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Do some autistics not laugh?

M

Misty Avich

I have ADHD
V.I.P Member
I have an autistic friend and she never laughs. But she's not unhappy or depressed or anything, in fact she says she's very content in her life and doesn't suffer with depression. But she just doesn't laugh even at really funny things. The most she'll do is give a little smile with like a silent laugh and that's it, but even then sometimes it's just sarcasm.

I laugh all the time. I know exactly how to laugh, even as a baby and a child. Is there anyone here who can't or doesn't laugh? Why don't some autistics laugh?
 
I was going to post something like this. At my new church there is this girl I meet who I am sure 95% has ASD. I can just feel and see her do all the stimming. But she will randomly laugh all the time. When you talk to her she will laugh at anything unless it's something serious at anything you say too.

I would even laugh when happy or even sad which would help with my stimming. I would also laugh more in public around friends I feel comfortable around.
 
I rarely laugh. I can find things funny, but normally don't laugh at them.
Once in a while something will be  so out-there and I'll laugh uncontrollably for a while.
I guess it's like my emotions in general. Usually dormant until they're not.
 
I personally think it's a mix of ASD Executive Functioning and being human.

Both NTs and NDs have variable senses of humor. No one person is going to be exactly the same, in this regard. It's more about mental wiring and perspective emotional responses.

What you may find funny, another may not bat an eye at. Yet that other person may laugh hysterically at something you will not find funny, or may even find confusing.

But looking at ASD, in regards to laughing and humor. Some factors are involved beyond personal sense of humor. Is also our issues with processing socail information. Humor isn't easy to gauge sometimes for us, much like sarcasm or using turn of phrase. Then add our own personal sense of humor to it. We may not show alot of outward reaction, or we will show alot of outward reaction. Some of it is not knowing how to exactly react or just fake laughing, to play along. It depends on wiring of our autistic brain, on top of how we are wired as a humanbeing.

I am no expert obviously. And I maybe just talking out my butt. So take this, as anyone would, with a grain of salt.
 
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During a comedy I won't laugh to disguise when I don't get the joke. So if never laugh people won't know which jokes I get and don't.

People get uncomfortable because they don't know if I am enjoying the movie but inside im laughing at the jokes I do get. Sometimes I might let out the quietest snort

I like slow paced dry comedy. I can usually keep up, if I haven't zoned out.
 
I also find comedy exhausting especially if it's fast paced and has a laughter track. It's like I'm working over time to translate all the humour. I've been called slow for laughing after other people had already stopped. But weirdly I like jokes.
 
Dry humour is the best. My autistic friend can be very dry but not intending to make people laugh.

Although I do laugh naturally at things others find funny too, sometimes I want to laugh at something that's not that funny but I can't, so what comes out is just a fake laugh which is like a shout that annoys everyone. My husband gets really annoyed when I do that. I've always done it though, even as a child. I remember when I was about 7 my mum told me not to do that loud hysterical laughter because it worried my little cousin, who was only 3 or 4.

But I didn't know loud laughing was something that would upset NTs like my husband so much, because I know some extroverted NTs who have really loud laughs and everyone loves them. Like, their laughs are so obnoxious and loud that your ears vibrate. It's like they want everyone to know they're laughing even if others aren't laughing with them. That's kind of what I do when I do a forced, hysterical laughter.
 
Unintended humour is the best because it's so innocent. That's why Harvey Price is so funny!

I think autistics can be mistaken for having no sense of humour when it's just an alternative style of humour..

Double standards isn't it
 
Why is not laughing abnormal? It strikes me as normal, I'd be surprised if someone laughed too frequently and I'd perceive their mood as unusually elevated.

There is this guy at my uni who says he has ADHD and he said he feels "high" from the ADHD, somewhat manic, euphoric. He laughs and smiles all the time, at the same time he is very inattentive and hard to deal with. I don't think this elevated mood is acting to his advantage, as he is careless, doesn't notice how he affects others, and does things that are detrimental for him. For some reason, he makes the impression of being unusually emotionally expressive, he is disinhibited.
 
I can barely keep up with conversations, let alone engage them in enough to find them genuinely funny.

It has to be super obvious / blatant, and that's not usually the kind of humor a lot of NTs appreciate.
 
A downside of not laughing would be that you're missing out on a way to relieve tension and might indicate depression but not necessarily
 
I think everyone has a different sense of humor and what they find to be hilarious. I don’t find humor based bodily functions funny except for vomiting if it’s ridiculous and a projectile and even then the set up must be clever. What I do find hilarious are absurd ideas and mishaps and dark humor that is cleverly written. I also find movies that have obviously bad effect or really fake looking props hilarious as I ca never take them seriously.
 
Literally laugh out loud? Once in a while, but certainly not often. That's how I judge the quality of a humorous gift card. It has to make me laugh or chuckle to buy it.

Sarcasm directed towards me is difficult to process. Where more often than not it is perceived as an insult and little else. Where I just tend to ignore sarcasm expressed. While I can describe it, I just can't explain why it works this way. But then I don't express envy or jealousy either.
 
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Some forms of humor needed to die. I grew up in an earlier generation in the South that took for granted in making fun of all women and pretty much anyone who wasn't white, Anglo-Saxon-Protestant or heterosexual. When during my childhood, the great mantra of the time was "To be free, white and twenty-one". Though it wasn't intended to be cute- or funny.

And what would happen if someone was offended? They'd be laughed at. The laughter of a perceived majority looking down upon a perceived minority. Because in their minds, they could. Using humor to mask their prejudice. No one needs that kind of "humor".

Ironically "Judge" became my nickname as a child. Because of my stim pacing back and forth with a serious look on my face. Seemed funny for a long time. Not quite so much now.

Weird to look back at two comedians who made me laugh. One made fun of primarily things, but not so much people. The other made fun of everyone, starting with himself. One died in tragedy, and one lives in infamy for unrelated reasons. No laughs from me now.

-Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby.
 
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