Alternatively, one can respond with daek(t)kwai or daek(t)men and although it’s a bit of work for them some actually get it soon enough once they get over the initial shock that their revered “auntie” back in the village was dead wrong about all of us being wai-prone, cunt-struck, dumb-asses. (Okay, well, maybe a wee bit cunt-struck

Re Irony: When I meet a bi-cultural Thai, I sometimes ask about irony. They all assure me that they know exactly what it is but that it’s easier to be ironic in English.
“Are you just being polite ?” I ask them.
“No, I’m just being ironic,” they reply. More of an indication that they know what I’m talking about and that clever use of irony comes with education and wit than a real gut-splitter.
But it’s good enough for me.

They “get” good short jokes though. . . . and love ‘em.
View all comments by Thongsuk

Or perhaps the Thai sitcom is a good place to look for funniness. I reckon if you were to wear only primary colours, whilst puntuating incidents in your daily life with ‘boi-yoi-yoing!’, fart and whistle noises you’d cause a comedic riot.
View all comments by Combover

Just as long as you realise most funny guys develop their humour in order to help them get sex with pretty girls
View all comments by cookoo

Jack Dawson — the Henny Youngman of the internet!

JD… now he’s a funny guy

View all comments by werewolf

As for humor, I find it’s the most subjective commonly observable human trait. For example, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Thais have seemingly no sense of irony, although satire seems to be somewhat appreciated. Yet slapstick/Keystone Kops idiot-humor seems to send most Thais into fits of laughter.

You describe yourself as a serious person, and we all have stuff hard-coded into our DNA we can’t very well reboot, right? So if you’re more serious than most, OK, accept that. Now, let’s see what we can do to find that Humor Gland and exercise it.

You’ve got to find SOMETHING funny. I argue that spending two days to write one joke is not all that constructive, so maybe try this: write down what YOU find funny. ANYthing: comedians, movies, weird English on signs, badly dressed people, bizarre food they sell on the streets, whatever. Just write it down, and do NOT dawdle–write fast, don’t think, ANYthing that is on that paper is OK. Put it aside and don’t look at it for a couple of days.

Now, you may have a favorite girl or two (it can be hazardous to get too close to a Thai girl but that’s a different subject). Next time you get together, spend some time playing with her: sexplay of course, but in between bouts, some FUN play. How this will pan out depends to some extent on language-skills (both hers and yours), but all Thai girls love laughing/joking and some are fanatically funny. Ask her what she finds funny. Maybe put on a not-too-cerebral comedy and get the mood going.

Yes you have a goal here, Werewolf. You are going to start a pillowfight.

You read that right. I presume that, as a child, you were not too serious to engage in pillowfights, right? You know the basic rules (attack opponent with pillow, no hitting in the face, fight ends when both opponents are convulsed with laughter)? When’s the last time you had a pillowfight with a Thai girl?

These are my suggestions, and it’s over to you. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, and it’s your call. But: ya wanna be funny? Personally, I think that’s a commendable goal (I think of all the pinch-faced guys in the USA or Western Europe slaving away at jobs they hate, or greedy corporate types who work 20-hour days to make money so they can buy more useless crap they don’t need, and I think, here’s a guy who wants to be funny and he’s got MORE sense). So:

1) make a list, don’t think, put it aside, check it later
2) work your way towards a pillowfight.

Note that pillowfights are usually spontaneous, and deliberately setting one up is a bit odd, I admit. Just make sure you have plenty of fluffy pillows handy, maybe a funny movie on DVD, and when you find things gravitating towards pillow-warfare, go for it. Just remember, no face-hitting. Them’s da rulez.

JtB
View all comments by Jack B

you had 2 goals, 1) sex with lots of pretty girls, and 2) being funny.

in baseball, .500 is a damn good average.

and given your goals, you should realize that nearly every other man on earth is batting 0.000.

be thankful for what you have… which is .5 more than most other men.
View all comments by fountainhead