[Master Belisarius]

Originally posted by oleg:
You capture the essence of the modern sitcom - without the backstage laughter nobody would ever realise it was indended as a comedy, sort of.

hehehehe, but in a forum with people from many places... the "smiles" usually are a "must be".
Even the humour sense could vary in countries that in theory share the same culture.
An example: when I was working in IBM (here in Uruguay), was destined to a project where many Colombians were working (was not about drugs! and by the way, my wife is Colombian).
My boss started to say big things about my computer skills to the team members. He said so many things, that I stopped him to say: "Oh yes, IBM was looking for the best programmer in Uruguay, and finally decided that I was". Of course that it was a joke... but only after many months, a Colombian friend told me that after our first encounter, they believed that I had a BIG ego!! hehehe