Why is it that some people can get away with rhetoric speech, and others can't? I don't joke too often, but when I do, people usually take me seriously. Either it's bad timing, or I simply can't speak in a way that makes the joke obvious. And sometimes it's the other way around. When people ask me a question, I takes a second for me to figure out if it was rhetorical or not; the way they say it. And usually I'm wrong in which I think it is.

Edit: A prime example can be found here.

A few years ago, I used to take "What's up" literally, until I realized that it simply meant "hi."

Modern slang can be so confusing.