Of all the avatars I’ve ever used, my favourite was made of a bit of MRI of my own brain.
Part of the satisfaction was to have long discussions with moderators saying the avatar is supposed to show the person - and arguing that the brain is actually what I am as a person, not my face.
I pretty often enjoy finding different ‘well, technically…’ loopholes, though mostly not for exploiting them, but for the sheer joy of pointing them to someone and chucking together over such a joke.
This, together with puns, together with all “imagine this and this, wouldn’t it technically be that?” type of jokes is basically my favourite genre of humor.
And my relationship with humor is kinda complicated: I love funny things, but I often don’t find pure comedies funny(while can have a good chuckle in some straight-face side jokes in some procedurals or adventures), and the main reason is I don’t find it funny when someone struggles, someone is getting hurt, someone is ridiculed or put in an awkward/cringy situation. Someone falling isn’t funny, someone failing isn’t funny, someone put in a situation when they are clearly experiencing fear, shame or disgust isn’t funny for me.
Maybe I just empathize too much: imagining myself in their place makes me want to run away, hide, stop existing, so I just can’t feel any fun there.
But give me a good chuckle with an unexpected pun, give me those “technically..” jokes, give me clever side remarks - that may be soo funny!
Basically, for me, in all the movies, books, shows:
Chuckle > laugh
Maybe it has something to so with RSD and fear to be laughed at(based on previous experiences)
Is it something common among #neurodivergent folks? I imagine it may have something to do with #autism and affective empathy?
What is your relationships with different kinds of humor?
@olena As a child, I got into the habit of making people smile with my sense of the absurd and the opposite. A communicative mask that goes down well and connects. But I hate all those stupid people. More than ever. @actuallyautistic
I can't do slapstick. I'm far too cerebral, but I adore intelligent black humor. Life may be a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel, but it's a dark comedy for those of us who do both.
I was amazed nobody else could see the The Sopranos was funny. Or Fight Club. Go (1999) was freaking hilarious. Best car chase ever. Hardcore Henry and Nobody kept me laughing.
I also love good stand up. Jim Jefferies, old Sara Silverman, Carlin and Pryor and Bill Hicks.
Also books. Youth in Revolt by CD Payne is the funniest book you'll ever read. I've given it away over a hundred times and only got back glowing, LOL reviews. Terry Pratchett has a gentle, knowing humor. Douglas Adams is ever timely:
@Uair@actuallyautistic I love Pratchett’s and Adams’s humour. Also, Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon and Reamde were hilarious to me. I also smile a lot to those lighthearted detective stories like Thursdays Murder Club or even Jane Austen’s snarky comments on everything - all of those have something similar in their humour, which I don’t have a name for
@quincy@Uair@actuallyautistic loved Anathem also. Also, totally different to most of his other works(probably because of co-authoring), D.O.D.O. also made me laugh a lot(still chuckle remembering passages about Shakespear)
@Uair@olena I do enjoy some slapstick as long as I care about the characters and it isn't cruel (I like Laurel & Hardy and The Marx Brothers, and they have heart with silliness), but all the other references are exactly my cup of tea in terms of humour @actuallyautistic
@Uair@olena I think two extremely funny reads are "Waiting For Godot" by Beckett, which is heartbreaking too, and "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller, which is heartbreaking and horrific as well as smart and very funny @actuallyautistic
@IanThistlethwaite@Uair@actuallyautistic yeah, Catch 22 is one of those things that make you feel like laughing, crying and fearing(that it’s too real) at the same time
@olena@Uair@actuallyautistic it's always one of my favourite books, although I prefer not to be tied down to a comprehensive list lol. David Copperfield and even Don Quixote are good pre-cursors for this kind of hilarious, tragic, innately human experiences in a book. When you finish reading them you feel a little bit wobbly
@Uair@olena@actuallyautistic Actually any Vonnegut! And Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi's "The Black Album", and Tom Robbins , and Jeanette Winterson, and Zadie Smith. This is why I steer away from lists. There's too many and I get over enthusiastic!!
@Uair@olena@actuallyautistic I saw it in the cinema when I was at Uni and the three people I went with are the only people I know who ever saw it. Same production team as Chun King Express which I think was more popular but not as funny!
Yeah, Catch-22 is awesome. I never read Godot. A Confederacy of Dunces is worth the time.
Heller's last book, A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man is worth a minute. It's about a comic writer who'd peaked fifty years ago trying to recapture his elan by writing a sex farce.
@olena@actuallyautistic though I have OCD, there are many similarities I share with those on the autism spectrum, such as humor. My sense of humor is very specific. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
@olena@actuallyautistic
Really love clever comedy. Word play and well observed observational comedy, the sort that makes you look again at something every day and see the true absurdity of life. Hate slap stick and humour that requires a victim