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Australia comes across as a very
different, if not altogether eccentric, nation from the rest
of the Caucasian inhabited nations.
People suppose that having been
colonized and primarily populated by convicts during that
time have something to do with it.
And this greatly influenced the sense
of humor of Australia. Jokes about Australia by people
outside mainly revolve around this premise. Australia jokes
are also greatly influenced by this historical fact.
Non-Australians used to joke about the continent as being
the middle of nowhere. There is even a belief going around
that the continent came from the word “Wallaborongamal”—from
the Aboriginal language, which translates to “Where the
bloody hell am I?”
This can be attributed to the vast
arid lands and the general “outback” places in the
continent, where the wild seems to be a common place.
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Australians, on the other
hand, find humor in almost anything under the sun.
Australia jokes can be basically categorized into
ironic, extreme, self-mocking, black,
anti-authoritarian and mocking the wowser. Irony is
the oldest humor in the book and should come as a no
surprise.
Everybody laughs at the
ironies of life. Self-mocking, though, is not
everybody’s style of joke. Australians find it
easier to make fun of themselves than other people.
Maybe it’s because it is safer by the certainty that
they are not going to hurt other people’s feelings.
So, they instead turn to
themselves in making fun of their shortcomings or
frailties as human beings. However, contrary to
that, their black jokes seem to do just about that.
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Most people, Americans especially,
find it rude or bad taste to laugh at other people’s
misfortunes.
Australians however, tend to look at
the brighter (funny) side of the situation and make a laugh
out of it instead of lamenting over it.
Something which some
people think as admirable; and some think as poor taste.
Australia jokes are also anti-authoritarian at times.
This
means making up ridiculous and funny excuses or explanations
to an authority figure to get away with a violation. It can
be a ridiculous excuse to avoid ticket for no parking, or
beating the red light, or just about anything. Something
like saying you’d been hit by a deer, or ran over by a
kangaroo. |
Meanwhile, mocking the wowser is
something that I bet everybody would love to do. Wowser is
someone who is annoyingly self-righteous and know-it-all
kind of person. Mocking the wowser means getting back at
that person using his own reasoning by citing something
stupid and absurd that would result from that reasoning.
On the whole, Australia jokes are harmless and funny. Maybe
just need some getting used to. |
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