イギリス英会話ブログ

On several ocassions since I came to Japan I have noticed that ’sarcasm’, though widely-used (in my experience!) in England, is not so acceptable in Japan.

On those slightly embarrassing ocassions I would retreat to safe ground and search in my dictionary - thinking that maybe if only I can explain that I am ‘just being sarcastic’ people will excuse my comments. (I think they excused my comments anyway, as Japanese people are often kind enough to do with foreigners.) But the dictionary is not much use, as ‘irony’ and ’sarcasm’ are both given as ‘皮肉’… The distinction is obviously not important for Japanese people.

Let me give some examples of sarcasm :

(1) Let’s say someone tries to make a joke but it is not funny and everyone knows it is not funny. A sarcastic comment to make would be ‘Very funny!’.

(2) SMAP are singing on the New Year Red and White Singing contest, and after they finish somebody remarks, ‘They’re great singers’. This doesn’t work in Japan because the general consensus is that SMAP are cool, (… even if they can’t sing very well…)

(3) When someone says something you disagree with, the classic sarcastic response is ‘Yeah, right’. The intonation is important.

These sarcastic remarks would be considered humourous in England, but in Japan they are generally not very well received. I suppose the comments could be classed as ‘ironic’ as they get their effect from a sense of pathos, but the degree is different.

In England, sarcasm is proverbially referred to as ‘the lowest form of wit’ (but still ‘wit’, you note) - and so, while common among young people, tends to be suppressed with greater age and experience. I think it arises from an excess of enthusiasm for irony - the English love to mock themselves and others when the situation arises and this is normally taken humourously. Sarcasm is perhaps the stupid brother of irony… always saying the opposite of what he means and knowing that you know that he is making a joke… it’s a variation on stating the obvious, that will usually get a laugh.

According to Wikipedia, sarcasm comes from the greek ’sarcasmos’ meaning ‘to tear flesh’ and has come to mean sneering at, jesting or mocking some situation, person or thing. It is a type of verbal irony intended to injure or wound - a harsh type of humour where one states the opposite of the intended meaning. It can only really be understood in spoken language, since a sarcastic intonation is also necessary.

It seems that the Japanese - nice people that they are - do not like this kind of abrasive humour very much, but it is very common in England.