Rhetorical Questions.

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I only recognize rhetorical questions if I'm paying close attention to the person I'm talking to. If I'm distracted, all bets are off.

My biggest problem is that I hardly ever get the tone of voice for a rhetorical question right when I ask them myself, and end up offending people or having to say "That was a rhetorical question!", which can be quite wearing. Therefore, I have ceased asking them of most people, much to my chagrin, as I end up suppressing a good deal of my sarcastic humor that way. Not that most of my same-age peers understand my humor anyway...

Most of the time I only realise afterwards, when I have more information (such as the persons reaction the question I was or was not supposed to answer). I dont really care though, if they ask a question they didnt want me to answer and I answered it, they can cope with that or start making it clearer what they are doing/expecting.

^This, though the occasions in which I realize that the question is rhetorical is relatively few.

One can usually conjure up an intelligent reply to a rhetorical question, in my experience.
If only the person asking the question honestly cared about intelligent replies...