Can't You Yanks Take a Joke?

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Never mind trade issues: the U.S. and Japan can't even agree on what's funny. That culture gap was illustrated recently when a Japanese businessman on a United Airlines flight from Tokyo to San Francisco handed a flight attendant a trash-filled airsickness bag and claimed it was a bomb. His attempt at humor didn't go over very well with the crew, which placed the bag carefully in a protective box, dumped fuel and headed back to Japan. Last week the prankster paid United a relatively small damage settlement of $29,000. An airline lawyer explained that after the man apologized, the company decided to take a "very Japanese action" and not sue for the total costs of the returned flight.