Asperger's and Sarcasm

Post Reply New Topic

I often dont get sarcasm, often when i suspect sarcasm, i ask the persn "are you being sarcastic?" they look at me like iam some kind of fool.

Yeah, I "get" sarcasm. However, sarcasm is the petty stepsister of satire, a more vaunted, articulate form of humor. Why would anyone choose the shrill tones of sarcasm when they can challenge deeper concepts through a literary genre?

i dont understand sarcasm myself. Sometimes, people will be sarcastic and i will take it as truth. It can be quite embarassing.
A

I get sarcasm. I actually prefer that sort of humour. Even when I was a little kid, I had a really dry wit. I admire that type of humour in other people too.

I never know when anyone is being sarcastic. I always take what anyone says literally. That seems to be my whole problem with dealing with society. Then I get my feelings hurt because they will laugh at my naivte!

-- you have done this very well
-- you are serious ?
-- no, im making fun of you
--

lived this kind of situation quite a lot, i belive its related to sarcasms

its "funny" how i dealed with sarcasm after, behing quite revolted when someone was saying something i suspected behing a sarcasm

I always get sarcasm, but I don't like it at all. I don't use it often and I think it's an absolutley horrible way to talk to people.

I encounter this all the time. I am actually an incredibly funny person because the stuff I say is so rediculous it cant be true. People think that I am just a normal teenager and trying to upset my parents. Then I tell them that all the stuff the y laught at Im very serious.

I actually just experienced this last week. I was talking to someone and we started to talk about having a car. He said how much he would love a car. I said I would probaly be just as happy with a buss pass (we are both 16 and without permits even). He looked at me strange then started laughng. I said I was serious and he seemed very confused. Hey I mean what I say.

I do have a very sarcastic or as my sister puts it fesicitious (sp?) view on life. Ive always had a rough time so looking at things sarcastically is a way to put some kind of positive meaning on things sometimes. Still I almost ever recognise when otehrs others are being sarcastic.

I get sarcasm, but don't really use it. Mom, on the other hand, is the sarcasm master... especially when some poor unsuspecting person turns the wrong way in front of her huge Isuzu SUV!

Those that are sarcastic are easily not sad people.

It takes time getting to understand it from some people, especially online.

Sometimes I think I get sarcasm, but I am never 100% sure. Other times, I really can't tell at all if someone really means what they say, or whether they are being sarcastic; and then I usually ask outright if sarcasm is what they intend. (they susally seem surprised that I need to ask!)
The problem is that although sarcasm is seen as a kind of humour, it often isn't very funny at all. In fact it can be downright unkind - at least to the person it is aimed at! Other people might find sarcastic remarks hilarious, but often the object of the remarks finds them hurtful or just plain rude. Surely "humour" should be funny ... it should make you smile, or laugh, it may startle, amuse, show you things in a different light. Certainly, you can poke fun at someone in a critical way (think for example at all the jokes about celebrities and polititians in the media, for example,) and this can be very humorous; but it seems to me that personal "sarcasm", aimed at someone you know who might be standing right there in the room with you, is often meant to hurt more than to amuse.
For exampleI have often been the butt of jokes or sarcastic comments about my appearance (I am overweight) usually from other family members. When I have not laughed, but said instead that I am hurt, they accuse me of" having no sense of humour". "Well," I have sometimes replied "I do have a sense of humour! If you actually say something funny, I will certainly laugh! "
Being overweight for example might be unattractive and unhealthy and different from the norm but surely it is not a "humourous" thing, even if true. Making sarcastic remarks that offend someone, and then expecting them to roar with laughter is just ridiculous. If you really must be 'sarcastic", at least be truly witty, and do it with humour, not spite.
Sorry, everyone .... rant now over!

Glenn (edited once for typos)

"You weren't being sarcastic. You were being markedly derisive. That's sardonic." -Ambrose Monk (Adrian Monk's brother).

Sorry, I couldn't resist, what with the recent topic on aspie-like fictional characters.

I never really get sarcasm, I don't think. Even when someone tells me they were being sarcastic, my response is usually "I know," but when I think about it, I'm never really sure if I did know or if I didn't. Does anyone else have this problem?

The hard part of this exchange is figuring out if they were sarcastic originally and are now honest, or if they are originally honest and are now sarcastic.

I get it like 99.9% of the time. I am usually the one that is sarcastic. If I have something to say I say it. My Grandma says I take after her aunt Josie. She was sarcastic, and honest... maybe too honest. I love my sarcasm and sharp wit.

I don't want to blow my own trumpet (well, I'm not as young and supple as I used to be, you know), but I consider myself a master of the use of sarcasm - it basically fits my particularly bitter and twisted personality down to the ground. As for receiving it, I generally always assume that people who say anything pleasant to me are being sarcastic, just to be on the safe side (which they usually are), which sometimes leads to problems as I generally snap their heads off for doing so, leading to much offense and huffiness, naturally...... Oh well, can't win 'em all....

Exactly. I couldn't have described my own case much better. I can 'get' sarcasm quite easily, when I realize that it is, in fact, sarcasm.

Interestingly, I've noticed that some people's sarcasm I 'understand' far better than others. Some people just have a certain way of saying things sarcastically... I think, for me, it's a matter of how absurd the sarcasm is. I've noticed that most of the sarcasm I don't 'catch' is of the sort that could possibly be taken at face value without any air of absurdity.

And I, too, have been accused of being sarcastic when I had no such intent.