It prolly has to do with British humor...

I haven't a clue why we're that way. I piss off my South African father quite a lot doing it, but I'm not even as bad as most Brits!!
I think it does have something to do with our sense of humour. We love huge cock-ups and failures, by being cynical about things, we almost encourage them perhaps?
As for stereotyping other nationalities? Let's not go there or we could start a flame war!!

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Eat a third and drink a third and leave the remaining third of your stomach empty.
Then, when you get angry, there will be sufficient room for your rage.

Hmmm... Interesting idea, stereotyping nations... I kinda like it, but i know that some people get offended when you make "just some Brit" (for instance) ot of them... Noooo they're different than your "average Joe"... But enough about that. I myself like stereotyping as a form of humor, but I'm aware what it can do... OK, (almost) back to topic:
Cynicism is just plain simplifying to the extreme, meant to turn the subject in question against it's author and counter his arguments with his own issue by looking at it from a different angle. I admire the people who are able to do that all the time. I, for one, like to simplify so called "higher motives" to a plain "I want to be rich and famous" one, and then further degrade it to "By being rich and famous, I get more chicks and people respect or even fear me", then just add some psychology to it and you come to a conclusion that a person is insecure, unstable and craving for attention because he/she founded a corporation that raises money from donations in order to "help hungry African children by building wells and seeding their crops"
Then again, I might be wrong...


Careful what you wish... You might just get it.

Cynicism is the richest source of humor and a smart one at that. I love cynical humors.

Whoa! Sorry guys, don't want to start a flame war between nations here, that's why we have world leaders.
I meant voluntary admissions. I know Brits are sarcastic cynics... is there anything you've noticed about your fellow countrymen for example?

FF, (fear factor), tell me some cynical jokes? pls? i nvr seen/heard/read them.

Science is knowledge.
Knowledge is power.
Time is money.
power = work/time
therefore, knowledge= work/money
therefore, money = work/knowledge
therefore, money is inversely proportional to knowledge.

therefore,

The more knowledge you have, the less money you have.

Prepare for the worst, for you have read the worst.

There's this good one from Seinfeld re-run - about how dog owners who walk their dogs must pick up their dog's excrement and collect them in bags and dispose of them later in the dumpsters. This is generally a good thing, right? keeps the city clean.

But Jerry Seinfeld had a different point of view:

"Can the human race sink any lower? I wonder if aliens observe the planet Earth, they'll no doubt think that dogs are the dominant species of the planet. I mean look at it: two species walking together, and one collects the other's biological waste in a bag. Which one of them is in charge, do you think?"

Basically cynical jokes are all jokes that derive from over-analysation and "deconstruction".

@ff, the one that DOESNT have a noose round its neck

i dont think im especially cynical, more like having the ability to see both sides of an argument, being more objective about what were being told and what we beleive.

-arcon
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FF
Yea, one has got to wonder.
Not only do they do it, they have been commanded by other humans to do it...

I think it's Human nature to stereotype things. It makes life simpler. We like simpler things. You know; things you don't have to think about. Sure, we're the most intelligent species on the planet, but does that mean we like using that intelligence? no.

That's why you see Italians as gangsters, why you see Arabs as terrorists, why you see Russians as old Nuclear scientists (with beards, mind you), why you see Japanese as crazed Kamikazes, and why you see the French as snobby bastards. There. (This was not meant to offend anyone; I hope no one takes this seriously )

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My friends in psych tell me humans identify objects by catagories and groups. Too much info availible to process it all, so we catagorize it. Don't know if this is true, but it would explain steriotypes.

the british sense of humour tends to be a bit dark sometimes as well like for example:

" france is great, except for one thing, the french "

I sense a click coming.

Edited by - Stinger on 01-07-2003 18:46:32

Nah, it's ok, as long as people don't take any of it personally Btw FF, that's one of the funniest Seinfeld jokes, lol. I remember first time I heard it.