I have heard that American's don't get the British sarcastic sense of humour?

Question

Is this true?

Having said that, I think the Americans do sitcoms far better than we do - apart from a few obvious ones like Only Fools and Horses and Men Behaving Badly.

Answer 1

It's not true for all Americans, but most of them. Try taking a look at Sid Vicious questions, for example. You can easily see they are just try to be funny and provoke yet the majority of Americans fall for them and write serious responses. I'm American and at times I don't know which are funnier, the questions or the straight-face-angry answers.

Answer 2

I lived in the UK for 2 years and it took at least 6 months to really get it. British homoUr has a lot of background to it.that can only be learnt IN England so you have to catch up to a lot if you're not British. If someone makes a joke about, Red Dwarf, Black Adder a British pop figure, Jade, I shouldn't have had that curry, something to do with one of Little Britain's characters, S Club 7 or whoever, The Premiership & any of its teams or traditions or a guy from Wales walks into the people and merely begins to speak and everyone starts laughing, most Americans would be lost because they don't know the background for the joke(or the implied joke in some cases).

On a personal level, a lot of Americans won't get sarcasm at a bar because sarcasm done this way (1 to 1 but in a group) with someone you don't know really well tends to be used only as a weapon. If you walked into a bar in Philly one day and just started ripping into someone telling "Yo momma jokes", you might not be able to "walk" out of that bar.

Hearing that a guy is from Texas, referring to him as a "Yank" to his face, chuckling then delivering some critism probably won't be taken as the light hearted banter that might easily be understood between two Brits. There are a lot of cultural differences between to two nations.

Answer 3

The British have a sense of humor?

Probably it's better to say that many American's don't get British humor, and that the same goes the opposite way.

I lived in New Zealand for around 8 months, and when attending US movies, my wife and I would be the only ones laughing most of the time.

Answer 4

British sense of humour is more subtle, I think. Not just Americans, if you are not from the UK, you would find it hard to get the sarcastic sense of humour.

Answer 5

British humour isn't sarcastic,it is dry.We enjoy word play more than physical humour.American humour tends to be physical.

Answer 6

Sarcasm is for weak-minded people. If you don't have any power in a situation, or you are weak in thought or have a limited vocabulary, the only avenue to try to gain some power in the situation is to resort to sarcasm.

I've never actually heard that British people are sarcastic and I watch quite a few British comedies, perhaps you're just assuming that your particular peer group is representative of your entire country.

Answer 7

I've heard there are a LOT of things the Americans don't get... not just British humour. How about... Don't kill troops that are on your side? or that your constitution does NOT give the right to every redneck to own a gun... read it and understand!!! surely that's a simple thing to grasp? obviously not!
oooohhhh... look, thumbs down for being right... ??? oh well, i'm sure i'll still sleep well tonight!

Answer 8

Apparently Americans have difficulty understanding irony. However they elected George W Bush, so they must have a sense of humour!

Answer 9

I do not like sarcasm it is cruel and intended to wound. Irony is usually intended to be shared even by the "victim" There is a very narrow dividing line.

Answer 10

British comedy is more sarcastic than American. But we get it. The American comedy trend latley seem to be Obvious Humor.. haha