Do Americans "not get sarcasm"?

[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.

 

[BonsaiK]

I had recently posted a joke in a comment on a website (not naming names) and I was surprised that my throwaway joke was actually taken as a serious comment, with people explaining to me how stupid I was.

One realised and the other now thinks I'm a moron trying to pretend something stupid I said was a joke.
I got to thinking whilst typing up my final response that this only seems to be a problem with Americans, Americans seem to be very literal, their humour kind of blunt and shouty, I suppose.

Am I wrong, do you think or is this indeed part of American culture?
A lack of sarcasm, that is.

Americans are fine with sarcasm, it's irony they sometimes struggle with.

The internet, on the other hand, doesn't get sarcasm at all. Never use it, ever. Also never use sarcasm in any form of text communication such as sms.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

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

Pretty much this.

You both typed it for me.

 

[Meggiepants]

No. We don't. And as an American I demand people stop using it.

Last week, my sister said she thought this joke I told about dog poo was brilliant. I signed up for improv night and not one person laughed. I was booed off the stage. When I confronted my sister she said she was being sarcastic. I invited all my friends and family to see me perform. I even invited my boss. I've been fired, disowned my my family, and un-friended on all the social networking sites.

My life is ruined. Because of sarcasm. Sarcasm can go to hell.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Yes, yes, everyone knows Americans cannot be sarcastic.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Americans are fine with sarcasm, it's irony they sometimes struggle with.

The rest of the world is hardly exempt from gross misuse of irony either. At least 80% of my friends misuse it all the time. Must resist urge to smack!

 

[Thedayrecker]

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

This can explain a lot of misunderstandings.

Also every American is obviously retarded
[small][sub][sub][sub]See what I did there?[/sub][/sub][/sub][/small]

 

[Thaius]

Not part of American culture. But it's hard to detect sarcasm with text, so sarcastic comments are often taken seriously. There are a lot of idiots out there: a sarcastic comment without sarcastic tone could mean anything.

 

[BadassCyborg]

America is such a fine amazing superb country with the best funniest comedy ever.

 

[spartan231490]

I cannot imagine you being more wrong. sarchasm fails on the internet, but i have not met a single person who isn't sarchastic several times a day.(I live in america if that was unclear.)

 

[Leadfinger]

"It was long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak."
---John Knowles (A Separate Peace)