It isn't that it isn't enjoyable, but it just isn't enjoyable in the same way. How often do you view the jokes in shakepear's work as raunchy or sexual? Do you think younger teens get the jokes? Do you think anyone explains it to them?

It is more akin to watching television from a different culture. I am American, live in Norway, with my Norwegian spouse. We wind up watching British television from time to time. We find the jokes funny, but we both realize that we are missing references to people and places - but understand the gist of the jokes.

The difference between shakespear and modern times is even larger - you don't always know they are jokes because you don't realize they are referencing anything. Still enjoyable, but a different story without as much comedy.

> It isn't that it isn't enjoyable, but it just isn't enjoyable in the same way. How often do you view the jokes in shakepear's work as raunchy or sexual? Do you think younger teens get the jokes? Do you think anyone explains it to them?

Yes... my own recounting of freshman high school English (it was the late 80s) https://everything2.com/node/1207826

You had a great teacher. I learned something today :P

But I think that affirms the GP's point. The jokes needed explanation, which is what you'd expect when the audience is from a different culture and don't understand them natively.

My apologies if I didn't make that clear - my "yes" was to the question "Do you think anyone explains it to them?"

And yep, she was a very good English teacher. It was a more fun class than the other English classes I had through the years. Composition was a pain, but that the teacher was a stickler for everything it helped with my writing and communication skills today. English lit from Beowulf to Pope was a slog. Ancient was ok (mostly Ancient Greek which got into more philosophy rather than word choice because it was a translation). Modern literature was only enjoyable because of Thoreau - I think that was also where I read Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ... the other plays weren't as memorable.

Aside on that - read The Necklace (in English) in one of those classes... I'm fairly sure that was senior year. In college I took French to finish out my foreign language requirement and the final exam was reading comprehension for La Parure in French. I knew the story and so was able to quickly skim for vocabulary rather than needing to read every page.

All in all, looking back it was good, but as with most school classes, they weren't classes that I enjoyed going to at the time.

Sexual and and current affairs references are the hardest to get - euphemisms change, for example In spite of this I do get a lot. Some are pretty obvious ("your tongue in my tail", for example) I am sure I miss many. Some productions try harder to make things obvious than others. Then there is all the stuff you do get so the comedies are still pretty funny overall.

I think Your TV analogy is probably pretty accurate. Kids also do not get a lot of sexual references in TV comedy too!

Also, they're plays, not books. I think much of their reputation for difficulty comes from generations of English teachers making students study them like books when they're meant to be acted on a stage. While it's still poetry, it's much easier for laypeople to understand when conveyed through acting.