Is there sarcasm in the Midwest? (Columbus, Cleveland: live in, friendly, area)

[Kamms]

Originally Posted by Mulva

I know that's a broad question but my husband went to college in Madison, WI and noticed that many people from the area didn't get his sarcasm. (He's from NYC.) He thinks it's a Midwest thing. Any thoughts?

Generally, Chicago doesnt' get or like sarcasm either (the real midwest and its hub). Clevelanders and Philadelphians, in my experiences with both cities, get sarcasm. I recall a local Chicago interview with Tina Fey in which she was asked "are Chicagoans funny?" She hestitated and replied "I'm from Philly where humor is sarcastic...but yes Chicagoans are funny".

[nick1218]

Originally Posted by Mulva

I absolutely thought about my question before posting it and I appreciate the response that was posted after yours. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. You are misinterpreting this. He respected his classmates as much as the ones who were sarcastic. When it came to humor, he noticed a difference. Relax.

I moved from Columbus to New York and sorry to say to some who may read but personalities in general are very lacking. Sure there are exceptions but overall people are like humorless robots here, relatively speaking. People are VERY polite, cordial, will say hello to a stranger, will greet you in a store. But it ends there, I feel. In any other environment where you begin seeing poeple over and over (coworkers, neighbors) you find them to be oddly humorless and dull. I call them Walkers (after the zombies in the Walking Dead). Like I said there are many excpetions, this is a gross generalization. New Yorkers have a reputation for being nasty but I think its because they arent cordial, but once you know them they have much more bubbly personalities and far better senses of humor.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by nick1218

I moved from Columbus to New York and sorry to say to some who may read but personalities in general are very lacking. Sure there are exceptions but overall people are like humorless robots here, relatively speaking. People are VERY polite, cordial, will say hello to a stranger, will greet you in a store. But it ends there, I feel. In any other environment where you begin seeing poeple over and over (coworkers, neighbors) you find them to be oddly humorless and dull. I call them Walkers (after the zombies in the Walking Dead). Like I said there are many excpetions, this is a gross generalization. New Yorkers have a reputation for being nasty but I think its because they arent cordial, but once you know them they have much more bubbly personalities and far better senses of humor.

At least you're willing to admit it's a gross generalization, and hence, pretty much worthless. It's like saying people from LA are all generally shallow and image-driven or everyone in Mississippi is a racist redneck. There really isn't such a thing as a homogenous culture where everyone is basically the same. I mean, look at twins. Born from the same genetics, look exactly the same, and yet more often than not, grow up to be two very different people. Yet we're expected to believe that being from a specific city or region means you have some "robot" attitude and personality that you share with hundreds of thousands of others? There is not enough scorn in this world for that viewpoint.

Generalizations are a lazy way to go through life.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Mulva

Is there sarcasm in the Midwest?

No. Nobody in the Midwest is or ever has been sarcastic. Or ironic for that matter.

[Cleveland_Collector]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

Perhaps people from the Northeast are just ruder and the description of people as "corn-fed cowards" or "sheep" doesn't go over very well. Maybe you come across as a jerk and don't realize it and people are rightly reacting to that. I'm also not sure why you need to be a fashion queen each day or otherwise you have somehow sold out to local culture. And how is a hoodie and jeans representative of culture? Are jeans not worn outside of the Midwest? Please. Get over yourself.

One of the first things I noticed when i went to NYC for the first time was how ordinarily dressed most of the locals were. Sure, there was a good slice of fashionista-ism, but the hoodie-jeans-sneaker wearing crowd outnumbered them by about 100-1. 20 years later, no much has changed and nor should it. People there walk a lot. Wearing what's comfortable simply makes sense. And, of course, the sensible ones are the nicest ones.

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

Columbus is one of the most highly educated cities of its size. The population is not made up of a bunch of backwater country bumpkins who don't "get" it. Frankly, your responses here come across as someone who clearly believes themselves superior to most, and if you present yourself this way to most people, I think that's mystery solved as to why you might have problems with other people perceiving personal attacks. Your obvious love of blanket stereotypes and assumptions doesn't help your case. Sorry, but you're no better than the people you rail against. This might fly on the East Coast, but you're in the Midwest now. Pretentiousness just won't get you very far.

Yep, pretty much. Most people in our neck of the woods who know NYC fairly well pretty much refer to that type as your typical, douchey New Yorker. It's not that they don't "get it." They just don't think you're funny. They also don't care where you're from either.

I've told this story before but, one time I was in NYC and my GF and I were out walking all day. We weren't dressed to the 9s but certainly not dressed poorly. The friggin' bartenders at the place we dropped $300 for dinner and drinks that night were applying some of their "sarcasm" in our direction. We didn't think it was very funny either. Seeing that they were the ones serving us the $8 bottles of ho-hum beer and the $15 "eh" martinis that we had no trouble paying for, it was only fitting to toss some back in their direction by pointing out that they would probably take their meager earnings from the evening back to the 600 sq. ft. dump they share with 3 other people and talk about the clothes they could barely afford over a bottle of Boone's Farm by candlelight -- you know, to save on electricity.

As it turns out, they didn't like our "sarcasm" very much either. The funniest part is that they were completely disarmed after that. Not a word. I guess the truth hurt too much.

[Cleveland_Collector]

Originally Posted by nick1218

New Yorkers have a reputation for being nasty but I think its because they arent cordial,

NY-ers have a reputation for being rude and for taking advantage of people -- and also being all bark and no bite. Kinda like Parisians...

but once you know them they have much more bubbly personalities and far better senses of humor.

Some do, most don't. Mostly, many NY-ers let their city identify them to a point of where it's all about where they're from and much less about who they are. Trust me, nobody cares where you're from. And, there are plenty of dead sticks walking the streets of Manhattan too.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by Cleveland_Collector

One of the first things I noticed when i went to NYC for the first time was how ordinarily dressed most of the locals were. Sure, there was a good slice of fashionista-ism, but the hoodie-jeans-sneaker wearing crowd outnumbered them by about 100-1. 20 years later, no much has changed and nor should it. People there walk a lot. Wearing what's comfortable simply makes sense. And, of course, the sensible ones are the nicest ones.



Yep, pretty much. Most people in our neck of the woods who know NYC fairly well pretty much refer to that type as your typical, douchey New Yorker. It's not that they don't "get it." They just don't think you're funny. They also don't care where you're from either.

I've told this story before but, one time I was in NYC and my GF and I were out walking all day. We weren't dressed to the 9s but certainly not dressed poorly. The friggin' bartenders at the place we dropped $300 for dinner and drinks that night were applying some of their "sarcasm" in our direction. We didn't think it was very funny either. Seeing that they were the ones serving us the $8 bottles of ho-hum beer and the $15 "eh" martinis that we had no trouble paying for, it was only fitting to toss some back in their direction by pointing out that they would probably take their meager earnings from the evening back to the 600 sq. ft. dump they share with 3 other people and talk about the clothes they could barely afford over a bottle of Boone's Farm by candlelight -- you know, to save on electricity.

As it turns out, they didn't like our "sarcasm" very much either. The funniest part is that they were completely disarmed after that. Not a word. I guess the truth hurt too much.

The funny thing is that the few times I've been to NYC, the people I met were generally pretty nice. I can't actually think of a place, including in the Midwest, where the majority weren't decent, helpful people who just wanted to show you a good time, especially if you were visiting. It's sad that there are intellectually lazy people out there who think that viewing peopled with generalizations and stereotypes is an honest way to see people, but they exist everywhere, and so do jerks. Ohio and the Midwest has no more abundance of moronic, robotic people than does anywhere else.

[JKHOSU]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

It's sad that there are intellectually lazy people out there who think that viewing peopled with generalizations and stereotypes is an honest way to see people

Yes.

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

Ohio and the Midwest has no more abundance of moronic, robotic people than does anywhere else.

Yes, people are exactly the same everywhere and everybody's culture everywhere is exactly the same.

Do you see the irony in your post?

[Natural510]

Originally Posted by Cleveland_Collector

One of the first things I noticed when i went to NYC for the first time was how ordinarily dressed most of the locals were. Sure, there was a good slice of fashionista-ism, but the hoodie-jeans-sneaker wearing crowd outnumbered them by about 100-1. 20 years later, no much has changed and nor should it. People there walk a lot. Wearing what's comfortable simply makes sense. And, of course, the sensible ones are the nicest ones.



Yep, pretty much. Most people in our neck of the woods who know NYC fairly well pretty much refer to that type as your typical, douchey New Yorker. It's not that they don't "get it." They just don't think you're funny. They also don't care where you're from either.

I've told this story before but, one time I was in NYC and my GF and I were out walking all day. We weren't dressed to the 9s but certainly not dressed poorly. The friggin' bartenders at the place we dropped $300 for dinner and drinks that night were applying some of their "sarcasm" in our direction. We didn't think it was very funny either. Seeing that they were the ones serving us the $8 bottles of ho-hum beer and the $15 "eh" martinis that we had no trouble paying for, it was only fitting to toss some back in their direction by pointing out that they would probably take their meager earnings from the evening back to the 600 sq. ft. dump they share with 3 other people and talk about the clothes they could barely afford over a bottle of Boone's Farm by candlelight -- you know, to save on electricity.

As it turns out, they didn't like our "sarcasm" very much either. The funniest part is that they were completely disarmed after that. Not a word. I guess the truth hurt too much.

That sounds like typical wait staff bitterness; you know, those who are jaded over their lot in life but not motivated enough to change it (much easier to bag on those who have it better than them, who not-so-ironically worked for what they have).
I used to be one of them....difference is in California we had to hide it, while in New York it's culturally acceptable to throw it in the customer's face.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by JKHOSU

Yes.



Yes, people are exactly the same everywhere and everybody's culture everywhere is exactly the same.

Do you see the irony in your post?

No, because I didn't state that all people were the same in all places, only that there were boring, robotic people in all places. My point was that no one region has a monopoly on a certain type of personality.