Cultural humor
Humor, how it is given, how it is perceived is closely associated with the culture that you are from. You could have a joke that is hilarious to 5 people, downright offensive to 3 people, and completely flat to 9 others, all from the same joke. To explain why this is, we have to understand that before any cultural influence, humor is subjective on its own. It’s very easy to hurt or offend someone with a general joke that isn’t even culturally influential, because unless you know the person you are telling the joke to well, sometimes it can be difficult for them to even tell if you are joking, or if you are dead serious.
Practical humor that is perceived by certain cultures as offensive or hurtful is a whole other rabbit hole. Whereas sarcasm based humor that’s offensive can often be mitigated by common sense, self-awareness and empathy; unintentionally offending someone because of their culture requires a greater understanding of where they come from. To understand a culture that you do not come from, a culture that you do not natively understand.
I can give personal example with the Vietnamese community. When people think of Asian behavior, they usually think of Japanese or Korean as their culture is more widely celebrated in the west than Southeast Asian culture. Forms of media like KPOP or anime are widely accepted and the way the creators and performers conduct themselves makes you believe that Asians are the polite race. Asians are the ones to put their hands together and bow down in respect when they greet you, they are the ones to leave the table in better shape than when they first arrived. They think that Asians are respectful and apologize often with regard for every action they take. This expectation really doesn’t apply to Southeast Asians, particularly Asians. As a fluent speaker of the Vietnamese language, I struggle to find words that brings up good manners. It is uncommon for Vietnamese people to apologize for their own mistakes, there is also no great way to add in the phrase “please” when asking for something. This causes issues when they assimilate into US culture and join a society where there is a certain level of political correctness. A lot of 1st generation Vietnamese immigrants embarrass their kids a lot in public, by coming off as rude to Americans. They are also much more direct and unapologetic.
