Humour all over the world

[-Yu-]

Okay, here I'll say something about joke around the world.
The main theme on this thread is "Joke or humour isn't internationall thing or common all over the world, yes?"

I stayed as a student in Australia for a year and realized this, you know, when I heard people joking in my first 2 or 3 monthes I couldn't laugh at all.
Unfortunately they weren't just funny to me, so I kind of forced me to laugh or made a lot of effort in order to make them laugh at my joke.
It took a lot of time till I started to appreciate their joke.
The thing is humour is deeply rooted in in the culture and tradition of a nation, so when I noticed that, I changed my mind, till then I was like " how the hell can they laugh at it" or something like that, that is to say I kind of despised their culture. After learning English a lot more, I started laughing at theirs and also started to make joke that they can laugh at, which was a lot of fun.

I think some of you have been in the same situation, I mean when people learn 2nd language, most frustrating phase is the threshold which bars you from understanding humour of the culture.

I ask especially those who have been reading or read Japanese comic, do you enjoy it?

( If you find something offensive here, please calm down cause I don't mean it, sometimes I write what I don't mean and I'm incredibly busy so I can't reply soon after you write something here, please notice this, so why did I start this thread? the answer to it is,,,,,,cause I'm curious!Ofcourse!)

 

[Maciamo]

Good topic.

I agree that humour is culturally biased, and I have experienced the same thing as you in many countries. But, in Japan, I came to the conclusion that humour is not just based on the culture, but more significantly on the personality, intelligence or shared-knowledge of individuals. There are many jokes that people will find to gross, shocking, ridiculous, too difficult, too obvious, etc. whatever the country. There are probably some kind of universal personality types when in comes to humour. So prefer cynical jokes, others black jokes, stupid jokes, complex jokes, and so on. But there is surely some truth in saying that some countries have a general preference for some kind of humour.

So what kind of comedies do you prefer ?

1) Mr Beans or Jim carrey (absurd, visual)
2) Friends (linguistic, emotional)
3) Month Python (satirical, derisory)
4) Shrek, Toy Story (surprising, child-like)
5) Jacky Chan (spectacular, comical)
6) ...

 

[TwistedMac]

6) Monty Python's Flying circus (sketches, slapstick (i sort of asumed you meant the movies))
7) Stand up comedy
8) ...

on the topic itself I can only say I agree.. especially with the

"humour is not just based on the culture, but more significantly on the personality, intelligence or shared-knowledge of individuals."

part.

insider jokes are for some reason always the most popular.. if you want to be funny to alot of people you have to find what all these people have in common so they all feel "in" the group..

thus the birth of observational stand up comedy.. "did you ever notice..."
it's what made Seinfeld so big ^^

 

[-Yu-]

Yes, I konw it is not just based on a culture but also on personality, intelligence, one's group, it very much varies with them.

Personally, I didn't really find Mr.Beans that funny, oh, can I ask you something? Is it narural that you hear spectarors laugh whenever it comes to funny point.

I like Charlie Chapplin (is it how you spell it?) more than him.


I think the most difficult type of joke to understand is linguistic one, everytime I watch Japanese comedy show on TV, I always think so.

 

[Satori]

Speaking of Monty Python, I just happen to have this link:

The Unofficial Monty Python Home Page:

mwscomp.com – Blog rund um die Gesundheit

This is the best site!! Enjoy!
:cracker:

 

[60Yen]

Monty Python is good!

 

[Satori]

The Argument Sketch has to be one of my favorites:

mwscomp.com – Blog rund um die Gesundheit

Priceless!!

 

[Grandpa Frank]

When...

I took sign language, we had to tell jokes one night. Now that's a hard language to be funny in!!

Frank

 

[Lina Inverse]

Yes, Monthy Python is quite funny indeed
I found that I really like the British humor in general

 

[jovial_jon]

I really love British humour...which is handy being British and all.

 

[-Yu-]

I saw "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", it was quite funny but I didn't understand some parts of it due to the accent of their English, which was a pity.
But it had a lot of parts which don't require you to listen but to just watch.
My favorite part was the one which got blank and said something like "intermission" then it started again within 15seconds.

 

[Satori]

I saw "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", it was quite funny but I didn't understand some parts of it due to the accent of their English, which was a pity.
But it had a lot of parts which don't require you to listen but to just watch.
My favorite part was the one which got blank and said something like "intermission" then it started again within 15seconds.

I loved that movie. Here is the direct link to the section on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail": mwscomp.com – Blog rund um die Gesundheit

Scroll down a ways and you can read the script! Scenes 3 and 4 are still my all-time favorites.