And it's always awkward to explain I'm also joking. Most times I just pretend I'm being serious just to save myself the hassle of explaining I was actually continuing the joke
OP what makes you think you're not? This post is autistic AF, as someone autistic.
I'm very high masking when I choose to be (sometimes when I'm not.. it's sort of automatic by nature at times) and in a lot of cases people never know. I was in my 30s before I figured it out, and I used to use the saying "I'm not autistic but" a lot.
There are free tests available. AMA (not a pro but I have over 30yrs experience!)
I was diagnosed with autism at a young age, but that actually turned out to be a different thing (xxy), so I no longer have the diagnosis. So it's still possible, but not probable, more likely partly a result of xxy and not autism.
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 ).
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.
"I can't be autistic, I understand sarcasm." Until I realised that I'm heavily context dependent and no I don't understand sarcasm unless I know for certain that it is sarcasm.