I loved playing dumb at school. One kid, family from Lebanon, seemed to beg for it. He'd have snow peas or carrots for lunch, and I'd ask with a straight face, 'What kind of strange vegetable are you eating today, _________? Did you get it from an import store?'
Then he'd go on and on trying to explain to me how it was a common Canadian vegetable, but I'd say I'd lived in Canada all my life, and never seen it. It was fun for the watchers. Eventually he'd catch on.
Yes, Kirran I understand. But people who have never seen sarcasm or gentle teasing don't easily get it. A bit like idioms to any ESL person.
The monks I know have awesome senses of humour too. When Boss mentioned to a senior swami that the grass must grow fast in Hawaii, he said dryly, 'Yes we just cut this yesterday'. (It was like 3 feet tall, and overgrown.
Haha, yeah I do this to my Malaysian friend who lives at SV - 'Do you have trees in Malaysia? But, like, real full-size trees?' Fortunately he catches on from the start and rolls his eyes at me.
That's true, it is an idomatic thing, and I think is much more pronounced in English-speaking cultures, and especially Britain. But I do like to try and explain this to people who otherwise just think it's lying.
Some people use the terms differently - I told somebody really against sarcasm that story above, and she said that it wasn't sarcasm because it wasn't mean!
Haha, I like that one. Lying about the grass?