americans and jokes

are you British type or not?

[JonB]

Just wondering how well tolerate americans jokes about america,people in usa,president and other american things. Sometimes i find some great jokes about amerecans but i am afraid to share it (not just here, everywhere on the net where i talk to americans). especially after 11.sept(those jokes are NOT making fun from tragedies, criplles etc!). But jokes about plitics,patriotism etc.

for example 5 minutes ago i read a "us patriot registration" form on whitehouse.org (which is full of jokes i think) but after considering 5 minutes i hesitated to post it here(although there is nothing offensive there).

So what do americans think of that kind of pages and jokes? I know that for example british people (UK) they arew the most humouros people on the planet - they KNOW to laugh when jokes are "ON THEM". For example if the funny incident that happend to Bush few days ago while watching the game would happend to one of royal familly or more to politics they would imediatelly make jokes of this. But in America i dont know , i have a feeling that this is more "embarasmment to real amercians" than something to ROTFLWYSIH (in public)!

Do you guys like jokes about the politicans or prez you voted for(in europe they do)? Or way of living? or you habbits ETC?(jokes like on whitehouse.org which i very like). Or patriotism? Especially those things that can be sensitive(things like this, not regular jokes becasue otherwise america is full of jokes. )

In Europe and especially in UK , which has favorite humor to me, the definiton of humor is :

You are humourous person when you can laugh on jokes ON YOU(rself).

Just asking, want to know where to "draw a line" with an American(not just here,everywhere):)

And yes, I would like to know if this POST is near crossing the line or did it cross the line? This would pretty answer my question :)

I hope there are no hard feelings, i dint mean to offend anyone- just asking :)
Jon

[gethan]

Err - guys ... nowhere is baiting you/us ;)

I think that Americans (just like many other nations) are able to laugh at themselves, as long as the joke is made by one they consider to be their own.

Its human nature, there is a very thin line between teasing and provoking - it often depends on who is doing the teasing.
Its easy to laugh with someone laughing at themselves (or their nation), harder when their laughing at others, hardest of all when their laughing at you.

If someone makes a joke about your mum its gonna fall flat (possibly provoke violence)... except if its made by your brother ;)

Put it this way - the Irish are renowned for being the butt of many jokes and taking it well. But I ain't gonna test it out by walking into a rough Dublin pub and treating the patrons to my best Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman jokes. (Hypothetical - I don't have any ... but if I did ;))

Obviously _some_ people have no sense of humour and peoples tolerance varies.

(edited by: gethan at 10:42 am (utc) on Jan. 17, 2002)

[backus]

Agreed, but I still refer my friend to the comment I made some moments ago...

[knighty]

I think nowhere was joking (I hope)

I think the main difference is...

(broad generalisations)

British humor is sharp, witty, dry and cutting.

US humour is more visual, obvious and slapstick.

[diddlydazz]

I will laugh at anyones jokes who can get my sites top in Google :)

[backus]

I will laugh at anybody who'll ask me to do it for free!

[diddlydazz]

when I say top I mean number 1 for 3289 different keywords :)

[backus]

Dazz, you didn't offer me a cup of tea!

[diddlydazz]

I still haven't made mine, I have been standing up for about 10 minutes meaning to go to the kitchen but someone pointed out an article about Google and I have been reading that.

:)

sugar ??

[backus]

Two please, with milk :)

[Black Knight]

Can I have coffee? None of that American Starbucks-type muck tho... South American is fine tho... :)

Not forgetting to stir it. ;)

Ammon

[lawman]

>>Link?

Damn, I've been ratted out by NFFC. Okay,so my posts generally fall into two categories.

Lawman

(edited by: lawman at 12:02 pm (utc) on Jan. 17, 2002)

[knighty]

Actually I'd quite like some tea.

*Note for Americans : Tea is not served ice cold in a glass with lemon and is not Liptons type tea bags either!

[diddlydazz]

Tetley or PG Tips, try it !

My girlfriend is spanish and now she drinks more tea than I do :)

[diddlydazz]

or should I say she makes more tea than I do :)

joke

[backus]

Here in Prague, I go to a restaurant and order a cup of tea. They bring me a glass full of boiling water, one sachet of sugar and part of a lemon. I say to them, "Could I possibly have more sugar and some milk please?" They look at me as if I'm an idiot! There is this one place I go to that finally recognises me. Everytime I order a tea there they bring a normal cup, some boiling water in a seperate jug-type-thing, a round tea-bag, a some milk. Whereas the people on the next table, who have also ordered tea, get the usual treatment. They sometimes ask why I have been served differently. The waiter will just say, "he's English," they'll nod and go back to whatever they were doing. *sigh* but you simply must pour water OVER the bag, otherwise it just doesn't taste the same!

[tedster]

I think many Amercians can be very thin-skinned about some of our cultural shortcomings. I remember seeing "A Fish Called Wanda" in the cinema. If you haven't seen this movie, it's a John Cleese winner, and contains some great humor poking fun at both American and British stereotypes.

A lot of the audience wasn't laughing -- and they were giving some very strange looks to the few of us who were. I don't even think the non-laughers were offended -- they just didn't get it.

[lawman]

>>you simply must pour water OVER the bag, otherwise it just doesn't taste the same!

Backus, you're right. I just tried pouring the water UNDER a Lipton tea bag; big difference in taste. ;)

Lawman

[gethan]

Back to tea.

I've been trying out various different types of tea:

Earl Grey: yuk. Why bother? About as flavoursome as a cup of hot water that once was in the same room as a tea leaf.

Lapsang Souchong: Ergh. Even worse - Tastes like pipe smoke :(

Ceylon: Now thats better. Nice flavour, colour and strength.

Assam: Really good, strong tea flavoured tea. The way it should be.

So after trying out a few of these different teas I looked at new respect at the different blended brands. Basically "how can you include lapsang suochong and get something that tastes nice".

Favoured blends: PG Tips, Brook Bond D, Yorkshire Tea.

Only too happy to conform to my cultural stereotype, anyone want to talk about the weather or tug some forelocks?

[backus]

If you're tired, drink a tea called Matte. It is a legal version of Speed.

[msgraph]

Matte = Yerba Maté ;)

[backus]

That's the one!

[tedster]

My favorite tea - Barry's Gold Blend. It's an Irish brand, but here in Boston it's available as an import. As gethan promoted, it's an Assam blend.

[joshie76]

If local foibles are your thing then you really should check out some of Bill Bryson's books (notes from a small island, notes from a big country etc)... They're hysterical - I get some funny looks on the tube (subway;)) for LOL'ing away in my seat.

[4eyes]

pah - this thread was more fun when we were baiting each other

I'm off for a cup of the cheapest instant coffee that Lidl could sell me.

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Part 2: [webmasterworld.com...]

(edited by: Brett_Tabke at 4:57 pm (utc) on Jan. 17, 2002)