(AIB the short bus thread)
When and how did the name “Timmy” become associated with the retarded? I’ve heard “little Timmy” used in association with retarded children (much in the same way that “Bruce” and “Lance” is associated with gays, “Bertha” with fat women, and so on) long before the Timmy character appeared in South Park.
Timmy from South Park, is the only place I’ve ever heard of it. In fact, when people say Timmy, I think they are referring to Timmy from South Park, not metally handicapped people in general.
I’ve only heard it on South Park too.
I’ve never heard “little Timmy” used in that way, but before South Park, Timmy was best known as the companion of Lassie, and had a reputation for being accident-prone and somewhat less intelligent than his dog.
“What’s the matter, girl?”
arf arf
“Timmy fell down the well!”
ETA: I don’t think the preceding exchange ever actually occurred on the series, but was meant to be typical of the way it has been parodied over the years.
I don’t know, but Tiny Tim (from Dickens, not he of “Tiptoe through the tulips”) is crippled, and often portrayed with crutches. It’s not a stretch to convert a generalized handicap to a mental one.
In the webcomic Looking For Group, Tim is an NPC half-troll who got hit on the head with a mace a few too many times, and is now a bit brain-damaged.
My guess is that “Timmy” is just a generic name that a young child might have, and thus over time became associated with anyone with a small mental capacity. I’n not sure who exactly is responsible for starting it though.
I forgot that “Timmy” was also the name Bart used when he tricked the people of Springfield into thinking a little boy had fallen down a well.
Maria Shriver wrote a book called What’s Wrong With Timmy? but it has a 2001 copyright, which is later than the introduction of the South Park character.
I’m pretty sure the South Park character is “Timmeh” 
In my neck of the woods Bruce and Lance are associated with Australians and Timmy isn’t a euphemism for spaz.
vive le difference as they say
Since I don’t watch South Park, I never heard of this association with “Timmy”. I think the above is probably the answer. It could have been “Tommy” or “Jimmy” or “Lenny” (well, it actually was “Lenny” in Of Mice And Men)–just the diminutive names ending in “-y” sound childlike, befitting an adult with a child’s mentality. Although in other contexts adult men get away with using -y diminutives and it can sound rakish, cool, fun-loving, or whatever.
I was sure I never had heard any one use Timmy as reference to the less fortunate but then I saw the Lassie post and laughed out loud.
I hadn’t thought of it in years but we used to goof on people and call them Timmy.
And Dilbert before the comic was around.
It’s from South Park.
Livin’ a lie.
God I loved that show (I’ve got the first two seasons on DVD).
Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol?
Nah, he wasn’t retarded, just physically handicapped. It was South Park.
What happens in Sydney, stays in Sydney.
Didn’t Mel Gibson once play a mentally challenged man named Tim in a movie of the same name?
