~ MISSED PART I? CLICK HERE.

9:38pm  Zoë    Humor can definitely show someone’s intelligence or lack thereof pretty quickly. I also find that the creativity of the humor can help me find like-minded people. If it’s ADHD I’m trying to detect, if I make really far-fetched connections between things, and someone gets it immediately w/o any difficulty, they turn out, more 0ften than not , to have ADHD too. It’s the way our brains fire, like we have a constant metaphor-machine running all the time!

9:40pm  Jeff   I like that concept…a constant metaphor-machine. I spend much of my life looking for the right metaphor(s) as a way to understand something.  I have a question for you…

9:41pm  Zoë   Yes?

9:41pm  Jeff   Do you mix up songs? Mash up lyrics? See connections between life and television commercials?

9:42pm  Zoë    I don’t watch television.  But no, I don’t mash up lyrics and mix up songs. If anything, I completely forget lyrics. But we were talking about humor…

9:44pm  Jeff   I don’t watch television, either; all my references end at about 1986. But I grew up on it. The reason I mention it is that part of my humor is to suddenly break into a commercial or an old song. You know, looking for far-flung connections.

9:46pm  Zoë   A friend of mine’s kids would constantly mimic whole chunks of popular culture to the nearly COMPLETE absence of anything original or fresh, and I absolutely HATED it. One of the things I LOVE about this “ADHD” thing is, the creativity and the freshness, originality of the humor. I’m very proud of that in myself, and it’s why I write my own standup. I see so much fresh, original stuff from you, maybe the other stuff is more habit / cultural influence… I guess it’s just a subjective matter of taste.

9:48pm Jeff   I don’t act out whole shows. But sometimes I’ll respond to a question with a line from a commercial or a song or a movie.

9:50pm  Zoë  I know a LOT of people where I live do that too. I think it’s a kind of shorthand for communication, and let’s face it, most people DO watch tv and share this common Zeitgeist. I prefer to hang out with my artsy poet / writer friends, where we make it up as we go along. I guess we’re more like the WRITERS for those shows ! lol

Do you think that ADHDers, in general, are funnier than nonADDers? ie. – are MOST standup comedians also ADD (educated guess here is fine!) or is a great sense of humor NOT a definitive ADD quality (like, say, climbing trees) hee hee hee

9:52pm  Jeff   The problem is that I can only answer based on a small sample size: me and you and, perhaps, my kids. But I know there are ADHDers that are not funny…so humor is not a definitive ADHD quality.

9:53 Zoë   Come to think of it, neither is anything else. For example, we’re not all hyperactive, etc.

9:54  Jeff   Ain’t that the truth!! While we don’t want to be all doom and gloom…neither should we assume that our good qualities are a result of ADHD. Quite honestly, we don’t know.

9:55pm   Zoë   That’s such a cop-out. Why would you “assume” that ANY of our “bad” or challenging qualities are ADHD, but not the good stuff??

9:56pm Jeff    Because we don’t know anything about causality. We only have correlation. If comedians were ALL ADHD, they would never finish writing any jokes.

One more thing. My ADHD interferes more than it helps.

9:56pm Zoë   That’s a red herring. Your ADHD interfering is not the topic.

9:57pm Jeff    True. The question has to do with humor and humor is intertwined with everything.

9:59pm Zoë   btw – I have ADHD (big time) and I DO finish writing jokes. And you DO put shitloads of super-funny stuff on your blog, on a regular basis. I guess my final word on the humor thing is that I’m SO glad I can focus it (look up that “f” word in the dictionary) to make the most of it now. I’m enjoying my sense of humour like never before and SO grateful I have it and can use it, even to make money on occasion! woo-hoo!

10:00pm  Jeff    I definitely agree with you that I enjoy much more now that I can focus it. You know, six or eight months ago, I would have seen humor as being just one small part of me. Now it is infused in most everything.

10:02pm  Zoë   I LOVE that!! Well, funny guy, thanks for another enlightening chat. And thanks for making me laugh, even when your writing is sometimes pretty depressing and sobering. I guess that’s a balance, of sorts!

10:03pm  Jeff   Mr. Dark Humor…that’s me!

Disclaimer: Although the He Said / She Said series is a collaborative effort between Zoë Kessler and Jeff Siegel, each author speaks for her or himself and the opinions expressed are solely those of the respective authors, in both the He Said / She Said series, as well as in their respective blogs [ADHD from A to Zoë and Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind]

If you missed our Introduction to He Said / She Said, check it out HERE.

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From Psych Central's website:
He Said / She Said: Examining the ADHD Life - Those Funny ADHDers! Part I | ADHD from A to Zoë (July 29, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 29 Jul 2010