John, I like your play on the word "repartee" in your "It's my partee and I'll cry if I want to"

Kudos!

Yet people who don't know that pop song might not understand your remark at all, and/or might not fully appreciate how witty it was.

Which brings me to a point that I've been thinking of-it seems to me that knowledge about the culture from which the joke comes is often needed in order to really understand (or "get") the joke.

For example, I know that I don't know Scottish culture/s. So when you and MeganL have your exchanges, I "get" that you are engaging in "friendly insults", but I don't understand-and I admit that I don't try to fully understand-what it is you two are saying.

And it occurs to me that some of the references in the comedy videos that I posted, and the way that the comedians go about setting up their joke also depends on cultural knowledge-in these cases-knowledge about American popular culture in general, and aspects of African American culture in particular. To use a somewhat retired slang term, if people aren't "hep" to either of these cultures, then they can't fully appreciate the jokes and the skill of the comedians in making them.

Which refers back to the "separated by a common language" theme of this thread.