I just managed to find my way into the Chat with Richard Lederer and asked him if any of his puns had ever failed due to differences in usage bewtween countries. Part of his reply surprised me. He said:"For example, any joke that relied on the line "smart as a whip" wouldn't work in the UK because the folks there don't use "smart" to mean "intelligent."
This really surprised me, as many of my UK friends use "smart" in that way. Obviously, I would not expect ordinary speakers of any variant of English to be au fait with another variant's usage. However, the fact that Dr. Lederer is a usage editor for a major dictionary, makes me wonder if his response is more proof of the astonishing insularity (nod-to-tsuwm-emoticon) of US English speakers?
