HBO's John from Cincinnati Makes Echolalia an Art Form

My son is big into echolalia, the repetition of words or phrases from other sources for the purposes of communication, self-comfort, or general annoyance. Sometimes, when his needle gets stuck on something and he repeats it over and over, it's obvious what's happening. Other times, he slips those phrases into conversation so smoothly he seems to have come up with them himself -- a problem if what he's saying is mature, provocative or rude.

He has two main sources of repetition: His Uncle Brett, and the shows he watches on TV. Fortunately, I know his uncle well enough to recognize the sort of turns of phrase my son picks up from him, and I know his entertainment selections well enough to recognize the word stylings of, say, The Hacker from Cyberchase or Judd from the Shiloh movies.

There's also kind of a tone of voice thing at work -- he picks up not only the word and phrase but the verbal inflection, and they're usually different from his own. If he says something the exact same way, in the exact same tone, more than once, I can usually ID it as that odd, echoing speech trick.

It's been interesting, then, to see echolalia employed -- as what, a plot device? symbolic expression? general annoyance? -- in the new HBO show John from Cincinnati. John (played by Austin Nichols, pictured), who is not in fact from Cincinnati but possibly from heaven or the planet Weird, communicates mostly by repeating what other characters have said to him, in ways that are inspiring or thought-provoking or just goofy. For this, many critics have referred to him as being autistic; most of the show's characters just call him a moron.

In the most recent episode, broadcast this past Sunday, that echolalia started to turn into something else, as the repeated phrases were woven into a terrifically odd sermon that pointed the way toward there being a message and a purpose to it all. There's also a scene in which John uses the very chirpy tone and syntax of a radio commercial he's just heard to dissuade a woman from shooting herself.

I want to stress that this show is absolutely not for everyone. The language is extremely rough, the plotlines are exceptionally random, and Rebecca DeMornay has been giving a performance as the matriarch of a troubled surfer family that will make you want to hide under the couch. But if you've heard a little about this show with an autistic mystic, or are curious to hear echolalia used for dramatic effect, there's a mini-marathon on tonight you might want to catch, featuring the last three episodes shown, starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Catch up on what went before on the show's HBO site. And don't blame me if you get either offended or hooked.