Hovis
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 10, 2006
Age: 39
Posts: 1016
Location: Lincolnshire, England
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 Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:27 am Post subject: Laughter during conversations |
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Is this an inability to understand most jokes, an inability to understand social interaction, or both?
One of the things which confuses - and annoys - me most about two people chatting is the way that the participants break out into howls of laughter at practically every other sentence, when I either can't see that anything has been said that was funny at all, or at the most, only warranted a smile. Yet to listen to each person, you'd think the other was a stand-up comedian doing a routine.
Do I just not find things funny that most (NT) people find funny? Do 90% of jokes go over my head? Or is there some sort of social requirement that you fake laughter - at a level where you hardly even realize that it's fake? |
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anna-banana
indifferent peapod
Joined: Aug 31, 2008
Age: 30
Posts: 6740
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:46 am Post subject: |
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I laugh constantly. I find a lot of things funny. I find the fact that NTs laugh at something that's not funny funny.
so I laugh at them 
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Chaotica
Granted with powers, gifted with magic
Joined: Jun 29, 2008
Age: 30
Posts: 1406
Location: Hyperborea, buried under the ice and snow
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:56 am Post subject: |
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I confess I more often smile than laugh. For me many jokes are funny because of their stupidity, I mean popular jokes that seem to be funny to the big part of people. What is interesting and also very funny is that when I say that I smile because of poor humour and stupidity, people always say that they do the same. There are also jokes that make me laugh because they are really funny to me. I don't know... May be I have some specific sense of humour, black humour  may be, I have a bad sense of humour  I guess it's ability to understand specific jokes, it's special for everyone, but people want to be "like most people" and that's why they laugh.
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Chaotica
Granted with powers, gifted with magic
Joined: Jun 29, 2008
Age: 30
Posts: 1406
Location: Hyperborea, buried under the ice and snow
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:57 am Post subject: |
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Hey Anna, you wrote what I thought!  you write more quickly! 
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anna-banana
indifferent peapod
Joined: Aug 31, 2008
Age: 30
Posts: 6740
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Chaotica wrote: | | Hey Anna, you wrote what I thought! you write more quickly! |
lol sorry
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Chaotica
Granted with powers, gifted with magic
Joined: Jun 29, 2008
Age: 30
Posts: 1406
Location: Hyperborea, buried under the ice and snow
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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| anna-banana wrote: | | Chaotica wrote: | | Hey Anna, you wrote what I thought! you write more quickly! |
lol sorry |
Cool, we think the same 
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mightyzebra
High Functioning Autie
Joined: Aug 26, 2007
Posts: 1766
Location: Planet Earth.
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:24 pm Post subject: Re: Laughter during conversations |
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| Hovis wrote: | Is this an inability to understand most jokes, an inability to understand social interaction, or both?
One of the things which confuses - and annoys - me most about two people chatting is the way that the participants break out into howls of laughter at practically every other sentence, when I either can't see that anything has been said that was funny at all, or at the most, only warranted a smile. Yet to listen to each person, you'd think the other was a stand-up comedian doing a routine.
Do I just not find things funny that most (NT) people find funny? Do 90% of jokes go over my head? Or is there some sort of social requirement that you fake laughter - at a level where you hardly even realize that it's fake? |
Everyone finds the oddest things funny - different NTs and different Aspies have different sorts of humour. I myself have never seen anyone laughing every other sentence (unless you are exaggerating). What I like about people laughing is that they're happy people. Laughing with friends and family, even if it's about nothing particularly funny, shows that you are a happy person. I wouldn't worry about it. When I'm with people who are constantly making sex-related jokes, I often don't get them and no-one really notices me not laughing. If you do find something funny that other people say and they burst out laughing, it's cool to laugh along - to join the crowd in a way that many people don't.
Ok, I'm rambling here, so I'd better leave this discussion before I make another random point. So long! 
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Hovis
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 10, 2006
Age: 39
Posts: 1016
Location: Lincolnshire, England
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Chaotica wrote: | | I confess I more often smile than laugh. For me many jokes are funny because of their stupidity, I mean popular jokes that seem to be funny to the big part of people. |
It's not just a case of not finding a particular joke funny, though - what seems to me to be a perfectly normal, straightforward statement, other people apparently find funny.
I say things seriously, and people laugh - not in an unpleasant way, just like they genuinely think I'm joking. The psychologist I saw for a while for OCD told me (meaning it in a nice way, I know) that she thought I was very funny. I was never aware of anything I'd said that should have raised more than a smile. |
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Hovis
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 10, 2006
Age: 39
Posts: 1016
Location: Lincolnshire, England
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:42 pm Post subject: Re: Laughter during conversations |
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| mightyzebra wrote: | | I myself have never seen anyone laughing every other sentence (unless you are exaggerating). What I like about people laughing is that they're happy people. Laughing with friends and family, even if it's about nothing particularly funny, shows that you are a happy person. |
I'm not exaggerating with some, I can promise you.
Maybe I'm just not a happy person... |
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Blufaeri
Hummingbird
Joined: Oct 30, 2008
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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| anna-banana wrote: | I laugh constantly. I find a lot of things funny. I find the fact that NTs laugh at something that's not funny funny.
so I laugh at them |
LOL
Me too. |
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watcheroftheskies
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: May 22, 2008
Age: 25
Posts: 29
Location: Grey Matter
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:36 pm Post subject: smiles |
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lol the exact same thing happens to me..
ive never been told i am funny though, but people laugh when they´re not supposed to and it doesnt matter how hard i try analizing what i just said i never find what could be funny about it
my problem is with the smile on conversations, people´ve said before that i am too serious, and i dont get it, i tried to change, but it didnt work, im fine with it but sometimes its a little unconfortable knowing people expect something from me that i dont understand..
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Exile
Toucan
Joined: Nov 02, 2008
Age: 55
Posts: 265
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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I find that the things that make me laugh very often (but not always) do NOT provoke the same humorous response in others. In fact, sometimes my laughter seems wildly inappropriate to the people around me. What piques my humor are absurdities, inanities, obvious-yet-unperceived contradictions.
Perhaps they're not as obvious to others . . .
On the plus side, when I meltdown around friends nowadays, it is always a tirade about these contradictions in life, unperceived yet obvious WHEN POINTED OUT. The friends I have seem to very much appreciate this aspect of my character. They find it very entertaining and, oddly, valuable. This is one of the ways in which I select worthwhile friends. I was once told that I have a habit of "forcefully pontificating." |
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Aurore
Dingo Lycanthrope
Joined: Dec 07, 2007
Age: 22
Posts: 1516
Location: Virginia Tech
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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I laugh at almost everything.
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Angnix
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 02, 2007
Age: 30
Posts: 1160
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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I have nervous laughter, and it happens most of the time, there's really no reason for it.
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Willard
Nobody
Joined: Mar 24, 2008
Posts: 4077
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| There is a NT socialized response factor in much conversational laughter. They frequently make small remarks in jest within the context of conversation that are, to another NT, expected to elicit some amount of hilarity or glee in response. It's polite stroking, a nonverbal means of passing signals that let the participants (and any observers) know that this is a friendly interaction and no threat is intended on any level. It's kind of a bonding thing on a very superficial level. I, too, find this automatic expectation of guffaws to be unrealistic and annoying, as the remarks made are rarely genuinely funny (and often trite and tired). I do try to give them a polite smile, just so not to seem cold and rude. |
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