To what extent does the type of humor vary by country/culture? (“Type of humor” refers to the underlying basis for humor, rather than the specifics which are obviously going to be culture dependent. Though I appreciate that it can be difficult to separate these out.)
Are some cultures much more/less humor-inclined than others? Are there any cultures in which humor does not exist at all?
There is no culture that is lacking in humor. Is there really any question about that?
It would help if you gave examples of what you consider to be “the underlying basis for humor” vs “the specifics”. I’m not sure what you are talking about, and how you see those as distinct things.
Yes. How do you know otherwise?
Two jokes from Ali G:
In one, he is talking to a tech expert, and says (paraphrasing): “now what’s the biggest problem with cell phones? … that you keep losing them. Now wouldn’t it be great if someone could invent something, like a wire, which would attach the phone to the wall, so that this way they would never get lost …”
In the other, he’s talking to a Homeland Security guy, and says (again paraphrasing): “you know those machines they have in airports which can detect keys and change? … wouldn’t it be great if someone could invent a machine like that which would detect bombs? …”
The source of humor in both of these jokes is the same - the actual purpose of the item (mobility, bomb detection) has gotten lost in the focus on lesser aspects (losing the phone, detecting keys or change).
But that’s just one example that popped into my head. It’s a much broader matter. Much of humor is derived from comic caricature and exaggeration, for example. Exactly what would be caricatured would vary greatly based on culture. But would there be a culture in which caricature wasn’t common or considered funny?
Many jokes are based on saying/writing something which seems intended to have one meaning, with the punchline suddenly flipping around the meaning of the prior discussion (“so you saw that man strangling your mother-in-law?” “yes” “and you didn’t try to help?” “well first I thought I would try to help but then I saw he was doing fine without my help so I figured why mix in …”) That can manifest itself in many many different forms, but the source of humor is the same.
And so on for other types and sources of humor.
Actually, I think Ali G was portraying a clueless millenial who has only seen cell phones and wasn’t aware they used to have cords. Plus, his usual schtick is to prominently blurt out an idea out loud that makes sense only to him, but rubs other people the wrong way because of the way he phrased it.
Here’s from where he interviewed a DEA officer on his show: “What is the different types of hasch out there? We all know that it’s called the bionic, the bomb, the puff, the blow, the black, the herb, the sensie, the cronic, the sweet Mary Jane, the shit, Ganja, split, reefa, the bad, the buddha, the home grown, the ill, the maui-maui, the method, pot, lethal turbo, tie, shake, skunk, stress, whacky, weed, glaze, the boot, dimebag, Scooby Doo, bob, bogey, back yard boogie. But what is the other terms for it?”
He does the same thing when he’s Borat and Bruno.
That’s obviously correct. But it doesn’t relate to what I was saying.
It seems like every country has there own version of the Polish joke, usually some neighboring country or sub-culture in their own is considered stupid and the target of contempt. Whatever the context, making fun of others is universal.
In English word-play is big, the language is broad, irregular, and full of homophones and multiple meanings, but I’m sure there’s plenty of it in most every language.
You might find difference in humor related to authority figures depending on how risky such a thing is and how bad the reality is. Here and now subjects like this are controversial:
I heard a German comedian once that said something like “People say that German people have no sense of humor. Is not true. I show you. Joke #1…”
I thought it was hysterical. I think every culture has some humor but it varies. There are even variations between different areas of the U.S.
Slapstick (i.e., broad physical comedy in which someone could be seriously injured in real life) is pretty popular worldwide.
Humor is loosely defined as “the sudden perception of incongruity”. I think that is part of human nature, and is therefore common to all cultures. Although, as you say, the details will vary, because different cultures associate different things and therefore perceive different things as incongruous.
The ancient Greeks had “dumb peasant” jokes. The one I read in college was “a dumb peasant heard that parrots live for a hundred years, so he bought one to see if it was true”. Real wukka-wukka folks, those Greeks.
Dave Barry did a chapter on humor in Japan. He said it existed, but didn’t always translate. The one he told was -
A guy was walking down the road next to a canal. He saw a fish in the road. He says, “You sure are lucky I came along, fish”, and throws it back into the canal. The next night he is walking along the same road, and sees an eel in the road. “You sure are lucky I came along, eel”, and throws the eel back into the canal.
The next night he is walking down the same road, and sees a baby in the road…
Regards,
Shodan
That’s because you were looking for a cultural definition for his routine. In this case, he was the rambunctious yet clueless clown that transcends all cultures. It’s not always a case of “it makes sense over there but not here.”
FWIW, my suggestion that there might be a culture with no humor was not about Western and other major cultures, which are heavily influenced from each other and have been so for centuries. I’m thinking more of obscure and less integrated cultures such as are studied by anthropologists.
To the contrary, I was just giving an illustration of a joke where the details could be presented differently but the underlying source of humor was the same. In that case, both were “rambunctious yet clueless”, in one case not appreciating that cordless phones were developed to replace corded phones for increased mobility, and in the other not appreciating that “change and keys” detectors were actually developed to detect bombs and other weapons.
So why did you quote Ali G when you were looking for obscure cultures? Do you think he represents an obscure culture?
What do you mean by “obscure culture” anyway? Amazon tribes? “Grampa tell me ‘No scratch butt. Throw spear. Make dead.’ So I throw spear and make dead Grampa.” (That’s just a guess)
I’d say if a culture is obscure, little is known about it in general, not just its humor.
I was responding to someone who asked for “examples of what you consider to be “the underlying basis for humor” vs “the specifics””.
[It does not appear that you’re following the discussion, and I don’t anticipate responding further to this exchange.]
One thing that must surely vary in popularity from one language to another, or possibly even be absent from some entirely, is the pun. In a language like English with plentiful homophones, puns are easy and common, but I expect they’d be less so in languages like Spanish with few homophones.
That’s particularly hilarious because whenever I see someone say that puns are the lowest form of humor, I always think it’s funny because in Spanish we think of them as the basis of humor for anybody over age 3. I had a 42-yo coworker who refused to accept that multiple words can share a meaning and that a word can have more than one meaning; she found pretty much every single joke and zinger the rest of us were having fun over lunch offensive, how dare we “play with language”! Another coworker went on a crusade in search of a joke she’d actually laugh at, and he eventually found it. Fart jokes. Her ID said 42, her sense of humor was 3.
Between homophones and multiple-meaning words we get quite a bit of mileage, thanks.
I thought I was!
Are you sure you actually have enough of a sense of humor to understand what humor is?
Google “humor in other cultures” and here are the first 2 -
An article for the layman: What’s Funny?
A published study: National Institute of Health study
Mr. Bean says it all. Mr. Bean is wildly popular in the third world.
Decades ago, traveling abroad, my wife and I observed that the fulcrum of humor on local TV was a character that we referred to as “A fat guy in a baby suit” – excruciatingly embarrassing for westerners to watch, but it would have third-world viewers rolling in the aisles.
In America, I had never even heard of Mr Bean, but here in the Philippines,he is a fixture on all waiting-room tvs, even in the US Consulate.
Here is an English language joke that may or may not translate beyond the confines of my culture.
Q. How do you know ET is a Catholic?
A. Because he looks like a Catholic.
I know the essence of it probably exists wherever people do but it would, I suspect, be bewildering to a lot of native English speakers.
That sounds very much like the work of Henning Wehn.