This blog survives because I occasionally find things that make folks, just like you, smile. Also because the producers make funny videos that seem to strike a chord with people you can tolerate. You may not want them in your home, but you can tolerate them.
So, it is with all this in mind that I turned my jaundiced eye to Paul Casciato’s article about the funniest countries in the world.
We’re #1!
The Germans have been voted the world’s “least funny nationality” in a global poll, which names Americans the funniest overall and the Spanish the most amusing Europeans, ahead of the Italians and French.
The social network and dating website Badoo.com asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name both the “funniest,” or best at making people laugh,” and “the least funny” nationality.
Americans took the funniest prize, followed by the Spanish in second and Italians in third.
The voting for “least funny” nationality confirmed the view of American novelist Mark Twain that “a German joke is no laughing matter.”
The Germans won comfortably, ahead of the Russians and Turks.
Yet, the British — whose “The Office” and Monty Python shows have become pillars of English-language humor — learn from the Badoo poll that they are not as funny as they think. They placed just seventh out of 15 — behind the Brazilians, French and Mexicans.
But they ranked higher when Badoo asked the opposite question: Which nationality do you find the least funny? Here, the British ranked fourth, just after the Turks.
“I’m afraid that we don’t find some of the results very funny,” said Badoo’s Director of Marketing Lloyd Price, who is British.
The Americans topped the poll, as the folks who brought us TV sitcoms like Friends, The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld and any number of comic greats from the Marx Brothers to Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Larry David, Ben Stiller or now Tina Fey.
Just curious, but did you note that the British author of the article has never heard of a single comic of color? From Redd Foxx to Richard Pryor to Dave Chappelle and many others, America has produced some of the funniest people of color in history. And, no, George Lopez doesn’t count.
Mostly because he’s not funny.
Actually, totally because he’s not funny.
I’ve had wounds that were more amusing.
But what makes American funnier than other countries? Sure, we’ve got Florida so that gives us an unfair advantage, but what else? I think this story from Washington state will explain.
Police say a man was carrying a dead weasel when he burst into an apartment and assaulted a man in Washington state.
The victim asked, “Why are you carrying a weasel?” Police said the attacker answered, “It’s not a weasel, it’s a marten,” then punched him in the nose and fled.
The attacker was apparently looking for his girlfriend and had gone to her former boyfriend’s apartment Monday where the victim was a guest.
KXRO radio reports he left the carcass behind.
Police later found the suspect arguing with his girlfriend at another location and arrested the 33-year-old Hoquiam man after a fight.
He said he had found the marten dead near Hoquiam, but police don’t know why he carried it with him.
Martens are members of the weasel family.
See? You just don’t get stories like that from anywhere else in the world. Sure, they’ve got crime, but how many cultures would be able to add a dead weasel to a simple assault charge?
It’s things like this that make America great.
Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG AM 1280, every Thursday morning around 9:10!