who can make jokes?

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I've always thought that Aspies can't make jokes in conversations - but maybe that's just because of the fact that I can't make jokes. I can laugh at other people's jokes (provided I'm aware it's a joke) but other than that I'm always very serious. Very, very occasionally people laugh at me because apparently something I said was perceived as funny while I didn't mean to be funny at all.

Now since a week my (only) friend has got a diagnosis of Asperger. It's not totally surprising to me though there are a substantial number of differences between him and me. One of the more striking differences is that he can make small jokes and he does so quite regularly provided he is at ease.

So now I wonder about all of you, are you able to make jokes? (I mean spontaneous jokes, not just memorising standard jokes)

Last edited by Marco67 on 27 Mar 2010, 2:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

I do have the potential to make people laugh during conversations; usually sarcastic remarks and stuff like that.

Yes I can make jokes. They come to me naturally because I am always wanting to be funny and make jokes and I seem to be good at finding humor. But sometimes my jokes can be hurtful. One time my husband and I were having a little argument and he was telling me how he feels when I don't give him this or that. I told him he knows where the door is and the county office. He said that hurt his feelings. I didn't want to do all that work in a relationship so I said it.

Another time we were talking and I said how I was more NT when I had my miscarriage because I was able to express my feelings well and my husband wished I could be that way more often. So I told him I should have more miscarriages. He said "NO" and then he was upset.

Last edited by League_Girl on 27 Mar 2010, 2:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

I laughed at this one, thanks! But at the same time I realised this was not what I meant with my poll question. So I just clarified the poll question further.

Occasionally, I can make jokes online that people LOL at , but I can't do that in real life at all.

no i dont tell jokes nor do i have any to tell. but people often find what i say very funny.

I can make jokes, but people find them funnier than I think they are. This pleases me.

This is one of the replies I got when I "came out" on a motorcycle forum I'm on.
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Tony

My wife works in the education system and visits schools to help diagnose and advise teachers on helping with all kinds of autistic and learning disorders. She says that huge chunks of the population have some sort of condition and most of them are totally unaware of it.

She used to have one child who could tell you everything about plumbing. Another who couldn't understand why it was wrong to hit another kid if they were messing about in a playground game and not keeping to the "rules". He thought that rules should be stuck to completely and found it impossible to accept that others didn't think the same.

One thing that is often understood is idiom, e.g. I slept like a log. They would take it literally and want to know how you did that, did you sleep in the woods?

I'm surprised that you have this condition as you have such a wicked sense of humour and this is something is often lacking.

PS She also diagnosed me as being slightly dyslexic, which explains a lot!
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So I guess I have a sense of humour.

I can make jokes only Occasionally

My jokes are usually sarcastic remarks, too. I think they're the easiest to improvise. Sometimes people come up with really good jokes (not remarks) based on the context of the conversation. I wish I could do that. I also like blonde jokes and dead baby jokes, but I don't share them with anybody.

Way to go on your sense of humor, FTM (Tony)!

I can on rare occasion make the whole room laugh with observational humor, but it never happens if I plan it. It's just something that pops in my head right at that moment. Usually I'm thinking it's a mostly lame, mildly amusing comment and I'm surprised at all the guffawing.

I understand jokes as stories. I can use irony, wordgames etc. And I'm quite good actress (!).
But I can't manage with jokes as things that people do, they touch themselves and say stupid things. I never know if it's good or bad for me, so I keep cold and aware.

I often make self-deprecating jokes during conversation. I can also make 'basic' jokes based on what people say to me, the kind of jokes that are expected in social situations and that people set you up for by making certain kinds of remarks. Anything beyond the basic level, I can only make sexually obscene jokes.

I generally have no problem with this. Indeed, I'd almost say I'm better at it than the average person.

i voted no.

i am not a serious type of person meaning that i am not a worryer or someone who always has to be sensible, but my humor is internal and can not be communicated.
i often start to smirk extremely when someone is saying things, because in my own world i see it as comical in ways that are only understood by me.

when i have had NT associates when i used to work in an office (i work from home now) and had to go to lunches with them on special occasions, i tried to make up jokes to see if they thought they were funny.
no one ever did laugh at the jokes i made up.

i do not remember jokes that are told to me because i never find them funny, so i can not retell jokes that i do not have in my inventory.

i have tried to make up some jokes that i thought they may laugh at when they are all telling jokes and it comes my turn to say a joke.

example:
Q: what type of vehicles do prostitutes drive?
A: pickup trucks.

example: (slightly cryptic)
Q: what is the similarity between having just enough cretaceous therapods and riding a horse?
A: you have no spare tire an' a sore ass. (tyrannosaurus)

these were seen as feeble attempts to contribute to an otherwise (another wise) jocular rapport at the table i was at.

i mainly create "jokes" in my head that only make me laugh now (because i fail to make others laugh), and they are at the expense of others i guess so people tell me it is not good.

an example is this joke:

Q: what is the similarity between an argentinian field mouse wearing a sombrero, and a blue whale stuck in an olympic swimming pool?
A: they both have 2 eyes.

people get cranky at those types of "jokes" because they spend a few seconds trying to think of an answer, and they give up and ask for the answer and the "punch line" annoys them.
their annoyance results in an expression on their face which i find privately amusing and i may then start to laugh.
they think i am laughing at the joke i just said and their face becomes even funnier to look at.
i then laugh harder and they have a grizzled and serious expression on their face at my acceleration of mirth, and that is even funnier to me so it is a self sustaining trip into hysterics for me.

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sometimes when i am in the company of people who are smarter than me, and they are all serious and talking about topical issues they heard in the news that day and they look to me for my input, i give them an absurd rendition of my appreciation of the topic they are talking about.

example:
person: yeah...well the football club needs the money badly because they need to train hard for their first match against the "wallabies " in 30 years.
other person: too right mate.
me: but the people that are training will be too old to play in 30 years so what is the point of training them?

example:
person: did you hear that michael jacksons collection of diamonds went under the hammer today?
other person: no! really? what did they fetch?
person : dunno yet.
me: it is the act of an imbecile to smash diamonds with a hammer.
person: are you serious?
me: well the only reason i can think of as to why anyone would hit diamonds with a hammer is to see if they are real, and i can guarantee that that will shatter under a hammer. hardness is correlative with brittleness and can not be measured with blunt force so...
person: forget it mate! your on another channel.


i think the reason i say such things stems more from my ODD than AS however.

i am sick of replying to this topic so that is all.

I just make context-based remarks that are funny.