Fernandel und Toto.
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.
Grass? LOL What grass? Her backyard has turned into trees. When the city came out, they opened her gate, shut her gate and left. LOL They are pigs. I'm thankful that they live 400 yards from me. :) When her husband, (I think he left) would throw the trash out on trash day, he would fling it from the front door to the road, in the hopes that it would land in the right spot. From the door to the road is about 90 feet. (he missed, a lot.) LOL
Best: U.S. and England.
Non-existent: France and Germany
"Do you think couples should have premarital sex?"
As for German comedy, you sure ain't kidding. I was once in a hotel room in London when I came across the German translation of the Simpsons on Sky TV--very, very, very odd.
The French do occasionally come up some priceless movies that get remade by Hollywood. One of the best is La Cage aux Folles (remade as The Bird Cage), also Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Baby, not to my liking but still a hit) and Mon Père, ce Héros (My Father the Hero). The funniest French film I ever saw was Les Ripoux (My New Partner), which was about an old-timer vice cop in Paris breaking in the rookie.
I saw one a few years back, but I forget its name.
It was about an up-tight business man
whose wife has an affair with a hippy.
The business man looks up the hippy
to find out what his wife sees in him
and ends up trying to reform him.
In the end, the hippy becomes a business man and gets the wife
while the business man becomes a hippy.
It had its funny moments.
Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! .. Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
http://www.graphicszone.net/monty_python/scripts/Series_1/7.htm
I'm talking 1950s and 60s, past the era of vaudeville comics like the Marx Brothers, and similar acts. We never seemed to develop (I think) decent sound movie comics. One liners, like the quoted above lines from early Woody Allen? That's television, radio stuff. Big screen requires physical comedy like that of Laurel and Hardy or of the Honeymooners. Fernandel and Toto had mastered it! Check them out!
At the opposite end of the spectrum is a Vietnamese girl I work with, who laughs at the stupidest most simple-minded things imaginable. The boss actually had to tell me to try to tone things down a bit because nearly everything I said had her laughing all day long...and other employees complained that we were having too much fun.
Fernandel und Toto.
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