Drass Tecnologie Sottomarine

Sense of Humor

Italians have a good sense of humour and are able to laugh at themselves as well as at others. But as they also have great respect for the role they are playing, they prefer not to ruin the effect with levity. They are very conscious of public dignity and, when playing an institutional part, will act it with great formality and aplomb. It's an attitude that explains why the law professor will not lard his lectures with wisecracks. This often means that Italian academic papers and conferences can be among the most serious and thus most tedious in the world.

You might hear an occasional vein of discreetly veiled irony in the comments and presentation, but you have to listen hard for it. Cartoonists satirise political figures and situations with devastating irony. Italian newspapers have developed political cartoons to a fine art because the crime of vilipendio - which makes those who insult politicians or public officials in writing liable to prosecution on criminal charges - does not include drawn illustrations.

Italians enjoy seeing themselves through another's eyes. They get a further running commentary in the press from Italian cartoonist, Altan, whose pithy observations on their character are sent from his comfortable perch in Brazil.

Here are two examples: Two builders wearing their origami hats (builders in Italy will fold a newspaper page into the shape of a boat, and wear it as a sunhat) are sitting on a pile of bricks having their lunch. One is reading an old newspaper: "It says here that the Italians are a bunch of individualists." "Who cares?" says the other. "That's their business."

A conversation between two young women, reflecting on the antics of their lovers: "One has to admit that Italian men are extraordinary," says one. "Definitely," says the other, "I only wish they were normal."

The Italians' obsession with keeping an eye on their neighbours is reflected by their humour, which has few jokes about other nationalities, but lots about other Italians. For example, one that reflects their belief that the people from Genoa are generally regarded as being stingier than the Scots:

Having decided to hang a picture in the living room, a Genoese father says to his son, "Go and ask the neighbours if we can borrow their hammer". The boy returns empty-handed: "They say they're sorry but they can't find it." "Bloody mean of them," says the father. "OK, go and get ours, then."