Sarcasm used to have a really negative connotation that I don’t think it does any more. The “original” sarcasm was meant to insult someone below the surface of the actual words. Implying the words couldn’t possibly be true so you must actually be pointing out an inadequacy.
Examples like: “It must be your winning personality” or “I’m sure you were already aware…”
Now we take sarcasm to be anything where the our meaning isn’t just the words we’re saying and it’s not necessarily insulting.
So in that sense it probably has a generational aspect.
As far as languages, I think it just comes down to there being so many cultural references in humor that it doesn’t translate very well along with every little bit having to be understood.
I remember a friend trying to explain the sum of all cardamom to me as an expression. I didn’t know what cardamom was, had no idea why you would add it together, and certainly didn’t get why it was desirable.
Because the meaning is always implied, you have to have a really good grasp of the vocabulary and be able to identify that something is “off” so you should think about what’s being said in broader terms. If any little part of that is off, then it doesn’t translate.