Ricky Gervais, Gad Elmaleh, Dave Chappelle, Ken Shimura. Take a look at your favorite comics, and you’ll often find that humor is rooted in shared experiences.
A shared cultural background and community often helps in connecting with what makes humor humorous. Without insider knowledge and localized context, jokes about politics, social norms, and everyday life are totally lost on outsiders.
The slapstick comedy that makes people laugh in one part of the world may leave those in another part rolling their eyes. The sarcasm some cultures find witty may confuse or offend others. And puns aren’t punny to those who don’t know the language or idioms enough to follow.
So, let’s explore humor across several cultures to identify where we might divide or come together.
British Sarcasm: Wit or Confusion?
“Let’s face it, the gene pool needs a little chlorine.” – Jimmy Carr
Irony is the Brits’ cup of tea.
With a dry, understated humor, the Brits have taken sarcasm to the next level.
They love deadpan, banter, innuendo, puns. It’s all part of their wit.
Monty Python is heavy with satire and wordplay. To a Brit, it’s hilarious – because they’ve learned to use sarcasm to deal with life’s sometimes painful and complex aspects.
But to someone unfamiliar with the British way of speaking, their sarcasm can be baffling or even sound like genuine complaining.
Without understanding the cultural context or the delivery, the humor is lost.
Japanese Puns: Wordplay That Falls Flat
In Japanese, puns are called dajare – literally “bad jokes” – and they’re the local version of dad jokes. These rely on homophones and wordplay, often charmingly silly.
Take this classic:
アルミ缶の上にある蜜柑 (arumi kan no ue ni aru mikan)
“A tangerine on an aluminum can.”
It plays on how “arumi kan” (aluminum can) and “aru mikan” (there is a mikan/tangerine) sound nearly identical.
The result? A pun that’s more about the sound than the punchline
As you can see, to a non-Japanese speaker or one who is not fluent, this would just sound like a string of random words without any punchline.
The humor relies on the nuance of Japanese language, which doesn’t translate well into other languages – and this can be said about puns in any language/culture.
When it comes to humor, context truly is king. A joke that causes audiences to double over with laughter in one country may fall flat in another…or may even be deemed offensive.
That’s why understanding humor in a cross-cultural context isn’t just about the words; it’s about the culture that shapes them.
Success Across Cultures 