For Napolitans, irony can be considered as an indispensable and important cultural heritage, like an ancient knowledge that avoids the overwhelming of useless and sterile absolutism and / or rationalism. There is an anecdote that, in a few simple lines, seems to effectively explain the natural propensity of Neapolitans to irony and sarcasm.

"The father of a friend of mine, remembers that during a Hitler's visit to Naples in 1938, a large crowd was standing along Caracciolo Street, waiting for his passage to an open car. When the Fuhrer stood in the car and stretched his arm in the Nazi greeting, a voice from an unidentified person in the crowd broke the silence of the ceremony by saying, "Sta verenn’ si for’ chiove (He is checking if it's raining)". At that time, his father realized that totalitarianism would never have conquered the Neapolitan spirit. And probably for that innate sense of irony, that ability to not take it too seriously. "

That laugh was very useful to exorcise the many (too many) problems of the city, that sense of sharp irony that can surprise you and demolish you at the same time, makes Napoletano a winner in front of the adverse events, because laughing, someone said before us, lengthens the life!

source

http://www.vesuviolive.it/ultime-notizie/32733-i-napoletani-lironia-demoli-limponenza-hitler/