The comprehension of humorous materials by adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome.

The team showed cartoons and jokes to 40 teens. Half had high-functioning autism or Asperger’s. Half were typical kids the same age.

Each teen explained why each joke was funny. The researchers scored the answers for two things: spotting the surprise and following the story line.

The autistic teens got the joke only half as often as their peers. They missed the sudden twist and could not retell the story in order.

Even the brightest students with Asperger’s scored low. Without surprise and clear story order, humor simply did not land.

Morsanyi et al. (2012) later saw the same teens fail at fantasy stories. The pattern is bigger than jokes—any story that bends reality is hard.

Stagg et al. (2022) found these teens also miss context when reading faces. First they miss the twist in the story, then they miss the fake smile that goes with it.

Godfrey et al. (2023) followed the kids into adulthood. The story-memory gap stayed. If you do not teach narrative order early, the weakness lingers.

You can teach humor. Start by pointing out the two-part story: set-up, then surprise. Use simple cartoons and stop at the twist. Ask, “What changed?” and “What did you expect?” Practice daily during social skills group. Over time, map the same story order onto real-life jokes, memes, and peer banter. A clear template turns confusing fun into learnable rules.