Humor in Intercultural Interactions

The purpose of analyzing interaction in naturally occurring conversation is to determine how participants behave during certain encounters. From the more specific point of view of cross-cultural comparison, the objective is to illustrate how participants from different languages and cultures interact in similar situations, and how the differences observed may be, ultimately, a source of problems in intercultural communication (see Kaur, this volume). Some aspects of language use may be easily identifiable, but others may be more diffuse and yet affect the exchange in deep, even if somewhat indirect, ways. This is the case with the expression of humor. In this chapter, humor is a discursive phenomenon that can be “superimposed” onto almost any type of interaction and is omnipresent in everyday conversation. At the same time, it is always intricately linked to the context in which it occurs and embedded in culture. Humor fulfills a large number of pragmatic functions beyond the surface-level objective of creating a light-hearted mood or making others laugh; in many cultures, it is one of the ways of managing personal relationships smoothly. As a result, participating in conversational humor is one of the most difficult skills to master in a second language.