For all the connectedness that globalisation supposedly has brought, sometimes we’re still Venus and Mars, and by that I don’t mean platforms for Elon Musk’s ego. I mean slippage between cultures, philosophies and especially what is funny.

Even at a carnival of nations like the Australian Open, there is liable to be misunderstanding.

One man’s love of clay courts is another’s terror of them. One man’s nationalism is another’s patriotism. And one man’s sense of humour is another’s gross insult, and so again we have a confected controversy at Melbourne Park.

As I saw it, Tony Jones was not making fun of Novak Djokovic. He was making a little fun of the Serbian fans and the idea that they could not hear him, and so he might have been chanting any old rubbish. And was. He........

© The Sydney Morning Herald