Okay I have to say, when I first heard Essek say that he doesn’t really like soup I immediately thought that Matt somehow forgot that he said Essek’s favourite food was soup. And then Veth did the insight check and Matt said Essek was making a joke, I was like,,,, that didn’t even sound sarcastic. Him joking didn’t even register as a possibility to me before Matt said it because it just very much DID NOT sound like a joke.
Here’s the thing though. This is probably one of the first times he’s attempting to make a joke, in decades, if not EVER. The Nein are his first group of friends. I think it’s safe to assume that in his adult life, Essek has never been in a position where he made jokes or had people make jokes around him until he met the Nein.
The only other person that he maybe would have joked around when he was younger would be Verin. And we really don’t know anything about their relationship aside from Essek saying that he trusts Verin. That’s it. We don’t even know if they’re still in touch or on speaking terms. The fact that you trust someone doesn’t mean that you have a good relationship with them after all. So if Essek ever did joke it’s very likely that it was not in the last couple of decades.
Anyway, TLDR: The man just legit does not know how to make a joke or maybe even just what qualifies as a joke. But he sees how the Nein interact with each other and constantly make jokes even under the most dire circumstances and he’s making such an effort to be part of that dynamic because for once in his life he has friends. And he’s learning what that means. After 120 years of solitude.
Of course he doesn’t fucking know how to make a joke that’s actually funny. Of course he barely knows what a joke is. So he just goes “ah yes I’ve told them before that I really like soup so if I say I’m not a big fan they’ll know that that’s very untrue and that’s funny!.. right?” And I find that extremely endearing.
