(no subject)

[rimturse]

I've grown up - and live in a multi-cultural, multi-religious environment. It has made me aware of how similar we are, but also how different. One might think that religion is what hits the difference home, but in my experience; it is our sense of humour. Situations where you are laughing, but no-one else is - or when every one else is laughing, but you're not - really make you stand out like a strawberry among peas.

Take away cultural sensitivities to dirty jokes, and the people whose humour differs most from my own is, suprisingly, the Americans. Certain kind of American humour is just incomprehensible to me. It's not that I find it offensive or crude, I just don't find it...well, funny.

My American friend Amy *waves to Ames* is a writer - and a good one at that. She wrote a scene that had all her American friends in stitches, whereas her European friends could smile apologetically when asked what they thought about it.

iagor has a recent lj-entry with a perfect example. If it wasn't for the Bwa-ha-ha! and the comment to it, I would never have realized that it was supposed to be funny *frowns*. What is it that I'm not getting?

Comments

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I get it either. My first reaction was, "Oh, that's an *adult* link." ::blush:: And I'm supposedly an adult! lol

Well, smooved isn't a word . . .The parts I read were kind of exaggerated, in a kind of dialect, and sort of . .. a parody, maybe? Supposedly seductive things and then a short line of something that's incongruous. A bunch of stereotypes (silk, grapes, massage, seafood before sex, equating sex with seeing the galaxy) coupled with things such as that if you don't like those sheets,he'll go to great lengths to get different ones. . .and he'll have both purple and green grapes, to forestall dislike there - I dunno, even trying to take it apart it doesn't seem funny to me.

I still don't think Fawlty Towers is all that funny, and most of Monty Python just seems silly, and I absolutely refuse to watch shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond (the few bits I saw were all picking-on-other people humor and that nasty kind of interchange where the wife doesn't want her husband to touch/kiss her - why the heck are they married, in that case? [rhetorical question, no answer required]).

But I think that's the idea. Exaggeration, incongruity, the silly details. Humor is indeed strange. G has worked to help me develop my sense of humor for many years.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I noticed the exaggeration, of course, but just thought it was a piece of badly written fluff. :)

Watched half an episode of Everybody Love Raymond some years ago, turned it off in disgust, so I couldn't agree with you more there. I like Fawlty Towers and Black Adder, they are not the funniest series I've ever seen, but I can chuckle at them. I Frasier and I love Calvin and Hobbes. My favourite is a Danish Christmas Calendar serie for adults called "The Julekalender".

[frigg.livejournal.com]

That would of course be LIKE Frasier.

[everyonesakitty.livejournal.com]

*laffs* I wish wish wish I knew what about American humor is different than yours! I can't see what I'm in the middle of. I do, however, see British humor for what it is, and I love it, and I can pick it out anywhere.

Interesting.

There was a study done a few years back to find the funniest joke in the world. I thought the joke was pretty dumb, but it appealed across the most borders, which means the lowest common humor denominator. Here's the link:
http://www.laughlab.co.uk/home.html

[frigg.livejournal.com]

heh...it is strange what make people laugh. This particular American humour is actually the only type I'm unable to recognize as humour. *shakes head*

I'd heard the world's funniest joke before, although in that version the hunters were Swedish...*lol*

Danish humour is a bit similar to British, a bit darker perhaps and with a hefty amount of irony.

[pjthompson]

What is it that I'm not getting?
A hyper-refined sense of cynicism and irony towards American cultural mores? (Which is not necessarily a bad thing to be missing, if that's the case.) The Onion is a master of ironic parody and satire and it's not to everyone's taste or sensibility, even Americans. I post articles from it every day outside my work cubicle and some people laugh and others just look perplexed. And on different days, the exact same people could change places with one another. *shrug* Once you get into trying to explain humor, things get lame real fast.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

You could be right. If the humour is linked to something very cultural specific that could explain why it flies over my head. :)

I completely agree about having to explain humour. It is the reason why I've practically stopped telling C Danish jokes. He doesn't get them and insist that I explain them - that ruins even the best joke.

[iagor.livejournal.com]

May, you have to be exposed to the culture to the point of immersion. For example there is an extreme amount of R&B ballads that follow the pattern of I'm so sorry baby/I will treat you right/ I'll buy anything you want/ And then we'll have the most wonderful sex ever. Okay, so I simplified but basically I am right. And Onion pokes fun at that entire culture, at some of the materialistic aspects that are inevitably attached to it - I'll buy you the best sheets, etc. R&B culuture and a lot of hip hop is often overwhelmed with material representations of wealth, such as frex one song, which states roughly that the man has done everything he can, drowned his woman in jewelry, put her into an SUV, and how dare she treat him badly. It's hard to explain unless you either watch some of R&B videos or actually be exposed to some knunklehead who thinks he is the smoothest thing on earth :)

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Aha...I think I get it now, we have MTV. :)
Thanks for explaining!