who says americans dont have a sense of irony?

keu

just my experience armen.
But if I were being honest ( and not feeding the stereotype) I usually take people as I find them.
People tend to generalise when talking about the collective.

keu

"Say 10% of Irish people (may be an exaggeration, but not much) would have preferred the Catholic child-abuse scandal had not come to light because it has damaged the Church's name."
If those ten percent were priests I might agree.
"Are Americans free to call all Irish paedo protectors?"
why not...it would be enough of an incentive to declare war on a backwardly religious country under the dictatorship of the church, and after they liberated us we could worship them as our saviours.

gs39t

Ireland, America - two TOTALLY different cultures. In my opinion, its the irish ourselves who are narrow minded, dull, un-interesting alcoholics. Americans may have a different sense of humour and such, but you would swear 99% of irish people are all the exact same. Every male 18-25 is the same, same goes for every other age bracket - being unique and different than the norm is frowned upon in this country :rolleyes:

Youll find a lot more diversity in american culture, the stereotypes dont hold true from person to person as much as they do here.

keu

"its the irish ourselves who are narrow minded, dull, un-interesting alcoholics."
just as well really, otherwise we might take over the world.

dahamsta

Mordeth wrote:

pint skulling, bog brained thick as ****e irish man

all this anti american nonsense is really getting a bit old

Irony rocks.

elivsvonchiaing

Armen Tanzerian wrote:

Are Americans free to call all Irish paedo protectors?

Since the Arch-Diocese of just about everywhere in the US that Catholics are to be found in large numbers is filing for bankrupcy due to this. I would not think so.

Back to topic: I've met maybe 200 Americans in my time, maybe 50 on US soil. Of this I really don't think more than 10 really understood irony or had an unfettered sense of humour - but these belonged to the other 150. The rest can't find certain things funny because they are too christian, patriotic or politically correct because they are fettered by these things. Of this 200 only 1 strikes me as a free-thinking American, with a sense of humour. I worked with the guy so I can state this is as fact. The 10 others I worked with and knew well I cannot say the same - reckon only 3 belong to the 10.

MadsL

Oh look, an entire academic course devoted to irony in American Literature.

http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergrd/honours/4year/2004-2005/kh4spr.htm

Oh the Irony...

not to mention the old chestnuts and sawhorses...

shotamoose

Sand wrote:

Its great we Irish have such a great sense of irony that we can find it even when its not present in any detectable form?

Indeed. I'm not even sure the first post makes any sense. I find it slightly annoying when people accuse politicians of doing one thing and saying another, when it really isn't relevant what they do out of public life. There's not necessarily any contradiction between McGreevey's sexuality and his policy on marriage.

keu

I just think it was an appropriate time for the monthly anti-american vent.
All that love floating round the boards was making people feel dizzy, we needed some of that begrudging Irish perspective for balance.

MadsL

"All that love floating round the boards was making people feel dizzy, we needed some of that begrudging Irish perspective for balance."

...and some ketchup for the chip on the shoulder...

Raskolnikov

It's remarkable that having DVD players and dishwashers all of a sudden makes us superior and enlightened on all these important matters . . .

swiss

http://members.boards.ie/swiss/notclever.jpg

bananayoghurt picks up a ban for being the next poster who went off topic. However he wasn't the only one. Perhaps it was partially my fault for not being more clear. The thread discussed the outing of a democratic senator after his outspoken opposition to gay marraige, and the irony that presented. It was not so that people could post inflammatory rhetoric about different cultures.

Thread locked.