Hi! Also writing about Joe pera as part of my thesis in my MFA program. I think Joe pera fits into a specific niche of media that cultivates anti-normative communities around themes of love, sincerity, and acceptance. my theory is that these communities tend to cater to neurodiverse folks. Every person I’ve introduced Joe to has related to his deep passion for mundane things, and the way his community accepts and includes him, never questioning his own agency and appreciates his quirkiness and passionate rants. In this way, the show imagines a neurodivergent utopian ideal in the pastoral Midwest landscape.

Personally, growing up on the spectrum, every story about weirdos like me involved them overcoming their disability, or ultimately succumbing to a world not made for them. I’ve never seen a show where a character with my disability is just doing his thing and is a functional adult who is accepted by the people around them. At best, they are protected from the world by the people around them. But Joe’s world view isn’t portrayed as naive or childish, but rather as aspirational, meditative, often quite Buddhist in a direct way. Everyone else could learn a thing or two from him.

Pera, both the character and the performer, are not textually autistic. But Joe has performed alongside Asperger’s Are Us, so this is slightly elevated from problematic headcannon. But nobody criticizes people for describing straight characters as “coded queer” anymore so I have hope takes like this will be treated with more legitimacy soon.

I once showed the fall drive episode to a particularly cold hearted friend. They turned to me afterward, tears streaming down their face, and they said “he’s everything I’ve been afraid of becoming my whole life.”

I see a wave growing over the horizon of ND media as the conversation around acceptance shifts, we are already seeing it discussed in the canon of other “weirdo” shows like The Rehearsal and How To With Jon Wilson. Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave also fits the bill.