Francis Yamamoto – Critchley, Foreign Humour and In Bruges

Critchley stated that “in ethnic humour, the ethos of a place is expressed by laughing at people who are not like us, and usually believed to be either excessively stupid or peculiarly canny.” This notion is elaborated as some form of inexplicable feeling related to the belief that “’they’ are inferior to ‘us’ […] because ‘they’ are not like ‘us’.” Whilst this seems like an unsatisfying ethical proposition, as it could encourage a view which presents us with something akin to racism, Critchley widens the contextual aspect of this notion – claiming that cultures often tend to ‘get their own back’ in some sort of avenging act of a joke as a response. Hence, whilst foreigner jokes may not be wholly recommended or innocent, they still create something which is funny despite its transgressive nature.

What this made me think of specifically, as it turns this notion of an “ethos of a place” on its head – is Martin Macdonagh’s In Bruges (2007). This film places two Irish hitmen laying low in Bruges, as they pretend to be tourists and try to forget about the job that went bad back home – but even though they are themselves foreigners in a foreign country, the film still largely satirises other cultures for existing outside of the British norm, making fun of Belgian culture, people, and accents (Americans in general are also criticised in this manner). The film doesn’t necessarily make fun of our protagonists for their clear lack of belonging – but it does not reward our characters either for their ignorance – but in a sense that this film makes fun of the Belgians, this film. in a sense. would be perhaps going along the lines of Critchley’s original point, that humour of the foreign requires a certain adherence to an already existing cultural norm/relativity.