• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    221 year ago

    Is this comedy, or cross-cultural miscommunication? “I’m afraid,” leaves half the thought unexpressed. It relies on a cultural understanding of being afraid of the shame of saying, “no,” to someone.

      • dreadgoat
        link
        fedilink
        71 year ago

        It’s comedy, but it’s not comedy heaven.

        In order to be comedy heaven it has to be a victim of comedy homicide. There is no homicide here, just a naturally funny situation.

        It’s a funny post but in the wrong place.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          41 year ago

          If there’s one thing I learned on reddit, it’s that every community becomes homogenous once “close enough” posts are allowed so I completely approve of your criticism

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -41 year ago

        Grammatically it’s a full sentence, but part of the information intended to be conveyed is missing from that sentence. The person is not just stating, “I’m afraid.” Something about being unable to fulfill a request is making them afraid.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          4
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Do you always disect jokes to the point where there’s no humor left in it?

          I guess that’s not surprising for someone who’s name means a dangerous, predatory person that kidnaps women while high.

    • callyral [he/they]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      71 year ago

      i think it’s because the “i’m afraid” got on the next line due to line wrapping which makes it seem like a separate phrase

    • Canadian_Cabinet
      link
      fedilink
      English
      41 year ago

      Sadly, no. Spanish has this exact expression, “Me temo que no” means literally “I’m afraid not.”

    • MudMan
      link
      fedilink
      41 year ago

      I mean, it’s definitely a thing a Spanish speaker could easily get wrong. It could also be just a meme.

      • bananaghost
        link
        fedilink
        71 year ago

        Well, in spanish you can say “Me temo que no hago envíos internacionales.” Wich traslates as “I’m afraid that I don’t do international shipping.”
        So this is 100% for comedy purpose

        • MudMan
          link
          fedilink
          51 year ago

          I think the premise is that the person would be confused by ending the sentence with “I’m afraid”, especially since it’s on a second line by itself. It’s not that you can’t do it in Spanish, it’s just less natural and you’d really want to throw a comma in there.

          But now I’m overexplaining the joke meme.

    • Chariotwheel
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      Not if you take this due to the line break as two different sentences.

      I don’t do international shipping[.] I’m afraid [of international shipping].

      You could interpret that as them being unfamiliar with international shipping or being scared of getting scammed across countries.