People Taking Me Seriously When Joking

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People too often take my jokes/banter seriously, and as a result they think I'm really mean, or up myself.
Anyone else?

Sometimes I'm not sure if someone has taken me seriously or not, and whenever I do something like confirming that it was a joke, they take it as an insult to their intelligence.
I can't just stop joking, or saying random things, because then people think I'm ridiculously dull, and so they don't want to be around me either way.

Any advice?

I don't have any advice, sorry, but you're not alone. It has happened to me frequently enough.

I make jokes and people think I'm serious. But if I'm serious, they tend to laugh.
This has particularly happened in meetings with teachers and people from the employment bureau, come to think of it.

I've been accused of taking jokes too far, or not being funny.
I playfully said I was a Viking in elementary school, and teachers thought I was delusional. Another kid said exactly the same and him they smiled at.
I say something I find borderline offensive and people laugh like it's nothing. I say something I find innocuous and they get angry or offended.

So often treated differently.

Last edited by Skilpadde on 17 Oct 2012, 6:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Oh yeah! me too.

My friends back then, always said that I would take it too far. I never know where these invisible borders are. When is enough, enough? How far can I push the envelope?

Last edited by Stalk on 17 Oct 2012, 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've frequently had that problem.

I'll say something outrageous that cannot possibly be taken as serious only to find that some people still took it as serious.

Me too sometimes, I think it comes from your tone of voice and facial expression not giving the right sub cues, so what you intend as comic irony comes off as hostile sarcasm.

i can not make personal jokes about people or even circumstantial jokes that they are the star of because there would be hell to pay.

sometimes i find things that are amusing to me about the way people behave, but i never tell them, however they usually find out because i go into laughing fits if i tickle my imagination with absurd mental reapplications of how i perceive them to behave, and when they eventually interrogate me as to what i found so funny, i have to tell them the truth and then their reaction is fuel to my next fit of laughter.

i am considered a fool because i lose everyone when i go into fits of laughter and i am paroxysmically locked in my own world after i start to laugh.

a laughing fit is very similar in my mind to a sneezing fit

You probably look serious when joking, so that kinda kills it.

that is life in the big smoke i guess.

Yeah, it happens to me all the time. It seems like others can call each other a b***h like on Facebook, and they automatically know it's a joke, but if I did that to anyone, regardless of how many friendly emoticons and kisses I put with it, they still take it seriously.

Probably because they're not used to me joking around like that. But I don't know how other people start it off.

I've even had that happen over the phone so they didn't see me.

Yep, when I try to be funny I usually end up having to say "I was trying to be funny." Ironically when I'm being perfectly serious people find it funny and laugh

During my high school times, it was fun to hang out with people who have no "too far". I have always been extremely indifferent and non-condemning which is probably why I passively attracted people with "abnormal" interests and likewise repelled those with a more limited perception of life.

Last edited by Sidmor on 18 Oct 2012, 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I need an "audience prompter" to follow me around and hold up a card that says "laughter" for whenever I try to joke.

If you don't have the right tonal range for the joke, it will come off as serious.

Same with body language.

I have this happen all the time. I'll say something ridiculous like "That training the CIA gives us can come in handy sometimes you know?" and I have to explain that I was joking when it should be pretty obvious since I'm not even an American. I can also say something serious and have everyone laugh at me so yes, I can completely relate.

Yes, all the time. I have been called spinny and stupid when people did not understand I was making a joke. Saying: I was making a joke doesn't seem to help matters.