A Taiwanese guy and an Italian walk into a bar. The Italian says, “I have the best sense of humor.” And the Taiwanese guy just politely nods.
It sounds like the set up for an absurd joke, but this is essentially what studies have found: Taiwanese people don’t seem to think they joke around very much.
But seriously folks: what’s the deal with Taiwanese people? Surveys of people in 25 countries and regions reveal that Taiwanese people don’t think they have a sense of humor.
Admittedly, all the responses are self-reported. But no matter how you slice the data, Taiwanese people say they’re pretty serious.
At an event organized by the science ministry on Wednesday, humor researcher Professor Chen Hsueh-chih presented the results.
Taiwan came in fifteenth place overall in terms of how highly local respondents rated the local sense of humor. Italians said they use humor the most in their lives.
Of course, 25 regions may have 25 different definitions of humor. It seems that when Taiwan thinks of humor, it often thinks of what Professor Chen calls “aggressive humor”, humor used to tear others down.
Maybe it’s not a lack of humor. Maybe we’re just nice.