Humour, irony and body language

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Humour, irony and body language: zezanje, kako da ne and three kisses

The lesson “Abstract & nuanced discussion” promised that the mechanics of Serbian humour would get a lesson of their own. Here it is: the layer of a language that usually gives way to a foreigner last. Your grammar is flawless, your vocabulary rich, and yet the whole table is laughing while you keep a polite face, unsure who is teasing whom and whether anyone means it. The mistake here is one of relationship, not form: take a tease as an insult and you pass for touchy; answer irony in earnest and people will joke with you less, and here people joke above all with their own. Add the hands, the distance between speakers and the three kisses on the cheek that few English speakers see coming.

Irony: the words praise, the speaker does not

Serbian has no special word for irony: the same sentence, said in a different voice, is meant sincerely. Three things carry it. First, a set formula. Second, intonation: the vowel is drawn out, the tone flat or slightly falling, with a pause before the key word; how the melody of a Serbian sentence moves in general is in “Sentence intonation”. Third, a mismatch with the situation: praise that comes straight after a failure. English irony works the same way (“Oh, great”), and most of the formulas below are also said straight: Kako da ne! and Nego šta! are a willing “of course!”, “you bet!”, Ma nemoj! and Ko bi rekao! genuine surprise, Svaka čast! real praise. Voice and situation make them ironic, and that is exactly where foreigners get caught.

So don’t hear irony where there is none. Ask Mogu li da sednem ovde? “May I sit here?”, and the answer Kako da ne! means “Of course!”. It mocks only after a promise nobody believes, as in the first example.

Another layer: words that put someone else’s words in quotation marks. You know navodno and tobože from “Advice, bans and hearsay”: navodno passes a claim on without mockery, tobože with disbelief and often a sneer: Tobože je bolestan, a video sam ga u kafiću. “He’s supposedly ill, yet I saw him in a café.” Their colloquial relative is kao, the spoken “like”, used as air quotes: it goes right before the word being put in quotes and is often stressed: On je kao stručnjak za to. “He’s supposedly an expert on it.” The particle baš works differently: it inflates praise until it becomes unbelievable, and it is often joined by the ethical dative mi from “Possessive dative”: here mi does not mean “to me” but marks the speaker’s personal involvement, and adds mocking tenderness.

The reverse move matters just as much: showing that you mean it. Bez zezanja. Ozbiljno ti kažem. Ne šalim se. Iskreno, bez ironije. (No kidding. I’m telling you seriously. I’m not joking. Honestly, no irony.)

Zezanje: teasing as a sign that you belong

The key fact about Serbian teasing: it is usually aimed at your own people, while strangers get politeness. So when new acquaintances tease you, it is a good sign: you are most likely seen as one of them already (see “Politeness & tact”: among their own, Serbian politeness works by drawing people closer). The best answer is more of the same: don’t justify yourself, send the joke back.

A pair you will hear all the time: Ne zezaj! “no way, you’re kidding”, and Zezaš me? “are you kidding me?”; both react to unexpected news. And Bez zezanja? is “seriously, no kidding?”.

Teasing has an off switch, and you need to work it in both directions. To stop a joke: Šalu na stranu. Dobro, dosta više. E, sad si preterao. Nije mi smešno. (joking aside; that’s enough; now you’ve gone too far; I don’t find it funny). To admit a joke landed: Dobra fora. Baš si me nasmejao. (good one; you really made me laugh). To return a tease with ironic praise: Ha-ha, mnogo si duhovit. (ha-ha, very funny).

Cheat sheet

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Humour, irony and body language

Irony has no word of its own: formula, intonation and a mismatch with the situation carry it; most formulas are also said straight.

Irony markers

In earnest: Bez zezanja. Ozbiljno ti kažem. Ne šalim se. Checking: Zezaš me? Ozbiljno? Šališ se, je l' da?

Signs: mismatch · strong word for a trifle · drawn-out vowel, flat tone · namigivanje, eyebrow.

Zezanje: mostly with your own people

• zezati nekoga + Acc. to tease; zezati se, zezanje, zbijati šale, praviti se lud, nasmejati nekoga.
• šaliti se s nekim, šaliti se na nečiji račun; sprdati se s nekim, sprdnja: hurtful.
• Formulas: Ma zezam te. Ne zezaj! Zezaš me? Bez zezanja? Dobra fora.
• Stop: Šalu na stranu. Dobro, dosta više. E, sad si preterao. Nije mi smešno.

Understatement and exaggeration

Genres

• vic joke, told in the present (Pita Mujo Hasu…, Uđe čovek u kafanu…), poenta punchline, fora gag.
• anegdota: a true story, not a joke.
• dosetka, doskočica, sprdnja, ismevanje, podsmeh, satira, parodija, crni humor, samoironija.
• Witty = duhovit; smešan also means “ridiculous”.

Body language

• rukovanje when men meet · tri poljupca u obraz close people, holidays: expect three · zagrljaj after time apart · Ljubim ruke. to an older woman.
• Držim ti fige. Kucnem u drvo. Da ne ureknem.: luck, no jinx.
• namignuti “joking” · odmahnuti rukom “forget it” · slegnuti ramenima, klimnuti glavom, tapšati po ramenu.
• Close distance, touch; talk at once at table (upadati u reč); eyes meet on Živeli!