The Jokes Are Wearing Out.

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One of the ways I can communicate with others who I don't know is by telling jokes. It is a kind of way of masking as it gives me some common ground.
But then like now with my brothers workmates who are his age, I reach a stage where I am running out of jokes and I don't know what to say.

Look.... The obvious thing is to learn more jokes but I can't retain new jokes for that long so it is the old jokes repeated which eventually backfires on me.

I need a way to communicate on their level and I can't find one so I end up going into the barn where they are helping my brother fix his car (Which he needs for his job) and going back out again.

When I have been in other places and I have run out of jokes I go quiet which then leaves me vunerable to being picked on. (I am not saying everyone picks on me like this).

But I just want a way to communicate somehow. "Acting thick" is another mask I can and do use but eventually through experience, in the long term it backfires on me when the mask is discovered.


So what is the solution? The wierd thing is that I find ladies easier to talk to because they somehow connect better. Also I find those 40 years older then me easier when they are men, but I am finding I can't find any or many who are physically able to do things these days. Probably because they would be closing in on being 90 by now!
The generation my youngest brothers age I can semi connect with but not for long? So what do I do?

I have often known myself that when I find a new friend, I will distance myself and withdraw a bit because I know that if I see them too often the friendship doesn't last, but if I am distant to them and only see them a few times a year it will last.

I don't know why I am different and I struggle along these lines. I can't make it out. Most of my life I am either very quiet or if I feel confident and relax I am very talkative... So much so my Mum says "You are meant to let the other person speak about their hobbies" and I once said something without thinking "But Mum. I don't know anything about horses" (When I had been speaking about trains...).

It is when I have reached the point when I have been talkative type friendly when I have exhausted everthing and have nothing left to say without the other person saying "You have told me that before" that I have nothing much left to say so I go quiet, and then the friendships usually end.

Fortunately I do have two or three friends here online. Two of them are still friendly despite me meeting the stage where I may keep repeating myself and I am just saying things for the sake of talking. (It is like I don't know what else to say?) Fortunately these people still like me.


Has anyone else got this issue? Is it common or am I unusual in this? My youngest brorhers workmates are also his friends and they like being around each other for company while they work on things. Before it was their friends car they were fixing. It is like they can connect somehow regardless of words?
I tend to need some sort of "Tool" to make the connection (Like a sense of humour and joke mask or a acting thick mask) to make it work.

Jokes can seem the first "go to" option to ease awkward social situations. However, there are other options as well. Asking questions can help because you do not have to be the one answering. It is a way of showing interest without having to come up with banter which can be taxing.

Just listening is also an option. It can work with being thought of as "thick" or it can work as being shy or quiet.

The listening option can also work with a service option such as asking if anyone needs something to drink.

I don't tell too many jokes. But I do joke.

I play with words. For instance, around sunset yesterday I asked my bride if she was ready to take a grammar test; she was confused; I clarified we could find out if she could see a conjunction; she immediately knew I was talking about trying to see the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

I cultivate the absurd. The pandemic has kept her home a lot more than she was used to and her current social circle is mostly some ducks and a family of geese that swing by and mooch food. (It started with an injured goose who plopped down behind our building and appeared to be waiting patiently for the grim reaper; with a little encouragement from me, she fed him--and he got visibly stronger. Though he still limps he got strong enough that he disappeared for a week and then returned with his wife and kids.) The goose got very fond of my bride. Because he was so friendly I dubbed him "Casper", as in Casper the Friendly Goose. Some assertive mallards have joined the action and I dubbed one particularly assertive female duck "Karen". Naming wild geese and ducks is silly. It did not occur to my bride, she just saw geese and ducks. But since I put the idea in her head we now have a Chadwick, Carlton, Ryan, and more. My bride enjoys the silliness I started.

The nice thing about playing with words and introducing a touch of absurd is there is a never-ending supply of material because I am talking about the here-and-now.

Of course, for awhile people will think you're funny ^weird, but if you do it right they'll eventually think you're funny ^humorous.

Stop learning jokes and start thinking more about what makes jokes work. Being able to come up with new jokes on the fly will help keep you from running out. At least that's what's worked for me.

I had to stop making my own jokes up because I nearly killed people and people have said I was killing them as they could hardly breathe through laughing. Many kept telling me I was in the wrong job and needed to e a commedian, but I don't change colour.

Karma karma karma karma comedian;
don't tell those jokes

I think at one time I was talking about cat and dog food. How catfood has pictures of cats on the tins and dogfood as pictures of dogs on the tins. I asked why human food does not have pictures of humans on them? (Which seemed logical to me at the time I said it).

I heard of a baby food company that caused quite a stir when they tried selling jars with pictures of babies on them to illiterate people.

One time, John was invited to a comedian's convention to have dinner with his friend from out of town. As he arrived, somebody yelled "Forty-seven!" and everyone laughed. He had just finished saying hello when someone else yelled "Eighty-seven!" and got another big laugh.
"What's that all about?" John asked his friend.
"See our placemats? They have the hundred best jokes listed by the number, to save us time." came the reply. There were a few more outbursts, and John realized that he had his big chance to get a laugh from a whole room full of comedians. He read through the list until he found a favourite, and called out "Twenty-six!"
Nobody laughed, and he felt foolish. "What's wrong?" he asked "These are supposed to be the hundred best jokes!"
"It's the way you tell it."

Woody Allen had been a joke writer for TV for years, but when he first went on stage, his jokes fell flat. He had to develop a funny delivery, which is a separate skill. I find that it is a great ice-breaker. If I can get a laugh, I feel safe.

People find it funny at times when my delivery of the jokes does not always work. Haha!

Oh. I have been given this hillarious little book for Christmas. The humour is typically Welsh!