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Q: Do Chinese girls understand your humour?
Dry-wit or sarcastic humour doesn't seem to rub off on the Chinese girls I have met. I know it is not me because western women or men know I am funny and can understand my sense of humour. I am still funny with the Chinese friends, but a lot of my funniness doesn't catch with them. Have you experienced the same?
11 years 6 weeks ago in Relationships - China
Nice question - I'm British and I favour a much more low-key/sardonic/dry sense of humour with a healthy sprinkling of self-mockery. After showing my girlfriend shows like "The Office" and "I'm Alan Partridge" she thought the British were all a bunch of sadists who enjoy laughing at people's misfortunes and awkwardness. Of course the beauty with shows like that is that they're funny because they offer an insight (albeit exaggerated) to certain situations and characters we're all familiar with in life. She's slowly coming round to the dark side in that sense!
On the note of sarcasm - I'd say it's hit and miss whether some Chinese get it, though I've found that some of my friends have a biting understanding of the comedic device. Daily Weibo comments and posts also firmly establish that. A lot of the Beijingers I've met also have a dry/dead pan humour style.
NiceBrice:
I personally have a hard time watching Peep Show. It's funny I guess, but the humor is buried beneath a deep layer of awkward situations.
sarcasm is hard to catch on. I say yes and mean no or exaggerate something to be as big as all out doors, How can I be understood, when I don't say what I mean?
I had more luck acting out or miming things. Sometimes I could use my translator.
TedDBayer:
I found the Chinese like a more subtle humour. I was talking to an nice older Chinese guy about my GF. He said I am very lucky, he would like a young GF. I called ''goo-lie'' to a couple of passing girls and when they came over, I looked at him and said which one do you want? He laughed and said I was very funny.
Humor is easily lost in translation. A lot of it is based on cultural understanding and not just understanding the words.
E.g.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: "Watson, look up at the sky, and tell me what you see." Watson replied: "I see millions and millions of stars." Holmes said: "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied: "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." And Holmes said: "Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent."
This will most likely not be funny if you 1. Have not read/seen Sherlock Holmes 2. You have not been camping 3. Have never seen the stars in the night sky
I doubt I, if I one day speak Chinese fluently, would find a Chinese stand up comedian funny. Of course, if it is a rip of of old George Carlin material there is a chance.
xinyuren:
My Chinese wife already knew this joke. Apparently there is a Chinese version.
giadrosich:
In my Sophomore classes, I do a week about humor, and how cultural it is. One of the sentences I use is by Groucho Marx: "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
No one, absolutely no one, understands this sentence, even after a detailed explanation of why it's funny and after much debate, they still fail to see the humor in it. 
I agree, good question. I'm also British and sometimes it's upsetting how unfunny I am in China.....
My girlfriend actually understands a lot of it now, but she's fairly westernised anyway and she watches a lot of foreign tv shows. But it's great to get together with my foreign friends and have a real laugh now and then.
It is definitely lost in translation.
I find it quite depressing that one of my biggest assets with the ladies at home is right out the window here.
My gf is clueless about sarcasm. (not funny she always says) I have had to re-invent my humor here for the Chinese but with a fraction of the effect it would have back home.
I have almost given up trying to be funny unless I am with expat friends.
My wife has begun to understand my humor and she has begun laughing at some of it, so there is progress. She also watched some comedies from my home country with English subtitles which she enjoyed.
On the other hand, when I watch her TV shows or movies with subtitles I do not find it funny at all, so I guess she made more progress than I did 
There are some forms of humor that people here don't seem to get, but I always manage keep them laughing- irregardless. Just wiggle your eyebrows or ears, or roll your tongue and they'll start giggling like the little school girls they are.
One thing I discovered as I started learning English about 10 years ago is that humor is very, very cultural.
Some things are universally funny (physical humor, for example), but generally you need to know a bit about the person's culture if you hope to tickle his funny bone.
No...... they just don't get it ............ I have to be sure to tell my wife when I am joking most of the time..... she is getting better, but slowly. Think there was little humor in her earlier life. The younger ones, are a little quicker with the understanding and or wit.
TV show like ACCORDING TO JIM ..... wife is starting to get some humor from that.
I am just a little like that, and quite politically cynical .....Jon Stewart, Rick Mercer, Colbert.... be a while before she gets these guys.
It is really hard for chinese people to understand our humor whose english is not well.
I have many times exp about it.
Anytime say some funny things, the people whose English is not well, they can not understand to laugh but they will give comment. that this should not happen or this should be like this or this is truth .. etc ..
But in same group when my other foreigner friends from different countries read it, they really can understand the fun.
Well educated girls get it but they need training. Well educated because they at least need to have a good level of english, have an open mind, and be capable of seeing things from a different person's point of view (possibly the hardest to develop).
Im lucky that my wife has the same evil sence of humor as me .the only difference is she does not know how many posts I make about her on here
No. I once joked with my girlfriend that, compared to her mother and sister, she was much better in bed. She didn't see the humour at all... 
Girl I interact with the most, English level 7.5/10. Known her a year. We talk about Love Life stuff all the time.
I told her I had found a new gf. Who she asks. My right hand ! Total blank look, expression doesn't change. She says ok. Totally fuckn doesn't get it. Even though from previous conversations knows what masturbation is and even said had tried it. But they (her + 1,399,999,999 other Chinese) just do not get humor. Not from what I can tell. And as far as getting sarcasm,,,,,, not a friggin' chance in Hades !
happywanderer:
Hear ya - they can get it though if they're smart, takes time and of course explaining kills the joke ;)
diverdude1:
yeah,,,, that's what I have found too. I go to explain it and then it's just not a friggin joke anymore, it's a lesson.... ah well, like others have said I get my humor fix when I spend time w/ buddies.
Interesting discussion.
Well mostly jokes are related to culture and history more than just original meaning of words.Like the joke about Holmes and Watson above,I will tell a similar joke about a famous make-believed character Yang Guo(杨过) who is a great swordman in a Chinese novel.
A:Why did Yang Guo improve his strength of arm a lot in a few years?While in his whole life Guo Jin also spared no effort to practice KUNG FU but he was not very good at that.
B:Guo Jin was always with his GF Huang Rong. But Yang Guo had lost his wife for 16 years and had only one arm.
I am having Interesting Conversation , when i first visit to China in the year of 2006 during that time its very hard to find english speaker in china,
During that Time i had chatted with my Collegue in my office, We discuss about Movie stars for a long time i have discuss with her about the stars and their jokes, but she laughed ( But i really dont know wheather she understand or not)
After i asked her a question, who is the Famous actress In china? She immediatley Replied - Great wall of China. ( she just take only Famous not other things)
I never forget this moment, But now she is my best friend and she improved a lot
cheers
