Joking or Serious?

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I get this at work alot, but also with people outside of work. Here it is:
Someone will say something to me and sound all serious about it. They are not smiling. I take it as serious because they said it that way. Then I come to find out AFTER the fact that they were, in fact, joking with me ( they'll say to me " I'm only kidding, don't get all bent outta shape" or "you DO know I'm only joking, right?"). I get caught up in these things constantly and everyone knows it so it's kinda funny to them. But it isn't to me, and it can be kind of embarrassing. Does anyone else have this problem? it seems to happen alot, I can't tell if someone's joking with me or not.

Sometimes people say mean things and then tell you they were joking afterwards, to get out of the consequences of saying something unfair to you. That is, it's possible they weren't joking. They just lied and said they were joking.

Alternatively, they might be playing with you. They've discovered that they can fool you, and they're having fun with it.

Either way, they're not being fair to you. You have a right to be angry with them for their "jokes".

I usually don't understand jokes. And I find it difficult to work out when people are teasing me or being deliberately mean. I understand sarcasm though usually.

I just think that joking is an excuse to cover up something really horrible, and it is the quick way out of a debate of why somebody said it.

I'm different from you guys in that I love it when somebody jokes about like that completely deadpan. I'll suspect it's a joke but won't be sure, which interests me, and I laugh when I find out it is (if it's funny). I like the uncertainty! Didn't used to, mind.

Yep, thats me also

A close friend of mine jokes a lot, and has only just relised how litrally I take things. Now he understands why I do not talk to him sometimes., he tends to say things like I am evil, and since he has said it I think I have been really horriable and do not talk to him for a bit, making him get in a mood with me.

You're correct. That's exactly what it is when someone says that.

That's like what Bob Barker does on "The Price is Right" or Pat Sajak does on "Wheel of Fortune," isn't it?

I am similar, but I guess it depends on what they are "joking" about as to how I feel about it.
If they joke about me doing something or wanting something and then leave for a bit and come back to find me doing it or getting it, it is just annoying, often for both of us.
If it can be taken as a mean jab, even when they truthfully intended it to be a playful one, it can hurt if I don't get it right away.
However when it is some innocent thing that is just enough off base to make me wonder, it is interesting like a puzzle. I get to work out if they mean it or if it was a joke. I bet that they find it just as interesting as to why I have to solve such an obvious puzzle.

I have a confession to make there I do it myself to people talk serously but I am really joking. I personally don't have that problem

I am so glad that I found people just like me.

Theres someone at work who is AS I'm always doing that to them even though I'm AS myself

NT's do not act like us. If we don't read them right it is often humiliating and embarrassing. WE have a right to feel this. The have a right to behave like NT's. No we don't fit in. So ought we try to fit in with the 99%'ers or should they fit in with us the 1%'ers?
Now NT mates are a different matter entirely (if they know your condition). My NT mates in as much as they make overtures not to give a s**t about my autism or treating me differently, happen to ask the right type of questions and do the right things to avoid upsetting me. (Read - though they are hard, tough Kalgoorlie Boys they are true mates and still take care of my feelings, just in a blokey way).
The fact is I am always on the look out for social traps and tricks set to trip me up and expose me to ridicule, confusion and embarrassment but that is life as I kjnow it defined by a society comprised of a populace at least 99% freater than people like me. I live with it.

oh man i tell you what i hate working and having people joking around. its like uhh leave me alone and let me work. i use to get that all the time when i was a janitor

I am awful at picking up on jokes unless it is made obvious.
My bf gets me time and time again because, well, on the net you cannot tell someone is joking without a LOL.
That is my excuse anyway, and if someone in real life doesn't laugh when they joke or say something very way out, how the hell are you meant to know anyway?
Surely NTs must have trouble too with this.