One thing I do notice, however, is that the different nationalities' sense of humour is so varied. I have come across this time and time again. I mean, my ex-husband is American and you would think, having a common(ish) language, that we would have a common sense of humour, but not a bit of it.
Take this photo for example. Someone posted it on Facebook and I thought it was so funny. I showed it to my Irish colleague and she got a fit of the giggles. So I showed it to my English colleague, and again a fit of the giggles. Anway, I thought it was so funny I stuck a copy on the door to our little kitchenette and waited for reactions. I have to say my German colleague, V, has a great sense of humour, but she stood there and looked at it and said "so, what's funny about that?" My French colleague just said "oh, so you mean people actually steal food out of the fridge?" In fact, their non-reactions were probably funnier than our reactions. It is really strange and I have found it over and over again. Humour (for the most part) just doesn't seem to translate.
Having said that, some years ago I treated myself to two huge tomes of the complete works of Gary Larson and I LOVE it. It was expensive but every time I take out one of the volumes and start flicking through it I get a fit of the giggles again. I guess I just love visual humour and Gary Larson certainly does it for me.
I enlarged one of Larsen's old comics from the newspaper, and have it framed on my bedroom wall, just because it makes me laugh every single time I look at it (Imagine a fully staffed boat equipped with electronics and recording devices to pick up whale conversations. There is a submerged mic to transfer the "talk" and a whale bellied up to it singing "Louie, Louie"
ReplyDeleteHa ha, I just love Gary Larson. I'm just giggling at your description - but when you see them. My colleague had one on her wall, of a game of scharades (sp?). A man had his willy out on the table and was just about the hammer it with a huge sledgehammer. The caption was "despite Desmond's best efforts, nobody guessed the capital of Thailand - Bangkok"! Love it. Anna
ReplyDeleteAnd of course if I edited my own comments before I posted .....
ReplyDeleteI LOVE it!!!!! My frig food is normally named Sonya but I have had a sandwich or two that was named Dennis.
ReplyDeleteYou know, after Anne's comment about enlarging a Gary Larson picture I got to thinking about doing the same thing. I have just stripped my junk room and turned it into what I think is a rather nice dressing/sewing room/library. But the walls are bare so I'm thinking - add a Gary Larson cartoon. Trouble is, I haven't got a clue which one like best.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago when they were (finally) getting the Chilean miners out of that mine, my (French) neighbour ran round and asked I if I was getting it live on tv as they weren't When I said yes he asked if he could come round and watch with me. Well there was about 40-60 minutes between each rescue so I pulled out my Larson cartoons and we sat there going through them. The ones without captions he laughed at on his own. But when I found a really good one I would translate the caption into French for him. I tell you, apart from being a wonderful experience seeing them get out `Los Mineros de Chile`` we had the greatest time giggling away together at the Larson cartoons. Hey how, happy days.