A few weeks ago, just screwing around the Internet and checking youtube, I finally found the answer to that question. What do I miss the most ? Intelligent Humor.
I was never the classroom's clown, or someone who had the talent for telling jokes and making them interesting. I was never someone that would draw everyone's attention at a bar table so that I could tell a joke. I am more of a quiet kind of guy, but quite the observer. I love sarcasm. I tend to use it a bit too often, and that has gotten me in quite a few bad situations. However, I still like to make witty remarks on different situations, and I pride myself in having a general background that enables me to know enough to link situations and make them humorous.
However, living in Japan kinda makes it a handicap to try to use humor. Japanese people's humor is completely different than the traditional Western Humor. I love stand up comedy. One one my idols is Chris Rock. Recently, talking to a Japanese friend about the elections in the US, I recommended him to watch Chris Rock's latest HBO special "Kill the Messenger".
The guy watched the special and said he didn't find it that much interesting.
Sure, stand up comedians like Chris Rock make a lot of references to Western Culture, that most Japanese don't know, so I guess that makes it a little difficult to understand.
The so-called Warai-Geinin (the Funny Personalities) in Japan are famous for making weird faces or weird routines, that have very little appeal to us foreigners. A few of them are kind of funny, but after a few times you get tired of them...
So, yeah, the thing I miss the most is intelligent humor.
I will post a small youtube video of Chris Rock's special, and a recently discovered brazilian stand-up comedian (the only video from that guy that has English subtitles), so enjoy...
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