My visit to Derby

[Undertoad]

This part is to our Brits.

Americans now understand and are amused by sarcastic humor. In fact our culture is now full of it, and we practice it often.

We were not as familiar with sarcasm during the war. Our culture had to grow and expand; before modern times our communication was very sincere and direct, so we didn’t get it back then. I think most cultures have to go through that, to reach a level of sophisticated subtlety with speech. You were nicely ahead of the game and frankly superior with the language you invented. You still are, but America has reached the level where Chandler Bing can be one of the most popular characters written for television.

I know that many stereotypes die hard, but as long as you are going to continue to complain about the sorry nature of our sense of humor, we are going to persist in our outdated belief that you all say “pip pip” and “cheerio”. Which I believe you haven’t done since the 40s.

I say this because I wrote a sarcastic funny email to my boss and showed it to some of my Derby colleagues, and one of them wondered whether he’d get the humor in it, since after all, he is American. I was actually proud of that. An American WROTE the email but mate, you didn't think of that because you are accepting him as one of you. I have achieved my goal of being "half-caste" this week. (and I would be delighted if someone called me that while I'm here)