Notes from a Small Village

I’ve lived in Balerno since 1991. It’s home. But Illinois, the American state where I grew up, is also home. I think of myself as a transplant – uprooted from the rich, dark farmland in the Midwest, and replanted in harder, rockier UK soil. Though I feel quite at home here, growing up in a place with different customs means that I don’t always see things in the same way as my neighbour.

US vs. UK SENSE OF HUMOUR?

Yes, there are differences. I knew this before I ever crossed the pond. I’d been told – and had discovered through TV shows such as Monty Python – that British humour was often more ironic, more sarcastic, more complicated. By contrast, the American comedy programmes I grew up with, such as “I Love Lucy” and “The Carol Burnett Show”, were downright silly! Slapstick … comedians getting themselves into preposterous predicaments and squirming to work their way out … characters trying not to laugh when they fluff their lines, but eventually cracking up.

Americans are good at laughing at themselves. I think this is because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. But here I had to learn to be careful about joking about certain things. Take surnames, for example.

I once met someone whose surname was the name of a room you would find in any house! I’d never had this experience back in the USA. So I had to ask, “Are there also people in this country who have the surname ‘Dining Room’?” Big mistake. I didn’t get a laugh, or even a smile. Instead, the woman looked at me as if to say, “You barbarian! You just don’t joke about a person’s name.”

And yet, as I was soon to discover, British people were only too happy to make a joke at my expense! Once, as I waited outside a bakery, the woman ahead of me turned and said, “You Americans put all sorts of things in your sandwiches! It’s amazing you can open your mouths wide enough to get them in! Hahaha!” I laughed with her and said, “Yes, I guess we do! But the British are the other extreme – so stingy with ingredients. For goodness sake, the war’s over!” By this point I was brave enough to return the banter. In my very early days in Britain, I wouldn’t have known what to say to a comment like this.

I enjoy caricature and satire, but not all Americans do. A relative came to visit our family once and, because he appreciates comedy, I treated him to an episode of “Absolutely Fabulous!” Sure that he’d enjoy it, I couldn’t wait to laugh with him over the antics of Eddie and Patsy! But he didn’t laugh; he got indignant. He was horrified at the way Edina treated her daughter and disgusted at the way she lived, her values and comments. I tried to explain that it was funny because it was an exaggeration of the life of a certain kind of woman. He was taking it too seriously! Eventually I gave up and turned off the telly. You know, if you have to explain a joke …

To be continued next issue …

Notes from a small village is contributed by Suzanne Green. Suzanne, a freelance writer/editor, lives in Balerno and writes regularly for Konect. She is married to Andy and they have two adult daughters.