Irony and self-irony as markers of cultural identity

Global shifts that take place in all levels of social life, both in Ukraine and in the world, the transience of events, which acquires a routine character, encourage comprehension and rethinking of the meaning of factors that affirm, testify to the rootedness of a person and community in existence, structure social ties, determine the emotional level of a person's attitude to the world around him, to himself. One of these factors is, of course, humor in all its manifestations. The ethnic, national nature of humor, its deep-rooted cultural contextuality opens up the possibility of understanding the ways in which the identity of representatives of different nations is formed. Studies of the manifestations of humor, and specifically its variety, irony, in various spheres of life, give reason to consider it as an important marker of national identity. The article shows the influence of many factors – natural, climatic, historical, cultural, social, etc. on the peculiarities of the functioning of irony in different regions of the world. There are also different meaningful, ethical, communicative, etc., the weightiness of irony in different cultures.