(Before I start I will remind you all I fail every autism and ADHD and masking test every time. I'll use some relevant tags anyway because this does seem like it would interest some ND people.)
Every so often I get a bit self conscious about the fact that I can never play along with, like, jokey banter. I hear public speaking type people on podcasts and reaction shows and Taskmaster do this all the time, obviously, but also people out in the world do the same type of thing, just more rarely and much lower key.
I'm not even sure how to describe what I mean really without just directly quoting people. I guess it includes funny turns of phrase that someone (not me) will then pick up and develop a little, acknowledging the joke and adding a little more to it, often while advancing the conversation and adding their own point of view etc.;
and also semi-serious comments with an exaggerated humorous framing, like when I switched campaigning partners between sessions of a Green Party action day and my morning companion was like "aww let's not break up the partnership" in a way that communicates to me an acknowledgement that we got on okay but also invites me to play along in some way with the exaggeration but I have no idea how and I don't even remember what I said because I couldn't think of anything,
So yeah that kind of thing. Every so often somebody throws me a funny little line like this and for the life of me I can only think of 100% straight, serious answers but it seems inappropriate to just give one.
Maybe it's something you can learn to do but beyond just lots of exposure to examples (which, oh boy, I have lots of exposure) IDK if I'm up to, like, going through podcasts line by line and trying to analyse it all and draw out patterns and things, and I'm doubtful that would even work. I suspect it just has to come naturally, and it doesn't to me.
OTOH maybe I'll try searching for advice about this later, see if anyone has already done the work and has, like, pointers and exercises already.
#ND #neurodivergent #autism