[PJ-Comix]

What are your observations about humor among different nationalities? There are definitely vast differences in humor perception between different nationalities and cultures.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What do you expect from a Commie Writer?

As to Ernegard, Mark Twain observed that a German joke is nothing to laugh at. (He also said that Wagner's music wasn't as bad it sounds.)

[Shermy]

I recieved a couple of half dollars at the counter as change so on an impulse I stuck both of them into my eyes like monocles and screamed: "BANZAI!!!"

We need a pic of you to fully fathom the Japanese response. ;)

Not a nation, but New Yorkers are the funniest.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I know you asked for a country, but I truly believe the folks from Indiana have a great sense of humor unless it was just my Dad, his family, and friends. Country? I know the Panamanians have a great sense of humor. They can turn a serious situation into total comedy.

[MissBaby]

Chinese have the worst sense of humor. What they think is funny is...well...simply not funny.

[IamHD]

"The STRANGEST senses of humor goes to the Japanese. I haven't any idea why they laugh at what they do. Once I was in a bar in L.A. filled with Japanese businessmen. I recieved a couple of half dollars at the counter as change so on an impulse I stuck both of them into my eyes like monocles and screamed: "BANZAI!!!" Immediately the Japanese were rolling on the floor in laughter."

LOL! What a dork. (In a good way, too.) I would have laughed, too. :)

[struwwelpeter]

Russian humor:

---

Muzhchina zaplatit dva rublya za rublevuyu veshch', kotoraya emu nuzhna. Zhenshchina zaplatit odin rubl' za dvukhrublevuyu veshch' kotoraya ey ne nuzhna.

A man pays 2 rubels for a 1-rubel item which he needs. A woman pays 1 rubel for a 2-rubel item which she doesn't.

Zhenshchina bespokoitsya o svoem budushchem do tekh por, poka u nee net muzha. Muzhchina nikogda ne bespokoitsya o svoem budushchem do tekh por poka u nego net zheny.

A woman worries about her future until she has a husband. A man doesn't worry about his future until he has a wife.

Dlya togo chtoby nayti schast'e s muzhchinoy, nuzhno sil'no ego ponimat' i nemnozhko lyubit'. Dlya togo chtoby nayti schast'e s zhenshchinoy, nuzhno sil'no ee lyubit' i dazhe ne pytat'sya ponyat'.

In order to be happy with a man, you must understand him completely and love him a little. In order to be happy with a woman, you must love her completely and not even try to understand her.

Za zhcheninoy ostaetsya poslednne slovo v lyubom spore. Vsyakoe slovo, skazannoe muzhchinoy posle ehtogo, yavlyaetsya nachalom novogo spora.

Women have the last word in any argument. Any word that a man says after that is the declaration of a new argument.

Chto nuzhno, chtoby prozvesti vpechatlenie na zhenshchinu: govorite ey komplimenty, uvazhayte ee, laskayte ee, obnimayte ee, zashchishchayte ee, trat'te na nee den'gi, poyte ee vinom i kormite v restoranakh, pokupayte ey to chto ona khochet, slushayte ee, ostavaytes' s ney, podderzhivayte ee, idite radi nee na kray sveta.

Kak prozvesti vpechatlenie na muzhchinu: razden'tes' i prigotov'te pozhrat'.

How to make an impression on a woman: Compliment her, honor her, caress her, hug her, protect her, spend money on her, pour her wine & feed her in restaurants, buy her whatever she wants, listen to her, remain with her, support her, go to the ends of the earth for her.

How to make an impression on a man: Get undressed and go cook something to eat.

[struggle]

Japanese humor, because of a lack of ambiguous vocabulary, is based heavily on slapstick stupidity and wordplay. I teach the mother and sister of a nearly famous manzai group "Savanna," and opposed to most of the manzai (abbott and costello type humor), they are pretty good. Their humor consists mostly of self deprication, outbursts, and cultural reference callbacks, kind of like the old Conan O'Brian/Andy Richter duo. The fact of the matter is though, most japanese humor is viewed by young women. Japanese drunk businessmen laugh at ANYTHING. My father in law (japanese) and i do a good deal of competition in dajare (word puns) and we enjoy it very much. I love the japanese sense of humor because it is easy to appease and if you understand japanese well enough you can get chicks like crazy (that time of my life is over now).

[Restorer]

It's always seemed to me that the Brits have two very distinct and unrelated styles of humor.

The most obvious exemplars of the two styles are Noel Coward and Benny Hill. Shakespeare, of course, used both, sometimes simultaneously.

[RepoGirl]

This might get me flamed, but I'd like to give a nod to Canada re: sense of humor. As a Kids in the Hall and SCTV fan, I think a lot of really good stuff has come from the great white socialist north, eh.

[mlmr]

Once I was in a bar in L.A. filled with Japanese businessmen. I recieved a couple of half dollars at the counter as change so on an impulse I stuck both of them into my eyes like monocles and screamed: "BANZAI!!!" Immediately the Japanese were rolling on the floor in laughter.....And why they laughed so much at such a silly routine I don't know but this is why I said they have the strangest sense of humor.


PJ... YOU are running around with half dollars stuck in your eyes yelling BANSAI and you think THEY have as strange sense of humor...LOL.

[Kevin Curry]

American humor has distinct subsets--each at its best outrageously funny--black, Jewish, deadpan white etc.

Compare that to the French who have--what--Jerry Lewis? Anything else? Certainly not mime. That ain't funny.

[ihatemyalarmclock]

An American comic (whose name escapes me) used to explain in his act why there are so few German comedians.

In an affected German accent, he would say:

"I shall now do for you comedy. You will listen; you will laugh. These are orders."

Joke number one:

Take my wife...

I command you!

[jimtorr]

Hey, I like Jerry Lewis! Can't take too much at one sitting, though. About half of "The Errand Boy" or "Cinderfella" is all I can stand.......and just forget about the movies with Dean Martin.

For my taste, the brits are best. I love the BBC America cable channel. Monty Python, Charlie Chaplin, Keeping Up Appearances, Chef, McGyver......

Right, much British humour is understated, funny because of the situations and word play. On the other hand, there is Benny Hill, with the most broad and corny slapstick imaginable.

Coupling is a current BBC sitcom. It's about the perils of dating and becoming a couple. Six friends are in it (where did they get that idea?). They are all caricitures of single people, except for one couple, who are nearly normal.

An example of the caricituredom of the characters is one of the women, who is a beautician with her own shop. She is obsessed with how her skin is aging even as she speaks, how her "bottom" is her enemy, because it is always following her around and plotting against her to grow larger. She hates going to funerals because she has to see all of those old people, which is how she will look in another 30 years,

[Allan]

The funniest person I know is a 'coloured' man from South Africa.
As usually happens in such cases, he is married to the most humourless person I know, a woman from Argentina.
In company she continually pokes him in the ribs to tell him to stop laughing.

[Riley]

Once I was in a bar in L.A. filled with Japanese businessmen. I recieved a couple of half dollars at the counter as change so on an impulse I stuck both of them into my eyes like monocles and screamed: "BANZAI!!!"

I'd have laughed at that, too. "OMG, look at this dude with the coins in his eyes running around shouting BANZAI at Japanese businessmen!!"

[ChicagoRepublican]

North Korea for all three.

[Revolting cat!]

PJ, for all you've done for us (you have?) this is the ultimate ethnocentric thread. Humour is not the Euro, it doesn't cross borders. The Albanians have the best sense of humour for the Albanians and the Nepalese have the best sense of humour for the Nepalese.

While we're ethnocentric, I think the Americans have the worst sense of humour. Take the laugh tracks on TV pointing to the clueless Americans the times where and when to laugh. Take Bob Hope's standup routine, the unfunniest standup routine of all, of a unfunny man reading off a teleprompter or reciting "jokes" that someone else had written for him. Take Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent: "I put on a ridiculous hat, therefore I'm funny!" Come to think of it, Jim Carrey's entire unfunny career has been based on the same Carnac principle. Sorry, unfunny!

And then there's the Americans' total lack of appreciation for satire. Check the reactions to Randy Newman, early Lyle Lovett or Chris Buckley!

The Honeymooners was funny, the Simpsons, the short lived Fernwood2nite (satire - whadya expect!) King of the Hill, I love Lucy. But the point is that we can be as unfunny as you think the Japanese are!

[Revolting cat!]

Funny (organic): Rodney Dangerfield, Phil Hartman!
Unfunny (explicit): Frank Zappa, Woody Allen!

[Mr. Mojo]

It could be simplified into two categories.

Best: U.S. and England.

Non-existent: France and Germany

[Allan]

By the way, amongst the continental Europeans,
I think the Hungarians have the greatest sense of humour.