Processing Humor

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Just a quick little discussion. How do you process humor? I understand that humor is subjective and everyone finds something more funny than something else. I've read a lot about how people with Autism have difficulty understanding certain types of humor, for example irony and sarcasm. So what sense of humor do you have? What do you perceive as being funny? For me I really enjoy offensive humor and black humor. Anything that rides a very thin line on the merits of society, politics, religion, and morality, making a joke out of it and taking it too far I find absolutely hilarious.

I love black humour too.

I love all kinds of humour, but for some reason, I can't make jokes. I've tried. Believe me. It usually ends with people groaning or pretending they didn't hear me while looking for a distraction from the awkward attempt at a joke I just made.

The sarcasm thing really trips me up, I must say. That scene from Big Bang where Leonard holds up a sign saying 'Sarcasm' for Sheldon? Yeah, I totally need one of those.

I think it's sad that people can judge you based on how well you can perceive humour. It's almost as if they think you're less smart or sharp just because you don't get an ironic joke straight away.

I enjoy clever manipulation of words, or literal or unusual meanings if a different version of a homophone is understood (unintended by the speaker). I find these things truly funny, but nobody else does. Also, I find it funny when other people find things funny (even if I don't know why), because I think it looks strange when people laugh or are amused.

The involuntary nature of a laugh, which can override social taboos, is because it is essential for the first member of a group to see an error in perception that is causing an overreaction to inform the others. It literally means "This alarming situation is not dangerous (to me, now.)" It defuses the attack response, even if it points out an error or a lie. Deliberate humour takes advantage of this to create pleasant relief from "set up" situations. John Cleese says that the most intense laughter he ever heard was in reaction to the very first send-ups of the Church of England.

Re the bolded text, would that be like the following example from Grace & Favour:

Speaker one: "You'll find sequiturs in the garage."
Speaker two: "If not, there'll be non-sequiturs." [laughter] (I found this hilarious)
?

I'm totally with you on your second point. I often laugh because someone else laughed, too. (It's a sign of empathy, so I'm told).

When I laugh because someone else laughs, it's because I find people's reaction (like laughing at some things) funny. Also, when people are discussing something they find embarrassing, it makes me want to laugh because they all look absurdly uncomfortable.

With the words thing:

'I see where you're coming from.'
I imagine the speaker shading their eyes to see somebody else approaching from a great distance.

or

'Which colour pen would you write with?'
I imagine all at once: Which/wicked witch colour writing implement/animal enclosure would/timber you/letter 'u' write/custom or religious festival with?
It looks funny.

Nice to meet a fellow Australian aspie here of my own age. I find that my humour tends to be very "dead-pan" (no non-verbal indication of humorous intent) and ironic but I also have that absurd humour you've described. I'd probably laugh at this if I heard the joke in person:
Speaker one: "You'll find sequiturs in the garage."
Speaker two: "If not, there'll be non-sequiturs." [laughter] (I found this hilarious)

So, let me see if I've got this right (this is fun):

Witch culler (someone who kills something off) animal enclosure timber U rite with?

Hmm. I'm picturing a witch swooping down to a timber animal enclosure on her Nimbus 2000, killing off some pigs, then doing a U-turn and flying off again, the said manoeuvre possibly constituting a rite of passage into mature witchhood or seniority in the swine-culling and/or broomstick-riding community.

Vocab, eh?

Seriously, though, I'm impressed at your ability to come up with so many different definitions of homophones at once. You should consider going on a game show or submitting puzzles for a major newspaper!

I love the thing about laughing when people are uncomfortable. Sometimes there is just no other possible reaction. Granted, you may hear some groans from time to time, but just make sure nobody's talking about terminal illness or their kid dying in a terrorist attack when you let out your guffaws, and you should be right.