Yep, all these phrases are pretty much the same. They are used to check if the other person is serious or not.

Funnily enough, the equivalent in English for the first is “are you pulling my leg?”, the second would have a totally different meaning for people in Spain (or not mean anything) and the third would no make sense to other Spanish speaking ears.

Sometimes, we can give them the intonation of affirmative statements.

-Hola Mati, te quería avisar que perdimos el vuelo así que nos vamos a tener que quedar una semana más en Río.
-¿Me estás cargando? / Me estás cargando. ¿Cómo que perdieron el vuelo?

Good luck using these phrases,

Until next time,

Hppy Spanish learning,

You might also want to read these articles:

• Know thyself
  Take this questionnaire to know yourself better as a learner and leverage your learning.
• Redefining what a lesson is
  It’s time for a full disclaimer. What does learning a language look like in 2025?
• ATR | A Todo Ritmo
  Learn what ATR means and when/how it’s used in Argentina.
• Self-talk
  In this article, we talk about the convenience of self-talk in our Spanish practices.
• Little wonders
  This post will give you some short phrases to react naturally in conversations.
• Expressions with DE
  Let’s dive in into a few everyday expressions with DE, shall we?