I don't get this cultural humor

Okay so....you know how people always say that understanding humor in another culture is the hardest part of getting to know it? Well I've never really had the opportunity to understand that until now.



I knew something was up when I got here and quickly noticed that Simpsons paraphernalia and references were somewhat constantly present. The FLACSO people brought up episodes randomly in conversation, and the first show I ever saw Carla and Luciano watching was the Simpsons, dubbed in Spanish. Then, walking down the street I would see street vendors selling their own hand-crafted likenesses of Homer, and a teacher brought the show up in one class. I watched the Simpsons Movie with Luciano and Tilsa. And, as of today, I've officially watched a Simpsons episode FOR CLASS (a different one)! None of us in the program can figure it out. Sure, the show is popular in the US, but here it's like an obsession, and anyone you meet could probably talk extensively about a given episode. When a professor asked one of my classes at the UCA (the Catholic university) if we'd seen some episode, every Argentine student laughed in affirmation. The only ones who were clueless were the ones from the US. The professor then said she thought Argentina needed to get its own Simpsons to have an awesome show like that reflect their own culture. I halfway feel like the Simpsons are almost theirs anyway, though. Definitely more theirs than mine!

I was also lucky enough to win a raffle (which is crazy because I never win things!) to get to see a major Argentine play for free. It's called Mas respeto que soy tu madre and it's by a comedic playwright from here. I went and understood most of what was said. I also understood almost all the jokes and yet....I just didn't think they were funny. I would say that I generally really like humor and have a pretty good sense of humor, think things are funny, and laugh often, but there I was, in a theater full of Argentines howling with laughter, just sitting and watching them all crack up and having no idea why. Seriously. I felt like there was something wrong with me, and I'm sure the people next to me thought there was because everyone else was hysterical and I was clearly out of the loop. I'm glad to have seen the play but I'm more glad to have had that experience (because honestly the play just wasn't that funny to me. ha). Crazy times.

Anyway I just wanted to share because for the first time in my life I have compared a Simpsons episode to a Borges story and I'm still reeling :)