Humour across frontiers
Lance
There is such a thing as international humour – that is to say, some
types of jokes gain international acceptance. In particular, this is
true of slapstick, which is age-old in its use and laughed at by
Europeans, Americans, Africans and Asians alike. There are
international jokes repeated across many borders, such as the one
about who must jump first out of the airplane.
In many of these jokes, the punch line is about allegedly national
characteristics of other (often neighbouring) countries. And it is
self-evident that the victim of a humorous attack is hardly likely to
see the funny side of it.
Take for example the joke about the journalists who organized a
competition to write an article about elephants. The titles were as
follows:
English: Hunting elephants in British East Africa
French: The love live of elephants
German: The origin and development of the Indian elephant from 1200 to
1950 (600 pages)
American: How to breed bigger and better elephants
Russian: How we sent an elephant to the moon
Swede: Elephants and the welfare state
Spaniard: Techniques of elephant fighting
Indian: The elephant as a means of transportation before railroads
Finn: What elephants think about Finland
The joke pokes fun at national weaknesses such as French lust, German
seriousness, American bragging, British colonialism etc. The punch
line is the Finn’s occupation with what others think about them.
However, the Finns developed an alternative punch line by adding a
Norwegian title: Norway and Norway’s mountains.
Finns, Swedes and Danes find this absolutely side-splitting. The
Norwegians, who consider themselves humorous people, do not find this
ending funny at all. In fact, they do not understand it. Do you?
Eastern humour
It has also been said that humour crosses national boundaries with
difficulty, especially when heading east. Few Asians are amused by
American or (most) European jokes. The Confucian or Buddhist
preoccupation with truth, sincerity, kindliness and politeness
automatically eliminates humour techniques such as sarcasm, satire,
exaggerations and parody. And jokes about religion, sex and
underprivileged minorities.
Eastern humour, as we understand it, is couched in subtlety, gentle,
indirect reproach or reprimand, occasionally victimizing listeners in
a slow nonaggressive manner that leaves them room for response while
at the same time taking care of protecting the listeners dignity.
Chinese are noted for their aphorisms and proverbs, and they and
Indians find great sources of humour in parables, which we in the West
find only moderately funny, although they do combine wisdom,
moralizing and a sense of perspective.
The Japanese are noted for their politeness. They most likely will
politely laugh if they are aware that you have told a joke (even if
they didn’t understood it).
Joke or insult?
While the introduction of humour in international business talks may
bring considerable gain in terms of breaking the ice, speeding up the
discussion, putting your partners at ease and winning their confidence
in you as a human being, the downside risks are often just as great.
In an intercultural environment one man’s joke is another’s insult.
What is funny for the French may be gruesome to an Arab; your very
best story may be utterly incomprehensible to a Chinese; your most
innocent anecdote may seriously offend a Turk. Cultural and religious
differences may make it impossible to laugh at the same thing.
No laughing matter
Moreover, the fact that someone is laughing when you told a joke, does
not necessarily mean he liked it or that he is having a good time.
Laughter may symbolize other emotions, such as embarrassment,
nervousness or even disdain or scorn.
Your only help in getting around and dealing with the situation is the
ability to be sensitive about cultural differences. Keep an open mind
and let go of any judgement on people's reaction.
And when you find that jokes about other nationalities evoke
stereotyping and widen communication gaps, here is is some consolation
(with a wink): in all countries the national jokes - on groups,
personalities, professions, minorities etc - outnumber the
international ones.
(Free from: Richard Lewis. When cultures collide)
Peter Brooks
>
>
> The joke pokes fun at national weaknesses such as French lust, German
> seriousness, American bragging, British colonialism etc. The punch
> line is the Finn’s occupation with what others think about them.
> However, the Finns developed an alternative punch line by adding a
> Norwegian title: Norway and Norway’s mountains.
> Finns, Swedes and Danes find this absolutely side-splitting. The
> Norwegians, who consider themselves humorous people, do not find this
> ending funny at all. In fact, they do not understand it. Do you?
>
yes, it is funny.
Did you know, by the way, that it's National Cleavage Day in South
Africa? The funny thing is that this afternoon 'National Cleavage'
made itself to number one on twitter. That means that this is
considered worth talking about, and I think funny, by most of the
world that's on-line. It's part of a campaign to raise awareness of
breast cancer and you can see photographs of supporters [the tweets
are full of puns about support] here http://www.showus.co.za/view.php
It's also a marketing campaign by Wonder Bra who's slogan is 'we
support both left and right'.
Well, I think it's funny. I had my own special bit of cleavage in town
today, it was a case of builder's bum on a very attractive girl
painting a shop front. If it weren't National Cleavage day, I'd
probably not have remembered that, nor, indeed, mentioned it.
Another funny tweet was somebody calling herself 'CapeTownChick'
saying that her boss asked her when she came to work this morning;
'Didn't you remember that it's National Cleavage Day?".
Paul Grieg
> On Apr 3, 1:34 pm, Lance <LanceG...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The joke pokes fun at national weaknesses such as French lust, German
> > seriousness, American bragging, British colonialism etc. The punch
> > line is the Finn’s occupation with what others think about them.
It's mildly amusing initially, but soon begins to drag. I don't get
the Swedish one. 'White elephants and the welfare state' might have
been funny --- in an ironic way for a democrat!
> > However, the Finns developed an alternative punch line by adding a
> > Norwegian title: Norway and Norway’s mountains.
> > Finns, Swedes and Danes find this absolutely side-splitting. The
> > Norwegians, who consider themselves humorous people, do not find this
> > ending funny at all. In fact, they do not understand it. Do you?
>
> Well the Norwegian joke made me laugh, which the original didn't, so,
> yes, it is funny.
Yup. The Norwegian variant is v. funny!
I very briefly had a Norwegian girlfriend so I think I know what the
joke is getting at. Although the group of Norwegians she was 'bound
to' were living in Scotland they were only interested in Norway and
living like Norwegians. Talk about Elephants, Burns, whisky, midgeas
or anything else and the conversation was soon back to Norway. Her
idea of second date was taking me to a Norwegian knitting circle...
I still have nightmares.
Ian Smith
> or anything else and the conversation was soon back to Norway. Her
> idea of second date was taking me to a Norwegian knitting circle...
Are you sure that's what she meant when she offered you a night in
on the rug?