The British have a talent for caustic satire and painful put-downs: fact. Not one of the more provocative statements from The Office's David Brent, but the finding of a piece of researchthat is likely to ignite controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.
英國人天生就會冷嘲熱諷還有不留言面丟下讓你痛苦萬分的羞辱是千!真!萬!確!的!沒有比《辦公室笑雲》(英劇)中的大衛·布蘭特更氣人的吐槽了，但是researchthat的一份研究很可能要點燃大西洋兩岸的輿論熱火。
A survey of more than 4,000 twins suggests that humour regarded as typically British – sarcasm and self-deprecation – is linked to genes found in British men and women, but not shared, for instance, by Americans.
一份由4000多對雙胞胎參與的調查顯示，被認為是很典型的英式幽默，即諷刺挖苦還有自我貶低，和英國男女的基因構造大有關聯，但是這種幽默別人get不到，比如美國佬。
While telling jokes and looking on the bright side of life – which researchers dubbed positive humour – is common to both sides of the Atlantic, only in the UK did they discover genetic links with negative humour – biting sarcasm and teasing.
研究員認為正面的幽默，也就是在講笑話和看待生活中光明美好一面的時候，這種幽默大西洋兩岸的人民都能懂，但是隻有在英國發現基因和負能量幽默聯絡到了一起：(包括)冷嘲熱諷還有戲弄。
They say it may explain why the British like aggressively sarcastic or denigrating humour such as Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and, of course, The Office.
他們說，這或許就能解釋，為什麼英國人那麼喜歡顯山露水的挖苦別人還有詆譭性的幽默，比如《弗爾蒂旅館》、《布拉凱德》，當然了，還有《辦公室笑雲》(均為英國喜劇)。
"It is possible that differences exist between these nations in their sense of humour and that these may be the result of different genetic and environmental influences," said Dr Rod Martin, one of the researchers.
“不同國家的幽默存在差異大有可能，這些都也許是不同基因構造和環境影響的結果，”其中的一名研究員羅德·馬丁說道。
The study looked at genetic and environmental contributions to humour in nearly 2,000 pairs of UK twins. A second US study examined the humour of 500 sets of North American twins.
近乎2000對英國雙胞胎參與到了“基因和環境對幽默感的影響”調查之中。還有500組北美雙胞胎參與了另一份美國對於幽默的研究。
The results revealed that positive humour – saying funny things, telling jokes, a humorous outlook on life – was linked to genes and was shared by twins in the UK and US.
結果表明，說一些好玩的事兒啦，講講笑話啦，詼諧幽默的`人生觀這些正面的幽默和基因息息相關，而且英美兩國的雙胞胎都有。
However, negative humour – teasing and ridicule, as well as more offensive, racist or sexist forms of humour, together with self-disparaging humour – appeared to be genetically linked only in Britain.
但是負能量的幽默(比如戲弄別人嘲笑別人，還有更無禮的、帶有種族歧視和性別歧視的幽默，包括自嘲的幽默)，顯然只存在於英國人的基因中。
