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Re: different senses of humour

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Nathan LeonardMar 24, 2007
 

 
Dean:
It's interesting that the writer starts out by saying it's "guff" to say
the English sense of humour is superior to everyone else's - but then
argues it's at least more prevalent than everyone else's.

Her point was that the English aren't necessarily funnier than any
other culture, but everything that we do has at least an undercurrent
of humour, even if it's something subtle like irony or understatement.
There's an unspoken rule against taking yourself too seriously in
England, of not doing or saying anything too solemn, earnest, or
heartfelt. In everyday conversation, it's rare for people to make too
many direct statements of fact without adding some subtly humorous
slant on it. When someone comes in from the rain, they might say
"Glorious outside, isn't it?" When somebody goes to a truly awful
restaurant, they might say "I wouldn't recommend it." These aren't
laugh-out-loud funny, and it's generally not done to acknowledge the
irony or understatement (beyond maybe a smile or a nod), but when you
actually dissect the phrases, you can see that there is some kind of
humour behind so many of them. We don't notice it any more because
this kind of attitude runs through the whole of our society, in the
same way we don't notice the air until it's gone. Similarly, we only
notice the lack of seriousness when we see something that is "overly"
serious, for example speeches by politicians and preachers in America.

The author of the book gives a lot of quotations from people she's
interviewed, both English people and immigrants who find the rules of
humour here very perplexing, and reading the book you realise how much
of this you've experienced yourself, but just didn't realise it at the
time. I advise you to check it out; it's a fascinating read.

 
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