Do You Have Trouble Understanding Humour?

[batgirl]

Besides having PTSD, I also have autism, and one of the features of autism in many people is not understanding humour or jokes. Autism aside though, I was wondering if others with PTSD also have some issues with humour. Myself, I find I am getting a little better, and I do have my own brand of warped humour, but I often still have trouble with other people's humour. I just don't "get" what's funny a lot of the time. I often need to have jokes explained to me. I can't count the number of times I have taken something literally when people are joking. Then the person is exasperated with me and says "Evie, I was only kidding you!" and I feel like a fool. Anyways, just wondering if this is ever a problem for anyone else.

[She Cat]

I don't have a problem with humor.... You do have a sense of humor. I just read something you wrote on another thread, and almost pissed myself laughing.

[Kathy]

Yes I agree Wendy, Evie does have quite a keen sense of humour and she definitely keeps us laughing and entertained at home. However, she often doesn't seem to understand the humour of others, she is correct on that point. Perhaps though Evie those other people are simply not as funny as you? ;)

[upstream]

When I was in high school my aunt once handed me a wine glass and said, "could you throw this in the sink." A second later the wine glass shattered on impact. She wasn't joking, but my point is I often take things too literally as well.

My family had our own unique sense of humor at home, and when I tried to recreate it elsewhere people would react as if I was just an idiot or naive... they didn't realize I was joking.

I've heard humor defined as the juxtaposition of two overlapping but incompatible frames of reference, or rather the introduction of a competing version of reality.

Also just found this on google... This person defines humor as affective absurdity, which occurs when a moral principal is violated. It is interesting...
http://www.tomveatch.com/else/humor/paper/humor.html

[batgirl]

Wow Upstream you sound like me. I take things very literally too. Thanks for sharing the link, I will read it.

[grace5555]

Hey, Evie - I was a little unsure on how to answer this for myself. I usually can see what humor someone is trying express, but I rarely am truly amused at something that I know should be humorous to me. It is not often that I truly chuckle because I feel it is funny. Usually I just smile or whatever because I intellectually know it is supposed to be funny to me and I react how I am "supposed" to react. I chose the 2nd answer as I have trouble with humor sometimes, but I don't believe I am getting better at it so I don't know if I chose the right answer. And yes, quite often someone has to explain a joke to me as well. It is an awkward feeling and often I am afraid they are subtly making fun of me.

[batgirl]

Thanks Grace. If you see the humour though, even if you don't find it funny, you are farther along than me. I usually don't see the humour. Often it just goes right over my head. And even if I do suspect someone is trying to make a joke, I have to think about it for a long time. I don't know, it might be the autism more than anything for me, especially given how people have voted so far. But that was sort of the point of the poll too. Sometimes I have trouble distinguishing what is the autism and what is the PTSD. There are a lot of things I do that my family and I thought was autism, but then from posting polls we've discovered its actually PTSD. The polls are actually really good that way, for helping me figure out what's what.

[upstream]

Wow Upstream you sound like me. I take things very literally too.

Interesting... I often have felt like I have some Asperger-like personality traits, however I have rationalized that this is due to growing up numb from trauma. You think there's a chance I could be high functioning autistic?

[batgirl]

It's really hard to say Upstream. It's difficult to get a diagnosis for Aspergers or HFA once you're an adult, because by that time most people have learned compensating behaviours which mask some of the symptoms. I was diagnosed at 4, before my trauma. Did you have delayed speech as a child? That's one of the major indicators of autism vs. aspergers. Kids with aspergers tend to speak at a normal age or even younger, whereas kids with autism usually have severe speech delays and need speech therapy. I wasn't speaking properly until around 6 or 7.

It is really interesting though, I relate to a lot of what you're saying, especially what you said about the Star Trek characters in the other thread. It's actually quite common for us auties and aspies to relate to the non-emotional Star Trek characters. Lots of my autie friends do, though I have never heard many neurotypicals saying they relate to those characters. So who knows, maybe you have some features?

[grace5555]

I actually would prefer to be like Data - maybe then the trauma wouldn't be so painful? Or if Spock-like, I would be able to cover the pain a bit better although I am often accused of being like Spock. lol

[batgirl]

Yeah being Data would be cool. Do you remember that episode from TNG where the young boy lost his parents in an accident and he was trying to imitate Data in order to not feel his grief? I really related to that episode.

[grace5555]

Oh, yeah - I remember that one. He didn't make it trying to be Data any better then i do. =\

[upstream]

Did you have delayed speech as a child? That's one of the major indicators of autism vs. aspergers. Kids with aspergers tend to speak at a normal age or even younger, whereas kids with autism usually have severe speech delays and need speech therapy. I wasn't speaking properly until around 6 or 7.



No, my parents told me my speaking abilities developed slightly faster than average. I googled the word neurotypical, and based on the Wikipedia definition it is not a word I would use to describe myself.

[Awakening]

I'm into sarcasm & satire. I don't get slapstick comedy or premeditated jokes. I actually get quite anxious when someone says I'm going to tell a joke, because I just know I'm not going to get it. I won't laugh. I don't laugh at comedys where it's all set up & staged. I get so anxious that I go blank and don't know where the punchline is, and often am the last to get it. Depending on the company I may ask for clarification but often I fake it by laughing with everyone else.

And BTW, who the hell is Data & Spock?

[Lisa]

I am a bit strange when it comes to humour. I usually get it, and can give it...and understand humour quite well.

However, there are situations where I really struggle. The first reason is my hearing... sometimes if I'm in a loud place and concentrating on hearing someone, I'm concentrating so hard I just hear things very literally. In situations like that I miss jokes. But also, when I'm overloaded, and 'shutting down' or in a fugue state, I find it very hard to make sense of things, and find myself only understand very literal talk as well. In these cases I actually can appear rude myself, because I'm expressionless and communicating very simplistically.

[Jim]

And BTW, who the hell is Data & Spock?

Characters from the TV program "Star Trek". Data - an android who has no emotion however tries to understand emotion. Spock - an alien whose race suppresses emotions. Spock is half human though, so he struggles with emotions.

Jim.

[Awakening]

Thanks Jim, I had no idea that Star Trek was so deep.

[Lisa]

I heard something about his character being created to be autistic, or have autistic traits or something? not sure... it was a while ago I saw the doc!

[batgirl]

Which character Lisa? Spock or Data or some other character? That's cool though if it's true, I didn't know that.

From the results of this poll so far, I'm seeing the large majority of people seem to understand humour fine or have minimal problems. Maybe it's mostly an autistic problem of mine then. Anyways though it's good for me to know either way and I appreciate everyone's input.

[Lisa]

Hey Evie - it was Spock.

I can't remember exactly now the details around this, which is frustrating.... sorry about that!!

[nic]

Hi Batgirl,

As a high school teacher who often deals with students' autism needs, I find that what you have said relates to almost every one of my autistic kids. Granted I'm no doctor, but I do know that thinking literally and not "getting" common humor is VERY common among people with autism. Don't worry, though, you're not missing much...most of the time peoples' jokes aren't even that funny!

nic

[batgirl]

Thanks Nic, I'm glad someone here understands me! I feel so odd sometimes.

[Jim]

Lots of people understand you Evie. No worries there please.

Dad.

[WorkingThruIt]

I don't have much trouble getting other people's humor, except for perhaps puns. I just don't see them as funny. My problem is that I see humor in almost everything else and most other people do not. I have a very dry sense of humor and most people look at me like I have three heads at quite a few of my jokes. I just say less of them now and have a laugh to myself or I call my sister..who always gets my jokes.

I am a nanny, with most of my experience caring for special needs children. One boy was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was his nanny. Finding what would make him laugh was quite a challenge for me, but was so very rewarding when I succeeded. I had the advantage of knowing him very well since I cared for he and his brother for 3 years.