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Can't tell when people are joking.

I don't know whether its cause Im just thick or have bad social skills. Basically I can't tell when people are joking sometimes. For example I was at work (I have a weekend job in a care home) and asked some of the staff if they wanted a drink as I wasn't doing anything. One of them said 'yea do you know where my vodka is' I said no, she said 'you know my little flask behind the microwave', I said 'no but I'l have a look' at which point she laughed and said know im joking. Im 23 and totally didn't associate the word vodka with alcohol I was listening but the fact that drinking is not allowed at work never entered my head. I felt so dumb after. Other times people have said things like for example one time 'I think you were a bit rude with 'such a body'' and cause we have laughed in the past I thought she was joking and started laughing and she was like 'yea next do such a thing cause etc etc' she was being serious! How can I be less dumb? Its also common sense I lack someone asked me to heat some milk up in the microwave at work and I had a choice of 2 jugs a plastic one and a metal one and I thought theplastic would melt so put the metal one in until I saw blue sparks comming off it! How can I be more sensible :confused:

Its not like you can study for common sense or anything and I just keep making more and more mistakes I swear I'l get sacked like I did at my other job.

Reply 1

*Bleachage*

Apparently my dad was like that :P
Umm, Im not sure really, just try to look at peoples faces more, its sometimes clear when they dont mean what they are saying

Reply 2

marshey

13

Just for a heads up on the microwave front; microwaves make water molecules vibrate only. Therefore you can use plastic and crockery but metal is never a good idea.

Reply 3

JayEm

14

I do the kinda the opposite. When someone's telling a long joke, I always laugh before the punchline is given, cos I somehow know what they're gonna say. :s-smilie:

Reply 4

generalebriety

16

Don't use anything you're not trained in? :p:

No, seriously, avoiding plastic was a sensible thing to do. It was putting metal in a microwave that wasn't sensible. You didn't know that, but now you do; next time you're faced with that conundrum, check to see whether the plastic is microwaveable or not. As for the vodka joke - don't tell me you've never heard it before? :s-smilie:

I suppose just keep your eyes and ears open and think about what people are saying and whether it's sensible or not. Sometimes sarcasm isn't that easy to detect - there's no excuse for missing the vodka joke, but when the person straight after was being serious you're probably well within your rights to have got mixed up.

Reply 5

Mattaf

5

Have you considered the possibility you might have Asperger's Syndrome or an associated condition? I have the same sorts of problems with understanding people's facial expressions, when they're joking or not, etc and I've got a disability called Dyspraxia, which I have been told can sometimes show similarities with Asperger's.

Out of interest, have you ever had problems with coordination (walking through crowds or narrow doorways, handwriting, that sort of thing)?

Reply 6

GeoTom

15

I have a friend a bit like that. Tried washing his clothes in the tumble dryer and tried to cook rice in a kettle. Oh dear.
but yeah, what they say.

Reply 7

k9ruby

15

Aspergers? Dyspraxia?

Reply 8

xJessx

18

Hi,
I'm like that aswell. When people give sarcastic replies like 'can I use your toilet?' 'No'. I always believe them. And last week, I asked the lady at the shop counter for some change and she said "we don't give change on a thursdays". I believed her and stood there completely dumbstruck in the middle of the shop before both shop assistants started laughing at me. Then I got embarassed and said well maybe their ATM should give tenners instead of just £20 notes and kind of laughed it off in a forced way.
I also completely lack common sense but that doesn't mean you can't be academically intelligent. I can study foreign languages and I'm supposed to be a uni student soon :smile:

but I can't get the hand of my new cleaning job. On Sunday, my mop broke, I dropped the bucket whilst trying to lift it up and flooded the floor, got there late, took too long to clean everything and moved the sign when the floor was still wet. :frown:

I'm surprised they still asked me back.
Don't worry OP, you're not alone lol! :s-smilie:

Reply 9

Anonymous #1

OP

Mattaf

Have you considered the possibility you might have Asperger's Syndrome or an associated condition? I have the same sorts of problems with understanding people's facial expressions, when they're joking or not, etc and I've got a disability called Dyspraxia, which I have been told can sometimes show similarities with Asperger's.

Out of interest, have you ever had problems with coordination (walking through crowds or narrow doorways, handwriting, that sort of thing)?

No co ordination problems, Im probably just thick. With the vodka thing I wasn't associating the word vodka with alcohol I was just going with the flow and wondering what she was going to say next.

Reply 10

emilY?

1

You're probably just thinking about other stuff.... head in the clouds and all that :smile:

You sound sheltered.

I have the same sort of social problems like that, but I found that if you really look at people, especially the eyes or mouth, you can most often tell if they are joking or not

And if you really can't tell just say 'pardon?' and once they repeat the 'punchline' they will probably give a little more expression and it will be more obvious

As for the microwave stuff? At least it makes a good story :wink:

Reply 13

k9ruby

15

This reminds me in year 8 we had to make models of volcanos in georgraphy. When I asked where mine was, the teacher replied 'Oh, I used it to fuel my fire' eh?

more like gullible?

Don't feel so bad about it.

Can't tell when people are joking.

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