Containment What If?

Oh, the laughter/general emote and mirthfulness stuff is just autism, really. I work with a kid who's decently far on the spectrum and he doesn't really know how to laugh. He sort of just makes this odd high-pitched hooting sort of noise instead. I've also never, ever seen him smile. He's been happy, but he just doesn't smile. .. Or make any other kinds of faces, either. He's a neat kid :biggrin:
 
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Drawets Rednaxela said:
I thought laughing was instinctual, like crying or sneezing.
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I guess theoretically it should be, but like, kids on the autism spectrum just might not find anything genuinely funny. When I was younger there was a girl in my Girl Scout troop who was on the autism spectrum and she never laughed at anything. Sometimes if she found something kind of funny she would go "Ha ha ha!" but like in that forced kind of laugh that sounds like you're just faking it. Besides, most of the stuff that non-autistics find funny, she couldn't see the humor in.
 
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Altissimo said:
I guess theoretically it should be, but like, kids on the autism spectrum just might not find anything genuinely funny.
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So autists lack a sence of humour as well as empathy. Facinating.

Makes sence given what we know about OPL's idea of humor.
 
Drawets Rednaxela said:
So autists lack a sence of humour as well as empathy. Facinating.
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I said "might". That's a common misconception that all autistics lack a sense of humor, but really it's more that they have difficulties understanding why things that are funny to non-autistics can be funny, usually because the funny things that non-autistics laugh at have to do with an innate understanding of the nature of people, which autistics by definition lack. Add to that an inability to pick up on sarcasm because of the subtleties of it and you have yourself someone who looks like they don't have a sense of humor.

On the other hand, my dad has mild Asperger's and he's quite possibly the funniest person I've ever known. It really depends on the severity of the autism and the ability to understand people.
 
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Speaking as someone with Asperger's, understanding social cues like when something is funny, when a joke is being directed at you, sarcasm, etc. are things that some of us need to learn through years of therapy and experience. Knowing how to approach idioms, metaphors, or similes without being literal minded is something that we learn as we age and develop common sense. Not saying that all people on the autism spectrum lack common sense, but I think you can see where I'm going with this.
 
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I do find things funny. Mind, they are propably things most other people would find gross or morbid. Like Chris's dirty, crapped brief. Laughed myself off my chair when I first read that.
 
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Some people do find things funny, but just don't really ever laugh. I lived with a girl who never laughed but would sometimes say "that's hilarious." or "that's really funny." in the most dead-pan manner you can imagine. It took me a little while to realize that she wasn't being sarcastic at all. She really did find whatever it was funny or hilarious, she just didn't ever laugh. It was kinda creepy at first but it really comes down to the fact that everyone is different, so you get past it.
 
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I may be on the spectrum, and I find a lot of things uproariously funny, but these tend to be things that hardly anyone else finds amusing!

(I said may because this is a preliminary diagnosis by a psychiatrist who is not an expert on autism, I'm currently waiting for a diagnosis by a specialist. It is very difficult to diagnose in adults. Online tests on OKStupid are rumored to be unreliable.)
 
Altissimo said:
I guess theoretically it should be, but like, kids on the autism spectrum just might not find anything genuinely funny. When I was younger there was a girl in my Girl Scout troop who was on the autism spectrum and she never laughed at anything. Sometimes if she found something kind of funny she would go "Ha ha ha!" but like in that forced kind of laugh that sounds like you're just faking it. Besides, most of the stuff that non-autistics find funny, she couldn't see the humor in.
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My autistic friend is like this.

A lot of humor involving sarcasm or subtlety goes over his head. But he does find obvious jokes, puns, or slapstick to be funny. (He's a smart guy though and if you tell him explicitly that someone was being sarcastic, or walk him through a subtle joke, he then understands why it's funny.)

He went through behavior modification when he was younger to learn how to express himself emotionally, and I think this is related to it: when he finds something funny he gets a huge grin, throws his head back, and laughs really loud. He does it the same way for every joke or situation, and no matter whether it's just a little bit funny or very funny. It almost looks mechanical if you've known him long enough.

It kind of reminds me of the Church Audio when Bob made a small joke about how many verses there are in a hymn and the rest of the congregation slightly chuckled. Chris probably took this as a que that the joke was funny and you can hear him laugh disproportionally loudly.
Bob Chandler: 95.
Elizabeth: 95?
Bob Chandler: (unintelligible)
Elizabeth: 95... and do you have a favorite verse?
Bob Chandler: The one and only.
Elizabeth: There's only one?
(People in the church chuckle while Chris laughs loudly)
 
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Drawets Rednaxela said:
I thought laughing was instinctual, like crying or sneezing.
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You'd think so, but for people like us it's not always the case. I can only speak for my own (Aspergers) experience, but there are certain emotions that I've either had to be taught or had to substitute a similar emotion synthesized by my (very different) brain. I had to learn how to understand humor beyond simple wordplay and random-access humor a la Chris-Chan (I wasn't able to comprehend sarcasm until 8th grade).

Crying's another interesting example, actually. I (and some other Aspergers/autistic people in my family) have a bit of an emotional disconnect where the physical manifestations of emotion (like facial expression or crying) don't match what I'm actually feeling. I have a lot of moments where I wish I could cry but I just don't really have the physical or emotional capacity to do that.
 
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