I admit that yours is the funny kind.
Winsor
Long Beach, CA
USA
On Aug 16, 2007, at 3:58 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
> I know, but it's fun OK?!
> Actually it is noticeable on things like chat lists where murkins
> seem somewhat less likely to identify ironic statements without other
> cues (strictly anecdotal evidence, no rigor).
> Something like Seinfeld relied heavily on irony but you'll note that
> it always began with a little stand-up as if to say- "all that
> follows this is a joke, right?"
> Americans 'get' irony just fine, so long as it's signalled.
> I've posted before my thesis on this effect.
> The argument goes something like this -
> 1. For Brits and many Europeans, irony is the standard mode of speech.
> 2. For Americans, it is not – they use a more direct mode.
> 3. Consequently, Europeans tend to see murrkins as a bit simple or
> gullible and
> 4. Murkins see Europeans as devious and deceitful.
>
> I'm sure that the Romans had similar problems with the Greeks.
>
> Oddly, many Brits (including my father) regard Australians as boorish
> and uncultured, despite the fact that we use irony even more, drink
> decent wine, our parliamentarians are far better behaved in the
> house, most of the senior Arts positions in Lunnen are held by expat
> Australians and we only keep making those bloody awful, childish,
> superannuated soap operas because the English keep buying them. Even
> the kids don't bother to watch them here. Oh, and we expect our
> politicians to lie to us because we know that they don't have a
> choice and don't really give a bugger whether they're religious or
> not or who they're sleeping with. So there.
> That probably destroys my argument too.
> Andrew Fildes
> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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