Learning Serbian - Wannabe Lesson 2 (A Little Something About Serbian Humor)
The history of my country has been quite interesting. From the first known Serbian Duke, who ruled over a few Serbian tribes in the beginning of the 7th century, to the last king of my country named Peter II, who ruled from 1941 to 1945, Serbia has gone through a number of different country names, polities, wars, and many other things – some of which were bad, and some of which were good. Unfortunately, it seems that Lady Luck has somewhat forgotten about the people of this country, as there have always been many bad things happening in Serbia. On a lighter note, all of these bad things have helped us develop a unique sense of humor, a great positive spirit and the feeling that nothing will ever be able to destroy us.
Serbian people, as well as people from any other Balkan country are very proud and they have a natural spite. This means that a true Serb will never admit that he has lost – he will rather say that it’s someone else’s fault. We may be a witty nation, but we are far from being intelligent. Our individuals are both witty and intelligent, but as a nation we are pretty much a lost cause.
If you are at all interested in the Serbian language and the Serbian culture in general, one of the first things you will have to accept and try to comprehend is Serbian humor. For instance, I love both British and American humor, and I find them very much different. Honestly, I would have to go for British humor if I had to choose, mostly because it tends to be darker than American humor, and dark is something I can definitely relate to as a Serb.
Anyone who wasn’t born in Serbia has very slim chances of figuring out the most popular Serbian movies, for instance. One of our best comedies ever is about two families, both in the ‘death business’. One family sells coffins to the family members of the deceased, and the other family sells coffins to the first family by digging them up from the ground after the deceased have been buried. A nice concept, don’t you think? The movie is full of extremely dark humor, while not a sentence from it could be characterized as humor per se.
I am someone who really enjoys dark humor, and I don’t mind joking about literally anything, which is the main characteristic of Serbian humor. One of the best examples of this dark humor I can think of from the top of my head is a joke about a woman and her son, who is a sick kid and is about to die from an incurable disease. The mother explains to him that he will start having a mud bath every day. The kid is all happy and he asks if the mud bath will save his life. The mother replies: “No, but you will get used to spending time under the ground.” This is really an awful thing to say to a dying person, and it sounds even worse when you say it in Serbian – trust me.
This pretty much covers the topic of Serbian humor, and I apologize to anyone who I might have offended with the disgusting joke I’ve told here. As I was supposed to tell you something more about the history of the region I come from, I hope that wannabe lesson 3 will be a little more serious and a little less offensive :)
Some Less Offensive Wannabe Lessons
- Learning Serbian – A Wannabe Introduction
A short introduction to my unique wannabe lessons. Here you will see what these lessons will be about and decide whether you will be attending them. - Learning Serbian - Wannabe Lesson 1
Now, for all of you who are not yet familiar with the concept of wannabe lessons, here will be given a brief intro to what you can expect to gain from attending these lessons… - Learning Serbian – Wannabe Lesson 3 (Some Interest...
As I have already mentioned in previous wannabe lessons (which you should have attended and if you didn’t you will be penalized), Serbia has always been a very interesting country… We have had an interesting history, all of us often seem completely c
