That’s right. I’m an American, and therefore I have no sense of irony. How ironic. 
“I’m sorry, Inspector Callahan, but since your shirt did not match your tie at the time of their arrest, we must dismiss the charges against these Satanist hippie death-cultists.”
“Swell.”
I have to consider. Is someone missing the fact that the Alanis song was being used ironically… a case of dramatic irony? Or is that just when a giant red fire helmet catches on fire?
(What was that, the State or a PSA?)
Plenty of times I’ve used irony, only to have the message taken literally. This has often because the listener/reader, employing the American genuis of enterprise, is seeking an opportunity to be offended. In fact, sometimes I think they’ve gotten the irony, but chosen to take the message literally in order to have leverage in the argument.
As far as Americans not understanding irony, it’s my experience that, like self-deprecating humor, it’s used more by rural than urban Americans.
Example; “Think you used enough dyamite there, Butch?”
Of course our lack of irony means that Americans will only be capable of laughing at such lowbrow fare as Arrested Development and Curb your enthusiasm and will never appreciate the deep humor of Benny Hill.
Steve Landesberg used to have a standup routine in which he noted the confusion of Europeans when faced with American nicknames.
“I don’t understand - “Tiny” must weigh 300 pounds…”
Do Americans lack irony?
Yes.
Yes, we do.
It makes sense to me that the American character, to the degree any huge country can have a character, is considered more earnest than the British equivalent. But American do get irony in my experience. Maybe some of them have trouble with the British style of irony; I don’t know.
I personally have more difficulty with Cockney Rhyming slang that uses british references (as oppose to global ones).
When it comes down to it, I think the general American approach to irony is much like our approach to soccer/football. As a rule of thumb, we’re not experts on either, just because we’re not, as a whole, particularly interested. Which could be interpreted by our British friends as simply not understanding.
What is my evidence for this? There is plenty of good irony available in American markets – Gravity’s Rainbow and Catch 22 are just chock-full of great irony, and shows like Arrested Development also feature irony. But Arrested Development has been cancelled and most Americans don’t read books, especially if they are not on the current New York Times paperback bestseller list.
My father, when watching TV shows featuring British comedians, used to make a face and mutter “British humor.”
But maybe he was being ironic. :dubious:
Since this is Great Debates I feel compelled to try one serious comment before dismissing the entire topic.
Could it be that Americans “get” irony, but simply don’t understand the cultural references that make a particular comment ironic?
After all, despite sharing a more-or-less common language, Americans, Canadians, British, Australians, et al, do not share a completely common point of reference. Americans don’t have a royal family or parliamentary form of government. I’ve seen plenty of posts here from non-U.S. posters who simply don’t understand our patchwork system of taxes, or even American football.
Any “intellectual” humor (i.e., just about anything above the level of slapstick) requires a linguistic underpinning – the words must be interpreted in a certain way to be considered humorous. Without a common cultural reference point, the listener will either fall back on his/her own reference point, or ascribe a literal meaning to the words. Either way, the listener “doesn’t get the joke.”
Which is very important.
I would like, on behalf of my nation, to apologise for Benny Hill. It’s utterly appalling, and isn’t representative of most British comedy. Unfortunately, the majority of British comedy is piss-poor as well, but just differently bad. I’m thinking Keeping up appearances and all those other weak sitcoms.
Our good comedies are stupendous, but then again so are American ones. And often our good comedies don’t use irony at all - the humour-of-repetition of The Fast Show isn’t in the least bit ironic, though it is occasionally self-regarding, which might be seen as ironically postmodern or something.
I think another problem with Brits and irony, is that we sometimes don’t understand the meaning of the word, and mean “sarcasm” or “deadpan” when we say “irony”. Which in itself is ironic, given how much we bang on about it.
That said, I have gotten myself into trouble in the States - and my dad even got written up for it when he was a professor in the US - for deadpan, sarcastic humor, so tend to avoid it when in the company of Americans unless I know they get it. My last two weekends have been spent with Yanks, and Yank #1 out-sarcasmed any Brit, while Yank #2 took everything at face value.
They should be dumped entirely, since they contain speculation, original research and cultural bias unsuited to a data store striving for encyclopedic accuracy. At best, replace the entire passage with a statement that expressions of irony, like any cultural idiom, may not translate perfectly from region to region.
In fact, I think I’ll go do that right now. Thanks for the heads-up.
…
Done. My replacement for the text:
If someone thinks they can do better, be my guest.
On reflection, there’s a relevant passage in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age:
By assuming that Americans in general are inherently stupid because some individual Americans might be, the OP has displayed ignorance.
On further reflection, I retract the last sentence and apologize. I have no basis for assuming Sevastapol agrees with the original Wikipedia entry. My scorn is for the person who clumsily displayed his/her cultural bias by writing it in the first place.
Just like a Canadian to post to a thread three times in a row.
Well, we are fond of hat tricks, after all.
This reminds me of the time Jon Stewart had two of the Spice Girls (I think it was Posh and Baby) on the Daily Show, and Posh couldn’t figure out why the audience (and her fellow Spice Girl) were laughing so much. “I mean,” she explained, “You’re not really that funny, are you?”
There was an audible intake of breath from the audience, and, to her credit, she was smart enough to realize that she’d just been stupendously rude. She tried to cover for herself: “I think it’s just that we have a different sort of humor than Americans.”
“Really?” asked Jon, “What sort of humor do you like?”
“Well, you know, we sort of prefer ironic humor…” At this point, the audience is start to laugh at her, and even her bandmate is looking pretty amused.
Jon leans forward and says, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that’s all we do on this show.” The audience is now howling with laughter, and even Surplus Spice is convulsed, while Stupid Spice is sitting there with this totally lost expression on her face, still trying to figure out what everyone is laughing at.
So, yeah: Posh Spice trying to explain to Jon Stewart about irony? That’s pretty damn ironic, right there.