Sometimes I know it’s a joke or sarcasm but I pretend to take it seriously because it don’t know how to react to it otherwise.

I’ve done this my whole life. I think it’s a form of masking. You cover both sides. If it was a joke you are like yeah I was continuing it. If it wasn’t you just say you thought they were being sarcastic and misunderstood.

This is interesting, because I have the same things happen with different reasons behind them. Responding to a joke as though I didn’t understand it was one is something I find internally amusing, and my own sense of humor is pretty dry/deadpan so people do miss sometimes when I’m “joking back” as it were

I think the dividing line is the intensity/frequency, unless one knows one is diagnosed. My coworkers for example pick up on the differences in the way I talk when I’m joking vs sincere pretty quick, and likewise learn that I find some small amusing in being irritating now and again

I think part of it for me is in hearing the joke, I hear the subject reduced to simplicity, in some cases with ugly stereotypes, so I feel compelled to explain the nuance.

A recent example came up when someone made a 72 virgins joke recently (the promised heavenly reward for a muslim man who lives rightly features seventy-two concubines)

And as a result, I broke into an explanation of Houri (but spared them the complexities of jihad ).