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potato_headOne of the great mysteries of my life has finally been unravelled for me!
Apparently, my sense of humor is rather British for an American. That is to say, dry wit and deadpan, blatant lies (fictions? I am not sure how to describe them).
This explains two of the greatest mysteries of my grade school years: why nobody ever seemed to even understand I was making jokes (I got a lot of blank stares and confused looks...and have discovered that no matter how odd it is, if you say something without a hyuck-hyuck tone to it, people around here will think you are being serious), and why a lot of people thought I was stuck up. I have since given up on trying to be witty around most people, and restrict my humor to funny anecdotes, which are generally much better received P:
Amanda has recommended that my jokes would come across better if I smiled while making them. I might try that.
To be honest, I should have figured this out sooner, since I did have a long-time friend who both apparently thought I looked down on her, and also confessed she could never figure out when I was joking or not. She was pretty surprised when I informed her that actually most of what I say is intended to be a joke, or at least not very serious. I don't take myself or life all that seriously, in general, or at least no more seriously than we warrant.
Oh, and for some context, I figured this out when I tried to get Amanda to watch QI with me, which is apparently too British for her to understand. I was utterly confused because my sense of humor is generally very similar to Stephen Fry's (although obviously I cannot hope to be as funny, sexy or intelligent as he is). She had apparently not realized I wasn't being British on purpose. Um, I think the point I was getting to here is that QI is hilarious and Stephen Fry is one of my favorite people.
...Okay, how, exactly, does this infomercial figure that access to message boards about exercise is a '$150 value'?! Yeah, I'm sure I can't find anything like that for cheaper than $150...
Apparently, my sense of humor is rather British for an American. That is to say, dry wit and deadpan, blatant lies (fictions? I am not sure how to describe them).
This explains two of the greatest mysteries of my grade school years: why nobody ever seemed to even understand I was making jokes (I got a lot of blank stares and confused looks...and have discovered that no matter how odd it is, if you say something without a hyuck-hyuck tone to it, people around here will think you are being serious), and why a lot of people thought I was stuck up. I have since given up on trying to be witty around most people, and restrict my humor to funny anecdotes, which are generally much better received P:
Amanda has recommended that my jokes would come across better if I smiled while making them. I might try that.
To be honest, I should have figured this out sooner, since I did have a long-time friend who both apparently thought I looked down on her, and also confessed she could never figure out when I was joking or not. She was pretty surprised when I informed her that actually most of what I say is intended to be a joke, or at least not very serious. I don't take myself or life all that seriously, in general, or at least no more seriously than we warrant.
Oh, and for some context, I figured this out when I tried to get Amanda to watch QI with me, which is apparently too British for her to understand. I was utterly confused because my sense of humor is generally very similar to Stephen Fry's (although obviously I cannot hope to be as funny, sexy or intelligent as he is). She had apparently not realized I wasn't being British on purpose. Um, I think the point I was getting to here is that QI is hilarious and Stephen Fry is one of my favorite people.
...Okay, how, exactly, does this infomercial figure that access to message boards about exercise is a '$150 value'?! Yeah, I'm sure I can't find anything like that for cheaper than $150...
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 02:27 pm (UTC)Hm. This could explain a lot of why Americans often seem to just not get my humour online.
f you say something without a hyuck-hyuck tone to it, people around here will think you are being serious <<< Where do you live? This scares me.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 05:25 pm (UTC)I've tried adding things like 'oh, yeah, definitely' that I would hope people would recognize as sarcastic, but it still doesn't work unless I use sarcasm so heavy it could kill a person. And even then sometimes people still don't get it.
But I can't even tell you how many times I've been asked 'really?!' and had to say '...um...no...not really...o-o;'
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 04:56 pm (UTC)And I've never understood it. I don't get how it manages to fly right over their heads.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 05:29 pm (UTC)Maybe the Revolutionary War also included America casting aside anything but punchline humor in protest.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 05:41 pm (UTC)