Which Countries Have The BEST, WORST, STRANGEST Sense Of Humor?

Self | December 24, 2002 | PJ-Comix

[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.

[PJ-Comix]

I personally thought that George Bush 41 got a great laugh when he did an impression of someone throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister.

[IamHD]

Oops; talking about a sense of humor. I would think that in most countries, (not all) some would have a good sense of humor and some would not. Take my neighbor. She has no sense of humor. A few years ago, she stopped by to apologize to me for her lawn not being mowed for the 4th year in a row...(it has now been 7 years.) She told me that her husband hurt is hand on the job (GM) and was on medical leave. I told her that he didn't look hurt to me. Funny thing, I had just seen him a few hours earlier bouncing a basketball all the way down the street (500 yards) to the corner gas station, and ALL the way back; this time with a big bag of potato chips in the other hand. After pointing this out to her, she huffed away. :) LOL

[Allan]

The funniest person I know is a 'coloured' man from South Africa.
As usually happens in such cases, he is married to the most humourless person I know, a woman from Argentina.
In company she continually pokes him in the ribs to tell him to stop laughing.

[PJ-Comix]

Argentines are notorious for having the worst sense of humor in South America. I visited there once and I can tell you that they won't think your Evita jokes are the least bit funny. Don't joke in Argentina about Evita, Juan Peron, escaping Nazis, or any other subject. They just won't laugh.

[PJ-Comix]

A few years ago, she stopped by to apologize to me for her lawn not being mowed for the 4th year in a row...(it has now been 7 years.)

So how high over her roof has her grass grown?

[Riley]

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!!!"

I'd have laughed at that, too. "OMG, look at this dude with the coins in his eyes running around shouting BANZAI at Japanese businessmen!!"

[PJ-Comix]

One person that I never found funny was Erma Bombeck. I just couldn't get into her "humor."

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Reminds of the John Cleese routine from Faulty Towers where Basil tells all of the staff to be sure and not bring up "the war" with the German guests as they are very sensitive about it. And by the end of the sketch Basil has mentioned the war a dozen times and ends up goosestepping around the restaurant with this index finger as a fake handlebar mustache. A truly great moment.

[PJ-Comix]

Yeah, I bet if the businessmen had been German instead of Japanese and I stuck a couple of coins in my eyes like monocles and screamed "HEIL!" you could have heard a pin drop in that bar. Definitely NO laughing by the Germans at that.

[ChicagoRepublican]

North Korea for all three.

[rpage3]

I'd say the Brits as evidenced by the sheer number of ORIGINAL sitcoms they've made (and continue to make). Hell, on my tour of the Tower of London this past summer, even the Beefeater was a riot...(with a well-honed act, presumably).

[Revolting cat!]

PJ, for all you've done for us (you have?) this is the ultimate ethnocentric thread. Humour is not the Euro, it doesn't cross borders. The Albanians have the best sense of humour for the Albanians and the Nepalese have the best sense of humour for the Nepalese.

While we're ethnocentric, I think the Americans have the worst sense of humour. Take the laugh tracks on TV pointing to the clueless Americans the times where and when to laugh. Take Bob Hope's standup routine, the unfunniest standup routine of all, of a unfunny man reading off a teleprompter or reciting "jokes" that someone else had written for him. Take Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent: "I put on a ridiculous hat, therefore I'm funny!" Come to think of it, Jim Carrey's entire unfunny career has been based on the same Carnac principle. Sorry, unfunny!

And then there's the Americans' total lack of appreciation for satire. Check the reactions to Randy Newman, early Lyle Lovett or Chris Buckley!

The Honeymooners was funny, the Simpsons, the short lived Fernwood2nite (satire - whadya expect!) King of the Hill, I love Lucy. But the point is that we can be as unfunny as you think the Japanese are!

[gaspar]

Argentines take themselves much, much to seriously. To sneer is to demonstrate a sense of humor in Buenos Aires. In that city much of the population seems stuck in some sort of Stalinist time-warp where a good bellylaugh would mean the Gulag.

On the other hand, Mexicans are devilishly good comics, and Cantinflas was a veritable genius in the way he handled the Spanish language. Slapstick now seems to be the preferred genre on U.S. Spanish-speaking channels, but wit is occasionally employed, thank God.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Which part of the USA? Funny, I thought of that before you even asked. I grew up in the Boston area and the blue collar types in Boston (I used to work on a lot of construction jobs) are very, very funny indeed, in what I find to be a unique way. If something wasn't lined up exactly right, they would always say "Can't see it from my house". If something needed to go up a little bit or down a little bit it was always "Up a CH or down a CH". A lot of natural comedians, and all very, very deadpan. Funny stuff.
You can see that same type of humor in daily life around Boston, not just on construction jobs. I think it might come from the Irish/English influence that is certainly quite prevalent there. And you do see quite a few comedians come out of the Boston area, I think Leno and Steve Wright come to mind and there are others I have seen who may not be so well known.

[sushiman]

Japanese TV - for the most part - is pure inanity and silliness at their finest . I shall never forget the one that featured two guys walking around Tokyo asking high school girls wearing what are called " Loose socks " ( thick , white kneesocks ) to remove their shoes so these guys could check the smell of their feet on some whacko meter to see who had the worst smelling feet . Apparently , many of the girls wear the same socks for days , even weeks on end without changing them !!!! This was a prime time show by the way !

[PJ-Comix]

On the other hand, Mexicans are devilishly good comics...

Actually the only thing funny about those silly Mexican comedians dressed as bumblebees are the Simpsons doing a satire about it.

[Revolting cat!]

Funny (organic): Rodney Dangerfield, Phil Hartman!
Unfunny (explicit): Frank Zappa, Woody Allen!

[gaspar]

That's a good one! But you ought to see Mexican comics do a take-off on the Simpsons. You'd hate it.

[PJ-Comix]

Unfunny (explicit): Frank Zappa, Woody Allen!

Actually the early Woody Allen movies such as Take The Money And Run, Bananas, and Annie Hall were HILARIOUS. Then Allen began to think of himself as another Ingmar Bergman and his movies became pretentious although Broadway Danny Rose was pretty funny.

[Kevin Curry]

Actually the early Woody Allen movies such as Take The Money And Run . . .

E.g., as a two-bit thief paroled from prison, on a date, tipping the waiter with a pile of pennies stolen from a gumball machine? That movie?