It’s
fascinating and a little sad how I will probably never be able to fully
appreciate Russian humor.
A friend
of mine (who happens to be Russian) was over yesterday, and at some point, the
subject of Russian humor came up. She explained to me what Russian humor is
like – often dark, self-deprecating, and full of wordplay or at least amusing
phrases that are very funny in Russian but astonishingly not-funny in English.
Some of the jokes she translated into English, I found amusing, but for the
most part, I understood on an intellectual level that they should amuse me, but
the emotional level (the level that makes you actually laugh) just wasn’t
getting it. The “humor” part of “Russian humor” was lost on me because I’m
simply not Russian. Yes, I suppose I could learn Russian and then experience
the jokes in the language in which they are actually funny. But currently, I do
not speak Russian, and Russian humor continues to frustrate me with how I know it’s funny but I don’t feel it.
The way
language works is a tragic marvel. People who appreciate it (and this includes
writers) can look into its various nuances and mine tremendous wordsmithing value
from it. You know your own language and you know what sounds amusing and what doesn’t.
You know your native tongue’s inherently funny words, and since you get it on
an emotional and intellectual level, you stifle the urge to crack up when you
hear them in serious contexts. Fellow speakers of your language will
understand. They share your understanding of it.
People
who don’t understand your language, however, will not find your humor so
amusing. Much like something will sound hysterically funny in your head but
incredibly stupid out loud, so the comedic value of a phrase or joke will be
lost when you have to translate it into a foreign language. No one can really
say the exact reason this so, which is a testament to an indescribable,
ineffable quality that languages, individually and as a whole, have in the
psyches of those who speak them.
As a
result, my friend tells me Russian jokes translated into English, and I know
they’re funny but I don’t laugh.
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