Figuratively Speaking.

My Addison, as super intelligent as he is, has a major problem when it comes to jokes.  The figurative language skills that it takes to form a joke is just lost on the poor guy.  When kids are young, they just make up silly jokes by stringing words together.  We had plenty of that!  But, now that they are older, the other kids can all understand the meanings of jokes, the use of puns within jokes, and can definitely tell what is funny and what is not. 

At school, the kids have been telling jokes, including knock-knock jokes.  They mostly come from joke books or backs of cereal boxes.  However, some are able to make them up pretty effectively.  It was very obvious that Addison lacked these skills.  During the knock-knock jokes at lunch last week, Addison tried to chime in with a few which flopped miserable.  He just doesn't get why theirs are funny, but his are not!  Anna, sensing the uncomfortable moment (probably sensing it much more than Addison himself), saved the day by whispering a joke for him to tell to the other kids.  What a sweety!

This week, Addison chimed back up at lunch with these gems:

"Knock, knock"
"Who's there?"
"Salesman."
"Salesman who?"
"Don't bother with who I am!  Here!  Buy a shirt!"

"What did the ice do to the ice skater?"
"Swallowed him."

and~

"Do you know why rocking chairs like to eat rocks?"  

" Isn’t it obvious?  They have “rock” in their name!"

Wow.  I'm not sure if they offer "joke therapy" anywhere, but if so, we need to sign Addison up!