Difficultly understanding jokes?

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Particularly about oneself?

I usually take them the wrong way, get offended and such. I personally feel that it is wrong to have a person be the brunt of a joke, and that usually compounds things and makes them worse.

I haven't mastered the "art" of "playfully" insulting people as others seemed to have done. So when coworkers make "jokes" about me it is okay, whereas if I try to do the same I get pulled aside by a manager and talked to or even fired.

Anyone else experience this?

"Anyone else experience this?"

Oh Yeah!! !

The last job I had before I retired we had a couple of Jewish guys working for us, both of which were well endowed in the nose department. One of them called in sick and we sat around wondering what was wrong with him, "perhaps he's gone for a nose job" I suggested. There was stunned silence and a couple of hours later I found myself in HR trying to explain my 'racist' conduct.

The weird thing is that I don't have a racist bone in my body and, since I had relatives who died in the camps, I'm hardly likely to have a thing against a Jewish guy.

Ed Almos

Yeah I have a tendancy to frequently either completely miss the joke or get completely confused and frustrated by it.

I hate it when somebody is making a joke about me. I'm afraid my sense of humour doesn't include myself. I am and was always unable to get how it's possible that there are people who don't feel offended in such a situation

DD is right alongside you all. When you try to make a joke, you usually just get "the Look". And heaven forbid you try to joke around with her, because it soon escalates into a fight most of the time...

Not too often, but sometimes I am a bit slow off the mark to understand them...

What gets me is WHO is racist? YOU for saying they may have gone in for an operation that is NOT that unpopular for ANYONE, or the guys that IMMEDIATELY see a racial connection?

BTW I used to have a lot of jewish accquaintances. They ALL knew I wasn't jewish, and said they could tell. Still, they acted like I was a part of the family, etc... so I got a taste of how they REALLY feel. One appeared kind of pretty, with a cute nose and all, but she said that all the girls in her family get nose jobs at 16! Some of the people I knew were VERY rich, including one whos family at least STARTED HERTZ(You know, the car renatl company). I don't know if hertz ever had the nose jobs done though. I forget the other womans name. I have heard of other families doing the same, and most of the families, that I have heard that do this, ARE jewish.

I once got almost got fired for how I held my arms.(Even though almost everyone does the same)! They claimed THAT was racist. I do it around everyone, and even when I am ALONE!

I really don't think there is any such thing as a "joke." I think it is a cowardly way of saying something you perceive to be the truth about another person. I prefer to be told directly if something is wrong. If I am told, "Just kidding," how would I know when people are telling the truth. Kidding becomes a little bit like lying if used too often. You can't trust a thing another person says.

This happens to me a lot. People tend to like to use humor to break tension with me, especially when I get really focused on trying to answer a question they asked. I get annoyed first, because I am trying to answer their question with a good reason or explanation, second because it breaks my focus and is usually irrelevant to what is being asked to begin with.

I'm told sometimes that I need to be able to laugh at myself. Sheesh, I laugh at myself all of the time, but when it comes from somebody else, I have a hard time distinguishing between someone teasing or being serious. If I am not focused on the topic of teasing at the moment, I'm okay... but if I'm thinking about it, everything said towards it comes across as serious.

Yes.

At my workplace I find there is very much a humour culture, with a lot of banter, like most workplaces. Everyone else can pull off jokes and banter no problem because it is natural to them.

Whereas, I attempt a joke, and end up in a meeting with the boss, and the person I made the joke to, and asked to make an apology to the person, where I am placed in the position of humility.

This highlights what I already know, that I cannot 'do' joking in the way absolutely everyone else seems to be able to do, and get away with. I attempted a joke because the culture of the workplace expects humour, get in trouble, and everyone else gets away with making jokes about things like death.

I aint very good at understanding jokes as well. Sometimes when i hear a joke i dont laugh... its because I havent understood it. I would laugh once i have worked it out though or someone else tells me.

Added to that, I do seem to have to respond to a lot of banter and 'dry' sense of humour at work, as well as increasingly when interacting with people from my church. It's way over my head. I'd have to say it's my biggest weakness in my AS, a sense of humour is so vital. You should remember though, that this joking around - this type of sense of humour - is a coping mechanism for people, especially in demanding work circumstances where it will probably always be found.

My ex-husband had a 'joke' that he just loved to tell. I didn't get it and he refused to explain it to me. It honestly took me about 4 years to figure out why it was supposed to be funny. It really pissed me off that he wouldn't just explain it and he'd always laugh at me for not understanding.

Guess what I heard...
Cattle

One day I finally realized that you're supposed to figure out that it's 'herd' not 'heard'.

yep i sumtimes find it hard to understand complex jokes. if the jokes told in a group setting, i just giv a lil laugh like everyone else, so i look like i understood it

I can never tell when people are joking or being serious. I come from a family where people are always making jokes and such, and when I was younger and I'd be the target of a joke, I'd get really offended and they'd have to tell me, "We were just joking." Some time ago I explained this to my grandma, and she said to me, "Well, you know we don't mean anything by it." That could not be further from the truth. On the whole, I just do not get teasing.

YES!! !! !

People have been telling me to lighten up my whole life because I always interpret things very literally. When a general joke is told, I'm usually the last to laugh unless I know it's a joke and then it's pretty much a given that I'm supposed to. It's not that I'm an uptight jerk, I just take things for face value. I wish people could understand, but alas, I am not the majority.