Foreign Exchange Student Only Laughing Because Everyone Else Is

Story by Emily Wilson 

| Published Mar 30, 2010

This Monday, 20-year-old exchange student Ning Lin was reportedly seen laughing along with a joke that he clearly did not understand.

Witnesses say that, shortly before their political science recitation began, a student named Jacob Redding told a complicated joke to several classmates including Lin. When the joke was completed, Lin glanced around to gauge everyone's reactions and, only then, began to chuckle nervously.

“He clearly had no idea what we were laughing about,” said Redding. “To understand the hilarity, you needed to have a pretty advanced knowledge of 'Different Strokes' and understand several idiomatic expressions that make no sense when translated to any other language.”

This incident was not the first time Lin awkwardly pretended to know why everyone was laughing. Lin’s roommate Brian Walters recently showed Lin several episodes of the TV show “Futurama,” with little success.

“Lin just sort of watches me out of the corner of his eye and waits till he sees me laugh, and then he laughs, too,” said Walters. “I really don’t think he gets most of the jokes, but he really loves the giant lobster. Doctor Zoidberg is hilarious in any language.”