Do Americans "not get sarcasm"?

[Sam Vimes]

Haven't you heard ? Sarcasm was listed as an Un-American activity during the McCarthy Era and was banned in all states except Texas where they were too dumb to spell Sarcasm, let alone understand it. Now Sarcasm is a lost art-form in the USA except for a surviving Ivy league underground culture which is famous for growing it's sarcasm so dry that they sell it to drug companies to put in little desiccant sachets with your bottles of pills.

You should write for Wikipedia !

 

[Druyn]

Its just that sarcasm cant be read through type unless you make it painfully obvious, losing the point. Its hard to read sarcasm, and then throw in the trolls, who stay stupid/ignorant things on a daily basis just to get people angry, and most people just have trouble telling if its sarcasm, trolling, or idiocy. Its not our fault as americans, because et me say, that in real life we are usually all quite sarcastic. Im just going ot take trolls as a more american thing, and say that it makes us a bit mre confused than others.

 

[Lexodus]

Sarcasm is a lost art over the pond, along with subtlety, common sense and good humour. Well, not exactly; some American comedians are funny, but mostly American humour (or 'humor', which sounds like a disease) is not. Canadians, though... god, Canadians are great

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

Nah its just that sarcasm dosen't translate well onto the internet.

With the large popularity of satirical comedy shows (Daily Show, Colbert Report, South Park, et. al.), I would be inclined to think Americans are fine with sarcasm. It's generally accepted that sarcasm is hard to portray as text.

Seeing both of your avatars together made my night.

 

[Woodsey]

I wouldn't say they don't all get it, but I'd say that they're more likely to take what you've said literally.

To be fair, if you're going to be sarcastic in a piece of writing it takes a lot more skill to have it read as sarcasm, as opposed to being face-to-face with someone. Which is partly why I can't tell if this is a joke:

Oh, thanks for the insult.

But I hear that people do actually pay to see Dane Cook live; if that's not an indication of a lack of subtlety, I don't know what is.

 

[Jewrean]

Nah its just that sarcasm dosen't translate well onto the internet.

This.

Never use sarcasm on the internet unless of course you explain your sarcasm with a [/sarcasm]. This isn't just an American condition... it's a HUMAN condition. We are not all psychic and can't tell that your making the funnyz. Make your joke clear that it's a joke or don't make it at all.

Am I wrong

Yes.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

I wouldn't say they don't all get it, but I'd say that they're more likely to take what you've said literally.

To be fair, if you're going to be sarcastic in a piece of writing it takes a lot more skill to have it read as sarcasm, as opposed to being face-to-face with someone. Which is partly why I can't tell if this is a joke:

Oh, thanks for the insult.

Part joke, part serious. It was my first response mentally when I saw the thread, but then I realized that it fit perfectly, given that it actually is sarcastic, given that I am thanking the OP for something that I do not like.

 

[Kingstome]

Americans understand sarcasm just fine. As a lot of people have said, it just doesn't translate well to text.

I think the reason that a couple of people got defensive over this and assumed that it was intended to be an "America Bashing" thread was because we catch a lot of flak. The entire world hears the word American and instantly assumes that the person in question is an idiot. Since we are so used to defending our IQ based on where we were born, we might jump to arms a little quickly.

Last, whats with people throwing the southern states into the line of fire? Now, I might talk a little slow, but that's just the accent I grew up around. I promise I'm just as capable of understanding sarcasm as anyone else, and so is everyone else around here.

 

[chiefohara]

Americans understand sarcasm just fine. As a lot of people have said, it just doesn't translate well to text.

I think the reason that a couple of people got defensive over this and assumed that it was intended to be an "America Bashing" thread was because we catch a lot of flak. The entire world hears the word American and instantly assumes that the person in question is an idiot. Since we are so used to defending our IQ based on where we were born, we might jump to arms a little quickly.

Last, whats with people throwing the southern states into the line of fire? Now, I might talk a little slow, but that's just the accent I grew up around. I promise I'm just as capable of understanding sarcasm as anyone else, and so is everyone else around here.

Blame bush, he was all that the world saw of Texas and the American south for 8 years. Personally i like the southern accent best of all, but when you have a notoriously bad public speaker representing your part of the world for the better part of a decade the southern stereotpye is going to be adjusted because of it.

 

[Player 2]

Wht always confuses me is when they say "No, I was talking ironically"... That doesn't make sense. You were being sarcastic!

Sarcasm is defined as using ironic wit to deride. However "talking ironically" isn't correct English, so you were right.

This thread reminds me of something that happened a while back. One of the crappy tabloids here had been running what was almost a smear campaign against this American celebrity(some guy who divorced some woman, don't remember who) for some reason. So the American guy sued them for harassment and libel and forced them to print an apology. They printed the apology next to an article about how Americans don't get sarcasm.

 

[Evil the White]

- Snip -

No Americans get sarcasm. Now irony, they don't get. So they end up being unintentionally ironically 'ironic'.

 

[The Stonker]

What people don't get when they are trying to be sarcastic on the internet is that sarcasm is all about how you pronounce it.
Not how they type it or the words.

 

[Mcupobob]

Last, whats with people throwing the southern states into the line of fire? Now, I might talk a little slow, but that's just the accent I grew up around. I promise I'm just as capable of understanding sarcasm as anyone else, and so is everyone else around here.

Sorry fellow American! Its just easier for us to get quickly out of American bashing by pawning all the hate off on the South. I'm just assuming you mean by my post. I wasn't trying to insult the south, When I was over there visting Family they didn't apperciate "smart asses" Which I understand, sarcasm comes off insulting sometimes.

EDIT-spelling

 

[kurupt87]

Those who "don't get" sarcasm, or claim to understand it but are offended by it are those who lack the ability to laugh at themselves; this is not constrained to the USA.

This post was brought to you sarcasm-free by kurupt87, Escapist Magazine's forum poster of the year, 2010. So, you should listen to him.

 

[Koeryn]

Haven't you heard ? Sarcasm was listed as an Un-American activity during the McCarthy Era and was banned in all states except Texas where they were too dumb to spell Sarcasm, let alone understand it. Now Sarcasm is a lost art-form in the USA except for a surviving Ivy league underground culture which is famous for growing it's sarcasm so dry that they sell it to drug companies to put in little desiccant sachets with your bottles of pills.

It's not that Texas was too dumb to spell/understand sarcasm, we just said 'Fuck it!' to McCarthyism and told it that that dress it was wearing really WAS slimming.

 

[PureChaos]

most of sarcasm is how it's said and you can't get tone of voice when reading so sarcasm doesn't come through very well. it's the same with texting. i've had a number of texts where i'm not sure if it's meant to be sarcasm or not.

though, generally, i've heard Americans don't really get sarcasm

 

[crudus]

Only 9% of a message is the physical words (the type you use on a message board). When you use sarcasm on the internet the part that tells us you are using sarcasm isn't there. Unless you end your comment with /sarcasm then people are going to take you seriously.

Isn't it irony that Americans don't get?

I think Americans don't know the meaning of irony. I may be thinking of satire.

 

[ajemas]

It's never a good idea to generalize an entire group of people. The statement "Americans do not understand sarcasm" is essentially saying that all 300 million of us do not understand a basic kind of speech. I know that it is not supposed to be taken literally, but it is still a bit rude.
Anyway, as an American myself, I can tell you that this is blatently untrue. In fact, research has been done to show that even babies are able to grasp sarcasm effectively. What you have to understand is that displaying sarcasm through text is almost impossible. It's perfectly normal for somebody, not just Americans, to not grasp the tone that you are trying to put in your writing.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Your problem is that you're on the Internet, and basically the only way to use sarcasm here is to blatantly state that you're being sarcastic.

 

[Plurralbles]

yeah... if you're posting then obviously sarcasm is hard to detect.

Oh yeah, having prejudices against one specific country's people is kind of a dick way to try to understand the world.