Who says Autistics/Aspies don't get jokes?

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I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism (though am still not sure, could be asperger's) at age 15, and I read one of the symptoms (which of course isn't applicable to all aspies) of autism was a reduced ability to understand jokes, satire.etc., but if that is an indicator I probably have a much better sense of humour than most people I know. I guess I just gets jokes others don't...What do you think?

i have a very different sense of humour, at school people used to look at me a bit funny,but it was ok because i had a friend who understood me- a bit!

I understand most jokes that are told and laugh along. However, I have seen other aspies who just sit there stone faced whenever a joke is told. They don't laugh or anything.

I like Dave Chapelle on Comedy Central. I also like Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy. They all have me laughing so hard, I feel as if my side is going to split open.

I understand jokes quite well. However, I dont tell jokes well. I have a dry sick sense of humor that causes me to go to far or make a joke that only I get.

Andy Kauffman made a career out of pissing people off and making jokes that only his friends and/or him understood. He made a joke that was only funny to 1 person on earth. Many didnt understand most of it. This idea of making himself laugh leads many to belive that he faked his own death and sits home laughing about it every night. Andy was almost definetly an aspie (See the film "Man on the Moon" with Jim Carry).

I "get" most jokes as quickly as the next guy, but satire i never seem to get. While reading the book Animal Farm in school, i would have never understood that it was a satire if the teachers hadn't pounded that fact into our heads for days.

I love satire and sarcasm. My sense of humor is a bit off-the-wall, too; I tend to find the oddest things funny (at least according to other people).

On the other hand, I am completely unable to tell a joke properly, and it usually takes me ages to get a pun or a joke referring to a celebrity.

Many of us have a great sense of humor. It's hardly a defining characteristic.

Those of us who don't "get jokes" don't understand the process of why it's "funny". And lets not forget that often things just aren't funny.


As far as Satire goes, NTs can be pretty horrible about that too.

I don't understand jokes unless they are explained to me afterwards, and then it is sometimes hard to connect the humor to the joke, for some reason. I have an offbeat and dry sense of humor, and I have been told that I have a kind of interesting humor when I was in high school. I understand sarcasm quite well, and use it quite often, which sometimes has led me to be seen as offensive to people who don't know me too well.

Like, this joke, which is common ... "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side." It just doesn't make any sense to me. I keep thinking, "Okay. Why just a chicken? Why not a turkey? A deer? A human?" And I know that most people think this joke is really old and corny, but jokes are something I don't get too involved with. I do understand some jokes that tell a short story, but these question types ... forget it.

Most of the time, I tend to just sit back when people throw jokes at one another. I hate it when they ask me to say one, because I usually come out with something corny.

- Ray M -

Why did the hedgehog cross the road? To show his family he had guts

You're equating an actor's portrayal of a semi-fictional character with the actual person the semi-fictional character was based on. What you saw on the screen was thrice-removed from reality, and not a hidden-camera bio of Andy Kaufman himself.

Unless I've missed an article somewhere that reports Andy Kaufman 'outing' himself as an Aspie, there is no evidence to support your claim.

Humor varies. For the chicken crossing the road joke it may be who is asking it. The sites below can also be viewed as an intelligence test, but telling most people this just upsets them. One point if you know who it is. Five points if you really understand the joke. Most neurotypicals seem to get less than 60 points.

http://philosophy.eserver.org/chicken.txt

https://www.physics.harvard.edu/academi ... hickenroad

(almost-9-year-old thread)

I'm a bit slow in understanding jokes but I do eventually get them. However, I often have a problem with reacting to jokes. Even if I understand the joke, the fact that someone is trying to make others laugh makes me self-conscious and uncomfortable. I just freeze and spread my awkwardness/tension to other people. That's why I hate jokes and exchanging banter.

I get jokes. I have a good sense of humour, and usually I find stuff funny what others find funny too, even sex jokes.

I get satire too. I'm really good with reading between the lines and spotting satire in comedies.

I remember at school I used to find the same stuff funny as the other kids. Like if a funny situation occurred, I would think in my head ''ha, that's funny'', and I would laugh, and all the other kids in the class laughed at the same time, so I knew I had thought the same thought as the rest of the kids, and wasn't the only one laughing or thinking it was funny.

I personally enjoy Comedy, all types, especially the dark, dirty and intelligent comics. Also, I watch a considerable amount of TV, usually Sitcoms, and cannot stand Drama. The same applies to movies, though, I do enjoy an action flick, as long as it is unrealistic (Superhero, Horror/Action), or extremely exaggerated (a la Expendables, Die Hard, etc). I have always liked them since I was a kid. I remember watching MASH, Taxi, Mork &Mindy as a kid and just loving it. I think it even helped me seem "normal," as I was always trying to imitate the voices, and quoting lines from the movies/TV/stand-up that I saw, trying to get a laugh.

I think Andy Kauffman was a special case of someone drawing out an emotional response from his audience and then having the whole thing turn upside down in their faces. It was all about destroying people's preperceptions of life. He didn't mind if the emotional response was directed at himself and whether it was love or hatred that people felt towards him, as long as people felt some emotion over what he was doing. Also he had the joke draw out as long as possible just to irritate the audience to keep the emotional suspense going as long as possible and keep the audience guessing. I don't think he ever intended only a few people to get the point of the joke. And I don't think there was a point to the joke. There was just an intended response that he was striving for and it really didn't really matter what that response was.

Two ASpie programming students who are mates happen to meet on campus one day.
One is riding a bicycle. The second chap asks where he got such a nice bicycle.
He replies, I was walking across campus the other day, and a pretty girl rode up on this bike. She jumped off it and tore off all her clothes. She shouted at me "take whatever you want."
His friend replies "nice choice, you would have looked silly wearing her dress."