kai,
Great sense of humor. The Canadians like all English speaking people inherited the English kind of humor. But made their own brilliant versions of that. Like the American, Austrialan, New Zeelandish and South-Africans ( British diaspora in Africa). I don't know why, but these Anglo-Saxons have sense of humor in their blood.
Probably the Canadians have stayed more English than the Americans who have mixed with the Irish, Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, Polish, Ukrainians, Swiss, Dutch, Spanish and etc. I have an interest in the roots and heritage of humor. This bear joke is universal. But made by Canadians it's universal.
The American and Canadian sense of humors probably have a mix of European humors. It is a fact that different kind of countries have a different kind of humor. Sometimes people don't get the humor of other cultures. But some humor is universal, like this one. The absurd Danish movie director Lars von Trier has a typical Danish and thus European kind of humor.
Dutch humorDutch humor has changed over the centuries. In the 16th century, the Dutch were renowned for their humor throughout Europe, and many travel journals have notes on the happy and celebratory nature of the Dutch. Farces and joke books were in demand and many Dutch painters chose to paint humorous paintings, Jan Steen being a good example.
The main subjects of Dutch jokes at the time were deranged households, drunken clerics (mostly of the Roman Catholic Church) and people with mental and/or physical handicaps. A main theme was the reproof of immoral ethics: the 'Vicar's wagging finger'. However, at the end of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was in decline, and the Dutch Reformed Church denounced laughter and advocated sober lifestyles. Etiquette manuals appeared which considered it impolite to laugh out loud. This continued into the 1960s: during World War II, American soldiers were instructed not to tell jokes to the Dutch as "
they wouldn't appreciate it".
Famous Dutch comedians include Hans Teeuwen, Herman Finkers, Wim Sonneveld, Toon Hermans, Bert Visscher, Youp van 't Hek, Najib Amhali, Theo Maassen, Kees van Kooten, Sara Kroos, Brigitte Kaandorp, Karin Bloemen, Claudia de Breij, Tineke Schouten, Jochem Myjer and André van Duin.
Here some typical Rotterdam peoples humor in Rotterdam dialect. It's so universal in it's imaginary that you haven't got to understand Dutch. It's comedy about driving lessons. A terrible Dutch driving instrucor and his poor student.
And here typical The Hague peoples humor about a dirty man. Dirty man rents an adult video of a '
normal' video story man. He has a problem, his vcr is broke so he has to find a vcr to watch the video. (This was one of the most popular Ducht stand up comedian sitcom duo of the eighties in the Netherlands)
Dirty man bothers a decent man with his dirty talks'
This is a typical case of Dutch Black humor.
DenmarkA popular Danish theatrical tradition is the revue which has been thriving since the mid 19th century. Today revues are performed every summer to full houses in theatres across Denmark, poking fun at the politics of the day and even the monarchy. Among the most popular are Circusrevyen in Copenhagen with Lisbet Dahl, and the Nykøbing Revy directed by Flemming Krøll in Nykøbing Falster.
Polish sense of humorI have come to understand that Polish people can have a great sense of humor due to the dramatic heritage of their history, and the fact that there has been Bohemian, German, Jewish, Russian, Austrian and probably Hungarian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarussian influences. Like the British Poles are good in self mockery, irony and also a little bit of sarcastic and cynical humor. Poles share with the jews what I call '
survivors humor, also galled Gallows humor. Such kind of humor comes from occupations, Siberian Gulachs, Nazi concentration camps, destruction, poverty, mocking totalitarian systems and also hierarchy's and clergy.
The layers of history and multiple foreign regimes, and the fact that Poland due to it's many cities and towns had and has a large intelligentsia, academical class of educated and skilled people, ad to the fact that Poland is a country of humor, comedy, satire, cartoons, comical theatre, and puting things into perspective with the use of humor. Humor and comedy made life barable for Poles under barbaric and brutal opressions and in times that they and their culture and language weren't allowed to exist, grown and prosper.
Slovak sense of humorSlovaks seem to have a jovial and light sense of humor. Slovaks have many jokes about Czech people mainly dealing with backwardness, robberies and sexual deviance. Some jokes imply that Czech people are ignorant to the scientific and technological advances of other countries. Others imply that Czechs are heavy drinkers who choose to drink before they think in life or death situations.
When Slovak and Czech people tell jokes, they actually tend to laugh at each other, but most of the cases, they tell the same jokes exactly. The jokes often insist on the few differences between their languages, since they have sometimes misunderstandings due to linguistic differences. The fact they both tell these jokes proves that they have the same humor and they understand perfectly the expressions used.
Russian humourRussian humour gains much of its wit from the inflection of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations. As with any other culture's humour, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and wordplay to political satire.
JokesThe most popular form of Russian humour consists of jokes (анекдо́ты — anekdoty), which are short stories with a punch line. Typical of Russian joke culture is a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots and plays on words.
ChastushkaA specific form of humour is
chastushkas, songs composed of
four-line rhymes, usually of lewd, humoristic, or satiric content. (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chastushka )
Black humourApart from jokes,
Russian humour is expressed in word play and short poems including
nonsense and
black humour verses, similar to some of the macabre "nursery rhymes" of Edward Lear.
Often they have recurring characters such as "
little boy", "
Vova", "
a girl", "
Masha".
Most rhymes involve death or
a painful experience either for
the protagonists or
other people. This type of joke is especially popular with children.
A little boy found a machine gun —
Now the village population is none.
A boy played in the sandbox with no one to mind him,
When quietly a mixing truck pulled up behind him.
He peeped not a peep, cried out nary a cry —
Just his sandals stuck out when the concrete was dry.Маленький мальчик нашёл пулемёт —
Больше в деревне никто не живёт.
Маленький мальчик в песочке играл,
Тихо подъехал к нему самосвал.
Не было слышно ни крика, ни стона —
Только сандали торчат из бетона.
Some Iranians I knew in the Netherlands had to leave Iran, because they drew cartoons critical of the Mullah/Ayatollah regime. Some made fun of the rulers, some politicians or the Iranian system. It is great that in Canada and other Western countries such humor can exists.
For some reason there are great ads in this world. Often a lot better than many stand up comedy shows. Short and pointy and full of irony and briljant editing.
Cheers,
Pieter
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_humouren.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_humour
