizza's life story because they'll probably charge half of my left kidney for it. You gotta 👏 consider 👏 the prices 👏 As a caveat, the menu is only needed on the first visit (as long as they don't change their prices every other Tuesday, like some fast food places seem to). After that just order the perfect meal each time, regardless of the time of day.
I think context matters. Yes I would like a menu. I would also like to know if their sweet and sour sauce is the nice kind with a vinegary kick or the nasty red stuff from the cash&carry (90% of the chinese takeaways in my city use the same supplier) and whether their curry has mushrooms in it or not. But in the context of "shit they stop taking orders in 5 minutes" umm, shit, Singapore noodles, I've never know a takeaway get that wrong,
I only need a menu for sauces, drinks, desserts, and sides. Those always fucking change and my side dishes change even with the same places. For example while a common side for me is fries and a vegetable sometimes I'm in the mood for a loaded potato and corn or Mac n cheese or salad or soup. I gotta know what things come with my meal too, will I be charged for fries with my sandwich? Who knows? Gotta see a menu. Diners I lean into cube steak no gravy extra crispy hashbrowns and over easy eggs with toast, orange juice. Sometimes they got sirloin tips though and they saute them so sweetly it's delicious. Same sides though but swap toast for buttermilk pancakes. Oh and pho I do sometimes try different pho but I always go raw beef no onions with a citrus drink of some kind or either a Vietnamese ice coffee or Thai iced tea depending on if they use the right kind of fucking cream I like it SWEET damn you don't fucking use half an half use heavy cream and vanilla for the tea and condensed milk for the coffee. Some tea places man.... Fuck all American ass boba places for fucking up thai tea. Oh but for noodles n co same thing every time. Buffalo Chicken Mac, no onions, substitute cavatappi or spaghetti depending on my mood. Try it with the cavatappi someday btw those things hold sauce tight. So yes. That bit is right as hell.
I want to see the menu to remind me of all the words I need to order the thing, even if I usually order the same thing, otherwise, Autistic Brain may not find the words.
@@ShadoeLandmanme without a menu trying to order from a place that I don’t have a memorized script: “what is a food?” I have my go tos but I can never remember them without the text being right in front of me 😭😭
When I was a kid, I had a lot of issues and we weren't able to find any answers as to why I had those issues, besides anxiety and depression, but that didn't explain all of it. We wondered if it was ASD, but even though I still have a lot of autistic traits as an adult, I do not meet the criteria for diagnosis. I was also a fairly bright kid, and my mom thought that maybe I was "gifted" and that was part of it. As an adult, I now know for a fact that I have ADHD and that that is what had caused a lot of my issues as a child. But the thing is that there is a lot of crossover between ADHD, ASD, and giftedness. Brennan is obviously a very intelligent person, and he has a lot of traits that are similar to common traits of people in all three of those groups, and I think that that is a part of why a lot of neurodivergent people (mostly with ADHD or ASD in this case) find Brennan to be so relatable. At least that's true for me anyways. And it's always very comforting to see him go through or experience things in a similar way that I do, especially since I look up to him so much.
The issue is neurodivergence is built around disability but some people are wired differently enough from the norm to be like, yeah maybe but also no according to the Diagnostic Manual but yeah weird huh
Also, when you are highly intelligent and your brain loves solving problems anyway, with enough time and effort you can cover the gaps most of the time. But when you get super stressed or are out of your comfort zone, all your carefully built adaptations come apart.
This. I think a lot of people don't see how being highly intelligent is also a curse in the social realm. I'm on a country where intellectualism is not appreciated, and the trauma that bullying and parental abuse entailed mixed with high capacity fucked me up socially for literally years. I needed a lot of trauma related therapy for me to act like an actual person. Surprisingly? Afterwards I became someone that everybody deems as likable and social, without that really being the focus of the therapy. I was just highly disregulated to a whole other magnitude. Trauma can fuck you up in mayor ways, I think that a lot of struggles derived from most neurotypicals are more related to trauma than what we want to realize (with this I don't want to diminish the struggles of other neurotypicals, I just think that when you go through trauma is way easier to learn how to navigate around the difficulties it entails.)
I've got ADHD and am probably autistic (according my autistic best friend and everyone i meet) and when I saw the way Brennan is I was like "oh i've never seen an internet person behave so much like me"
I don’t know (or really care) if brennan has been or could be diagnosed as autistic by a professional, I just love that my favorite things about him are direct consequences of the behaviors/tendencies that would make him “weird.” In a representation sense, he’s not “cool in spite of being weird” or “cool but also weird”: he is beloved in many ways because he is “weird” in such a refreshing and familiar way. I also want to talk about my hyperfixations and fixate on rules, and seeing that not only accepted but celebrated is just 🎉
This IS so relatable. When the guy said "you know we're recording this" I predicted Brennan would say something like "I should hope so" and he nearly said exactly that. Ok maybe I have a bit of the tism. But I can't fully accept it just yet because I was fully convinced for months that all my neurodiverse issues were ADHD related.
Finally. A group of people to whom I can be like “I relate entirely too much to the verbiage and most of the actions of Brennan Lee Mulligan” and it won’t be like “oh they’re trying to be cool” like no I too have to actively try not to talk like that and we did make up all the rules let me explain how I hyperfixate on specifically Genesis One of the biggest ones is like “incredibly blunt intrapersonal statements” whether that’s Evan kelmp’s many statements or “well the thing about me is the xyz of it all. What?” And the group-imposed need to “win” allistic interactions and then you tell them and they act like there aren’t win conditions Yes there are you pretending to be all coy about them doesn’t make them less real 😂 hold the discomfort for me when social norms I’m supposed to win are broken by me if they’re not real then
Oh my god I just remembered from the alligators in the pool story. Me and my older cousins were playing like, imagining their bunk beds were train cars, and we were doing high octane speed chase shit. Youngest cousin was like “??they are beds” and we turned to this fellow child our own kin and went “you have no imagination” 💀
I have an etymology special interest and the chesspie eggcorn conversation being implied to be boring makes me momentarily mad at Zac Oyama the person in real life every time the clip happens
Brennan thriving and being surrounded by a community of beautiful strange and wonderful people is like the most hopeful thing ever. Even Ayda being immediately thought of as cool and interesting and worth knowing was like. AAA
12:24 this The “ur being rude by not participating in hell” Excuses me. I’m not chronically afraid of being a person. Money isn’t real. You are your own sleep paralysis demon leave me out of it come back when ur ready for person time
The menu thing is where he loses me. I know what he means kind of. But I like knowing my favorite three to four things at any restaurant and no they’re not homogenized I will not order from a local restaurant like it’s the same as a different local restaurant across the country. How am I supposed to combine multiple flavors they specifically have if I can’t see one sandwich have aioli I want on MY sandwich The genie wishes are correct though.
my fav part about the north dakotan impression is the australian spanish teacher proves he just doesn’t know anything about north dakota. which is valid
I did the same eraser stim in elementary school! Then I got hospitalized because nobody knew I was autistic and comorbid mental disorders started popping up left and right lmao
everything he does is both deeply relatable and/or aspirational. one of my favourite guys. i also have a crow tattoo because they’re fantastic little fellas. also i know it’s a character in a sketch but the “getting ice breaker questions right” makes me feel deeply attacked.
I genuinely paused the video to search the comments for someone talking about this -- I need to know who hurt our boy like that, I just want to talk (don't mind my cane, I *definitely* don't know how to use it as a weapon as well as a mobility aid)
Brennan yelling about how if you find the best option, why would you not pick it every time, is very me as a kid ordering the same fucking thing from this one restaurant I went to with my parents. it's also very me now ordering the same pizza from the takeaway by our house, but now I'm diagnosed so it doesn't feel like I'm either insane or the only sane one in an insane world how I eventually was able to describe it to people was that the risk/reward ratio was simply not worth it. if I try a new thing and like it then that's good, but if I end up disliking it there's the food waste, I go hungry, there's the non-zero chance I throw up, I use a bunch of spoons for no hood reason, and in one particularly bad case I curled up in bed for a few hours trying to forget the awful texture on my teeth. if you were in my situation, would _you_ want to take that risk when there's a perfectly safe option that makes you happy?
I love that Brennan is a warm, lovable, jovial, beautiful human being but, there is that undercurrent of “I’m not afraid of physical violence and if I catch you victimizing someone I will fight you”.
it truly shows that he chooses to be kind and gentle and empathetic because he so easily could not be those things
average New Yorker when in a non-hostile environment
Truly an Irishman
… now to become as unafraid of physical violence as bleem
Paladin coded.
I love that Brennans reaction to Lou not liking crows is “well obviously he’s just wrong and ignorant so if I give him an endearing enough fact he’ll change his mind!”
No because he's right. If you're not a fan of ravens and crows then you just dont know enough about them
as a crow, he’s right
Im like that about all of my many interests, "you aren't stupid or wrong, you just don't get it. Let me explain it to you." and everyone thinks I'm just being a know-it-all.
I literally sent this video to my husband saying "Today I learned that Brennan Lee Muligan had the same reaction as me when people don't like crows."
people who dont like crows arent in their right minds
the mental image of tiny brennan asking his mom if he did something wrong after holding the door open for 9 grown ass ppl is too much for me to handle
I literally teared up over a 14 second clip
Adults are mean, once a lady pushed in front of me at the fricken food bank, i was so much shorter because i was in elementary school. My mom yelled at her for doing that.
I’m not even imagining a young Brennan now just a Oompa Loompa sized Brennan which makes it even better
brennan ‘i dont give a fuck about birds’ lee mulligan when given the chance to expound upon the many virtues of crows:
Rosate Spoonbill.
Honestly, when I found out he eats the same thing EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I was like “oh…..he’s one of us”
I don't have ASD, but like most of my family does. And that was also the moment where I went like "Wow yeah. I don't know if the diagnosis is necessary now 😅"
Peep me trying to laugh away the fact that the 3 places I eat from near my office all say "see you tomorrow" when it is their turn in the rotation, and "see you soon" when their turn in the rotation is ending.
@@katxero1 that just sounds like medal of honour levels of supporting your local restaurants to me😅🤘
I think the main reason he doesn’t have a formal diagnosis is that his parents were AWESOME and he didn’t grow up in trauma.
Like, maybe this is the brain he’s got, but he had this rare gift of being around caregivers who went, “no, this is not disruptive. I treasure my kids.” And they MEANT that shit.
@@emilysmith2965 As the youngest and only allistic in a house of ASD kids, it sucked seeing my parents be so cruel to them for no reason. They didn't explain the diagnosis and their unique signs of ASD and used my ignorance as an advantage to generalise their flaws as autism related and villainise them to me. I knew they were doing this. It took a while to realise how much. And made sure to advocate for them, especially once I looked up more and more information about the symptoms/signs that ASD (which matched up a lot with each of them).
I'm away from home, but one of my sisters is still home dealing with a new mood disorder and alcoholism/sobriety. It's not like it's just the autism stigmatising stuff, but my God is that part strong!
Apologies for the rambling. I hope it helps you feel less alone in your experience, like your comment did for me
The brennan doesnt understand how to play a game non-competitively is really funny when thinking about his DnD career
Dude is such a good DM he's made a career out of it and is famous for it. If anyone can be said to win at DND then he's certainly in the running.
The best part is that he doesn’t try to win at combat, he tries to win at storytelling, which is much harder and way more impressive.
Someone just said "One of the parameters of the game is that everyone should have fun" and Brennan said "Bet" and became an amazing DM.
He once said that he doesn't particularly like winning, he just hates losing and that if he could play a game where nobody has to lose, that would be preferable to him.
@@grahamwaldo331Exactly. I've totally noticed moments where Brennan pulled back in combat, because a TPK is the opposite of winning.
Brennan giving direction on his own b roll never fails to get me
Starts at 3:48 and I couldn't agree more how hilarious that is. 😂
No one ever lets Brennan cook! Maybe I did want the podcast to devolve into 45 minutes of crow facts, don’t make him stop!
I would unironically listen to and enjoy that someone start a petition
They’re doing Dropout Presents now - let’s make it happen!
I 100% agree with this video. Sometimes you look at an online person and you're like "I don't wanna para socially diagnose you or put shit on you, but you must know that my autism has latched onto how you are"
for sure ! to me that’s tomska
@@idliketobeagummybear I feel like he's said that he's been diagnosed?
the neuroscope rarely lies
also where the heck did you think Evan came from?
Me with GoodTimesWithScar
the “not hitting a joke because you got too excited thinking about the logistics of a hypothetical invention that was originally the setup to a joke” thing is SO REAL it’s genuinely not even funny.
his portrayal of ayda aguefort means everything to me
omg yes, literally my favourite character in all of fantasy high
It brought me to tears
Same!
My favorite yada fact is that she wasn't initially written as autistic, but the fans kept pointing it out like "wow! clearly she's autistic coded, right? :)" and Brennan just went "that's brilliant, and she is now!"
Just the idea that he made a fun character and then a bunch of fans connected with them so hard we got him to retroactively change the lore. Which is only posable when the person making the character is someone like Brennan (and the media in question is live play)
@@monicaclark8453 I especially love that he went out of his way to do a bunch of research when it was brought to his attention that she seemed autistic-coded. And he put the effort in to understand autism and did a really good job incorporating that research into Ayda's character development.
Brennan is like if an autistic person had all of the special interests and conviction, but none of the social deficits. He’s ascended.
Edit: I feel like I should clarify. Deficit was definitely too harsh of a word, but it is generally harder for autistic people to pick up on subtle social cues than it is for neurotypical people. Obviously, autistic people can thrive in social situations, but they often have to try harder than others. My comment was from a place of love, as I’m autistic and recognize a lot of my own traits (mostly just the special interest info-dumping, and the over-analysis of jokes in a goofy way).
Oooh I think he has lived with social deficits in some way or form, he has just also poured years into learning how to be charismatic and be a performer. And those are the situations we most often see him in.
Like an Ascended Vampire, all the strengths, mostly none of the flaws
The trick, I think, is putting a lot of energy into improv comedy 😭
That and being homeschooled enough to skip the trauma around socialization caused by being autistic in school.
If you watch his interview on Study Hall it makes sense IMO.
I did something similar, being homeschooled, and having a long standing special interest in communication. But I'm no commedian so I just have the superpower of appearing as a well adjusted normal person 😭.
Social deficits are a social construct. Just like how one autistic person might really like trains because they make sense to them, another might take the time to understand the underlying mechanics of being funny.
@@bodkie This - being able to recite train facts or sports facts or an entire standup special all come from the same place of special interest but how socially awkward each one makes you seem is based solely on cultural norms.
“I am unfailingly nice. Like, nice and kind to the point where it might make you uncomfortable how sincere I’m being.”
Two of my friends in college were talking about the first time they came over to my house and spent time with me and my family. One friend couldn’t put her finger on the right adjective to describe how our love made her feel. I thought of positive adjectives (welcome, safe, surprised, etc.) The other friend volunteered another adjective:
Intimidating.
As I was reeling from such a weird suggestion, the first friend said “Yes! Intimidating!!”
BLeeM rarely fails to make me feel seen.
I love the BLeeM. Unapologetically. Happy for him that he has a partner in life. Wish it had been me.
If you ever make a part 2, there is a clip you should include of Brennan saying that playing Ayda Aguefort (a canonically autistic character) was “really liberating” and “felt very natural to him” 👀
that is. literally so unsurprising
Legit the way he describes playing her sounds EXACTLY like unmasking!!
@@phoenixdragon1258getting better at unmasking literally helped me make better friends and become closer with the existing ones
They wanted to get to know MEEE
I feel like he also said something like “I didn’t intend to make her autistic, I just thought about all the coolest people I’ve met and based her off them” or smth?
It’s so hard to realise how much work you are doing to mask how your brain actually works until you’re in an environment with people where you don’t have to do that anymore.
"...Do you think I fuck around?" I have appropriated this for personal use, placed it in my tournament deck, and tapped it as an instant for three red manna, so many times. It has literally changed the entire meta of my conversations hence forth.
I was not prepared for you to describe those little phrases as mtg cards, but it *works* so well
@@robingates-shannon931 Right? And red mana cause, well you know. Brennan. :P
idk if you're also autistic but describing that using magic terminology is the most autism coded thing i've seen since i looked at my entire friend group including myself
I see Brennan as more a blue mana wizard. Alatar or Pallando. (Without reading the Silmarillion, I had to find out the names of the 2 blue Wizards. Thank God for Wikipedia. I am the only one in my social group who gave them money. Despite all of us using it regularly...)
you may not be diagnosing but let's be real, there's nothing neurotypical about this man
He has been diagnosed with ADHD, that is something he has spoken about
True
I'm more biased toward adhd though
He's neuroexceptional
@@Elvan1568 yeah, I agree.
@@Elvan1568Both! :D as someone who's AUDHD, the combination of needing structure while also making extremely quick connections is very relatable.
Watching Brennan go DEEP about the things he's passionate about is one of my favorite things to witness.
I live my life by the motto: "I will die on ANY hill!"
the sketch about the menu stuff is so right, you should always have a default order for restaurants so you can order without a menu
FOR REAL i was hollering HE'S RIGHT for the entire sketch 💀💀💀💀
Were getting Thai food? great ill have spicy chicken pad thai. west african? Jolof rice and puff puff. Vietnamese? ill have beef noodles. Chinese? whatever their house dim sung is and some sweet sour chicken balls...etc etc
No though because places will put some ungodly ingredients in your favorite dish and you wouldn’t have it be ruined if you just read the menu and were able to ask them to remove it! (Eg seafood olives or blue cheese)
Like my absolute favorite thing to get at sushi places are yakiniku rolls with cucumber but I can’t eat them when they put pickled onion, avocado or a lot of mayo in there
Nah I'm too anxious for that. Plus memory stuff, especially when anxious or stressed.
I look at the menu multiple times to make sure I'm not going to forget what it's called sometimes because I'm paranoid about that happening.
Plus got made fun of so much for just picking a safe food that I'm basically incapable of not looking at one now. I blank completely without a menu.
Brennan "winning" questions is the most Ayda Aguefort thing I've ever seen
Like, all those desert island questions, I always gotta have the right answer. I’m always the one answering “a boat” or “a house” so I have the best odds of surviving the hypothetical island…
I think its funny how in the escape room episodes when sam first comes on the tv and Brennan is unfazed he holds an empty cup in his hand like he’s gonna drink from it while processing whats in front of him just so his hands can do something. Now THATS autism
Seeing Brennan experience the thought of a chicken fourway for the first time is a real pleasure.
"now that's true, and if i don't get a point, imma fuckin lose it" same Brennan, same
17:08 Brennan's reaction is priceless. It's like he realized for the first time that he could have all their wonderful goodness on a single plate.
It’s like looking in a mirror. Especially cause I am a fellow man with a paper-white, fur-covered, constantly sweating body
especially the stuff where he’s more aggressive and focused on information:
*leans forward* “you think I fuck around?”
“PEOPLE TAKE ADDERALL TO BE LIKE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW”
“Isn’t the thing I said also correct and not the thing????”
*reading verbatim with unending fascination from wikipedia*
*gets WAY too excited about the mechanics of playing space pool*
This one. I’m a lumpus with hot people stuck inside
Also almonds
@@garrettwhite4448 Personally I like eating almonds from the giant mouth on my back so I can still talk to my friends while snacking
@@thelordmagus4015 it's even better if you have said friends shoveling said almonds in your giant back mouth like a furnace.
"I'm having fun. Getting the answers right are fun for me." That's a little too relatable for me 😅
The whole "its funny because he hates it" thing triggered fight or flight in my autistic ass holy shit
This is a shot in the dark but like I've been scrolling the comments and so far this is the only comment I've seen on this bit, but do you happen to know the name of this sketch, or what series it'd be from or anything?
I love that sam said in an interview he can't lock the door to the green room if brennan is in there
Wait why, you can’t just leave me hanging on this
I'm guessing because Brennan will assume he's on Game Changer and start wrecking shit
@@3ndlessL00p that was the implication yes lol
imagine being brennan lee mulligan, opening youtube, seeing this video, and noticing that it's nearly 50 minutes long
If Brennan sees this, I shall pass away
Brennan's mom talking about him sounds like my mom talking about me when I was younger 😭
Brennan giving directorial notes on how to make him seem lonely in a scene is absolutely great
"I didn't know one of the parameters of the game is that it had to be fun for everybody." is an incredible energy to bring to things.
but then when you DO know, it becomes a standard you're determined to keep
He is just the perfect combination of kind and thoughtful as well as a ruthless maniac.
I love how fucking pissed he got that he got an unstarted game of pool when the prompt said it was in the middle of the game.
Brennan: my fiancé says adderall would do nothing for me because I’m like this all the time! (7:20) Also Brennan: I constantly drink coffee and need to be caffeinated at all times. Me: hmm, well, I guess he’s getting the stimulants he needs anyway 😊
oh my god. that makes so much sense. i've read about how coffee has more of a relaxing effect on some neurodivergent folks. maybe it really is the equivalent of adderall to him
The ability to play survivor in the side 😂😂 peak autistic humour is just saying things wrong
The shocked realization of what baby Brennon was like, the “oh no” is hilarious
thank you!!!!! every time his mom tells a story about him as a kid i’m like,,, he’s one of us,,, audhd icon
fullllllllly!!!! baby Brennan must be protected
While we’re not obsessing corvids, here’s some surprising facts about ravens and crows:
1. Mourning Rituals:
- Crows have been observed engaging in what appears to be mourning rituals. When a crow dies, other crows will gather around the body in a behavior known as a "crow funeral," often cawing loudly. This behavior may help them learn about potential dangers in the area.
2. Regional Dialects:
- Ravens and crows have regional dialects in their calls, much like human accents. Birds from different areas have slightly different vocalizations, which they learn from their parents and community.
3. Strategic Deception:
- Crows and ravens are known to engage in deceptive behaviors. For instance, a crow might pretend to hide food in one location while actually hiding it somewhere else, misleading potential thieves.
4. Gift-Giving to Humans:
- Crows have been known to bring gifts to humans who feed them regularly. These gifts can include shiny objects, small trinkets, and even tools like screws and bolts. This behavior demonstrates their ability to recognize and respond to individuals.
5. Facial Recognition and Sharing Knowledge:
- Crows can recognize individual human faces and remember them for years. They can also share this knowledge with other crows, alerting them to friendly or dangerous humans.
6. Playful Antics:
- Ravens have been observed playing in unique ways, such as snowboarding down rooftops on their backs, playing fetch with other animals, and even sliding down snow-covered hills for fun.
7. Tactical Hunting:
- Ravens have been seen using teamwork to hunt large prey. For example, one raven might distract a larger animal, while another goes in to steal food or even attack the prey.
8. Problem-Solving Puzzles:
- In experiments, crows have solved complex puzzles that involve multiple steps and tools, demonstrating their problem-solving abilities and cognitive flexibility.
9. Ecological Impact:
- Ravens and crows play a crucial role in their ecosystems by cleaning up carrion and waste, which helps prevent the spread of disease. They also help control insect populations.
10. Learning and Teaching:
- These birds are capable of cultural transmission, where they learn behaviors from other birds and pass them on. For example, young crows learn about dangerous humans from observing the reactions of older crows.
11. Use of Symbolism:
- In ancient cultures, ravens were often associated with gods and prophecy. In Celtic mythology, ravens were seen as messengers between the living and the dead, and they were linked to the war goddess Morrigan.
12. Interspecies Communication:
- Ravens have been observed communicating with wolves. They will lead wolves to carcasses they cannot open themselves, then benefit from the wolves' ability to tear open the tough hides.
For no reason at all the thought that peeing in a pool from the edge is the most agresive thing you can do in a pool not involving actual violence keept looping in my mind.
I am not in the business of armchair diagnosing anyone but he is SUCH a mood lol
7:46 Brennan hi-fiving the camera twice after hearing Siobhan join in with a crow fact is so wholesome
the wikipedia spiral was Relatable™ (as was most of the rest of the video). one of us. one of us. one of us.
The face of disbelief when someone is disinterested in his thing is so me like "no you're wrong and I'm gonna tell you exactly why"
49 minutes of Mr. Mulligan being Correct.... big fan, thank you so much
I’ve been SAYING. He just gets it.
I’ve never related to anything more than when he said “whatever the fuck this is…” about the rabbit/tree tying your shoes metaphor as a kid during adventuring party. I used to get SO frustrated with my parents over that. It took me ages to learn to tie my shoes because of it. It wasn’t even that I didn’t understand the metaphor; I knew it was a metaphor, it just seemed like a fundamentally unhelpful one. Like just tell me how to actually tie my shoes! Just give me the steps!
Further moments:
- another burrows end adventuring party bit when they were talking about Brennan getting asked to stop gasping at a magic show and Erika says well even though it’s genuine, people might think you’re patronizing them, and Brennan completely serious goes “I’m not, I *love* magic”
- the recent fantasy high junior year intro where he talks about how awful it was for adults to call you shy when you were a kid
Oh my god same!
Literally loving this
"I dont wanna get slimed by a womans goo machine!"
3 seconds later: "Im an american!"
my favourite thing is how brennan is wearing the same shirt in the first three clips
I did not intend to stay up an extra 50 minutes. You really got me
Unrelated to the actual point of the video (though I do love it), I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE DRAWFEE ( 45:16 ) MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN ONE OF THESE!!!
20:40 I don't know about y'all, but I'm definitely on team menu. Who knows what their prices are, it might be more worth it to just get two orders of egg rolls depending on what the regular meals include. And I'm certainly not just gonna give some random pizza place my ideal pizza's life story because they'll probably charge half of my left kidney for it. You gotta 👏 consider 👏 the prices 👏
As a caveat, the menu is only needed on the first visit (as long as they don't change their prices every other Tuesday, like some fast food places seem to). After that just order the perfect meal each time, regardless of the time of day.
Prices and flavor combinations
How much frivolous joy can I afford
I think context matters. Yes I would like a menu. I would also like to know if their sweet and sour sauce is the nice kind with a vinegary kick or the nasty red stuff from the cash&carry (90% of the chinese takeaways in my city use the same supplier) and whether their curry has mushrooms in it or not. But in the context of "shit they stop taking orders in 5 minutes" umm, shit, Singapore noodles, I've never know a takeaway get that wrong,
I only need a menu for sauces, drinks, desserts, and sides. Those always fucking change and my side dishes change even with the same places. For example while a common side for me is fries and a vegetable sometimes I'm in the mood for a loaded potato and corn or Mac n cheese or salad or soup. I gotta know what things come with my meal too, will I be charged for fries with my sandwich? Who knows? Gotta see a menu.
Diners I lean into cube steak no gravy extra crispy hashbrowns and over easy eggs with toast, orange juice. Sometimes they got sirloin tips though and they saute them so sweetly it's delicious. Same sides though but swap toast for buttermilk pancakes.
Oh and pho I do sometimes try different pho but I always go raw beef no onions with a citrus drink of some kind or either a Vietnamese ice coffee or Thai iced tea depending on if they use the right kind of fucking cream I like it SWEET damn you don't fucking use half an half use heavy cream and vanilla for the tea and condensed milk for the coffee. Some tea places man.... Fuck all American ass boba places for fucking up thai tea.
Oh but for noodles n co same thing every time. Buffalo Chicken Mac, no onions, substitute cavatappi or spaghetti depending on my mood. Try it with the cavatappi someday btw those things hold sauce tight.
So yes. That bit is right as hell.
I want to see the menu to remind me of all the words I need to order the thing, even if I usually order the same thing, otherwise, Autistic Brain may not find the words.
@@ShadoeLandmanme without a menu trying to order from a place that I don’t have a memorized script: “what is a food?”
I have my go tos but I can never remember them without the text being right in front of me 😭😭
When I was a kid, I had a lot of issues and we weren't able to find any answers as to why I had those issues, besides anxiety and depression, but that didn't explain all of it. We wondered if it was ASD, but even though I still have a lot of autistic traits as an adult, I do not meet the criteria for diagnosis. I was also a fairly bright kid, and my mom thought that maybe I was "gifted" and that was part of it. As an adult, I now know for a fact that I have ADHD and that that is what had caused a lot of my issues as a child. But the thing is that there is a lot of crossover between ADHD, ASD, and giftedness.
Brennan is obviously a very intelligent person, and he has a lot of traits that are similar to common traits of people in all three of those groups, and I think that that is a part of why a lot of neurodivergent people (mostly with ADHD or ASD in this case) find Brennan to be so relatable. At least that's true for me anyways. And it's always very comforting to see him go through or experience things in a similar way that I do, especially since I look up to him so much.
wow you sais exactly what i think about this. and some of your experience is so close to mine too
The issue is neurodivergence is built around disability but some people are wired differently enough from the norm to be like, yeah maybe but also no according to the Diagnostic Manual but yeah weird huh
Also, when you are highly intelligent and your brain loves solving problems anyway, with enough time and effort you can cover the gaps most of the time. But when you get super stressed or are out of your comfort zone, all your carefully built adaptations come apart.
This. I think a lot of people don't see how being highly intelligent is also a curse in the social realm.
I'm on a country where intellectualism is not appreciated, and the trauma that bullying and parental abuse entailed mixed with high capacity fucked me up socially for literally years. I needed a lot of trauma related therapy for me to act like an actual person.
Surprisingly? Afterwards I became someone that everybody deems as likable and social, without that really being the focus of the therapy. I was just highly disregulated to a whole other magnitude.
Trauma can fuck you up in mayor ways, I think that a lot of struggles derived from most neurotypicals are more related to trauma than what we want to realize (with this I don't want to diminish the struggles of other neurotypicals, I just think that when you go through trauma is way easier to learn how to navigate around the difficulties it entails.)
I love Brennan so much, he’s the best, he does kinda have autism energy tbh
I've got ADHD and am probably autistic (according my autistic best friend and everyone i meet) and when I saw the way Brennan is I was like "oh i've never seen an internet person behave so much like me"
I love this man he’s my favourite autism
As someone who is autistic, Breannan is so me fr
Brennan is so right about crows, corvids are very fascinating
This was really cozy to watch. Strangely. Or perhaps not so strangely.
I don’t know (or really care) if brennan has been or could be diagnosed as autistic by a professional, I just love that my favorite things about him are direct consequences of the behaviors/tendencies that would make him “weird.” In a representation sense, he’s not “cool in spite of being weird” or “cool but also weird”: he is beloved in many ways because he is “weird” in such a refreshing and familiar way. I also want to talk about my hyperfixations and fixate on rules, and seeing that not only accepted but celebrated is just 🎉
I need to listen to the clip of Brennan ordering Chinese takeout for everyone every time I get indecisive about ordering from anywhere
"I will die on any hill" having just surrendered a hill.
The menu sketch is so real because i find something i like at a restaurant and i get it every single time
45:16 Brennan trying to make sense of Jacob's horrible snake lady is an absolutely golden dynamic
10:16 is a very valuable life lesson that I really wish I had learned before it completely bent me over a rail.
The new york accent popping out at "coffee" gives me life 23:06
THANK YOU YES, every time i hear it i rewind it five times
captivating the whole way through. he's so right all the time
Brennan's a competitive theater kid, and we love him for that.
27:39 as someone who is asexual this had me dying laughing it’s such a funny way to say it
Just uploading the entire menu sketch is such a mood
the only person who can top brennan "you think you can buy me with chips?" lee mulligan is karen "I can eat it I just won't survive it" han
now I want to know all of his crow facts
Brennan breaking down the snake lady sends me. He's hitting all the zoological points
This IS so relatable. When the guy said "you know we're recording this" I predicted Brennan would say something like "I should hope so" and he nearly said exactly that. Ok maybe I have a bit of the tism. But I can't fully accept it just yet because I was fully convinced for months that all my neurodiverse issues were ADHD related.
this was 49 minutes and 26 seconds of me closely identifying with Brennan. like a goddamn mirror
FIFTY (minutes)?!?!?
I scrolled back up to 👍
that *can’t* be right…
👀 most popular guy in the room
This is good and I’m glad this is so long. ❤
Finally. A group of people to whom I can be like “I relate entirely too much to the verbiage and most of the actions of Brennan Lee Mulligan” and it won’t be like “oh they’re trying to be cool” like no I too have to actively try not to talk like that and we did make up all the rules let me explain how I hyperfixate on specifically Genesis
One of the biggest ones is like “incredibly blunt intrapersonal statements” whether that’s Evan kelmp’s many statements or “well the thing about me is the xyz of it all. What?”
And the group-imposed need to “win” allistic interactions and then you tell them and they act like there aren’t win conditions
Yes there are you pretending to be all coy about them doesn’t make them less real 😂 hold the discomfort for me when social norms I’m supposed to win are broken by me if they’re not real then
Oh my god I just remembered from the alligators in the pool story. Me and my older cousins were playing like, imagining their bunk beds were train cars, and we were doing high octane speed chase shit. Youngest cousin was like “??they are beds” and we turned to this fellow child our own kin and went “you have no imagination” 💀
I have an etymology special interest and the chesspie eggcorn conversation being implied to be boring makes me momentarily mad at Zac Oyama the person in real life every time the clip happens
Brennan thriving and being surrounded by a community of beautiful strange and wonderful people is like the most hopeful thing ever. Even Ayda being immediately thought of as cool and interesting and worth knowing was like. AAA
12:24 this
The “ur being rude by not participating in hell”
Excuses me. I’m not chronically afraid of being a person. Money isn’t real. You are your own sleep paralysis demon leave me out of it come back when ur ready for person time
The menu thing is where he loses me. I know what he means kind of.
But I like knowing my favorite three to four things at any restaurant and no they’re not homogenized I will not order from a local restaurant like it’s the same as a different local restaurant across the country.
How am I supposed to combine multiple flavors they specifically have if I can’t see one sandwich have aioli I want on MY sandwich
The genie wishes are correct though.
Brennan directing his own b roll footage while on that footage will never not be funny
my fav part about the north dakotan impression is the australian spanish teacher proves he just doesn’t know anything about north dakota. which is valid
I did the same eraser stim in elementary school! Then I got hospitalized because nobody knew I was autistic and comorbid mental disorders started popping up left and right lmao
everything he does is both deeply relatable and/or aspirational. one of my favourite guys. i also have a crow tattoo because they’re fantastic little fellas. also i know it’s a character in a sketch but the “getting ice breaker questions right” makes me feel deeply attacked.
"Tan-GENT" is SO PURE
Like many of the college humour cast, I am quite fond of this man's existence. Thank you for the video 😌
I’m no where near as extroverted as Brennan but my autistic ass has always related to him way too much lmao
I needed this more than I care to admit.. That man is bloody fabulous!
I fucking love the energy of "Brennan, people take Adderal to be like you"
its so unbelievably that brennan fights that the place doesnt have a menu but then knows all the number specials by heart
oh i get it, this is one of those "good and accurate" compilations where I get even more context that makes Brennan the best guy :3
I was really hoping the entire menu sketch would be included, close enough
12:30 i need the rest of the context so i can immediately pounce on this loser for hurting brennan's feelings
I genuinely paused the video to search the comments for someone talking about this -- I need to know who hurt our boy like that, I just want to talk (don't mind my cane, I *definitely* don't know how to use it as a weapon as well as a mobility aid)
@@caitlinmurray750 NOT ME ALSO USING MY CANE AS A WEAPON HELL YEAH DISABLED GANG RISE UP
This is an amazing compilation, thank you
The FMK about chicken dishes was so funny. The way he reacted to the concept of having all three at once...
Nothing better than Brennan on Drawfee. It's amazing. Also, Karina makes an amazing point ... Snilk
love that there's damn near 50 minutes of footage, and each and every one of them is bangers
10:37 The phrase "in the side" is forever entering my vocabulary, I totally didn't pick up on that when I watched the episode lol
im so sorry if this reveals me as austisic but hi creator of this video can i do closed captions for this video for you?
Sure, Im gonna do a reupload with better volume
@@trivialpopsicle232 oh thank god i had my volume on 100 and when my computer played another sound my ears nearly fell off
Oh thank you. Thank you so much for this.
This was wonderful.
Watching him actively fall into a rabbit hole about chess pie... That's my brain all the time 😂
I’ve related to Brennan Lee Mulligan for a while now.
Recently it solidified in my mind that I’m probably autistic.
I like this video (:
Brennan yelling about how if you find the best option, why would you not pick it every time, is very me as a kid ordering the same fucking thing from this one restaurant I went to with my parents. it's also very me now ordering the same pizza from the takeaway by our house, but now I'm diagnosed so it doesn't feel like I'm either insane or the only sane one in an insane world
how I eventually was able to describe it to people was that the risk/reward ratio was simply not worth it. if I try a new thing and like it then that's good, but if I end up disliking it there's the food waste, I go hungry, there's the non-zero chance I throw up, I use a bunch of spoons for no hood reason, and in one particularly bad case I curled up in bed for a few hours trying to forget the awful texture on my teeth. if you were in my situation, would _you_ want to take that risk when there's a perfectly safe option that makes you happy?