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Q: How is humor different in Italy than in the United States?
A: Emiliana Russo, Italian Language Fellow– My knowledge of American humor and/or jokes is quite limited. To reply to your query, I will mainly rely on films and TV shows, and the conversations I had with people from the US.
It seems to me that there is no real clash between the Italian sense of humor and the American one.
If I think of Friends or How I met your mother, which are extremely popular TV shows in Italy, the enjoyability of jokes and humor does not get lost in translation.
As a proof of this, my sister and some university friends of mine love these TV series and whenever they watch them, they laugh loudly. Also, based on the interactions I have had with Americans (colleagues, friends, acquaintances, students, etc.), I have never experienced uncomfortable situations when joking.
However, in the past, I realized that at times my sense of humor was not always well understood by people from other European countries (Spain, France, Germany, etc.).
Jokes which would have been funny to my family or friends were perceived as unfunny or even not so nice.
In those situations, the following questions arose: “Is my sense of humor the expression of the Italian culture or personal? And have I always been surrounded by people sharing the same sense of humor as me in Italy?”
My personal conclusion was and is that there might be some features that are extensively funny in the Italian eyes (and ears). But maybe some others are a result of one’s circle of friends. Difficult to tell them apart, though.
Back to your question, what needs to be determined is in what way American and Italian jokes and/or humor are different.
Based on what I wrote at the beginning (which derives from first-hand experience), I would be tempted to say that they do not differ that much and that, for that reason, I find it really hard to identify areas of difference.
Yet, on the Internet, there are people claiming that Italians joke about everything, even topics which might be regarded offensive or taboos by other peoples.
By Americans as well? At this point, it would be worth investigating the phenomenon a little bit more, maybe academically…
