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I consider myself American. Nobody understands me here in the Philippines because my humor is very sarcastic. Filipinos generally don't understand what satire is.

Why are Filipinos so anal and serious about themselves? I thought they were supposed to be laid back and care-free.

samurai_panda wrote:I consider myself American. Nobody understands me here in the Philippines because my humor is very sarcastic. Filipinos generally don't understand what satire is.

Why are Filipinos so anal and serious about themselves? I thought they were supposed to be laid back and care-free.

I don't know how long you have been here, but yes, sarcastic humor does not go well here. I think with sarcasm comes some risk of loss of face...not a good ploy in most of Asia. Are you in metro-Manila or some other part of Luzon?

outwest

The lack of sarcasm is one of my favorite things about the Philippines.

OutWest wrote:

samurai_panda wrote:I consider myself American. Nobody understands me here in the Philippines because my humor is very sarcastic. Filipinos generally don't understand what satire is.

Why are Filipinos so anal and serious about themselves? I thought they were supposed to be laid back and care-free.

I don't know how long you have been here, but yes, sarcastic humor does not go well here. I think with sarcasm comes some risk of loss of face...not a good ploy in most of Asia. Are you in metro-Manila or some other part of Luzon?

outwest

I tend to be a sarcastic East Coaster and yes in many cultures the nature of sarcasm does not go over since people assume that you are giving your genuine opinion. OTOH, my gf does understand and appreciate my sarcasm but at times I do have to exaggerate it to ensure that she really knows I am being sarcastic.

I don't like people who take themselves too seriously. They have big EGO and think they are so self-important.

I just love trolling them to the point where they lose all control and get so mad. It's a giggles of laughs.

Life is short and beautiful. Why so serious?

samurai_panda wrote:I just love trolling them to the point where they lose all control and get so mad. It's a giggles of laughs.

Welcome back Konrad...

I am the most sarcastic person I know and it has proved to be a serious impediment in the good old USA. No, it will not be understood in the Philippines either. And saving face is extremely important over there as mentioned above.

Oh keep in mind the country you are in.
People get killed for singing bad karaoke!

They don't take themselves seriously, not counting loss of face. More than likely humour is lost in cultural translation.

Sarcasm is not understood at all, neither is connotation or denotation, irony, and sometimes context. This actually makes for some good expat humor. Some of my favorite Filipino stores and signs:

Quick Stomach - (name of a fast food restaurant)
Ralph's liqueur and Gun shop
Tough Guys Gym and Shooting range
Scorpion Massage - I assume it's a standard massage parlor.. Never cared to try.
Adam's Rib's - Barbeque restaurant
Big Dick's Car wash
The Final Option - (Guns and ammmo shop)

Local humour is just different. They tease each other (gay jokes and sexual humour), there is some pun based humour which often requires knowledge of Tagalog or other local dialects.. the humour often lays in the incredible ambiguity of the local language ie.. Mahal = love or expensive. Very little of the local humour is subtle, and sarcasm requires some subtlety.

Try watching a western movie in a movie theatre and see which parts the audience laughs at. When I do, I find myself laughing totally out of sync with the rest of the audience.

Filipino TV often features loud slapstick comedy, that I never find funny. On the other hand many of my local friends are truly funny and have a great sense of humour. But its a different sense of humour than my western friends.

I would say as a whole, filipinos DON'T take themselves that seriously. In fact, most are pretty relaxed and funny most of the time. I can certainly name those from other nations that take themselves WAY more seriously than the filipinos.

My wife is a crack up and she enjoys sarcastic humor. Thank god or I'd be in big trouble.