You can be grammatically flawless and still miss the joke the whole table is laughing at. Kerala humour is dry, deadpan and aimed at pretension, and Malayalam is built for puns: long words, meaningful length, and a Sanskrit register to turn on trivial things. You learn the flat-voiced sarcasm of അത് കൊള്ളാം and പിന്നെ!, the teasing vocabulary, and ചളി, current slang for a bad pun. You also learn the social rule: being teased, even about your accent, means you have been accepted, so laugh and keep going. Words and phrases in this class: അയ്യോ (ayyo) – all-purpose exclamation എന്റമ്മോ (entammo) – oh my mother! (astonishment) എന്ത് പറ്റി? (enthu patti?) – what happened? അത് കൊള്ളാം (athu kollaam) – that is good (or, said flatly, the opposite) പിന്നെ! (pinne!) – yeah, right അതേ അതേ (athe athe) – yes, yes (I don't believe you) മതി മതി (mathi mathi) – enough, enough കളിയാക്കുക (kaliyaakkuka) – to tease, to mock തമാശ (thamaasha) – a joke തമാശയാണ് (thamaashayaanu) – it's a joke കളിയാക്കണ്ട (kaliyaakkanda) – don't tease me ചളി (chali) – a bad pun (literally mud) ശരി ശരി (shari shari) – all right, all right In this class: • The character of Kerala humour: dry, deadpan, deflating pretension • Why Malayalam is built for puns and register jokes • Sarcasm by intonation: അത് കൊള്ളാം, പിന്നെ!, അതേ അതേ • Teasing as acceptance, and how to respond when it is your accent Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.