Humor is certainly not a strong point of the Swiss which they freely admit. Irony is something they seem to lack whereas in England we were exposed to it from childhood. I think that England is probably more a special case than Switzerland however.
Well, I think it's scientifically proven and commonly accepted that the English have a great sense of humour. Seth Efrikens, Kiwis, Aussies are also quite good at it, although slightly more blunt.
I do wonder why it's just the Seppos in the English speaking world that are so overly sensitive when it comes to taking the ****... probably because they speak American.
I think that most Swiss can laugh at the Swiss in general, but one's that can personally laugh at themselves and not take themselves seriously are as rare as a smile down Bahnhofstrasse.
This guy is as good as it gets for Swiss style satire and slightly edgy humour but that daft lady with the mad hair and the yellow dungarees or jumpsuit or whatever it is - shocking attempt at humour.
We went to see Marco Rima earlier this year, seeing as my husband recalled finding him hilarious when he was about 20, but sadly his humour was distasteful and dated.
thats absolutely true! thats a really good example...and i dunno how many of you expats are capable of understanding mundart/swiss german? because thats what it needs to get swiss humor. (cracking a joke in english n thinking everybody that doesnt laugh about it is not funny is a very different issue here. its the point of understanding the language with its synonyms etc. it got nothing to do with being not funny when you dont understand what has been said.) i mean do really understand it? between me (german) and my swiss colleagues we do have plenty of peeptakles each day and all i can say ist that swiss do have humor and can laugh about themselfes. big time.
Of course some Swiss have a sense of humour. Few... very few. So few that they decided to make an exhibition called " witzerland " on them.
I heard once an interview with the maker of the exhibition, I believe it was on DRS 1, which was extremely funny: The radio host tried and continuously failed to be funny while the guy from the museum described very objectively how hard it is for him to guide groups of Swiss through the exhibition without anyone ever laughing. They would all listen very carefully till the end of the tour and then finally start to laugh about the jokes. All other groups (he mentioned specifically German and Austrian tourists) would behave very differently.