Challenging autistic “humorlessness”: Humor production and appreciation in nonspeaking autistic interaction

In most clinical and experimental autism research, autistic people, especially those who do not use speech, are portrayed as deficient in their ability to create and maintain social relationships. One frequent claim is that autistic people are unable to produce and appreciate humor, which is crucial to fostering social connectedness. By contrast, both critical autism studies and Crip Linguistics offer frameworks created by disabled communities that challenge such deficit-based notions regarding autistic languaging and interaction. These frameworks advocate understanding autistic social interaction on the terms defined by autistic individuals themselves. In this article, I use ethnographically informed interactional analysis of video recordings to examine how a nonspeaking autistic young adult, “José,” both appreciates others’ humor and produces humor himself. I demonstrate not only that José is able to produce and appreciate humor, but also that he uses humor as a resource for stancetaking, enabling him to assert his agency without speech. Contrary to deficit-based assumptions, this study reveals that humor can play a pivotal role in the social lives of nonspeaking autistic individuals. The findings advance scholarly understanding of humor within the autism spectrum while demonstrating the need for inclusive, disabled-led approaches that understand nonspeaking autistic interaction on its own terms.