Finding things funny that other people don't

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I don't know if this is an aspergers or ASD thing or not.
Some people have told me that it is, and others have said that it isn't; so i don't know.

Here is an example:

Yesterday an elderly neighbour of mine was very distressed because whilst she was sat in her reclining arm-chair her cat (an oversized fat cat) had gone to sleep under the foot rest part.
When the lady wanted to get out of the chair she pushed the button to bring her to a seated position & the cat got trapped inside the electric armchair. The cat was making an awful noise. The old lady was in a terrible panic hearing her cat going mad to try & get out of the armchair.
Thankfully it did get out in the end.
When the old lady told me I just couldn't stop grinning. She wasn't amused.

Maybe everyone would find this incident amusing, but I grin the same when someone tells me that someone has died. I do actually find it funny. Not in an evil way, but amusing none-the-less. I wish I could stop myself from grinning from ear to ear, as people get very annoyed when they tell me something serious & I grin like a cheshire cat.

Does anyone else here have the same problem?

When I was in seventh grade a teacher who was very proud of himself conducted a science experiment that blew up (hydrogen and oxygen). It put pieces of lab glassware into the ceiling tiles. No one was hurt, but the expression on his face was priceless. I laughed so hard I suspect he thought I was somehow responsible.

I don't think I would have found the cat incident funny but plenty of times I find things are funny that other people don't and sometimes I get a weird look because of it. It goes the other way also I don't find things funny that have others laughing hard.

I do think it is a least partly ASD an NT differences

That cat incident sounds downright hilarious to me! And I love my kitties dearly. In general people seem to take things much more seriously than I do. I find amusement in so many things each day that other people don't notice or have straight faces about. Don't let others make you feel bad for finding things funny. There is no greater joy in this world than laughter, and I firmly believe that there is no situation too "sacred" that it can't be joked about. Without humor, life is not worth living.

Of course, not everyone agrees with this, so you have to conceal your laughter until they leave the room or you are with like-minded folks. But you can still laugh on the inside.

I laugh when people tell me about terrible things that happened.
The worse it is, the harder I laugh.

...In my defense, I'm only that way because laughing is preferable to crying.

Although I would never wish any harm on a cat or most animals, I found that funny too!

Lol, youtube is full with those kind of vids, so no, you're not the only one, by far.

the point isn't that the trapped cat screaming it's head off in fear is funny or not funny to some people

the point is that the old lady telling the story was clearly upset by what happened and therefore however funny the listener might have found what happened, it would seem like they were making fun of the old lady's suffering.

Making fun of other people suffering (or animals even) is one of the signs of those kinds of disorders that end up with a person locked up for the safety of others.

Hi leafplant!

Don't lock me up, please! Actually I think that's a little dramatic. If I had locked myself up someplace and gotten myself frightened, I probably would have told it as a funny story later. Everything isn't a tragedy and it certainly doesn't mean that we all long to see or hear any animal or person suffer.

But yes it's true that the woman was upset and it's not good to let her see you think that's funny.

Isn't this cat story just an example of laughing and smiling when it's inappropriate?

I remember once our kitchen table sort of kind of caught on fire and I was dying laughing. I've found myself grinning like a maniac when an old friend told me his dad almost died. Recently, another friend told me about cracking his skull open as a baby, and I had to try to stop myself from smiling. It's not that I find any of these things to be funny (except maybe the kitchen table, but nobody else was laughing), I just seem to have inappropriate actions sometimes.