Sense of humor?

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found this in an article about the possibility of einstein and newton having asperger's:

"Elliott adds that Einstein had a good sense of humour, a trait that is virtually unknown in people with severe Asperger syndrome."

is this true in your experience? personally i have quite an adept and dextrous sense of humour, but I'm only self diagnosed so i might not actually have asperger's.

I have read this article too and would like to add something to what you wrote. Taken one by one, the characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome do not make one an Aspie. Some people are Aspie and have a great sense of humor ; some are Aspie without one. Some people are not Aspie but have no sense of humor, and some are not Aspie and have a great sense of humor.

I think I have a good sense of humour, but a special one, mine. And as I sometimes ("often" might be more accurate) do not understand other people's humor, they sometimes (or "often") do not understand mine.

I read another article recently and saw that people with Asperger CAN have a sense of humor, but it is not the same nature of NT's sense of humor most of the time. How would you define your sense of humor ? Are you more practical or verbal ?

I think Einstein and Newton were Asperger, because from what I have read they had several characteristics therefore they matched the criteria for Asperger.

Loy

If I can "get" a joke, I'll laugh. A lot of times I don't "get" jokes becasue they have metaphors in them that I have to try and decipher. I can recognize the metaphor, but I can't make sense of how to interupt it.
I've never been very good with metaphors.

He had a head of steel

I understand what it means, but I can't make a connection to it since subconsciously, when I hear the above, the first thing I think of is a guy with metal plating on his head.

It's very wierd.

Which is why I like slapstick type of humor because of the literal interprutation of metaphors that often comes with that type of humor.

the movie Airplane!

with that storm they'll be flying up there with just instruments!

Cut to a shot of the cockpit, the flight crew all have musical instruments, and are playing them.[/i]

My sense of humor is pretty abstract. At least it seems that way to other people. I tend to free associate things so they seem funny to me but others don't get the connection. Then they get mad when I let them in on the fact that I'm not trying to amuse them, just me.

i guess i'd describe my sense of humour as sarcastic and satirical, but more specifically i find i am quite good at subverting certain aspects of people and things, and finding humour in these aspects. its definitely a verbal sense of humour; my jokes are usually sucessful because of the carefully selected wording. for instance describing my teacher's brightly coloured tie as "creating conflicting moods in his ensemble"

humour has actually been the way for me to make friends since the beginning of high school. however i unfortunately learnt that friendships cant be maintained on the basis of humour alone.

it was actually reading about einstein's possible autism which led to my own self diagnosis. i recently been considering einstein's 'genius' status, habing studied relativity in physics at school, and came to the conclusion that he was not neccessarily 'more' intelligent than anyone else, he just saw things in a different way, and then i thought....'like me!'. so i found the article again, did a google search on asperger's, and it all fit into place.

I have a good sense of humor, but online (on other message boards) I come across serious to a lot of people.

Last edited by Tom_FL_MA on 24 Jul 2004, 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I dunno - I'm so flippant and 'humorous' around the work place that no one actually takes me seriously when I'm serious. I'm always finding puns, and connections - particularly with peoples names and careers. I find it painful to get too serious for too long - I need to lighten stuff up - all that deep and meaningful stress and relationship stuff? Just throw in a splash of irreverance, and everything is alright. (Well, actually, I've really PO people by not taking them seriously, or suggesting the wrong thing at the wrong time - but at least I know when to move on. No body ever asks me for advice, or opinions, because I guess they don't know when I'm serious and when I'm just messing with words inside my head. Of course, I'm always the last one to get any one elses joke!

on a random but related note, this site never fails to have me laughing at the computer screen like an idiot.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/archive-01.html

this is a choice selection: http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0732/

I have a weird, gross sense of humor that's also kind of morbid and a little over-exaggerated and sort of rude. Let me give you some examples of my jokes and funny comments:

(NOTE: Kind of gross/morbid/rude.)

"Stop kissing me, Ryan. You know what that does to me." *sticks head in nearest garbage can and pretends to throw up*

(at archery at camp) "Sing a song!" "This is a repeat after me song." "This is a repeat after me song." "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-a-chicka-rock-a-chicka-rock-a-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-a-chicka-rock-a-chicka-rock-a-chicka-boom!" "All right." "All right." "Okay." "Okay." "One more time!" "One more time!" "Archery style!" "Archery style!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a boom-chicka-boom!" "I said a I-a-chicka-hate-a-chicka-archery-a-chicka-boom!" *shakes head*

(at Geauga Lake) "I heard there are giant fish in the lake that eat kids." "That's were you're wrong. They don't eat kids. They eat MEN, especially ones like you. They swallow them whole...and then spit out their bones." (NOTE: The comment was to my dad and it was longer than the comment here.)

"What happened to your brain?" "What happened to your sandals?" (NOTE: The boy was wearing boots and it was in the summertime.)

Mich

I believe that "sense of humor" is quite a peculiar, human thing. I don't particularly find excessive, repetitive sarcasm funny (OOOH, IS *THAT* SO) because it wastes my time and sounds cruel, but apparently that's on the "sense of humor" spectrum too. I don't think Einstein's was ever too acerbic because he was such a charming man (so it seems in hindsight anyway), but look at the standup comedians today. I do not think I am too funny but the things that come ordinarily to me get lots of laughs. Like, saying things directly and bluntly and making those kind of observations... the kind of things most guys think about women in packs but I just say out loud, you know:

"Hi there! Your nose is really nice, I like your hairband, and your pupils are dilated jumbo-size like an anime character!"

(I of course mean no harm.)

I learn metaphors by rote, and then understand them "automatically", but I still get literal imagery (I see pictures of nearly everything I think, hear or read, even if unreal). So if I hear "when pigs fly", flying pigs flash through my mind, although I know instantly what the expression means.
By the way, I do not know the expression "He had a head of steel". What does it mean exactly?


One of the best! I watch it every time it's on TV, and can't have enough of it.

I have read somewhere that 60% of all jokes that people exchange are personal jokes, verbal or practical, e.g. teasing. Judging by number of times I have been told "Magic, we were just teasing you!" I must conclude that I am not good at this type of humor. And practical jokes - I had enough of them at school, thank you very much!

once on delphi forums there was a long thread based on Aspie jokes- it was really funny. when i say jokes it went like...

you know you have Asperger's if.....you spend hours arranging your books in alpabetical/chronological order, but can't keep your house tidy to save your life

there were better ones but I can't remember them! it was sooooo funny and entirely written by Aspies. i could read some of them and think..i do that....

i think we tend to be good at the satirical/sarcastic wit

I remember hearing it during a Packer football (american football) game back in 1994 when they played Tampa Bay. Wide reciever Sterling Sharpe took a shot to the head that would have knocked out a lesser of a person, but he managed to get up all dazed and go off to the sidelines anyways. On the radio play by play, Max McGee, on of the commentators said that sterling had "a head of steel" for being able to take a shot like that.

But the hit was worse than it looked, Sharpe suffered a neck injury that forced him to retire.

I have this thing about Austin Powers. I think he's the funniest character and I like to do impressions. I almost have the same appearance and I say that the two of us are twins. My Family doesn't get it, but my friends love it.

I just finished reading the valentine article there. It showed how corny those cards really are! It makes me want to go back in time and give out those HORRIBLE valentines I created--but didn't give out--in the 4th grade that I attached those lousy excuses for tiny Model Magic charms to. If your nickname happens to be Gomez by some weird coincedence, then you know what I'm talking about. (I'd be more detailed if this particular charm didn't make my dad feel...how do you say...weird.)

Mich

When one truly understands the ignorance of humanity, taking anything too seriously is a joke itself.