Not even Arnold Schwarzenegger can make me regret our American right to free speech.

Our California Governor made the executive decision to call some lawmakers “girlie men” at a rally last Saturday in Ontario, California. Not surprisingly, the lawmakers in question weren’t doing what Schwarzenegger wanted them to do.

Reactions to Schwarzenegger’s comment have been well-publicized, as has been their likely inspiration.

The difficulty with a remark like this remains, as always: What do we do with it?

The last line of an op-ed in USA Today got me thinking. It read: “Humor is a weapon that in politics is in far too short supply.” While certainly subjective in the context of the piece, these parting words reminded me of a truth I learned as a high school exchange student in Italy. Different cultures have distinctly different types of humor.

What Americans consider funny may be vastly different than what the French find humorous. Or, in this case, what an Austrian in office and a writer for USA Today appear to have found amusing.

In order to find something funny, you have to be able to share a perspective, or a culture. Even though the term “girlie-men” got laughs from the audience of “Saturday Night Live” when Hans and Franz used it, many Americans didn’t find it funny this time. In my case, I knew I was getting the hang of Italian culture when I started getting Italian humor. And sometimes even when I didn’t share someone’s opinion, I got a lot more out of laughing than I did out of what I had been doing before I learned to laugh like a Buddha.

When I asked my mother if Schwarzenegger’s latest had made it up to her neck of the woods, she told me about a bipartisan joke which had just aired on the Seattle news, a quasi music video that leaves both sides laughing.  

If living well is the best revenge, then laughter is the best medicine.

We all know what to do with lemons. Make lemonade.