A Sense of Humor (or Humorous Sense)

It's been months since my friend Mona asked me to speak to her students and share my US experiences. Mona is a Peace Corps volunteer based in a small village of Kolchugino, which perfectly matches the asceticism that Peace Corps are usually associated with. I was challenged with a task of talking to 6 different classes of students who rarely leave their village to go into the bigger city, for whom seeing a movie in a cinema is a subject for pride.

While talking to these students I felt awkward. For one, I felt sad because I was talking about things that most of them are most likely not experience in their lives. For two, I was ruining the Utopian vision of the US concluded from the numerous Hollywood movies that distort the American reality. I have tried to share what it feels to be a high school student in the US with all the fun that comes along.

Even though it was frustrating to repeat the same thing over and over again, I enjoyed the experience, as it made me think what makes our countries different. One thing that came to mind is the humor.

When I make a joke, I rarely think why this particular joke is funny in a certain environment. In Ukraine, most of the jokes are anecdotal, very situational. A good joke is the one making complete arses of main characters, who are usually archetypes. Unfortunately, often enough ethnicities and nationalities are turned into archetypes thus celebrating stereotypes about certain groups of people.

A man comes to the church and says:
- I have sinned, Reverend.
- What is your sin?
- I have cheated on a Jew.
- It is not a sin!
- What is it then?
- IT'S A MIRACLE!!!

I have noticed that in the US, most of humor is based on play of words. American jokes are witty. They require thinking. They employ the peculiarities of language to ridicule certain phenomena. More often than not jokes are meant to be sarcastic, and even scornful. The point is usually not on the surface, but has to be discovered.

- Did you hear that they have raised the minimum drinking age in Tennessee to 32?
- It seems they want to keep alcohol out of the high schools!

I am really not sure what these differences may mean. They may indicate nothing. Or they may emphasize the cultural differences through humor as a product of folklore.

Picture: The only monument in the world dedicated to The Smile. It is situated in Lvov, Ukraine.