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Why Humor Doesn't Translate 1

In some cultures, humor is a much used device in advertising and in others it is scarce. The statement that humor doesn't travel is frequently heard. Why? Because humor is a subversive play with conventions and established ideas; it is based on breaking taboos. Comedy plays with ways of breaking the rules of convention, going against what ought to be, the desired of a culture. Because it uses cultural conventions, it can only be understood by those who share the culture. An example is a fragment in Gogol's play The Revisor, where the Revisor's servant is seen lying on a bed. To the Russians of Gogol's time (1836), this was very funny because servants used to sleep on the floor and being on a bed meant being on one's master's bed, which was seen as an unheard-of liberty. This fits Russian culture, which was and still is one of the largest power distance cultures in the world. The servant's act would have been impossible to understand by members of small power distance cultures and thus not be viewed as funny.
Culture also influences the type of humor used.

Parody, for example, fits small power distance cultures because it disguises the voice of authority. Much of British humor is based on antiauthoritarianism. Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures, being able to cope with ambiguity, will use the more subtle types of humor, parody, and understatement. In strong uncertainty avoidance cultures, the more straight­forward type of slapstick humor tends to be used. The admonishing humor of the Germans has to do with their need for perfectionism, which explains their infre­quent use of irony. Much of Belgian humor is straightforward. It is a likely effect of strong power distance. In Belgian humor, the oppressed entrench themselves. A characteristic of humor is incongruity, or the contrast between the expected and the unexpected, the possible/plausible and the impossible/implausible. This element of surprise is an important part of humor: It is often the unexpected turn in a story or event that makes people laugh, and that helps them unwind.

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