Gift for understatement

The American sense of humor tends towards parody, I would say, Saturday Night Live and Michael Moore as examples, whereas British towards some sort of broad physical humor. Icelanders have a real gift for understatement, that is their sense of humor, they find real delight in watching the irony of a comment dawn on the listener. I therefore think it is highly likely that Geir Haarde was basically making a joke when he said, "it is not wise for a small country to take a lead in international banking."

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