• @Taniwha420@lemmy.world
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    226 months 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.

    • JackGreenEarth
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      346 months ago

      Can’t it be both? The miscommunication is the comedy.

      • dreadgoat
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        76 months 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.

        • @glimse@lemmy.world
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          46 months 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

    • @WarmSoda
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      126 months ago

      It’s one sentence, I’m afraid

      • @Taniwha420@lemmy.world
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        -46 months 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.

        • @WarmSoda
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          6 months 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]
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      76 months 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

    • @criticon@lemmy.ca
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      56 months ago

      “me temo que no hago envios a 🇪🇸” is a perfectly valid sentence in Spanish

    • MudMan
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      46 months ago

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

      • bananaghost
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        76 months 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
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          56 months 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.

    • Canadian_Cabinet
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      46 months ago

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

    • Chariotwheel
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      16 months 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.