# all you americans...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 21, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788 "2001-04-21T14:18:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Who\_26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Who\_26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_26)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788/21 "2001-04-23T15:32:18Z")

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Just a slight sidewise twist:

Taking a clue from a TV show, once when someone asked me how I was, I told them!

I think they left skidmarks getting away from me, after their eyes glazed over in the first 5 minutes of my litany of complaints.

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788/22 "2001-04-23T18:05:50Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by vivalostwages \*  
> **I’ve never met an American who didn’t know what sarcasm was. Or irony.**

[“reality bites”]

Irony? I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.

[/“reality bites”]

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**Author:** ![Thursday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@Thursday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thursday)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788/23 "2001-04-24T22:04:06Z")

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There is a tremendously jarring use of the word “wanker” in a computer series called “Gabriel Knight”. It is used regularly by an officer in New Orleans. Somehow, it just doesn’t fit.

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**Author:** ![skaffen\_amiskaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@skaffen\_amiskaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaffen_amiskaw)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788/24 "2001-04-24T22:30:12Z")

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well, thanks people, it’s now known to me that most americans both get sarcasm (as i suspected) and know what ‘wanker’ means. some british culture has obviously made it across the Atlantic.

thanks for your useful input, everyone.

thanks monty. you know it.

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**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-you-americans/62788/25 "2001-04-24T22:47:39Z")

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I heard “wanker” a lot in middle school. I had no idea it was a british term.

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