Post a silly example of taking something literally

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It was over 10 years ago when I was switching classes at the beginning of a new school year in high school...

I walk into my new class: Physics.

Teacher: What's your name?

Me: (says my name)

Teacher: Which class did you transfer from?

Me: Economics.

Teacher: And how do you spell that?

Me: E-C-O-N-O-...

The whole class laughs as I was supposed to spell my name, not the title of the class. (I don't have a very common name so it needed to be spelled out.)

I don't get it- I would assume also that they mean an animal. What is it supposed to be?

An example for me is when I was hiking with someone, and I told them I wanted to try the "Fox Trail" because I'd never seen foxes in that area before. He said, "Umm, the name doesn't necessarily mean that there are foxes along it, or that you would see them even if there were."

That happened to me a few years ago, but I thought she was talking about "burning" as in pain because of the psoriasis I have on my ears. I don't remember what I said, but in the end the meaning was explained to me.

I don't think it's an AS thing to take something literally if you've never heard the phrase before. After all, if you are not familiar with the non-literal meaning, what else can you do but interpret it literally? That's why young children often fail to understand idioms, and therefore take them literally. It's not as if most idioms are self-explanatory. Repeatedly failing to realize when someone is not being literal with idiomatic phrases that you've heard multiple times before would be more of an AS trait, I would think. Like the "take a seat" example someone gave- by 2nd or 3rd grade, most kids have probably heard that loads of times. I'd never heard the "ears burning" one before, so it is natural that I would interpret it literally.

This is one from Stephen Shore's book "Beyond the Wall."

Third-grade NT: "I feel like a pizza!"
Third-grade Aspie:

I had to put the book down and laugh out loud for a minute or so. These amuse me so much, maybe I will do some companion cartoons to go along with them.

Tiger Woods, pro golfer.

If you live in the US and you watch cable news, it seems all they can talk about is Tiger Woods. It's like whenever there's evidence that a celebrity is actually a flawed human being with a talent everything falls apart. It's all they can talk about. That's why it surprised me that I only thought of the animal because I was already so sick of hearing about Tiger Woods, the golfer.

Oh god, I've embarrassed myself with similar things, LOL!

The only news I watch is the channel 13 news because of the PDXrewards codes they give out. I was actually on the news for protest against Autism Speaks walks. I had to catch that on Saturday back in September.

I've done those sort of things, I do them all the time because I don't go back to previous words.


I remember in 101 Dalmatians:


Roger: She's going to have a baby
Cruella: Is this true
Anita: Yes
Cruella: Ugh you poor thing, I'm so sorry
Anita: We're very excited about it Cruella
Cruella: You can't be serious?
Roger: She is
Cruella: Well, what can I say? Accidents will happen
Roger: We're having puppies too
Cruella: Puppies, that's somewhat better news, I adore puppies. I'll expect a decline in your work for it
Anita: Oh I shouldn't think so
Cruella: You will tell me when the blessed event has occurred?
Anita: Oh it won't be for another eight months

I thought she was saying the puppies won't come for eight months and always wondered for years how could the movie be so inaccurate.

Oh my gosh! Haha! I'm sorry but that one is kinda funny. I bet the teacher thought you were being a smartass, huh?

A few years ago, my grandma told me to go throw the dishes into the sink. I literally threw all of the dirty dishes into the sink and they all shattered and broke everywhere.

Last year in my tenth grade health class, a question was asked on my exam that asked for the definition of "Walk in another person's shoes" I got up and said to the teacher "Ms. Bassett, why do you want to know about walking in someone else's shoes? I like my shoes, I don't want to wear anyone else's. They might not fit me properly" She laughed for a long time. So did the rest of my class.

Last edited by Kallie on 20 Dec 2009, 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

People used to tell me to drop their babies. I refused and kept hold of their baby. I thought those people were crazy that they would tell me to drop their kid.

HEHEHEHE. I wonder what the parents meant. lolololololol drop their babies heehehhe

They meant put them down.

I was about 16 waiting for someone to pick me up and noticed the
"No Parking or Standing" sign. I sat on the ground for about 20
minutes waiting for my ride wondering if other people walking by
were getting tickets or if walking didn't count as standing.

Eddie