HUMOUR

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume XXII, 5 August 1932, Page 1

HUMOUR

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN “A member of Parliament proposing the toast of England and America at. an Anglo-American dinner, which was held not long ago, remarked that the two great ’English-speaking’ peoples had at least one common bond, namely, ‘a common literature, if not a common language.’ All present joined in the cheers, but the laughter seemed to monopolised by the English. “At a mixed gathering of students of politics held recently, one of the foreign students remarked jestingly, ‘Well, next time you English are in difficulties you had better help yourselves, instead of appealing to your American cousins. You will find it much cheaper.” There was general laughter, except among the American students. “Sir Norman Angell has related how a foreigner once said to him at Geneva—‘You British believe your stupidity is a gift of God. It may be, but it is a gift that should not be abused.’ I have heard this story repeated several times by Englishmen, who laughed at the humour of it in spite of its sting. Substitute ‘Americans’ for English, and it would probably be resented strongly, instead of being laughed at. But I have not yet seen the experiment tried on any ' American, nor do I advise anybody to try it.” “Here again it would be unsafe to put much reliance on a few examples. But as far as they go they appear to suggest that Americans are more touchy about any criticism of things American than English people are about criticism of things English. “If this hypersensitiveness to criticism really is an old characteristic of American humour, then there remains the problem of explaining it. No one, I take it, would suspect Americans of an inferiority complex. It is more likely to be done perhaps to that vigorous, almost aggressive spirit of independence and self-assertion which helped to give birth to the Monroe Doctrine. It may be work noting that it was a kindred spirit that has led to the conversion of some of the British colonies into more or less autonomous dominions. The differences between American and English humour may then be briefly summarised as follows:—American humour is apt to be more explicit, less reverent, less sentimental and less self-attached than is English humour. Or to put it in the converse form, English humour is more reserved, more tender, more respectful of conventions, and more impersonal or self-detached than is American humour.