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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: How would you describe your country's humour?
Hi people.
I'm teaching (hahaha) a class called "Speaking and Culture" (yeah, I don't know either!), and I thought I'd do a class on humour.
How would you describe the humour/comedy you like? What sort of things? Slapstick? Punny? (Sexual) Innuendo?
Do you like jokes about... MIL's, wives, bf's/gfs, bosses, employees, other nationalities?
Does it need to be in your face and told 3 times (with canned laughter), or is it more straight up and subtle?
Sit-coms? Stand-up? Movies? or what?
Do you find those 'funnies home videos' they show on the busses funny? (personally, I think most of them are just sick/stupid!... I mean, watching a young kid have his head smash into a bumper... that's funny why???)
Do you or your countrymen understand Chinese humour? (after language problems have been sorted out)
Thanks!
Back home, it's a lot of satire and wordplays, with not much self-deprecation. Bashing figure of authorities is an old ritual, nobody is spared.
Canned laughter are out of fashion since the 80's. In-your-face humor is targeting teenagers mostly.
Stand-up, one man shows, radio talk shows are super popular. It's a lot of satire around the present, the past, social issues, politics, stc. Some sit-coms made a hit too, but much later than in Anglo-Saxon world. Home videos used to be popular in the 90's but I think people got bored of it since then. Humoristic movies from back home makes me cringe and ashamed, because it's like on the level of a bad Adam Sandler movie.
royceH:
Adam Sandler has made movies that aren't bad?
Oh yeah...Reign on Me. But as good as that was, it hardly makes up for the all the other drivel he's been in.
British humour is a mixed bag but personally I go for self deprecating humour, it sheds light on and gives permission for basic human weaknesses we all have but tend to deny. I also like dark humour as I find it cathartic to allow oneself to laugh at a subject about which levity is frowned upon or taboo; it's a tension release that frees us from the dishonest expectation to constantly feel 'the right way' about things we may not always be emotionally equipped to deal with, thus allowing ourselves room to stand back and potentially view them anew. I also like mother in law jokes, but that's just because mine is such an enormous pain in the arse. I think you've chosen an interesting subject though because, like all the arts, humour holds such an ingrained understanding of any culture. I've got a joke I've tried out on so many students, and it's revealing how little understood such a simple joke is in terms of the students and their understanding of my own personal culture. In fact for all the many students I've told it to only one has understood it 'and' laughed, and that was a young, very bright boy of 12. The joke is simply; Two monkeys are sitting in the bath, one monkey turns to the other and says, "Ooh ooh, ah ah," and the other says, "Well turn on the cold tap." What's interesting is not that he understood it (a number of others have) but that he laughed, as that reveals the extent to which he understands the context of absurdity contained within the joke, something which I feel is intrinsic in much of British humour, most notably in that of the work of the Monty Python team, but which is not prevalent in Chinese culture. On the other hand it may just be a crap joke. Anyway, interesting subject for a lesson. The one seemingly universal truth about humour that I've discovered is that farting is funny anywhere.
All the funniest people come from Canada. I often find British humour too crude. Personally I like sarcasm, come backs and twisting things, like if you said I was awful pretty, I would say you are pretty awful yourself, sorry can't think of a better example. In China I find I can act things out and make people laugh.
mArtiAn:
British humour, crude? Nonsense. In fact I think that's an accusation which should be debated on the forum. En masse, so to speak. Let's mass debate. Ok, I see where you're coming from.
I like British satire, when mocking people it is important to have an air of superiority.
iWolf:
I came home the other day and found the missus watching Ricky Gervais - Fame. I've never been a fan of his lame tv series but this (at least) was a little amusing. I even laughed out loud once or twice.
I'm not a fan of Monty Python's work, but it might be because of a generational difference. I thought Dane Cook was overrated and not funny at all. I enjoy sarcasm, racial humor, edgy humor, humor that makes you go WTF, and The Office style humor (American version). I consider Mr. Bean a type of WTF humor which I think Americans and Chinese both enjoy.
I like surreal wordplay, Mitch Hedburg was great
"An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs."
"Why do people say this is a picture of me when I was younger. Every picture is a picture of you when you were younger. I want to see a camera that can take a picture of you when you are older!"