discussion Is sarcasm mostly an American/western humor?

[Dante Silva]

12 minutes ago, Bosque said:

Yes and the UK is included in "western" in almost any casual context so I'm pretty sure the OP was asking about sarcasm in countries like China, SEA countries, Middle Eastern, African etc. countries 

It is, but in the thread title the original geographic location that birthed sarcasm is mentioned in secondary terms after the U.S.(and only then as part of a "Western" collective).
 

In grammatical terms the thread title is biased and distorted as the way it is written gives an inordinate amount of emphasis on a secondary geographic location within the "western" landmass (the U.S).  
 

To not realise this is to be on the same level as those stans who sometimes claim that Lady Gaga went back in a time machine to the late 1970's to teach Madonna how to be Madonna.

 

The evolutionary development of something is never grammatically given greater emphasis than an originator (unless an individual is displaying bias).

 

Edited August 3 by Dante Silva

[Bosque]

9 minutes ago, Dante Silva said:

It is, but in the thread title the original geographic location that birthed sarcasm is mentioned in secondary terms after the U.S.(and only then as part of a "Western" collective).
 

In grammatical terms the thread title is grammatically biased and distorted as the way it is written gives an inordinate amount of emphasis on a secondary geographic location within the "western" landmass (the U.S).  
 

To not realise this is to be on the same level as those stans who sometimes claim that Lady Gaga went back in a time machine to the late 1970's to teach Madonna how to be Madonna.

 

The evolutionary development of something is never realistically given greater emphasis than the originator.

 

I understand your point but I feel like you're reading a lot into a thread that looks like it was written in 2 minutes. If OP is American, then writing "American" first seems logical if you're just carelessly formulating a quick question. 
 

I would also question that Great Britain is the "original geographic location that birthed sarcasm". It seems far more likely that sarcasm developed independently in several areas of the world before humans were able to communicate across great distances. 

Edited August 3 by Bosque

[Dante Silva]

2 minutes ago, Bosque said:

I understand your point but I feel like you're reading a lot into a thread that looks like it was written in 2 minutes. 
 

I would also question that Great Britain is the "original geographic location that birthed sarcasm". It seems far more likely that sarcasm developed independently in several areas of the world before humans were able to communicate across great distances. 

Well as others have mentioned Australia in context of being a culture also steeped in a strong sense of sarcasm, take one guess where Caucasian Australian's also migrated from ?

 

Edited August 3 by Dante Silva

[Bosque]

5 minutes ago, Dante Silva said:

Well as others have mentioned Australia in context of being a culture also steeped in a strong sense of sarcasm, take one guess where Caucasian Australian's also migrated from ?

 

Current white Australians are mostly the descendants of Brits and "Western" Europeans who moved there/colonized it in the 17th century or later. That just proves that Brits/Western Europeans who lived in that time period took "sarcasm" with them to Australia, not that the landmass of Great Britain is the original birthplace of sarcasm

[Dante Silva]

2 minutes ago, Bosque said:

Current white Australians are mostly the descendants of Brits and "Western" Europeans who moved there/colonized it in the 17th century or later. That just proves that Brits/Western Europeans who lived in that time period took "sarcasm" with them to Australia, not that the landmass of Great Britain is the original birthplace of sarcasm

Your response reveals a lot in psychological terms about the human ego and it's sometimes inability to accept that it is not always right.

 

Edited August 3 by Dante Silva

[SlowGinFizzzz]

American sarcasm is pretty tame, shallow and on the nose, so that's probably not the best example, whereas British and (Eastern) European sarcasm is generally a lot darker and drier. But yes, obviously different cultures have a different understanding of humour, so generally you can't really expect the average, say, Japanese or Middle Eastern person to understand or appreciate Western sarcasm. Ultimately it depends on the individual person, though. 

Edited August 3 by SlowGinFizzzz

[Dekkan]

23 minutes ago, cOe said:

Here in Poland people are definitely sarcastic

I have no idea what you are talking about

 

[Vermouth]

16 minutes ago, Dekkan said:

I have no idea what you are talking about

 

Oh really?

[ABeyBraith]

7 hours ago, GraceRandolph said:

Aren't British people really sarcastic? Maybe I'm wrong. 

It's basically second nature to us. I find Americans are really terrible at understanding/using sarcasm. 

[Sawk]

I've noticed its a north european white thing, latinos don't use it that much unless they're Americanized 

[Tropez]

14 hours ago, Sawk said:

I've noticed its a north european white thing, latinos don't use it that much unless they're Americanized 

Aren't Latinos American? 

[Sawk]

6 hours ago, Tropez said:

Aren't Latinos American? 

Yes, but in this context I was referring to United States American. 

[Hobbes]

The U.S.'s idea of sarcasm is incredibly on-the-nose and lacks nuance. I can't speak for other western countries but in the U.K. it's generally delivered in the same tone as sincerity, as opposed to obviously being sarcasm. 

[Namie-Knowles]

 But somehow Europeans can't tell when they're being trolled constantly by Americans. Our sarcasm so on the nose but every lie is believed. Like taking candy from a baby I fear.