Well, in my interpretation un-something means the opposite of that something. Like unfair or unhappy. If somebody is unhappy that doesn’t mean they are of average happiness, it means they are sad. Therefore, untall means short.
Average happiness would still be happiness. Unhappy would be not happy, but not necessarily sad either. There’s lots of different ways to be unhappy other than being sad. Unfair just means something isn’t fair. But something being fair is often treated as a binary. Tall and short isn’t a binary, so simply not being tall doesn’t mean something is short. But in the context of a joke like this, I’d assume “not tall” would be used to be as a comedic understatement.
Holdup, is my 1.78m height (according to Google that’s his height) is considered short now?! (Starting from 2018…)
In Germany that’s the average for AMAB adults. Not short by any means, but not tall either.
Depending on your country. In the Netherlands it’s below average. Also he isn’t saying he is short, just not tall.
😭
Well, in my interpretation un-something means the opposite of that something. Like unfair or unhappy. If somebody is unhappy that doesn’t mean they are of average happiness, it means they are sad. Therefore, untall means short.
Average happiness would still be happiness. Unhappy would be not happy, but not necessarily sad either. There’s lots of different ways to be unhappy other than being sad. Unfair just means something isn’t fair. But something being fair is often treated as a binary. Tall and short isn’t a binary, so simply not being tall doesn’t mean something is short. But in the context of a joke like this, I’d assume “not tall” would be used to be as a comedic understatement.
Also, aren’t his two best friends really tall, so he looks a lot shorter next to them?
Well there you go. He feels short in comparison. I’m the same height as you btw, and definitely not tall here. But maybe it is where you are.