I don't understand jokes

[DaisyRose]

I sometimes think when someone jokes with me, I can’t tell if they are making fun of me or not. It’s hard. I can make jokes all day. It’s just hard to tell from others.

 

[Shevek]

I miss some jokes, especially if they rely on familiarity with popular fiction, but humour has been a major factor in my life. Very often, comedians, like the court jesters of old, have been pioneers in telling society what it needs to hear. Without that sudden juxtaposition of ideas in a funny way, one of them would never get considered. To ease social tensions, I have sometimes done a little parody of myself, which conveys that we can see things the same way if we try. If I can get a laugh in a group, I feel accepted, when almost nothing else works. My serious ideas just go 'way overhead most of the time. I've had some sure-thing jokes bomb, but I doubt that anyone else remembers them. The winners, though, still brighten my days when I remember them.
Re: TBBT, about the only TV I've watched in over a decade: It is just about an infomercial for sci-fi kitsch, but it is also a lot of fun with such disparate characters getting along somehow. However, I must put up a howling complaint about Season 8 Episode 2. Howard and Sheldon get into a crucial argument about engineering, and they both confuse the two most basic terms in engineering, stress and strain. They always occur together, but the science starts when we measure them separately. Howard missed a chance to totally burn Sheldon, but they had a PhD in physics, but no BA in engineering, checking the scripts.

 

[Ghostinthemachine]

Makes sense, and yes, Friends/Seinfeld were the most difficult comedies for me also. HIMYM too. Monty Python movies are probably the funniest movies I've seen. I liked Hot Shots and Problem Child as a kid, but these are pretty slapstick/obvious.

Yes I agree I can get monty python cause its got next to no narrative and doesn't rely on understanding social nuances. I love the meaning of life and the series because I could understand the humour. I also enjoy the naked ghn films cause again they rely on visual jokes and slapstick

 

[Levitator]

I sometimes think when someone jokes with me, I can’t tell if they are making fun of me or not. It’s hard. I can make jokes all day. It’s just hard to tell from others.

Nobody should make fun of you. You seem nice.

 

[Levitator]

Yes I agree I can get monty python cause its got next to no narrative and doesn't rely on understanding social nuances. I love the meaning of life and the series because I could understand the humour. I also enjoy the naked ghn films cause again they rely on visual jokes and slapstick

Python is a variety of comedic elements, way more conceptual than making faces. There's parody, there's irony, there's absurdity. Those make sense to me. "Bob peered straight into the camera and raised an eyebrow because he was surprised" is not funny to me, but that's essentially the continuous joke throughout Friends, from beginning to end, and they never stop laughing at it. I'd love to hear further insights on what I'm missing.

 

[Dagan]

I will say that many of the "filmed in front of a live audience" so-called comedies...I never really laughed at. Not much at all. The laugh track was right there, the whole time, insinuating that I should be laughing along with everyone else...but I wouldn't find the majority of it to even make me crack a smile. Just the same, I do understand comedy and situational humor, even. It's just that a lot of those network, mainstream style shows aren't funny to me. Shows/styles that I do laugh at:

Rick and Morty - Letterkenny / Shoresy - Trailer Park Boys - What We Do In The Shadows - Family Guy - South Park - SNL - Marx Brothers films - Three Stooges - Looney Tunes - Tom and Jerry - Monty Python - Fawlty Towers - 8 Out of 10 Cats - Mr. Bean - Black Adder - Are You Being Served? - Sanford and Son - Boondocks - Black Dynamite - In Living Color - Mad TV, etc.

Still, yes, there are times within even those shows that I will miss something and not laugh at it. There's still some things that don't click or may take a while to click just right.

 

[Levitator]

I will say that many of the "filmed in front of a live audience" so-called comedies...I never really laughed at. Not much at all. The laugh track was right there, the whole time, insinuating that I should be laughing along with everyone else...but I wouldn't find the majority of it to even make me crack a smile. Just the same, I do understand comedy and situational humor, even. It's just that a lot of those network, mainstream style shows aren't funny to me. Shows/styles that I do laugh at:

Rick and Morty - Letterkenny / Shoresy - Trailer Park Boys - What We Do In The Shadows - Family Guy - South Park - SNL - Marx Brothers films - Three Stooges - Looney Tunes - Tom and Jerry - Monty Python - Fawlty Towers - 8 Out of 10 Cats - Mr. Bean - Black Adder - Are You Being Served? - Sanford and Son - Boondocks - Black Dynamite - In Living Color - Mad TV, etc.

Still, yes, there are times within even those shows that I will miss something and not laugh at it. There's still some things that don't click or may take a while to click just right.

I was previously under the impression your name is not that common.