No joke here. I just think stuff like this is interesting.
Oh yes, Americans really are the most sarcastic people on the planet and their humor is oh so dark.
Sincerely,
—A Brit.
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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We are.
It’s what happens when you take dry British humor, concentrate it like a cup of tea run in the microwave until almost all of the water evaporates out and add daily mortal risk from our fellow countrymen.
-A ‘Murica
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Oi turn on the telly, the man is doin’ a silly walk!
Dutch humor and jokes are pretty dark, as are half of the swear words.
probably from living next to the Germans. But hey, most of the jokes these days are still about Belgians
Half my family is dutch and many of my friends are full blooded, right off the boat dutch. Dutch humor can be so blunt and expertly delivered that it can literally cut you to the core if you arent accustomed. The only way i can describe it is if you have ever eaten dutch liquorice. Try a piece of dubbel zoute drop and you will understand everything you need to know about the dutch.
But lets give some credit to the hispanics though. Mexican humor, especially with their nicknames, can be exceptionally ruthless as well. Their directness and humor has absolutely got to be on par with the best of the swamp germans.
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I m french and I trough that we were the most sarcastic. I think it really depend of the language that you understand the most.
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You guys just got too good at it.
We learned from the best.
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I can't tell if he's being sarcastic or not.
Americans are also known for being really direct (YMMV; southerners are a lot more indirect, where West Coasters would much rather that you just tell them to get fucked than pretend that you like them). OTOH, from my experience hosting students from East Asia, they tend to be at the opposite end of directness. It took us half the school year to get the kid from Hong Kong to open up, start talking and joking without being prompted and be comfortable telling us mildly uncomfortable things (like if he was unhappy about something). We've had two Japanese students as well, and it's always been a constant struggle to get them to tell us if there's a problem; they prefer to reach out to a program supervisor instead of telling us directly, and one of them was so bad about indirectness that it felt like he was constantly lying to us. It turns out that differences in directness cause a lot more issues than I would have guessed.
Utah is extraordinarily passive aggressive. Home in New York, I was considered tactful with my words. Here in Utah, I'm considered rude.
People raised here, especially Mormons, will lie to your face with no remorse in order to avoid saying any "harsh" words or causing "contention."
I've pretty stopped being tactful and have embraced vulgar honesty. Not to hurt others - I really do care about my roommates and most of my coworkers on my shift - but to make my thoughts so motherfuckingly clear that even a god-damned inbred Mormon pioneer worshipping dumbass can understand.
I've heard this called a "West Coast Attitude", though AFAICT, it seems like the Northeast also has a reputation for not mincing words. Anyway, yeah, I'm a big fan of the West Coast Attitude; you always feel pretty good that you know where you stand with someone. There's people out here in Cali that fall in love with the south after a little visit and gush about how nice everyone is. I make it a point to tell them that, as someone who lived a good decade or so in the south, I know that 4 times out of five, that niceness is a facade papering over a whole lot of shit they talked about you the second the door hit your ass. In all fairness, there really are some super great people there that genuinely are as nice as they seem, but I found it hard to tell them apart without getting to know them first.
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Americans are also known for being really direct
Maybe in America. They are also known for saying "this is the best XYZ I've ever had in my entire life!!!" for every XYZ they ever have in their entire lives.
We are the most hyperbolic people ever of all time, I'm absolutely positive
From an American, this means the thing meets expectations, or possibly even exceeds them.
"Not too bad" means I almost died.
"Pretty good" means it wasn't the worst possible result, but not great.
E: You'll know it's actually the best ever if we stop talking.
My American-immigrant-in-Germany self snorted when I read that Americans were direct. It’s a spectrum, for sure.
Again, Your Mileage May Vary. People in the south can be frustratingly indirect because they believe it's polite. Broad strokes, however, Americans do tend to be more on the direct side of things; I reckon we're a little behind Germany (as the exemplar of extreme directness), but much closer to them in directness than we are to, say, England.
Dutch people are the undisputed champions of telling you shit to your face.
There are two things that I cannot stand, one is people who are intolerant of other cultures, and the other is the Dutch.
Probably more than a little behind Germany. I remember coming across an article about communication pitfalls in the business world that stem from Americans being indirect and using a lot of stock phrases for courtesy.
I remember well-known examples like "how are you" not expressing an interest in how the other person is doing. Or more obscure stuff like "we should meet for coffee soon" expressing not an intention to meet in the near future but a generally positive disposition towards the other person. Or them giving a positive response when someone suggests something they don't want and relying on nonverbal cues to convey their disapproval.
Perhaps it's proximity but as a German I find British indirectness (which often revolves around obvious understatement or sarcasm) to be easier to parse than American indirectness (which revolves around stock phrases). Americans can be a bit Darmok if you're not familiar with a phrase. Thankfully online communication doesn't feature them as much.
Those are all good points. I want to emphasize that this is relative to East Asia. The West as a whole tends to be more direct in its communication style, and you're going to find differences inside of that. Speaking from our experience, we've had the fewest communication problems (in terms of directness being a problem) with German and Dutch kids. We're also not having any issues with the Italian kid. Kind of in the middle is the Russian kid we hosted, who struggled a bit with understanding the how casual Americans are (the affectionate teasing that we do, joking around at any old time, hanging out for the purpose of hanging out, etc. but he eventually got it down like an old pro). At the far end are the east Asian kids. It's pretty consistently an issue to get them to open up, advocate for themselves, tell us if something's wrong, etc. They get there eventually, usually, but it's always the biggest journey for them. I can respect that it isn't easy. I'm sure I'd have a much worse go of trying to adapt to their cultures, based on how hard of a time just dealing with the indirectness of the southeast US.
I just wanted to add, but didn't know where to squeeze it in, that they apparently don't do lame-ass dad jokes in Russia. It was a brand new experience for him, and he mastered it by the time he left. I'm really proud of him, and I hope he's doing okay.
I’m American, studying in Germany with about half my cohort being East Asian students. To me, it seems like we’re square in the middle and I’ll give you an example:
We were asked how we would address it, if we saw our dear roommate finally wearing the sweater they’d spent months knitting and it looked bad. In broad strokes, the Asian students would not address it, the Germans would say they didn’t like the sweater, and the (north and south, not just US) American students would find something they honestly liked to complement and not address anything else.
Some Germans would also find something positive to say about the sweater (“I don’t like the color, but it’s a beautiful knit” or something similar), but they only mentioned that after the American students said their approach, so I’m not sure if that was just social pressure from all the non Germans being shocked at their answer.
These are all totally valid, by the way, it’s just better to be prepared for it. A few days before this class, I showed my old (German) roommate some of my wedding pictures and he told me he didn’t like my lipstick. I still have no idea what the point in that is, but I probably would have taken it better if it had happened after the class discussion.
Edit: I’ve since thought more about this, and given that the others found the American position dishonest (it is intentionally telling only the flattering/socially easier part of your opinion), I can see how each of them would consider theirs the middle position: the Asian students would think that instead of insulting or flattering their roommate, they’d just say nothing; German students would think that instead of saying nothing or exaggerating their positive feelings, they’d just say the truth.
I guess it’s more of a wheel than a line based spectrum
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I live in a very direct culture, but that does not mean we're being impolite towards each other. I work with a lot of immigrants from cultures which do not separate these two concepts, however, and when you tell them to be more direct, or if they are not getting anywhere by merely hinting at what they need, they quickly switch to:
- frowning
- shouting, or talking very loud
- using very short sentences, as if they were ordering people around
- being borderline insulting
And that is not acceptable in any society. I was absolutely miffed by this many times until I understood that they don't actually know communication which is both direct AND polite because they didn't grow up with it.
I put together a quick illustration to show what I mean:
So, the people I'm talking about go from top left to bottom right, maybe brushing on bottom left, because that's the only direction they know.
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I mean, there is sarcasm and dark humor here in Japan. It doesn't always work in the same way, however.
There's a ton of it. But it takes a long time to learn how exactly to express it well, and some people don't like it at all.
So to all the language learners, don't use sarcasm until years after after you can understand when others are using it.
Or use it, and have trouble making friends. Either way.
Definitely. It's also worth noting that most people here will probably take a learning trying to do sarcasm in the way they might in the US as just making mistakes (or being serious). I would add you probably want to avoid it with people you're just meeting.
I've heard from multiple expats living in Japan that Japanese people just do not recognize sarcasm at all and just react as if the person is completely serious.
Which is its own form of sarcasm
I think it's more in the delivery. Some things that might also sound sarcastic in English can also just sound insulting in Japanese so directly translating won't work like that. There's also the matter that, no matter which language, both parties are presumably non-native-level in opposite languages which makes processing information and delivery harder.
I've been in Japan almost a decade now.
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Not sure if the replier saying that Japan doesn't do sarcasm is being earnest or sarcastic...
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Why is this dude replying to a reddit question on Twitter?
America is a big place. Sarcasm isn't popular everywhere. Here in the rustbelt it's king. Other than one 9/11 meme I saw yesterday I'm not too aware of any 9/11 jokes, can say the same for Hiroshima & Nagasaki
"The record for speedreading was broken by multiple New Yorkers in 2001 when they sped through over 100 stories in under a minute"
That's the only 9/11 oneliner I can think of but there's a lot of joking about it in general
I saw a video on YT Yesterday with 2 decent 9/11 jokes:
"Saying you're a a COD Zombies fan is like saying you're a 9/11 fan, people ask if you mean before or after it all came crashing down"
Which sets up later:
"I apologize for that 9/11 joke. I know for many people it can be shocking, and then the second one hits" followed be a few seconds of silence
Which legitimately got an out loud chuckle out of me
New Yorker here, many of us (or at least most people I know) enjoy a good 9/11 joke. Mostly young people afaik.
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The situation is similar in Korea. A friend and I went to see Drag Me to Hell here and we were a bit embarrassed to be busting a gut in a dead silent theater. Horror comedy doesn't work here at all.
There's an entire political party dedicated to political satire in Japan (the nhk party or the anti nhk party, I forget which one)...
Hey they told us to never forget they didn't specify how.
If Godzilla is sarcasm/satire then yes.
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