Sunday, May 20, 2012

Why so serious?

Singaporeans have a very limited sense of humour. Now that should not be a problem, except for the fact that...... I don't know. I always felt that a sense of humour indicates a level of sophistication. There is no link between intelligence and sense of humour. But still, as a well developed country, laughter should not be a problem. Singaporeans say that the stressful local life make us unhappy and dull.

Let us take The Avengers movie as an example. The Singaporeans I have spoken to so far are only interested in either the action scenes or the special effects in the movie. It seems like nobody here cares about the humour. My sister watched the movie with her friends and said that she was the only person laughing throughout the film.

So it must be our culture. Humour in the United States is not culturally suited to Singaporeans. Singaporeans do get slap stick humour well though. But then comes the weird thing. I have been educated in Singapore all my life. How did I end up with an American sense of humour?

1 comment:

S. Stephani Soejono said...

Hey Cheng, c'est moi.

Seriously? Nobody laughed? It's Whedon! He is one of the few competent people in Hollywood who can do wordplay and smart script without sounding corny.

I'd like to know how Singaporeans react to Blackadder, because the humour is a lot more pointed and in your face but still using a lot of puns and wordplay.