As a result, the British often say that Americans “don’t understand irony.” However, a more precise explanation is that Americans are simply more low-context than the British. So when Americans make a joke, especially in a professional setting, they are likely to indicate clearly through explicit verbal or physical cues, “This is a joke,” something totally unnecessary when one British person is speaking to another. In their higher-context culture, if you have to tell us it was a joke, then it wasn’t worth the breath you used to tell it.
Having several British bosses in the past, I have run into this many many many many times. I just always assume the British person I’m interacting with is low-key making fun of me in some dry humor sense of way - which let’s be real that is probably the case
