Posted on 12/24/2002 4:31:21 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Okay, it's Christmas Eve so let's set aside politics here for a bit and discuss something that has interested me for a long time. Which countries/cultures have the Best; the Worst; and the Strangest senses of humor.
I would classify Britain and the U.S.A. as having the Best senses of humor although they are a bit different. The Brits rely more on subtley and wordplay. American humor is more slap-on-the-back. Sometimes both types of humor combine wonderfully such as in the movie The Loved One written by a Brit (Evelyn Waugh) but set in an American funeral home with very American funny characters in it.
Germany is often thought of as having the worst sense of humor but in this category I think we have to award the French with this honor since those folks actually think that Jerry Lewis is some sort of comedic genius. However, there is a lot of truth that the Germans have a lousy sense of humor. I once went out with a German chick named Ernegard (sp?) and not only did she have NO SENSE of humor but she hated it when anybody else thought something was funny. I well remember the many times she would say to me: "Alvays mit der jokes! Alvays mit der shmiles! It's all vun bik joke to you isn't it?" Then Ernegard would get even angrier as I did an impression of her muttering these lines.
The STRANGEST senses of humor goes to the Japanese. I haven't any idea why they laugh at what they do. Once I was in a bar in L.A. filled with Japanese businessmen. I recieved a couple of half dollars at the counter as change so on an impulse I stuck both of them into my eyes like monocles and screamed: "BANZAI!!!" Immediately the Japanese were rolling on the floor in laughter. When they recovered I thought it was a freak accident and I repeated the same bit with the coins and the "BANZAI!" scream and again they rolled with laughter. They laughed so hard that one of them begged me not to do it anymore since he was suffocating from laughing so hard. And why they laughed so much at such a silly routine I don't know but this is why I said they have the strangest sense of humor.
One other thing I have observed is that it also depends on what part of the country some folks are from as to their senses of humor. One of the funniest people I know is from India and works at the food court at the Swap Shop. I often buy breakfast from him because I appreciate the humor. However, he is from (judging from his appearance) South India but the folks from North India seem to have no sense of humor. I recently told a funny story to these two guys from North India and they just glowered at me. Then I told them a really good dirty joke and they acted as if they I were insulting them by telling that joke.
I used to think Chinese folks were super-serious but perhaps the most humorous person I have ever met is my friend, Jessica, from Wuhan, China. The other day I told her my idea for a Chinese Restaurant with a Red Guards theme and not only did she laugh uproariously at the concept but she now wants to incorporate that concept as a business. So if you see a Red Guards Chinese Restaurant in South Florida in the near future, it had its roots in a joke I told.
Compare that to the French who have--what--Jerry Lewis? Anything else? Certainly not mime. That ain't funny.
It was sort of an experiment to see just how far you can go with them. Actually you can do most anything slapstick in front of Japanese businessmen and they will laugh like hell at it. And the strange thing is they are incredibly formal (always wear business suits even when on vacation) and serious with each other.
Try cracking eggs on your forehead. I am sure this will make them go into convulsions.
Marcel Marceau? Remember him? NOT FUNNY! He ended up so hated here that there have been a lot of movie scenes where bad things happen to annoying mimes. Oh, there was also once a French comedian named Fernandel but I don't know much about him.
In an affected German accent, he would say:
"I shall now do for you comedy. You will listen; you will laugh. These are orders."
Joke number one:
Take my wife...
I command you!
The story is told in Benghazi of a Libyan who was new to the United States and was taken to a New York comedy club shortly after he arrived in America: The sound of boisterous laughter nearly gave him a heart attack. The sound was utterly foreign to him. I could go on....
And in the same movie there was a reference to American vs German senses of humor:
Oberst Von Scherbach: How do you expect to win the war with an army of clowns?
J.J. Sefton: We sort of hope you'd laugh yourself to death.
Yes! And those scenes ARE funny.
Hardly a titter from the frogs, however.
I don't know about Arabs but Iranians definitely have a sense of humor. I once knew an Iranian named Hassan and at first he didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor. Anyway, I sometimes would leave long messages in an Iranian accent on his answering machine as if I were Ayatollah Khomeini speaking to him from the dead and giving him strict instructions on how to avoid the temptations of American culture. That really cracked him up. So much so that when I quit leaving those impressions on his answering machine, he begged me to do it again so he would have some laughs when he got home.
Merry Christmas!
Not so funny when you have to drive in traffic with them. BTW, I am now trying to get a Nooyorican chick to do comedy on stage. I have written some material for her but she is scared to go on the stage even though she is quite funny.
I once knew a Kuwaiti Air Force officer who was, without doubt, one of the funniest men I have ever met. He had an acute sense of humor and exquisite timing which he coupled with certain facial expressions that made him a tough man to get though a dinner with without passing a fair amount of the menu through your nose. What did he poke fun at? The Muslim culture (yet he was quite devout).
I remember him telling us in his broken English that, "In Kuwait, if you leave wallet in restroom, it will still be there one, two years! If you see wallet your think yours in restroom, you don't touch! If you wrong, they cut your hand off!" Then to demonstrate how one might safely go about checking an abandoned wallet he rocked way back on one foot, tongue hanging out of his mouth in painful utter concentration, eyeys blinking and wincing, and made like he was pushing an imaginary wallet at sink height. "You must tip . . . it . . . with . . . your . . . foot, and hope it fall open so you can see inside."
Well, you had to be there. But my sides ached.
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