Why South Africans laugh louder than everyone else

South Africans are a strange bunch. We greet people we have never met, laugh at things that would probably horrify foreigners and somehow manage to find humour in just about any disaster.

But take that same South African overseas and suddenly a friendly hello can become a suspicious encounter, while a good joke might earn little more than a polite smile.

Comedian Dalin Oliver has discovered this while performing across the world. From an awkward encounter with a German woman and her dog to watching his wife disappear on a train in Stockholm, Oliver has learnt that what comes naturally to South Africans can seem downright peculiar elsewhere.

He shared some of his funniest travel experiences and what performing for different audiences has taught him about our Mzansi sense of humour.

You’ve performed in 10 countries and more than 25 cities. Which country has the weirdest people, the strangest habits or the greatest ability to make a South African say, “What the actual hell?”

The beauty of South Africa is that we’re all about people, food, culture and language. We just have this warmth about us, and we love welcoming people into our space.

If you visit us, we’ll give you food to say thank you for visiting. You know, if you leave, we’ll give you food to say thank you for leaving.

We love greeting strangers, and I think the most interesting thing for my wife and me is that we’ve had the privilege of travelling together, but in every country we’ve visited outside South Africa, people don’t greet you.

We were in Berlin, standing at a pedestrian crossing, where a lady was walking her dog. I said, “Good morning!” She looked at me and said, “What’s wrong?”

I looked at her again and said, “Good morning!” She went, “What do you want?” I laughed and said, “You have a beautiful dog.”

She didn’t mean anything bad by it. It’s just that, from what I found out about German culture, they’re not going to randomly greet a stranger.

After that interaction, I kept laughing with my wife and said, “That’s the beauty of South Africans. We’ll just greet and smile, and if you don’t go along with it, it’s fine.* Hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie*. They don’t know what we know.”

We’ll give them love until they greet us!

Are South Africans really so different? Picture: Supplied

What’s the most spectacularly stupid thing you’ve ever done while travelling, something you would rather your mother, your bank manager or the South African embassy never found out about?

Well, first, if I answer this question, then I’m telling them what I shouldn’t be telling them. You know, if you’re from South Africa, snitches get stitches! But the funniest moment actually happened on our recent trip. We went to Stockholm, Sweden, for the first time, both visiting and performing.

My wife and I were together. We got onto a train, but she was walking ahead of me and didn’t look behind her. She got onto the train alone. The doors closed, and she tried to get the people on the train to open them. No one helped her.

We only got one eSIM for roaming. I had the eSIM, and my wife was on the train. The train left, and I’m standing there like a lost husband, waving at the train as my wife is leaving.

My wife was asking people if she could use their hotspot so she could message me. When she got to the next station, about 10 minutes later, someone gave her a hotspot.

I eventually linked up with her in central Stockholm. But it was funny because I literally watched my wife get onto a train, the doors closed, and she was gone. Right away, I’m like, “We just celebrated our anniversary. You can’t be leaving me!”

You’ve performed for Brits, Swedes and South Africans amongst others. Who laughs at the most inappropriate things, who needs a joke explained three times, and which audience would you never want to be trapped in a lift with?

The beauty of South Africa is that we’re so diverse in terms of race, culture, religion, etc. We’re always navigating different spaces, and we’re learning how to perform for people from all walks of life.

When you’re in a city, you’ve just got to meet the people where they’re at because, a lot of the time, they don’t have a reference point for South Africa.

South Africans are physical laughers. We’re big laughers, and we also trauma bond over laughing. If you don’t have a sense of humour as a South African, you’re not going to make it.

With the Swedes, they’re very conservative. They’re not just going to speak to anybody. It’s the same with the Brits. They’ve got theatre culture. You know, what a loaded term: theatre culture!

But they’ll come and listen to the show. Yes, they’re laughing, but they’re listening. We always tease each other as comics, saying they had a great time, but sometimes they laugh inside, not outside.

You just have to get used to each city and each country.