The Humour-Culture Interconnection: Exploring Humour Attributes in Morocco and Britain

Abstract

This article highlights and underpins the diametrical relationship between humour and culture. It illustrates how inseparable and closely intertwined they are. Culture is always incorporated in humour, and the latter is constantly influenced by the former. Humour may not be appreciated without understanding its surrounding culture, and we cannot grasp all the existing elements of culture without being aware of its humorous side. And since humour is cultural, foreign language students need to know their own culture and its values in order to avoid projecting it on other ones, and so that they have the ability to identify and spot the differences between their culture and foreign ones, such as that of English. In this context, the article lays out details of various old and modern aspects of humour that are characteristic of English and Moroccan cultures. It is not about a comparison between or an examination of any of the two cultures. It is an illustration and a call to understand the traits and attributes of Moroccan and English cultures in terms of their contact with and handling of humour in the past and in modern times.