Humor Is A Barrier For Humor

Imagine yourself young. Imagine the feeling of something that everyone else finds funny, not funny. Imagine everyone else laughing at the joke, except you. Autism can be defined as a developmental disorder that causes a significant impact on communication and social interaction. The disorder is detected in early childhood and manifests differently throughout the individual’s life span. Evidence suggests that one of the earliest signs of autism, or signs of eventual autism, is the delay of motor skills. Researchers also examined early autism in children based on their behavior. Asymmetry seemed to be evident in infants and toddlers while crawling and sitting up. There are many delays as children continue to age, which leads to the inability to process certain things. Autistic individuals suffer from difficulties in conversation, basic social behaviors, and other interactions as well (Lord, 2010). This is why they are often unable to react the way another individual would when hearing a joke. These are common characteristics that people with autism come across when dealing with humor. Autism is sometimes a barrier for humor.

Although that technically is what humor means, it can be divided into different components. Not all humor is meant to be funny, and not all humor will be funny. In order to be humorous, an individual has to mentally process the information they would like to play around with. Understanding humor also requires individuals to process the meaning of the information that is being said. As mentioned, humor requires mental thinking and processing. How does an autistic individual process humor? That is the problem. Autism puts a restraint on this. Notice the ‘restraint’; not all autistic individuals are incapable of producing and understanding humor. It serves for some people as more of a