Is this an "aspie" moment?

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Is this an example of an "aspie" moment?

I was told that boxes could be taken downstairs so I take them to the office and there was a bunch of people there and I say "can you take the boxes?" And the manager says "sorry, we do not take boxes on Tuesdays." Completely perplexed I stood in silence and everyone else did too. Then they started to laugh and I realized it was a joke. Then she said "the dumpster room is unlocked"

Am I overanalyzing again, would an NT instantly recognize the joke instead of being totally confused? What confused me was how "seriously" she said it.

I would have reacted exactly the same way you did.

Then again, I'm not an NT, so ...

I also would have reacted the same way. I could see myself even answering: "Ok.", and start to walk away.

Little jokes like that are quite common in a workplace to relieve tedium. But sometimes it can be hard to determine whether it's a joke or not. I've encountered very similar situations too, where for a moment it seems strange or off then suddenly you realize.

There are so many weird and nonsensical rules (and often making things harder for people) that it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't take boxes on Tuesdays!
I'm pretty sure I would have taken it seriously too. In addition it sounds like the kind of situation where I wouldn't be likely to pay that much attention, be kind of absent minded about it, making it certain I would have thought it to be correct.

I would've reacted in exactly the same way that you and BeaArthur would've. Small jokes like that fly over my head all the time.

I find that kind of thing annoying. It's hard to tell if they're joking or if it's one of their many arbitrary rules.

Same thing happened to me yesterday (and on many occasions). Some guy was approaching the door of the building where I work, and my coworker said to me in a serious tone "oh no, please just call the police on this guy." I hesitated for a second and was like "Um okay" and turned to find my phone. Thankfully the guy came in and gave my coworker a big hug. Apparently it was a joke. And then when my coworker introduced us he felt compelled to tell his friend about how I took him seriously about calling the police. Kinda embarassing, but I try to laugh at myself too.

If they said it seriously, how are you to know whether they were joking or not, unless you could read their mind? At least you didn't say, "ok then" and walk away. That might have been more of an Aspie moment.

Even NTs sometimes get confused if someone was joking or not. One time at my old job a supervisor came up to me with my wage packet and said, "here you go, happy birthday!" and another co-worker looked at me seriously and said, "is it your birthday today?" I said, "no, she was just joking." And the co-worker was like, "oh, never mind then." And the co-worker was definitely NT.

Good joke - I would have stalled for longer than most NT people for sure.

I'm not completely sure if I'm on the spectrum (but feel like I have a lot of signs) but I can safely say that I do stuff like that ALL the time! Taking what people say literally/seriously and I don't realize it's a joke/sarcasm until people start laughing.

That's totally a sign! Most of us seem to be very literal.

In the past, I would not have picked up on the joke at all. But, after years of working in an office environment, I've realized that people make comments like that all the time in a joking manner. I still get fooled occasionally, but it's now more likely that I assume someone is joking when in fact they're being serious. That's much worse than the opposite.

Sometimes we can't piece together all the clues that would indicate that a person is being humorously sarcastic. However, one thing I think can be missed here is the fact that sometimes a person can fail and be unsuccessful at properly orchestrating sarcastic humor. Meaning, sometimes we may not pick up on sarcastic humor when others do, but perhaps the person attempting to be humorously sarcastic is bad at it and THEY'VE failed, not us.

I'm a rules based person. I can get sarcasm if it's presented in either of two ways:

1) The person exaggerates inflection for comedic effect and to obviously indicate they're being sarcastic. Here's a great illustration of this from one of my favorite TV shows, Seinfeld. When Jerry says: "No one has ever been shot in the city." he follows the statement with an epic eye roll that indicates it's unmistakable that he's being sarcastic.



2) The statement being made is clearly or at the least very likely to be ridiculous even if the delivery isn't exaggerated or is delivered "dead pan".

Example: "I just got over a three day stomach flu. I can't believe how sick I was. It was such a wonderful experience I wish it would happen to me every week." - While it's possible that there actually could be a person who actually likes being that sick, the likelihood is nearly nil.

SARCASM FAILS:

In my opinion, Angnix's story illustrates a sarcasm fail, a poor joke. It's entirely possible that the item isn't accepted on Tuesdays. And, given it wasn't delivered in an exaggerated manner, how is one to know?

An example of what I would consider to be failed execution of sarcasm if the delivery was not exaggerated:

Failed Sarcastic Jokester: "I sat down with my wife to binge watch the entire last season of The Gilmore Girls. I wish that show had never ended. I wish there were 20 seasons of that show."

Other Person: "Oh, that's cool."

Failed Sarcastic Jokester: "Dude, I was being sarcastic."

FAIL! The person's statement could be taken as either genuine or as sarcastic equally.

Bottom line, sometimes it's not that we can't pick up on sarcasm, it's that people aren't doing it correctly and suck at it.

I would've reacted the same, definietely.