Sense(s) of Humour

[SleepyWitch]

Lost in translation


The Brits often assume that Germans have no sense of humour. In truth, writes comedian Stewart Lee, it's a language problem. The peculiarities of German sentence construction simply rule out the lazy set-ups that British comics rely on ...

Tuesday May 23, 2006
The Guardian

German television presenter Harald Schmidt is dressed in a Bobsled athlete costume during a TV show. Photograph: Joerg Carstensen/EPA
German television presenter Harald Schmidt is dressed in a bobsled costume during a TV show. Photograph: Joerg Carstensen/EPA

In 1873, the British scholar and traveller Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain visited Japan. He recorded his views of the nation's music in his subsequent book, Japanese Things: Being Notes On Various Subjects Connected With Japan. "Music," he wrote, "if that beautiful word must be allowed to fall so low as to denote the strummings and squealings of Orientals, is supposed to have existed in Japan since mythological times ... but (its) effect is not to soothe, but to exasperate beyond all endurance the European breast."

Article continues
Today this view seems shameful; we can see that it was not, as Chamberlain assumed, that Japan had no musical ability, but that it had no musical tradition that a Victorian professor could recognise. The Japanese musical vocabulary was simply utterly alien to him.

Similarly, a commonly held contemporary British view is that the Germans have no sense of humour. But can this be possible? Can there genuinely be a nation incapable of laughter, or is it just that the German language of laughter differs so greatly from our own, that it appears non-existent?
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read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1780906,00.html


Lote asked me to teach him the art of German humour.

What's your country's typical sense of humour like? does it differ a lo from that in other countries? What kinds of things do people find funny? Do you have jokes about particular groups of people?

[DickZ]

...What's your country's typical sense of humour like? does it differ a lo from that in other countries? What kinds of things do people find funny? Do you have jokes about particular groups of people?
I doubt that anybody could put a single label on the United States' sense of humor. Maybe it's because the United States is comprised of people from all different lands, or maybe it's simply because a single label couldn't be put on any country, regardless of its composition.

[TheFifthElement]

I doubt that anybody could put a single label on the United States' sense of humor. Maybe it's because the United States is comprised of people from all different lands, or maybe it's simply because a single label couldn't be put on any country, regardless of its composition.


But it is true that the Germans have no sense of humour, and try getting a poolside deckchair when you're on holiday, phew!

Jus' kiddin Sleepy ;)

[SleepyWitch]

But it is true that the Germans have no sense of humour, and try getting a poolside deckchair when you're on holiday, phew!

Jus' kiddin Sleepy ;)
I know :) hey, those are ASBO white trash uncultured lower middle class Germans. you can joke about them all you want... except that it's not politically correct to call them all the things I said :D

[SleepyWitch]

I doubt that anybody could put a single label on the United States' sense of humor. Maybe it's because the United States is comprised of people from all different lands, or maybe it's simply because a single label couldn't be put on any country, regardless of its composition.

hey, I totally agree Dick. but maybe there are some stereotypes about the American sense of humour? The Brits often say that Americans don't understand irony. But Virgil (another member here) has never had any trouble understanding my extremely subtle and hardly perceptible irony :D

[Sweets America]

hey, I totally agree Dick. but maybe there are some stereotypes about the American sense of humour? The Brits often say that Americans don't understand irony. But Virgil (another member here) has never had any trouble understanding my extremely subtle and hardly imperceptible irony :D

OK, if someone had told me that before, maybe I wouldn't have had as much problems with my ex boyfriend. ;) :(

[TheFifthElement]

I know :) hey, those are ASBO white trash uncultured lower middle class Germans. you can joke about them all you want... except that it's not politically correct to call them all the things I said :D

Aah, they're the one's having a fist fight with the pasty skinhead Brits in their union jack shorts and Manchester United t-shirts, and their girlfriends with the Burberry bikini's, sipping Lambrini with their egg n' chips at 9:30 in the morning.

[AuntShecky]

about the American sense of humor. Russell Baker is an expert on this, and the following opinion is not necessarily his:

the previous posters -- Dick Z etc., are eminently correct in stating that many cultures "blend" in the U.S.--This is especially true in New York City. (For proof, just take a look at the wording of the headlines in the two New York tabloids.)

the Jewish/Yiddish sense of humor is unparallelled. We think of it evolving from the Borscht Belt in the Catskills, but it's everywhere in this country. Most if not all of the great comedians have emerged from this
heritage.

The vaunted Irish sense of humor is true, begorra! Part of
it comes from the blarney (the gift o' the gab) and sure, the wit, don't cha know. Also as a group of people few have "suffered" as much as the Irish, except the Jewish folks, known so well for their sense of humor (see above.)

Likewise the African Americans: their humor (exemplified by comedians as divergent as Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, the late great Richard Pryor and the wonderful
Wanda Sykes) partly stems from social consciousness but also for the same reasons for the sense of humor of the Irish and the Jews (see above.)

Also, we have a rural tradition in our humor. I don't mean the hayseed-y stuff that was on "Hee Haw"-- I mean the really good insight into human nature, human foibles begun by Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln. If you enjoy the midwest wit of Jean Shepherd and Garrison Keillor, they both come from this rural tradition.

Not to mention the "sophisticated" repartee of the Algonquin wits, continued for a while by the late Jack Paar
and Dick Cavett, rare these days since we Americans seem to have lost our sense of irony (as a previous poster astutely mentioned.) Recognizing irony is a mark of an learned person (although you don't necessarily need formal schooling to be learned, you get me?)

Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, and think about this one --George Carlin, even though he's a New York boy -- combined elements of both the midwestern rural and the sophisticate -- which proves the point, perhaps that American humor is indeed a melting pot.

(And if you're melting your "pot", you're not doing it right!
I mean, so I've heard. . . .)

[Niamh]

I wouldnt even know where to start with discribing Irish Humour!:p

[Lote-Tree]

But it is true that the Germans have no sense of humour, and try getting a poolside deckchair when you're on holiday, phew!


Supreme Being you got in there first! :D

[Taliesin]

We Estonians have our sense of humour surgically removed after we are born.

[LadyW]

But it is true that the Germans have no sense of humour, and try getting a poolside deckchair when you're on holiday, phew!

I travelled to Italy this year, Calabria. The resort was like a German Butlins to be perfectly honest, haha. I had the same problem with the sunbeds... My dad walked down to the pool in the morning to put our towels down for after breakfast and some crazy woman who happened to be German literally threw a towel over his head and dived on the bed for dear life. Quite funny really...
Now donot mistake me here, I am not criticizing every single person in Germany; I have a few friends over there myself. But generally speaking the German people in the resort were so rude - pushing in front when in a queue rather violently in some cases too.

[AimusSage]

Martian humour is somewhat difficult to understand for humans. It took me a while. I needed to have surgery first. You see, even though it is not physical in nature, you just can't appreciate it with less than 6 ears. That's the bare minimum, 10 or more ears is highly recommended.

[Nossa]

I wouldnt even know where to start with discribing Irish Humour!:p

One of my friends believe that Irish people are the funniest people on the planet :D

As for us, I think we're satirical, and we make jokes even in our worst conditions (that's why jokes are in a high rate now in Egypt :lol:)

[SleepyWitch]

We Estonians have our sense of humour surgically removed after we are born.

the operation must have gone wrong with you and my Estonian 'real life' friend Helje :D
why do you do this? because Estonian humour is so funny it's a danger to the public?

[SleepyWitch]

I travelled to Italy this year, Calabria. The resort was like a German Butlins to be perfectly honest, haha. I had the same problem with the sunbeds... My dad walked down to the pool in the morning to put our towels down for after breakfast and some crazy woman who happened to be German literally threw a towel over his head and dived on the bed for dear life. Quite funny really...
Now donot mistake me here, I am not criticizing every single person in Germany; I have a few friends over there myself. But generally speaking the German people in the resort were so rude - pushing in front when in a queue rather violently in some cases too.

yeah, as I said, those are lower middle class Germans (or if they happen to be well off, they still have the mentality of lower middle class). I suppose they can be quite a pain. I've never been to any of these resorts myself. Is it worth going there just to watch the fight for the deck chairs?

[stlukesguild]

...a commonly held contemporary British view is that the Germans have no sense of humour.

Sounds like nonsense to me. Two of the funniest books I have read were Gunter Grass' Tin Drum and Friederich Durrenmatt's The Physicists. Herbert Rosendorfer's Letters Back to Ancient China was also quite humorous, and Heinrich Heine, Kafka, and any number of German writers (and yes, I know Kafka was Czech... but he wrote in German) produced works with humor ranging from broad farce, to the absurd.

[LadyW]

yeah, as I said, those are lower middle class Germans (or if they happen to be well off, they still have the mentality of lower middle class). I suppose they can be quite a pain. I've never been to any of these resorts myself. Is it worth going there just to watch the fight for the deck chairs?

I would highly recommend it :D
Poke tourists with sticks and watch them scrap

[Basil]

We Estonians have our sense of humour surgically removed after we are born.
Along with your vestigial tails?

[Lily Adams]

I love all kinds of humor. It doesn't matter. But my favorite jokes involve puns. I'm American. I guess we like fart jokes, apparently.

[LadyW]

I love all kinds of humor. It doesn't matter. But my favorite jokes involve puns. I'm American. I guess we like fart jokes, apparently.
Hahahaha fart jokes...
I have a really great sense of humour; I laugh alot. Most of the time I laugh at the precise moment when I should not laugh as it is when things are most funny.
I love sarcasm, wit and also random bursts of strange words/sentences :lol:

[Sweets America]

Hahahaha fart jokes...
I have a really great sense of humour; I laugh alot. Most of the time I laugh at the precise moment when I should not laugh as it is when things are most funny.
I love sarcasm, wit and also random bursts of strange words/sentences :lol:

Ah, I've been good at sarcasm these past days. :D

[Lily Adams]

Hahahaha fart jokes...
I have a really great sense of humour; I laugh alot. Most of the time I laugh at the precise moment when I should not laugh as it is when things are most funny.
I love sarcasm, wit and also random bursts of strange words/sentences :lol:

:D I like disgusting humor when smart people use it. :D Then it's really hilarious.

Sarcasm! How could I forget?

I love puns, disgusting humor, deadpan/dry humor, nonsensical humor...:D.

I like satire and irony A LOT, too. <3 Even though they're not strictly humorous.

Anything!

[Shea]

I hated going to see movies with my best friend in high school. He had the strangest, most unpredictable sense of humor, that would often ruin the mood of the movie for me. For example, when Gandalf falls in Moria, he couldn't stop laughing! I was so angry because it kept me from feeling sad for Frodo.

[Pensive]

What's your country's typical sense of humour like?
Varies as Pakistan contains many different cultures. I believe each has a sense of humour different from the other.


does it differ a lo from that in other countries? What kinds of things do people find funny? Do you have jokes about particular groups of people?

By my own observation, amongst people of Karachi, I have noticed sarcasm to be very popular. In Punjabis, Sikh (stereo-typically about their simplicity) jokes as well as jokes about a particular group Sheikhs (stereo-typically those who don't easily spend money) are very popular. Oh and about Pathans too who are taken as people who while speaking in Urdu, confuse genders a lot. Calls she a he and vice-versa. And some people like me joke in a way that when we are trying to be funny, mostly people think we are serious and when we are trying to be serious, they think we are funny. Probably we have God-like sense of homour.

[Silvia]

In Italy we have a tradition as far as jokes about "carabinieri" (policemen) are concerned!...has any of you ever heard about them? They don't usually make me laugh, but, you know, they belong to Italian culture just as pizza does!

[Pensive]

In Italy we have a tradition as far as jokes about "carabinieri" (policemen) are concerned!...has any of you ever heard about them? They don't usually make me laugh, but, you know, they belong to Italian culture just as pizza does!

Actually, we have police-men jokes here too, related to corruption. Now I wonder what nature do these Italian police-men jokes have. :nod:

[Taliesin]

the operation must have gone wrong with you and my Estonian 'real life' friend Helje :D
why do you do this? because Estonian humour is so funny it's a danger to the public?

Well, you know Lovecraft?
Where do you think he got his inspiration

[Silvia]

Actually, we have police-men jokes here too, related to corruption. Now I wonder what nature do these Italian police-men jokes have.
Well, I think the kind of jokes we make here in Italy are more perky...they're just meant to pull policemen's leg and to make fun of their "sagacity", here you have an example (in these jokes they always speak with a southern accent!):
In the police-car:
-corporal, tell me wehther the position indicators work!
-now they do, now they don't. Now they do, now they don't..

I know..they are not that funny, but anyway:lol: :lol: :lol:

[kilted exile]

The Scottish sense of humour basically involves ripping the piss out of people (or as my Tech Studies teacher would say "Are you extracting the urine out of me son?"

Basically the more I make fun of people the more I like them.

[SleepyWitch]

Basically the more I make fun of people the more I like them.
I'm the same :) you can tell I really like someone when I try to annoy and tease them all the time and make ironic comments ... (excluding Virgil of course, I only try to annoy him for the fun of it :D ;) )

[Pensive]

Basically the more I make fun of people the more I like them.


I'm the same :) you can tell I really like someone when I try to annoy and tease them all the time and make ironic comments ... (excluding Virgil of course, I only try to annoy him for the fun of it :D ;) )

:lol:

Jeez, human psychology. You guys are scaring me now, making me think I probably would be better off left disliked. :p

[kilted exile]

:lol:

Jeez, human psychology. You guys are scaring me now, making me think I probably would be better off left disliked. :p

Na, its all good fun. eg instead of saying "Hi {insert name here}" I might change the name for any number of things like [expletive deleted] for brains. Or instead of commenting on a haircut might say "you mean you actually sat there and let someone do that?" It is all good natured stuff

[Idril]

I'm the same :) you can tell I really like someone when I try to annoy and tease them all the time and make ironic comments ... (excluding Virgil of course, I only try to annoy him for the fun of it :D ;) )

I'm very much the same way. Teasing is almost a form of intimacy, a trust that you establish over time or a way of connecting in the beginning. You trust that the other person will take it in the spirit in which it's intended and they trust that you're only kidding and that you understand that there are limits and boundries, that you'll never say anything that is truely hurtful. I never become close with someone I can't tease, I'll be friendly and respectful but I'll never consider them an intimate friend.

I get my sense of humour from my dad, sarcastic, dark, dry at times and other times ridiculously silly and generally inappropriate, meaning I can find humour in anything no matter how sacred or sad. Dad shared that sense of humour with all his children, much to my mother's chagrin who is nothing if not proper and respectful in everything she does. That poor woman. :lol:

[Shalot]

Basically the more I make fun of people the more I like them.

so there was this guy and he used to come up to me and talk to me in this real high-pitched girlish voice (because I have a very strange girlish little voice you see). So does that mean that he liked me? Because at first I didn't get it. I thought it was some kind of insult like he was making fun of the way I talked. That could have been it as well, so in general, people run the risk of inadvertantly pissing someone off if they don't get the joke.
Anyway, I called him on it once and he said, "I love the way you talk..."
Of course, he could have been embarrassed for being a jerk and he didn't expect me to call him on it, or I could have been the jerk for not getting it and then calling him on it. So, I should have just laughed it off, right? And then someone would have said behind my back, "she doesn't know that we're not laughing with her, we're laughing at her..."

Humor is so dangerous. Or maybe I have a complex about my voice. That could be it (see my blog for the entry about that :D )

anyway, I try to have a sense of humor. It helps to laugh sometimes. It's just that when some characteristic of yours is joked about, and you're not aware of that aspect of yourself, it's kind of uncomfortable all the way around, so if you're going to joke you've got to have good intentions behind it and not be malicious about it. and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Don't you just hate when someone says something that seems like it might be nice, but they're really be evil in some kind of sugary sweet voice :flare:

[kilted exile]

Well I cant speak for the guy you refer to but with me there is a pretty easy to tell difference of when I am just joking around and if I mean to be offensive.

When I'm joking my comments will be accompanied by the smile. If I'm annoyed there will be a dark scowl and the hint of possible, coming violence if not immediately left alone.

Yes, with the insincere people & those new to the group it is difficult to know exactly where peoples boundaries are, but I generally am as much self-depricating as anything else anyway so this usually helps in loosening the new folk up.

[Visionary3]

http://www.livevideo.com/video/nobleseas/8A6A4DEFB50D449F86E82508FAA82423/great-big-stupid-world.aspx

Great Big Stupid World video says a lot about American humor these days.

[Taliesin]

I'm the same :) you can tell I really like someone when I try to annoy and tease them all the time and make ironic comments ... (excluding Virgil of course, I only try to annoy him for the fun of it :D ;) )

Yeah, same with me. Of course, what one really wants to say is: "You are cute and I like you. Engage in sadomasochistic relations with me!" - alas, since it can cause social damage if you actually start whipping people for cuteness, you sublimate it into teasing the girls and boys you like.

[Scheherazade]

me. Is that a momentary slip I spot?

:D

[barbara0207]

Is that a momentary slip I spot?

:D

No, he's done that before - just to tease and confuse us. :D

[sprinks]

Reading through this I notice that no one has mentioned Australian humour. I'm not really sure what it's like. It varies a lot, as does everything in each part of the country. I find in my general age group, in this state, we tend to make fun of ourselves as Australians, making fun of our stereotype. Also I find most Australians use sarcasm a LOT :lol:

I myself though find everything funny, pretty much. Which is hard because for some reason I keep laughing waaaaayyyyy after everyone else is over it. And I have a LOUD laugh. Officially, my laugh has been heard from 61 meters up in the air. :lol: I get greeted each morning by someone saying "I heard you laughing from the other side of the SCHOOL!" People have heard me from a few hundred meters away on the other side of the school :p. But then also I've had teachers tell me that they know I'm at school in the morning because they hear me laugh when they're in the staff room! And sometimes people will walk into a room and they haven't seen me but they'll state "Oh, Sam's in here. I can hear her laugh!"

I like to laugh :)