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Episode 60 - Are People With ADHD Funnier?
50 Plays4 months ago
Paul and Martin (co-mayors of ADHDville) explore the connection between ADHD and humor, asking, Are people with ADHD naturally funnier? Through stories and insights, it delves into how ADHD traits shape comedic perspectives.
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Transcript
Introduction to ADHD and Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
Back in the room, back in the room, back in the robotie back in the room, more passion, more passion, energy, energy, more footwork. All right. So this episode, um we are going to be talking about our people with ADHD naturally funnier. So if you're interested in, in the inextricable link between ADHD and humour and why they might help us survive in the newer beige world then this is the episode for you so without further ado it totally is
00:01:07
Speaker
nothing funnier
Personal ADHD Stories
00:01:08
Speaker
than depression. Hello, I'm Paul Thompson. I was diagnosed with the combined ADH and the D almost exactly, almost not exactly, but close enough a year ago. What? When? A year ago.
00:01:23
Speaker
and i'm not And I'm Martin West and I was diagnosed with just ah the poo-poo platter of ADHD in 2013.
00:01:33
Speaker
Did you have a cloche on your platters? Is this like, do you have a cloche on top of it? Cloth. A cloche. A cloche, I don't know. No, like the cloche. Yeah, I do like a cloche. Anyway, so we're two mates who by coincidence are not ah in
Entertainment Disclaimer
00:01:54
Speaker
brackets. After 39 years of friendship, discovered with co-ADHDers.
00:01:58
Speaker
Now, it's really important to say that this is an entertainment podcast about adult ADHD. It does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals. So don't take ah any advice from us. No, no, no. We're just here as a kind of all-inclusive ADHD pulp bench with room for everyone, including your doppelgangers, your alter egos, your buddy doubles, your chaperones, and even your best buddies.
Welcome to 'ADHDville'
00:02:25
Speaker
Still here? Well, your ADHD is, you know, every excuse not to be here, maybe you be distracted, but if you are hit green, then grab your jet packs, petal hose, space opposite, any other transportation methods and let us to take you to ADHDville, an imaginary town with crazy little minds.
00:02:44
Speaker
where we like to explore different parts of the A, the D, the H and the D. Right. And then just to make sure, you know, ah your your phone seems to be like slightly cutting in and out a bit. So I don't know whether there's a better place in your room that has better risk risk reception or not. I don't know. In terms of cutting like connection. Yeah.
00:03:11
Speaker
OK, I've put it by the window, so that should be OK. All right. OK. And then all right. Cracking on. We'll start
Are People with ADHD Naturally Funnier?
00:03:18
Speaker
off. We start off as always here in the town hall in the mayor's office, where we the joint mayors of ADHD will take care of business and all the agenda. We've got two things. One thing is ah we we're we're going to be talking about ADHD and humour. Our people with ADHD funnier.
00:03:36
Speaker
and Paul's done a quiz yes so so hold onto on to your theme as well ah yeah it's on theme yeah all right so um so hang on to your clown clown car for that um yes all right where where should we go to talk about funny funny funny ADHD stuff glad you asked me that martin i was thinking we'd go down to the farm farms are pretty can be pretty funny places Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, with the funny cows and the funny sheep. Pig? um Is there a funny farmyard, funnier farmyard animal than a pig?
00:04:15
Speaker
o No, but so let's put our our Wellington boots on yeah and we'll jump in the mayor's car. Yeah, go oink with pigs.
00:04:42
Speaker
ah there we go out or sound effects oh what do you mean sound effects because because no sorry well real like sorry reality i meant reality slip of the tongue yes exactly um all right so we're gonna so we're gonna we're gonna discuss this this this ah this a question um about whether ADHD is funnier. Well, whether people with ADHD are.
00:05:14
Speaker
funnier and we're gonna be looking at I've got some little bits of research we've got some personal experiences um anecdotes and there's gonna be some anecdotally I'm pretty sure along the way yes but I think there's there are various parts of the eight of the ADHD um ah you know of of us with ADHD that kind of do seem to correspond with humor quite well Yeah. And one of those things is like quick wit and spontaneity. Hang on, I've got weird sound coming through my headphones. Yeah. It sounds like there's a plane going over the top of you or something. All right. No, that's just the that's just literally the rule let's turn. Oh, it's the you've got maybe close the window, close the window, Martin.
00:06:14
Speaker
Oh, is it? Too much farm noises coming through. Yeah. Talking of things coming through, I think my dog wants to come through. All right. So while while Paul's dealing with his dog, oh like I can see him in in the video.
00:06:34
Speaker
and I was going to say that ADHD minds do work fast and they can jump between ideas which can lead to you know unexpected and and funny remarks.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, you know, that kind of, um you know, everyone talks about ADHD and how, you know, sometimes we have this like, this capability of just like arriving at a, ah you know, particularly efficient arriving at like really focused ideas and things quite quickly because we've got fast minds, right? And I also could work with, with Hugo as well, you know, I could think of many, many comedians got like really fast, active brains, right? Like really fast. Jim Carrey, you know, Robin, Robin Williams, you know, tons, just,
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, ah know I know. I think, you know, like um that kind of like so um that's also that spontaneity thing. Like I thought almost feel like that's a little bit like, you know, like um sometimes that impulsiveness and you just say something and it isn't even as if you're trying to be funny. You just kind of like say this thing that comes out. It seems perfectly natural to us, right?
00:08:00
Speaker
Right. see So what comes to mind is your anecdote with with with um what for some people in your family thought was like it was ah wasn't appropriate to you. It was highly appropriate when you're talking about your dad's, your dad's coughing.
00:08:17
Speaker
Oh yeah but yeah when but yeah, when I was picking up my my dad's coffin and we and when we're there at the Undertakers with my yeah with the funeral director and my brother and my mum and she was starting to show us a catalogue of the coffins and I asked whether any of them had cup holders.
00:08:39
Speaker
and yeah Which, you know, and then and then I sort of looked looked around for ah for a for a smile or a something and they just... Applause, even. Well, yeah, I mean, I would have taken sort of, you know, thinking about is being being being thrown at me. and But no, and underwear. yeah Right. I bet. I bet. nothing I bet there was no part of your brain that was saying, oh, before you said it, oh, whether or not there's no part of your brain say, oh, would this be appropriate or not? you I think you probably thought it was entirely appropriate.
00:09:17
Speaker
Nothing. Well, I'm not entirely sure that I actually got as far as thinking whether it was appropriate or not. I think it just kind of it just kind of came out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's yeah and that's I think a lot of us do that where you will say something and you're not even trying to be funny, but you just say something and then everyone laughs. Then you then you almost must have to process what you just said and get over. Yeah.
00:09:46
Speaker
like I can see where I was being funny. But what I guess the reason I'm asking is like for some people they might think that you were doing that on purpose just to like you know irritate them or something but for us There was entirely, it seemed like a totally right thing to say. There's no, like, not trying to upset anyone. It's just like in our minds, in our world, that was like, it was the right time, right place and the right, yeah know right delivery. The whole shebang. And I a bet your dad would have loved it.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, he he would have smiled, I think. So, you know, I don't I don't I don't feel feel feel bad. But yeah, this was, you know, that's that's where that comes down into that kind of thing that people with ADHD do have a highly developed dark sense of humor because yeah, because of the stuff that they've been through. I kind of feel like, a you know,
00:10:48
Speaker
people and and and I was actually thinking that sometimes in these situations where you do say a joke and it might be a ah i dark joke that it almost works as a who laughs gets me and I will like that person. It's yeah it's almost much like a sort of ah a get a a test. I want to say it's a test, but but it yeah it it is a good way to filter people that but might be yeah more in your camp.
Humor as a Social Connector
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I've got something on that. I was i think, if ever I've like, I'll give you an example. um Alice was on our podcast, which was downloaded, ah ah ah the kind of last download that we've seen. 15, I think it was. 58. And um I remembered, in fact, we talked about Junior Parkers. The first time we kind of met was at a concert.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I think she she was performing actually, she was on performing. And we met up before, we'd never met before. And I'm pretty much sure with her and anyone else, my first attempt to like see if she was like a neuro kind of divergent kind of person, right? they're So potentially part of the community. The first thing I'll try is humour with them.
00:12:16
Speaker
hu It's like you're like fishing and you throw the worm out and it's usually comedy. It's usually a comedy worm that I put out there. ah so Comedy Comedy worm. I put it out there. It's like, okay. And it's like, oh, there's another one. There's another one of us. And ah you know, so that's good.
00:12:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love that comedy worm. Let's just throw it out there as a little hook and and yeah see who bites. This is right. I did consider comedy maggot, but worms. It's a good choice. I think you're onto a winner there. With the winner and the worm. I know, I know. And then there's this other other thing, which is like where humor can come from is this, you know, like, because we have ADHD, we can overshare.
00:13:14
Speaker
um a lot and uh and i kind of feel like somehow like when you're when you start over sharing at least this is what i kind of feel like at some point in my brain it kind of goes i'm talking talking talking and i kind of go oh god this is sounding a bit boring or you know and then i might kind of start throwing in some jokes i'm or trying to make it It's more amusing or funnier. right yeah of
00:13:45
Speaker
um yeah Because because ah because like because like I start to feel uncomfortable that I'm i'm oversharing, right? And then I start to feel awkward. And then I'll kind of go, okay, let me just throw some gags out there, try and win someone back.
00:14:01
Speaker
Right. I've got it down. I've got a bit of like bullet points here, this kind of thing. I put it, that kind of thing down as deflection. It's like, oh, oh, look at that shiny thing over here. Make a joke, you know? Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Tangential Thinking and Comedy
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah. I do that quite, quite a lot. And then I've got something here, which is about we can kind of go off at tangents um which is kind of part of that kind like you know that kind of us yeah and when we go off it. and when Actually, that that's the kind of that's funny thing about, judge about jokes is that they often have an unexpected ending, right? The the punchline is as often goes off at a tangent. oh god yeah and And because our ADHD brains work that way, I i think our brains are a little bit more wired to kind of go off on. I think sometimes I start ah start on a joke or I
00:15:02
Speaker
I start on something like that and I have no idea where it's going to go. It's like completely like head first. If you're a British and you're late diagnosed and you're as old as we are, you'll remember there was a Ronnie Corbett was a comedian back in the 70s. Still is actually. One of his things, I know, I know, bless him, bless him. But one of his skits was that he was sitting a chair in front of the audience and he'd tell these like shaky dog rambling stories.
00:15:43
Speaker
that felt like very much like ADHD storytelling, like he would start to tell a joke and then he'd go off on a side tangent and then you bring it back to the punchline. Right. He was brilliant. Yes, it was really clever. There's another thing, Martin and I talked about this a few months back, just out of nowhere, I suddenly thought the subject of Reginald Perrin came up um there was a there's a program in the 70s or 80s it was called the fall of rise of regional pairing and just i thought oh i watched an episode on uh youtube and i wrote to martin straight away said martin martin the fall of rise of regional pairing is ADHD
00:16:33
Speaker
pure ADHD. It's about a guy who can't cope with neurobeige kind of people and neurobeige kind of life. And he fakes her ah a fakes a yeah fixs his suicide by taking all his clothes off and jumping into the seat. And that's the intro to the program.
00:16:55
Speaker
I know. How dark is is that? Right. It does kind of make me think um of the yeah ah because ADHD people in it and and autistic people and and actually ah many people on the yeah diver under the neurodivergent umbrella,
00:17:19
Speaker
they feel out of place in in the world. and And they're kind of almost like kind of like and almost in that regional pairing characters, like his he he he doesn't understand the the normal people. and and And so therefore he kind of sort of that humor comes from him being annoyed at the normal world. And then his humor just kind of comes through. And it's like, you know, some people feel a bit uptight. Some people say, oh, take a chill pill. We at ADHD, we don't take a chill pill. We're a chill pill. We take a humor pill. You know, just like, you know, the world is just like a total chaos. But at least we can make fun of out of it. You know, and that's right.
Light-hearted Interruptions
00:18:05
Speaker
a coping mechanism for me, massively. Yeah, yeah I will definitely come on to coping mechanism. I did actually think, my dog now wants to go ah outside. ah Okay, your my dog's coming in, yours going out. Eddie, I am actually going to kind of let him outside. Okay. So you'll have to vamp them for like 10 seconds. Another doggy pause. I know, doggy pause. Doggy pause.
00:18:40
Speaker
ah Doggy pause. That was actually, you know, just by coincidence happened to be on the episode about humour. Doggy pause. Gets back. doy pausews You know what I want to do? ah can so Speaking of tangents and weird things, I'm going to share one one of the funniest stories, that um one of the fun that the one of the times that I've laughed with you the most, ah right i I was trying to think of that this, this and what was the funniest.
00:19:13
Speaker
moment that I can think of. oh called was ah It was a ah new, you'll remember remember this as who's us. Unfortunately, I remember everything. Here we go. I never forget anything. That's a problem. Decades and decades ago, we went to we went to Cuba.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yes. And we were catching a bus. So we'd bought our bus tickets. We were just waiting in the kind of in this settle kind of in this and this waiting area with seats. yeah ah and And there was a TV.
00:19:56
Speaker
Um up in the corner and we were just it was just set to a channel We were just watching it and there was this it was this cuban band playing playing music. Um, yeah and uh, And we were just watching that we were quite quite bored And then one of the other people went up to the tv Yeah, and switched it and switch and change the the the channels. And it was the same band, but from a different camera angle.
00:20:35
Speaker
And... Right. And... Cuban TV, yeah. We laughed... Yeah. For... ah I mean, we... We... We corpsed. We we died.
00:20:49
Speaker
Right. That the channel one was the band and channel two was the same band, but from a different um from a different can camera angle. Wow. And we corpsed and then the bus came. We laughed on the bus. We got on the bus laughing. We sat in the seat. We were still laughing. We were laughing. I don't know. I think um I did myself an internal injury that that day.
00:21:16
Speaker
i think i think we were with nandi and uh yo well we as well yeah there's four of us yes oh wow yes i remember that now oh god i i i i don't think i i've ever laughed too much i had almost forgotten that yeah i think looking back what probably happened right was that the TV was only tuned to one station, no matter what button you pressed, it was just one station. I think what must have happened is that when they went to change the channel, it just so happened
00:21:58
Speaker
yes that the camera angle changed at the same time right yeah it just looked like there's just some cuban hoping that maybe this would be the day when there's only when there's more than one freaking channel not controlled by the communist party right right oh god mean yeah and i think you're right it just happened to coincide with the change of angles Yeah.
Cultural Differences in Humor
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Funny. I think we're all tired as well. We've been traveling all day and it was hot. And yeah, we couldn't find anything. We were like, we were waiting a long time, I guess. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And then it kind of gets to actually that the other thing is like where how humor comes from storytelling mishaps and self-awareness that our
00:22:53
Speaker
We're talking about our ADHD stories. They often have this nonlinear rambling quality, which can be yeah endearing and funny. Endearing. On the flip side, some people, and it happens to me, especially in Italy, because Italian sense of humor is very different from Anglo-Saxon sense of humor. Our humor is a bit more, is a bit more, is a lot more ironic. Like English, even I can tell the difference between English and American humor even. American humor is ironic too. But English humor has layers and layers of irony, right?
00:23:34
Speaker
ah Sometimes even in English, took as an example of layers of irony, sometimes some sometimes something can be funny because it's it's someone trying to be ironic, but it's not ironic. Therefore, it is ironic and therefore you laugh.
00:23:49
Speaker
Mm hmm. Right. If that makes sense. Yeah, there is. and Yeah, actually, that that that is an interesting thing about ah different human, different countries. So I mean, I um obviously I live here in the in the states I've done for about 20 years or so. um So I, I understand American humor.
00:24:13
Speaker
quite well um and obviously I was brought up in Britain so I understand that quite well and they are very different. yeah um um we like to and um The Brits will entertain the opposite the the absurd a lot more, the the kind of weird um what ah stuff, whereas where American human life tends to be quite much more straightforward and easier.
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally get that. And I so i noticed that, especially if I, if I'm joking, and sometimes months or even years could pass, before I bump into an English person, you know, either at home, because they're a friend or someone in a family, and you automatically, you know, instinctively dive back into that old British cult way of yeah old British traditional humour in an instant. And it's really comforting and it's really stimulating as well. right it's like like It's like a comfort blanket.
00:25:26
Speaker
you know Like, so if I have a conversation in in an American bar with a bunch of friends, right, yeah it will tend to be ah about you'll go from topic to to topic. So it might be from politics to sport to to a TV show. But it's it's um and and then you and then you sprinkle jokes within that ah current topic.
00:25:50
Speaker
Whereas in Britain, in ah if I sit in a pub with my friends, literally we may not have it. We we might start off time but but with a topic, but then it will go into into just worlds that are just weird and random random and actually um I know that, you know, with my friends, it's it is almost like who can get the biggest laugh, right? So you're all trying to kind of like come up with something really funny, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're very self-deprecating. English humor, we're totally ripping the hell out of each other, right?
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah. And so you born, you grew up being really thick skinned, you know, because you have to be English have not easily, um, insult easily insulted. Whereas if I try that in Italy, you can, I get to travel and like like death stage I like What are you doing? You're insulting me. me and Yeah, that's happened.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, and then the the the other area where we're kind of quite good at is ah observational humour and unique perspectives because yes we do have our own as if said we need to have our own perspective um yeah and we and we do see the world in a slightly kind of different different Yeah, we're also fight time hypersensitive to, you know, we can reading rooms and like, you know, judging, you know, be sensitive to situations. So really, observational, hyper observation, which is like the, the you know, the, the, the, you know, the backbone of humor is observation.
00:27:52
Speaker
a backbone of of ah of comedy's observation. Yeah. Right. and it It does make me think, you know, like when we're kind of quite, we'll say stuff without without thinking. And sometimes it's and people laugh because because we're just saying what they were thinking anyway.
00:28:15
Speaker
Yes. Right. Yeah. And and they laugh because because we just pointed out something that they... Or we're just pointing out something that they wish they had been able to come up with. Well, yeah. you know Yeah.
00:28:32
Speaker
maybe to defuse a situation, right? I've got an example of that. There's it was a there someones talking about when they um they were lucky enough to share three hours at lunch with Robin Williams and they got up and it and it was said he said it was really funny and this guy's just unbelievable.
00:28:53
Speaker
um just a joy a total joy and then they got up and then this woman came up to them um that knew nobody knew um as did
Robin Williams: Humor and Depth
00:29:04
Speaker
neither did Robin Williams and she said ah sorry to bother you Mr Williams but um my my my partner's just gone into rehab for alcoholism can you offer me a new device and she was clearly you know uh but kind of like um really worried and uh scared for her husband and etc etc and he said you know he said you know there was a time when i thought a balanced diet was having a beer in both hands
00:29:37
Speaker
Right. Oh, dear. So, but only he can do that. And then um she looked at him a bit puzzled, it says here. Then he said, I used to think that God made alcohols so that I had a chance of having sex.
00:29:52
Speaker
at which point she fell about laughing and they spent over an hour together talking about the parallels of dependency with about 20 more shows interspersed um which was a painful topic for Robin Williams but he was in his way you know give just making light of a situation really really helped her in some way you know yeah you know, yes like, it's not just like a superficial thing, you know, a superficial level, oh, someone making fun of a serious situation. Actually, this is just another way of dealing with sometimes difficult subjects. Often, you know, comedians throughout the world have been sometimes the best people actually telling things how it is, you know, telling, you know, talking about difficult things through humor has been, you know, happened all the way through
00:30:48
Speaker
ah modern history, right? Yeah, yeah. um The next one I've got is misinterpreting situations, i.e. like social cue blunders. How? Yes. How? you yeah we I mean, like, so I was just watching a TikTok this morning and and Alexandra was saying how she put her yeah her her yoga pants on inside out and was like out and about.
00:31:19
Speaker
in the in the real world. So, you know, it's like these stupid dumbass things that we that we do turn into these funny little stories, right? They... they Yes. They... That last forever, you know. Right. I just, it was similar. I got dressed in a hurry one morning and then I started my commute up to London.
00:31:43
Speaker
And I remember at some point when I was trying to get dressed, I couldn't find a sock. I thought, oh, damn it, okay. So I went to the sock draw, got a new pair of socks out. Off I went, got on the train, got to London, got on the metro, standing on the inside the ah ma inside the yeah underground train, at which point the sock fell out of my trouser leg. The missing sock.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yes, your trousers gave birth. or It excreted a sock. It excreted, my trousers excreted a sock. It's like, loving that, you know.
00:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I think at the same time, that could only happen to me. but Clearly, I'm not only the only one, obviously. But I remember I came home from from school once and then I went upstairs into my bedroom, flopped on the bed and I fell asleep. So this was we about four o'clock. And then I woke up about an hour later.
00:32:48
Speaker
And I was thinking, oh, wow, I've slept. I said, I thought I'd slept through the night right and that I'd, that I'd woken up in the morning, weirdly still dressed in my school uniform. I was like, well, that's bizarre. And then I walked downstairs and my mum's in the kitchen cooking, did cooking like shepherd's pie or something. I'm like, why are we having shepherd's pie for breakfast?
00:33:15
Speaker
That's crazy. That's great. That's great. Love it. ah Okay. you know i ah Next one I've got which which we have touched on self deprecating humour and coping mechanisms. Right. It's a big one.
Humor as a Coping Mechanism
00:33:30
Speaker
It is a biggy. It's a biggy. It's a big pretty fat worm. Right.
00:33:36
Speaker
Because it kind of gets, I mean, for me as a coping, coping mechanism, it's, it's, it's a few things. And one of those things that is where is is's a reducing anxiety thing, you know, where if I can, if I can turn it into a joke or make it funny, then totally I feel less anxious in that, but in that situation. I don't know how, how many times humour has saved me, literally.
00:34:04
Speaker
Literally, ah right at the moment, actually, I'm going through a really difficult, challenging time at the moment with all kinds of things, but money and and jobs and you know um age discrimination, all kinds of crap that's going on at the moment. And I have to say, humor really gets me through it. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me through it.
00:34:31
Speaker
right i think like uh yeah it will be the last thing that goes from me i think and then after that i'll i'll just be like a blank nothing yeah you know what actually there'll be like spike miligan who has on his tombstone spike miligan on his tombstone is written see i told you i wasn't feeling very well
00:34:54
Speaker
oh i know you know what um we have a um uh we we have um a stand-up comic hopefully we'll be recording with her next week so so that'll be up in about two weeks or so our second stand-up comic as guest and that's gonna be and that's gonna be Hopefully. um Yeah. So that's going to be an an interesting chat about humor. But um ah I, what was it? She was on, I think I'll bring this up when she's on, but but she was talking about her tome stone, right? And I and i wrote them on ah comments. I said,
00:35:36
Speaker
and yeah um
00:35:41
Speaker
Wouldn't it be good if if if your tombstone didn't even have like any any dates or names? It it just says you're weird. And that that was it. So yeah your too you're standing in front of it and it's just like you.
00:36:05
Speaker
in the tombstone, going, you're weird. And that in itself is weird. And that would make me laugh. Anyone who was just walking through the graveyard and saw yours and it says, you're weird. If when you're dead, you're still trying to make connections. Yeah, you see.
00:36:24
Speaker
you know Yeah. Put up a blank. Have a picnic. You know, I was I was I was I was sketching my sketchbook once and I think it was my my wife was going possible.
00:36:41
Speaker
What is that you're drawing? I'll say, oh, I'm just designing my coffin. And it was a it was like a shut and it was like a a fat, short, fat and sharpy pen yeah those yeah sharpie pens. It was it was it was basically a a sharpie pen. And that that now that was going to be inside that.
00:37:06
Speaker
And in English they're called highlighter pens. Yeah. In not in English, in England, they're called highlighter pens. Yeah. funny You know what? I did want to tell you a story ah um about it being a coping mechanism. yeah So a bunch of years ago when I worked in the ad agency in London, we were at an awards ceremony, which is something that I did once in a while. We we we we went to to these big awards ceremonies in these big huge hotels with loads of agency people. They're all there. There's like hundreds of people in the audience.
00:37:43
Speaker
and they'll often have like acts. And and ah this particular one, they had a ven vague they had a a a hypnotist act. What's that famous hypnotist? Is it? um Yes. Oh no. McKenna. Paul McKenna, right? It was Paul McKenna, who's a famous British hypnotist.
00:38:12
Speaker
on, on TV a lot. So I was like, Ooh, it's Paul McGinn from the TV. Um, and, and he wanted people from the audience to, to come up and I went, Oh yes, I can't turn this down. I'm going out. Right.
The Hypnotized Performance
00:38:26
Speaker
Okay. I went up with a whole bunch of people.
00:38:30
Speaker
there must have been 50 of us on the stage. And then we all had to do these like exercises that he was getting all of us to do. And then there was someone I noticed in the front row who was picking people out who I guess she thought that they were, you know, and and I was one of the ones picked out.
00:38:49
Speaker
So there's about five of us on on the on the stage. And then Stuart, and then Paul McKenna does his doeszz this thing where he kind of puts us into a hypnotic state, right? I'm sitting there, I'm doing all the stuff, I'm really trying to take it seriously. um But I'm kind of going, yeah, I'm not hypnotized, I'm not,
00:39:11
Speaker
I'm not doing anything. And then he he calls on someone and and and and he he he gets them to behave like various things and they're doing their stuff. And then he calls on me to go up to the front of the stage and I'm out crap. I'm not hit hypnotized.
00:39:29
Speaker
And then he says, all right. and so you if you hate You're thinking, you're thinking at that point, people pleasing. Do I, do I make his, do I keep him happy by pretending that you're hypnotized? Yeah. No, because, right. Because now I'm in front of a huge audience, right? right huge audience and I'm not like oh god I have to be I have to just go through this I have to kind of i be entertaining right I have to be funny I have to I have to kind of perform because I because because because you know and and then i think he he asked me something to kind of like explain that someone on each table isn't isn't
00:40:14
Speaker
alien. So if someone on it on each of these tables is an alien, and you have got to try and warn everyone, that one of those people is, is is an alien. And I'm like, Oh, Christ, okay, right. Okay. And then I'm like, I so spend like two or three minutes like yelling down the mic about, about look at that person, there look lu look at they're weird, they're weird, they just don't belong. And you know, they don't belong. So you went with it totally.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah, I went with it. People were laughing. I was like, OK, you know, it looked like I guess everyone thought I was hypnotized inside. I was like, oh, God, this is terrible. is the Oh, and, you know, and then after the whole show, um we were filing off this the stage and then the woman who was at the front who picked me out. Yeah.
00:41:09
Speaker
Um, she was there as well. She shook my hand and then Paul, mc um, and oh yeah. And, and that's, and as she shook my, my hand, she said, thank you. Really? and And I think she knew, she knew, she knew, she knew it. Right.
00:41:28
Speaker
right Or maybe, maybe just by some freakish coincidence, there really was an alien on that table.
00:41:41
Speaker
just about ab with you with your ADHD kind of hypersensitivity go ah yeah is it is at least a chance that he's an alien. yeah yeah yeah oh well I think I've bet a few aliens in the advertising world in the past.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, right. Then have you got any, well, you know what, I mean, that's the thing, right? So, um, uh, I'll be anywhere near close to sort of, or to wrapping up, or do you have stuff? I've got a couple of biggies. Yeah. Go on. Hit them. Right. Hit me. I've got, I got to add to the list, deflecting compliments.
00:42:22
Speaker
Okay. When I use humor, if I, if someone makes a compliment, I'd make a big joke out of it because I, I i never accept a compliment, which is a big one on the ADHD ticking list, right? Yeah. And someone says, well, Paul, you're, you're a fucking hell. You're such an amazing artist. My first thing to is is to make a big joke out of it. Right. So it's like a deflecting thing.
00:42:50
Speaker
I get one which is um I don't know what you how you cope with this situation is big because I'm English and in in the States I'll get someone will say I love your accent. Right. Right. And then which is a sort of a compliment right to a thing that I have no real I control over it. It isn't a skill that I've learned. It's just like... Right. And then I have to say... Even if you have only to an excellent French accent. ah Maybe. um But I will... I'm not entirely sure I could. But um but i will but I will say something like, ah especially if it works better in the States, I'll say, well, I don't have an accent. You do. Yeah.
00:43:41
Speaker
which is a bit of a nod to the fact that it was an originally an English colony. and and Yes. It's also a nod. It's even more specific than that. That's how arrogant we are in the south in the south of England. If someone has a northern accent or a Cornwall accent or something, weo we always say they have an accent. If you come from the south, we say we don't have an accent. It's like, what are you talking about? How can you not have an accent?
00:44:12
Speaker
yeah wow okay yeah but a shot ah've i've got another one i've got another um i used to use a comedy well humor to get myself out of fights at school oh yeah um deflecting total deflecting and it's like you know god yeah it's so what was told yeah It was like school was like, it was so violent. And he used to get like this like kid. It was like twice the size of I was, as I was with a reputation, right? Reputation in ah say reputation in capital letters with exclamation mark for someone who just liked to punch people, including teachers, right?
00:44:58
Speaker
One of which was a guy called Keith Beam. All right. Keith Beam. Big bloke. Shout out to Keith Beam if you there think if you're in. Shout out to Keith Beam. even he if and his Even his name sounds big, right? Because he was. yeah Keith Beam. He's not going to be skinny, is he? Imagine Keith Beam being skinny. No, he wasn't. He was a big lad.
00:45:22
Speaker
it you If he came up to you, you know it wasn't randomly. He's like picking a fight. and His objective was to punch a hole in your face. yeah And so I learned at some point that I could get out of 99.9% of fights by making a joke out of it.
00:45:44
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I think that's quite a common thing, like, you know, because there are a lot of neurodivergent stand ups, you know, stand up comics and and and you hear that story quite a lot where, you know, where it's a coping mechanism for, you know, for when when they're at school.
00:46:07
Speaker
Yeah. Talking of being inappropriate, one so this is another shout out to my friend, John Glenn Denning, who this guy came up to me as a bully. I can't remember his name. It wasn't Keith Beam, it was someone else. um Grant Jennings, it just came out of nowhere. Grant Jennings, you piece of crap. but wow Anyway, he tried to pick a fight with me and I wasn't having it. I tried and I tried with all my strength.
00:46:36
Speaker
I wasn't throwing out worms like a crazy man. He wasn't biting any of them. Right. Wormshower. Wormshower. Right. And he just wanted to fight. So my mate, John Glenn Denning, thank you, John, he came up and said, don't pick on him. He's only a little if you want to have a fight. Have a fight with me. Right. Bless him. I need a hero. I need a hero.
00:47:01
Speaker
ofhe ah da Body Tyler. um I bumped into her once anyway. Did you? Yeah. Okay. Wow. Underworld. Underworld? Yes. Yeah. Well, ah before the band Underworld, they were called Frur. And I went to one of the very few Frur gigs that they did.
00:47:26
Speaker
And I managed to sneak backstage, saying that I was a i was a rip reporter for a school magazine or something. And I actually got back backstage and met the band. And and Bonnie Tatala was there.
00:47:43
Speaker
wow there okay okay anyway so anyway there's a climax to the story because and on the one hand i'm saying thanks john for doing that standing in they arranged to have a fight after school uh i have my shame though so i'm also saying sorry john i didn't even bother to turn up for the fight that so my mate was standing in for You should have been there, like holding the pistols or so so something. Exactly. No, I wanted to get home because there was a like a feature length wacky races on something on the TV. Very important. that why Why didn't you say before, Paul? bri That now makes total sense.
00:48:25
Speaker
ah so Thanks, John. And sorry, John, at the same time. All right. Yeah. I think that's pretty much it. Oh, it's another one, a little one. It's just a simple one. Just, it's a lot of things. Just don't, basically a self-esteem thing. I use humor because it's like me saying, don't take me seriously. Right? So it's just a self-esteem problem. Don't take me serious. Make a joke out of everything. And some people have like come up to me and said, Paul,
00:48:55
Speaker
what are you making a joke out of that for? And it's yeah just me just like don't take me seriously you know just take me accept me as a fool and I'll be fine you know carry on yeah yeah yeah that's it that's the end of all right so of' got the in wrapping up Does ADHD make you funnier?
Conclusion: ADHD and Humor's Unique Outlook
00:49:19
Speaker
I think it it does feel like, so you know, while not everyone with ADHD is necessarily funnier, funnier, but the way the ADHD mind works can lead to a unique kind of like look on life and and a unique.
00:49:36
Speaker
and unique yeah sense of of of humor. you know And that we do use it as a as i ah as a coping mechanism. But as we said, it's a way to connect with with others as well. So yeah um if if if you metal make a weird, obscure joke and someone else laughs, they're probably... what you know Yeah, exactly. probably Probably one of you.
00:50:06
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, exactly. and umm And usually it's a good thing. I i think, um you know, it's like, I've got a lot, I've got here, there's a lot of crap going on in politics all over the world, you know, not just in the States, pretty much anyway, it's just crap. There's one, there's only, there's only one person, I think, it makes any sense of it to me at the moment, is a comedian called Jonathan Pie. And he's just freaking brilliant.
00:50:35
Speaker
It just sums it up for me every single time. It's making more sense of like world politics at the moment than any other political journalist I've ever heard. And he's brilliant. So if you could check him out, Jonathan Pye, brilliant. Totally brilliant.
00:50:53
Speaker
Cool. All right. So let's jump in the car and we're going to head back to the mayor's office for the quiz part, I think. For the quiz. For the Let's jump in the car, take off of our Wellington boots, scrape the mud off. Well, remember to take the handbrake off first.
00:51:14
Speaker
otherwise we're not going anywhere. No, no. Good idea. And we'll start the engine as as well. Here we go. All right. Let's go.
00:51:26
Speaker
um oh so reassuring that engine sound lovely chunky chunky chunky i think they they they're talking about because you know electric cars they're just they're too silent they're trying to find a ah kind of a generic noise that everyone compared to their cars to make them safer so people can hear them coming They should put our engine noise in all the new cars, and electric cars. Yeah. Yeah. Be safer. All right. So so you have a, you have a quiz, right? I've got a quiz, Martin, about clowns. All right. All right. Let's jump straight in. And just jump straight in with our huge oversized shoes. Yes. So as usual, Martin, it's a multiple choice.
00:52:15
Speaker
OK. You know, because I like to make things easier for you, Martin. Lovely. To a certain extent. I also like to make things difficult. Depends on my mood. OK, so the fear of clowns, Martin. Do you know what the there's a fear of clowns? The phobia. Do you know what it's called by any chance? I've got a list of four things. OK, is it?
00:52:38
Speaker
Yeah. Uh. Chlorophobia. It's the one. Okay. Two. Is it folophobia? Alright. It's three. Fallophobia. Jesus, that close. Or four. Jockophobia.
00:52:58
Speaker
Jockophobia. Alright. I'm gonna. ah Jocko. Jocko. Jock. Jocko. I feel like one of so clowns, like none of those really kind of like seem to. It's not a trick question. It is definitely one of them.
00:53:19
Speaker
So I'm going to go with a, okay. So two are fairly similar. So that feels like I should sit in that, in that realm. So I'm going to go phala phala phobia. No, but it's number one. Cooler phobia. Oh Jesus. C O U L L R O phobia. Cooler phobia. Down one. Down one.
00:53:48
Speaker
Martin, there's an annual UK clown service, OK, to honour deceased clowns. ah Excuse me, what? A there's an annual service in the UK to honour deceased clowns. OK. This existed since 1946.
00:54:06
Speaker
when the father of clowning, Joseph Grimaldi, was first honoured. But where do they meet, Martin? That's the question. Where do they meet, these clowns? Where does a clown meet? To eat deceased clowns. One, yeah Royal Albert Hall in London. Holy Trinity shirt Church in London. OK. Comedy store in Leicester Square.
00:54:36
Speaker
in London, Westminster Abbey in London. All right. So you've got you've got. Basically, we've got three big important places and then one kind of like very comedy place. So I'm going to take out the the comedy places because that because I almost feel like I'd go with the most absurd.
00:55:05
Speaker
Right. um
00:55:09
Speaker
I'm going to go with, but I feel like Westminster Hall, Westminster, whatever it was, feels like it's hard to to book. It'd be hard to book. All the coins dying randomly. Yeah. And the ah so i ninety years I think it's going to be I think I think it's going to be the al Albert Hall because it's good because you can book it. No, it's Holy Trinity. Oh, Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity Church. I'm fucking ass.
00:55:50
Speaker
Yeah. But, okay, so next question, this this thing that they they meet up, okay, they have some rules, right? Okay. roles One of which is true and the other three are made up, Martin. Okay. Okay. so have to You have to, okay. No squirty flowers. Okay. Okay. Or two, don't mention Joaquin Phoenix.
00:56:21
Speaker
What? Okay. Well, ah the Joker clown. um Three, no photography. Or four, Martin, no normal sized shoes.
00:56:38
Speaker
These are excellent. I would love all, all, all of these. um ah I mean, they all seem to make perfect complete sense, you know the no, no, no squirty flowers. I almost feel like one of the rules would be um
00:57:00
Speaker
No. What's the third third one? No, no, photograph no, no photography because it just seems. I've never seen a photograph with a bunch of clowns all together. It would make sense to me because it would just be a funny photo. I'd love that gig. Official photographer. There we go. I know because I don't know if I said this, but ah when I worked at the advertising agency, I came up with an advert with them that had Chinese.
00:57:38
Speaker
it was a It was a Chinese l Elvis. Right. And then we were going to audition 20 Chinese Elvis. We were going to audition. So we had it planned out. that All these Chinese Elvises, we were all going to turn up at our ad agency and we were going to interview them.
00:58:00
Speaker
And then the ah client um ah ah backtracked out of the ah the idea. but i was but But for about two weeks, I was so excited because we were going to have like 20 Asian... might be and make busy climb was office Maybe the client get caught in a trap.
00:58:22
Speaker
to have yeah Anyway, so my answer is no photography. Excellent answer and and totally accurate. I pulled one back. It had to be the most normal of the answers because you know clowns, it's got no freaking sense of humor. Okay. pride All right. the car ah When Joseph Grimaldi died, as aforementioned clown, okay, Joseph Grimaldi,
00:58:50
Speaker
the most famous of English accounts, the father of clowning, they call him. okay He died under quite unusual circumstances, Martin. dear okay ah To the point where the coroner described the cause of his death in quite an unusual way. ohlimy here we go You have to choose between one of these four.
00:59:15
Speaker
all right A random one, a random bolt hit him in the carotid artery. No, carolid, the carolid artery. A random bolt hit him in the carolid artery. Okay. Right. Two, his body bloated and the tissues slid off.
00:59:38
Speaker
Apple what is it with you and yours medically medically? Yes, I know Okay I've got a certain attraction for this kind of thing three three killed by the visitation of God Killed by God. Okay. Yes or four he had inhaled an entire sausage and All right. Well, right. um I'm okay. So the box, all of these to see, I'll give you a clue. All of these are actually got did some of the research. All of these actually real causes of death recorded in coroner's notes. But only one of them is actually true of Joseph Grimaldi. Okay.
01:00:30
Speaker
I say for a laugh with his mates. What is the comedy edition? It's the humor edition of of our podcast. for So you might as well do it for a laugh. He was at a barbecue curl out and they were cooking sausages and he was like hey hey lads check this out check it out and then he inhaled the sausage and died right he inhaled the sausage i love that i would have gone for that too but it's unfortunately not accurate oh all right it was killed by a visitation of god martin oh come on yeah come on killed by a visitation of god
01:01:19
Speaker
I mean, what kind of coroner was that? I think the coroner was a clown. I think he he was he was having having a laugh, must have to be honest. I've been a laugh. But someone did actually his true coroner's i in report. Wow. Someone had died inhaling an entire, actually I changed, I swapped sausage for, um, um, for, uh, for a Woost sausage. It was actually a German sausage, Woost.
01:01:52
Speaker
busel All right. Is that it? I'll be there. That's it. All right. One out of four. Awesome. One out of four. Now then, you can do the, yeah default do I it was pathetic.
01:02:06
Speaker
and I'm down to like 2% battery. So while I go and get my battery charger, which is only just over there, you can say that your feedback to us is blah, blah, blah, blah. And you can do that.
01:02:22
Speaker
oh i can't do that i do that okay so uh your feedback is vital to us and oh hang on let's get it up let's get it up wow really not doing this very well at all hang on here we go so yeah your feedback is really vital to us and marty's back And because it is your vital is absolutely ah really vital to us. It gives us a real it's a real pleasure for us to hear you like there was a was it Shelly wrote yeah this week or last week said that how much she looks forward to her Tuesdays when coincidentally is when our ah our podcast is uploaded. Yeah, she says yay. I loved Tuesday. Yeah, yay.
01:03:10
Speaker
Right. And Alexandra um commented on the last week's the episode 58 with Alice on it. She said it was a great one for autism. I could i could i could relate.
01:03:27
Speaker
yes there we go i like that i like that when we have people on and then yes people can find something in their story and can relate to it and yeah exactly yeah i've just realized actually i said that before we've had two uh next week when we have uh another stand-up comedian that she'll be the second she won't she'll be the third stand-up comedian because Jonathan my friend Jonathan hello Jonathan Three weeks ago, he did his first stand-up gig in Copenhagen. Wow. So you've had three stand-ups. Wow, who would have thought that? That's crazy. Alright, so that just leaves us to say that ADHDville is delivered fresh every Tuesday date to all purveyors of fine podcasts. Please subscribe to the Pod and rate us Most Funny.
01:04:21
Speaker
and feel free to correspond at will in the comments but wait there's more if you wish to see our you can also pick up a quill and email us at adhdville at gmail dot.com but in the meantime Be fucking kind to yourself. And sons of the hounds, come hither and get the flesh. There we go. Oh, lovely. Lovely. There, says the mayor. That's that.