Witzelsucht is a rare neurological disorder in which people cannot control when they pun or what they say! The word comes from the German words “witzeln”, which means joke and “sucht”, which means addiction. It is characterized by symptoms such as telling inappropriate jokes and stories in social situations. The strangest part of the disorder is that while people can’t stop making jokes, they are completely immune to any humor either they or anyone around them says!
They also suffer from hypersexuality, which causes them to constantly make inappropriate sexual comments in awkward times or situations. What causes this? It is most commonly seen in people who have suffered damage to their frontal lobe, more specifically the right frontal lobe, or have a tumor in the area. The frontal lobe is chiefly in charge of controlling a persons reward, attention, short-term memory, and motivation.
If this area is damaged it could lead to being unaware of social norms, which would be understandable for this strange disorder!