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gyaspie
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22 Jan 2012, 12:43 am

what is the difference between NT's sense of humor and aspie's sense of humor?



b9
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22 Jan 2012, 12:45 am

it is all in the details



jovialwilliams
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22 Jan 2012, 12:46 am

I have noticed that neurotypical humor seems to consist of stabbing remarks that border on insults.


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camelCase
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22 Jan 2012, 2:02 am

jovialwilliams wrote:
I have noticed that neurotypical humor seems to consist of stabbing remarks that border on insults.


I have found this is often true, and when I feel offended I am told that I simply "don't get it."



so_subtly_strange
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22 Jan 2012, 2:10 am

i dont know. i only know one other aspie in person, and we arent that well acquainted. WAIT two. I knew a boy who is rather more severe as far as social issues. I tried to talk to him a few times, but he refused to acknowledge my existence because i was a goth, which was bad or scary to him. No hard feelings, it is what it is. or was, that was back in high school.

so yah for the most part the autistic peeps i correspond with are exclusively those among these forums.



creative_intensity
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22 Jan 2012, 4:03 am

I'm not sure there is an "NT" or "Aspie" sense of humor - everybody seems to develop their own. I will say that I have far less luck getting NTs to laugh in person than I do through writing. I think it has to do with my delivery and non-verbal communication skills - there is something lost in translation when it comes out my mouth.

But, oddly enough, in written form, I have been quite successful with comedy (as a writer). I just hate when they meet me in person and expect me to be just as funny. Which I am not.



AnnettaMarie
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22 Jan 2012, 4:11 am

I know what you mean creative_intensity. It's a lot easier to be funny when you have more time to think up something witty to write out, rather than being expected to say something hilarious on the spot.

That being said, I am good with puns. I can be very funny at times, but it's often co-mingled with absolute ridiculousness. It's kind of hit or miss. I'm learning.


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johnsmcjohn
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22 Jan 2012, 5:25 am

I tend to find humor in things NT's don't. Like juxtapositional wordplay and unintended irony. I also find meta jokes(humor about humo) hilarious and most of me peers find it stupid.



b9
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22 Jan 2012, 8:43 am

i do not really have a "sense of humor". i never try to think of things that are funny for the sake of making other people laugh.

i do not exactly know what a sense of humor is. when i was a child, i thought that "sense of humor" meant that one could sense humor in what other people were saying if they were joking. i do not "get" most jokes, and those that i do understand, i usually just acknowledge, but i am not stirred to laughter by them.

i do not know what is funny about the chicken crossing the road joke (or any variant of it). plays on words are interesting to note, but they do not "tickle my mind" (as it were (my sensation when i am stirred to laughter)).

i now understand that "sense of humor" means whether i find anything funny, and i find many things funny, but they are private in my mind, and if i try to explain to bemused onlookers why i am laughing, they are left bewildered, and they do not see what i see, and that amplifies my sensation of funniness.

someone who has a flat facial expression that is bordering on a look of worry when i am laughing uncontrollably always makes me laugh even more, and sometimes i fear that i will suffocate while people are looking at me like i am insane when i am laughing at something no one else sees sense in.

yesterday i was in a supermarket and i went to the meat section, and there was a person in front of me looking at the meat, and i had to wait patiently behind him whilst he inspected every cut of meat for it's price and whatever else he was assessing.

i needed a tee-bone steak, and they were directly in front of him, and he was a laggard, and he did not know that i was behind him. i huffed and puffed in impatience and i was becoming annoyed at the amount of time he was spending in front of me. he eventually turned around and saw me, but he did not hurry up even though he knew he was impeding me, and he turned back toward the meat to continue his "assessment".

then i imagined pulling out a can of pepper spray and reaching my hand around his head and giving him a short burst to his face, and i imagined him falling to the floor, and i imagined me saying "thanks mate" as i retrieved a tee bone steak and then walking off.

i tried to suppress the laugh by pressing my tongue against my soft palate, but the air was forced out my nose, and he turned around and looked at me like i was an idiot, and i turned around as well and i was shaking in laughter, and i went to get the other things i needed because if i had stayed where i was i would have dropped my basket and laughed myself to asphyxiation.

that is how i laugh.

last week when i was in mcdonald's, and i was waiting in a queue, i imagined someone arriving there with 2 accomplices in a getaway car, and i imagined that person wearing a balaclava pulling out a sawn off shotgun and demanding a quarter pounder with cheese and a small fries, and when he got his order he jumped over tables (knocking peoples meals and drinks off the tables) and exited the shop and jumped into the waiting getaway car and they span their wheels as they sped off. that made me smirk and then start to laugh a bit. people started to become aware of me laughing "at nothing", and their expressions made me laugh even more (but it was not choking laughter thank goodness).

also last week, i was at a car wash, and i was waiting behind 2 cars that were before me, and i was impatient because i wanted to go home. when the car in front of me eventually entered the car wash, i imagined pushing his car out of the car wash with my car, and getting his car wash because i was impatient. i found that thought hilarious, and i tried to tell 2 people (my friends), but they were not able to see how i found it funny.

whatever.

the most serious time i laughed myself into a major coughing fit was when me and my boss judy were about to go into an important meeting. she was telling me to not say anything in the meeting unless she asked me to speak because she did not trust that i would say things that were appropriate.

while she was telling me not to say anything, i saw her teeth, and she had lipstick plastered on her top teeth to a serious degree. she obviously did not look at her self in the mirror when she applied her lipstick, and she got it heavily on her top teeth. i knew she was going to smile broadly at the other executives in the meeting and i could not control myself and she was upset that i was going to fail in the meeting, so i was asked to sit outside until i was asked in.

-------------

as far as normal jokes go, there are only 2 jokes i have ever heard that made me almost laugh (but not quite)

the first one is
Q: what is black and crisp and hangs from the ceiling?
A: an irish electrician.

the lack of detail and the requirement for my mind to fill in the missing circumstances made me like the joke.

the second one is more complicated, but i thought it was funny, but i did not laugh but i was on the threshold of laughing.

it is this.....(i copied it and pasted it (hence the capitalization))


Three tortoises, Mick, Alan and Les, decide to go on a picnic. So Mick packs the picnic basket with beer and sandwiches. The trouble is the picnic site is ten miles away so it takes them ten days to get there.

When they get there Mick unpacks the food and beer. "Ok Les Give me the bottle opener."

"I didn't bring it," says Les. "I thought you packed it."

Mick gets worried, He turns to Alan, "Did you bring the bottle opener??"

Naturally Alan didn't bring it. So they're stuck ten miles from Home without a bottle opener. Mick and Alan beg Les to go back for It, but he refuses as he says they will eat all the sandwiches.

After two hours, and after they have sworn on their tortoise Lives that they will not eat the sandwiches, he finally agrees. So Les sets off down the road at a steady pace.

Twenty days pass and he still isn't back and Mick and Alan are starving, but a promise is a promise.

Another five days and he still isn't back, but a promise is a promise. Finally they can't take it any longer so they take out a Sandwich each, and just as they are about to eat it, Les pops up from behind a rock and shouts........

"I KNEW IT!......I'M NOT GOING TO GO!
---------------

i have tried to make up NT type jokes for a short while but i gave up because i can not do it. no one ever laughed at them, and i realized i do not care anyway.

an example is this:

Q: what is the similarity between having not enough therapods and riding a horse?
A: you have no spare tyrannosaurus.

if you just say that joke to people they will never get it. you have to explain it, and jokes that have to be explained are failures.

the explanation is that the words "no spare tyrannosaurus" sounds like "no spare tire an' a sore arse", and horse riders do not have any spare tires, and they usually have sore arses.

i have no public sense of humor and that is the end of my post.



CockneyRebel
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22 Jan 2012, 12:43 pm

I have a sense of humour about myself and my shortcomings. An NT might have a sense of humour at the expense of another person.


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bartleby
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22 Jan 2012, 1:31 pm

CockneyRebel, I too enjoy self-deprecating humor. But I've noticed some NTs don't understand it, and say things like "You are much too hard on yourself" or "Stop putting yourself down". I don't experience it as putting myself down. I experience it as seeing reality and laughing at it.



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22 Jan 2012, 1:57 pm

I don't think there is any NT specific or Aspie specific sense of humor. Every NT and Aspie that I know has a different sense of humor. There is no way to tell if a person is an Aspie or NT based solely on their sense of humor. Sense of humor is an individualistic personality trait that has just as much variation in Aspies as in NTs. For example, I have a very sarcastic sense of humor and so do some other NTs I know. I know both Aspies and NTs who have entirely different types of a sense of humor.



Aqua_Dragon
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22 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm

@b9

The humor in the "chicken crossing the road" joke is in its anticlimax. It is a form of joking called Antijokes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-humor

When people tell jokes, they expect there to be a very clever punchline. An anti-joke says "I don't care about a punchline!" and that is what makes it funny. An example:

Q: What is blue and smells like red paint?
A: Blue paint!

There are some more cruel forms of anti jokes that might tickle your funny bone.

Q: What's worse than a worm in an apple?
A: Genocide!

That one is also meant to be funny because it's based off of a very popular and common joke that goes:

Q: What's worse than a worm in an apple?
A: Half a worm in an apple!

That is the nature of the anti joke.