Humour: The Universal Language

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and the highest form of insult.

You might be surprised to learn this, but after I’ve written a post, I sometimes change it to be more…erm…politically correct for the benefit of our American readers. Sometimes I don’t always succeed of course (and that would be the more offensive posts) but I really do try to be nice. Mostly.

IMO, some degree of language modification is necessary when interacting with other cultures. As part of my day job, I exchange emails with distributors and customers from all over the world, of all nationalities. I’ve discovered a lot about different cultures in that time, and have learned (the hard way) that tact is an essential component of effective communication. I have to “un-British” my language, put on a different persona, in order to make the foreign clients feel warm and fuzzy (and thus spend money with us.) Above all I have to remain serious and avoid being humorous. No doubt this attitude carries over onto the blog to a large extent.

Some commenters, who email me off blog when I relax and am more "British," find they are dealing with someone rather different from the bloggie Lin persona. I am sharper of wit, blunter, more direct, and most importantly, my sense of humour can be very difficult to get used to. Misunderstandings are rife. Australians often think I am nuts and ignore me, and Americans in particular seem to find my sense of humour rather strange, and often think they have offended me when they haven’t, or worse, I offend them when I’m not intending to.

Me and my big mouth get me into no end of trouble

To me at least, a culture is defined by its sense of humour, as is the individual. And we are all very different, believe me. Did anyone see the comedy The Office? It was a leading UK T.V. comedy over here. Unfortunately the British version was incomprehensible to Americans, who found it strange and offensive, and it had to be completely re-scripted and re-shot to reflect a modified US sense of humour before it aired in the States.

From the outside Britons are apparently viewed as eccentric and funny. A Mori poll in 2004 asked people from Chicago what they thought of the British. They very tactfully described our “unique British sense of humour” and thought we were overly polite and reserved too (clearly they haven’t met me after my third glass of wine.) It’s true that Britons can seem a bit strange (traditional national pastimes vary from national cheese-rolling competitions to the World Bog Snorkelling Championships, and here in Norfolk we race snails for fun) but I have to say that you shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Snail racing can get pretty intense and bloody, but it’s surprising how much fun it can be.

Also, our nation’s obsession with sarcasm and self-deprecation can be baffling to the Yanks. Researchers have apparently found that this is genetic rather than cultural in origin. Brits love cruel comedy at the expense of others (e.g. Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and so forth.) Americans don’t get this. I often get comments from distressed readers who tell me to stop running myself down on-blog. They just don’t understand that I do this as a way of cracking a joke. To the American, it is impolite, incomprehensible and insensitive.

Our US brothers and sisters seem to have a much more “positive sense of humour” – they look on the bright side of life, their humour is often zanier and wittier than the British equivalent (Frasier for example was very clever and funny at times, and I love Scrubs.) On the other hand, most Britons think that the Americans can’t do irony. Most Americans simply don’t understand it, as it’s not native to their educational and social upbringing (I’m treading on dangerous ground here, and I suspect I’m causing offense to some of you. Here’s the difference in language – I’m actually teasing you all.)

My personal (very British) sense of humour is mainly based around arrogant sarcasm - think Dr Cox from Scrubs for an American equivalent, or my beloved Canadian David Hewlett (*sigh*) My photographic American friends get a VERY rapid induction off-blog into being teased mercilessly via email (poor souls) whereas on-blog I tend to squash that sense of humour so as to retain the American political correctness which is usually required. Yanks are THE most overly emotional and easily offended people on earth. It can be VERY exhausting, I can tell you that much. Chill out for heaven’s sake!

As Aristophanes understood, the point of humour is to hold a mirror to the world, to reveal deeper motivations and expose the absurdity of both life and fate. I think both nations do this very well, although both think they are better at humour than each other. In actual fact, Yanks and Brits perceive life differently. The same jokes can be funny in both countries, but only if they are re-written for the relevant cultural and historical context.

My own opinion? Give me the dry, grumpy British wit anytime. A good sense of humour is being able to laugh at oneself.

The British Photographer always takes his work terribly seriously