American vs British/European Sense Of Humour

[crinkle]

First it should be noted that Different countries in the EU can have different senses of humour, so grouping British and European together is not really correct. But anyway, differences between USA and UK humour:

* Brits are less uptight about jokes/humour in the workplace so we tend to say things that most Americans are terrified to say.

* Brits understand the humour in irony, a great deal of Americans don't get that. Although Americans are getting better at this with shows lik the office becoming popular.

* Brits often have a dark sarcastic sense of humour

[iloveshemales77]

Interesting topic! Silvester makes the mistake some Americans make in seeing Europe as one (cultural in this case) entity. It prob. makes more sense to compare British with American humour, as these two countries are at least divided by a common language.

This sense of irony thing is interesting. It is sometimes claimed by brits that the yanks have no such thing. I disagree and present "Seinfeld", "Sgt. Bilko", and of course the Marx Bros. as evidence to the contrary.

And who can forget "Dr. Strangelove" : "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" But then Kubrik was an honorary brit and lived there for the greater part of his life.

[odelay24]

Just to get it out of the way, American humor is very vanilla ice-cream compared to countries likes Britain and Australia (except for Bob Saget, lol).

As for actual differences, I don't really know. Americans some how seem to get the impression that British humour is in some way more sophisticated, which it's not (Benny Hill anyone?)

But really, the only thing I can think to say is this: You'd never see something like the Young Ones in America

[LG]

As for actual differences, I don't really know. Americans some how seem to get the impression that British humour is in some way more sophisticated, which it's not (Benny Hill anyone?)
Maybe not sophisticated, but witty, certainly.

And Benny Hill is probably more of a cult figure in America than the UK, whereas the comedies that most people would call typically British (Fawlty Towers, The Likely Lads, Blackadder, Porridge and Little Britain aren't that big) in the US. Some TV shows have crossed over from the UK and have been adapted for US TV (AliG/Borat and the Office, while One Foot in the Grave was remade as Cosby) while some US sitcoms have been popular in the UK (South Park, Friends, Frasier, The Simpsons).

Benny Hill and Mr Bean are slapstick, and mostly free of dialogue which is why they appeal world-wide. But the Brits use wit and irony a lot whereas the Americans- if the Marx Brothers are taken as an example- enjoy surreal humour and puns.

In addition, Brits might joke about the Irish or French, where Americans may joke about Polish-Americans or Canadians.

There's actually been a scientific study on all this.
http://www.innocentenglish.com/best-funny-jokes/funniest-jokes.html
http://www.laughlab.co.uk/
http://www.laughlab.co.uk/topBycountry.html

For a previous discussion on all this in the Politics forum (where I used a quote from Blackadder to draw parallels to Iraq):
http://www.hungangels.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=13381

PS: I am neither British nor American. I get both kinds of humour, but just find British comedy a little funnier. Plus, Fawlty Towers, one of the most side-splitting sitcomes ever made, never had a laugh track because it didn't need one.

[iloveshemales77]

agree. One thing maybe: British humour often involves dysfunctional losers and oddballs on the edge of society (The Young Ones, Fawlty Towers, Steptoe & son, Alan Partridge, Ab Fab, Little Britain, The Office etc.etc.) Theres a bit of us all in those characters and they reflect uncomfortable truths about us. The Americans aren't as comfortable with the idea of being made to look inept and ridiculous. Humour there is "cool" far want of a better expression.

[LG]

agree. One thing maybe: British humour often involves dysfunctional losers and oddballs on the edge of society (The Young Ones, Fawlty Towers, Steptoe & son, Alan Partridge, Ab Fab, Little Britain, The Office etc.etc.) Theres a bit of us all in those characters and they reflect uncomfortable truths about us. The Americans aren't as comfortable with the idea of being made to look inept and ridiculous. Humour there is "cool" far want of a better expression.

You're right actually- that's very often the case. I never thought of that...

[taniatv]

agree. One thing maybe: British humour often involves dysfunctional losers and oddballs on the edge of society (The Young Ones, Fawlty Towers, Steptoe & son, Alan Partridge, Ab Fab, Little Britain, The Office etc.etc.) Theres a bit of us all in those characters and they reflect uncomfortable truths about us. The Americans aren't as comfortable with the idea of being made to look inept and ridiculous. Humour there is "cool" far want of a better expression.


There's an American version of Steptoe and Son called sanford and Son, I've seen only a couple but it looks as if it's word for word apart from some obvious differences (regional and the American S&S are black).
Also the Americans adapted Dear John and more recently The Office again almost word for word, I think there's others as well.

Seinfeld is a classic but it didn't have a chance in Britain. Simply because it was abused by the beeb getting a late slot on BBC2 some weekday if I remember correctly and then the schedule wasn't reguar!

Comedy in the Uk is changing now because of the new climate there and the PC that's forced on the public as a result. Love Thy Neighbour, It Aint Half Hot Mum and Till Death Do Us Part each brilliant shows are being swept under the carpet as a result and this genre will not return, this is where America can overtake the Brits in the comedy dept. I get the felling the US public is much more relaxed about touchy topics and the ethnic characters in the US don't need a nanny called PC and give as much as they get.

Best for me:
Seinfeld - US :D :D :D
Rising Damp - UK :D :D :D

[Coroner]

Humour is individual. British humour seen in TV shows is the humour of the guys that create them. Same with American stuff like Seinfeld: it´s Jerry Seinfeld, not America. Honestly, I hear good conversations in Seinfeld but no jokes :lol:

My humour is mine and my father for example has his own sense of humour. I don´t know why people believe the regional stereotypes. There´s an old humour-spirit here in Vienna that we call the "Wiener Schmäh" but it doesn´t really exist, it´s just a legend. Not everyone in Vienna is funny nor does everyone understand any sense of humour. People and humour are not just different outside their state borders but also inside a country. Regional and individual.

[Jericho]

Comedy in the Uk is changing now because of the new climate there and the PC that's forced on the public as a result. Love Thy Neighbour, It Aint Half Hot Mum and Till Death Do Us Part each brilliant shows are being swept under the carpet as a result and this genre will not return, this is where America can overtake the Brits in the comedy dept.

Absolutely.
And that's the utter idiocy of political correctness - Those were the very shows [especially "Love Thy Neighbour"] that highlighted the stupidity of bigotry.

Best American sitcom - Married with Children :D

[muhmuh]

Plus, Fawlty Towers, one of the most side-splitting sitcomes ever made, never had a laugh track because it didn't need one.

strange everything ive seen from it did have one
speaking of which

will you stop mentioning the war?
you started it!
we did not start it!
yes you did you invaded poland!

[iloveshemales77]

Comedy in the Uk is changing now because of the new climate there and the PC that's forced on the public as a result. Love Thy Neighbour, It Aint Half Hot Mum and Till Death Do Us Part each brilliant shows are being swept under the carpet as a result and this genre will not return, this is where America can overtake the Brits in the comedy dept.

Absolutely.
And that's the utter idiocy of political correctness - Those were the very shows [especially "Love Thy Neighbour"] that highlighted the stupidity of bigotry.

Best American sitcom - Married with Children :D

Yes, sad but true. Can't help feeling though that as far as PCness goes, the US still leads the way.
Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin with the late great Leonard Rossiter. C J: " I didn't get to where I am today by..." were great shows.

You know: Benny Hill doing the Chinese guy " you stupid irriot" still has me chuckling up afte all these years. By the way jericho, that avatar is from The Fast Show right?

[LOCpunks]

British humor is dry and sarcastic. But frankly, I don't see how anyone could see it as "more sophisticated." The question of irony as well I don't understand; it has always been a crux of American humor/sitcoms. But recent shows have done it best...ala Curb Your Enthusiasm, and to a lesser extent, Seinfeld.

[Jericho]

You know: Benny Hill doing the Chinese guy " you stupid irriot" still has me chuckling up afte all these years. By the way jericho, that avatar is from The Fast Show right?

Yer not supposed to laugh at that anymore! :wink:

Yep, the Av's from the Fast Show, Rowley Birkin QC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPiGJBHVadA

[iloveshemales77]

British humor is dry and sarcastic. But frankly, I don't see how anyone could see it as "more sophisticated." The question of irony as well I don't understand; it has always been a crux of American humor/sitcoms. But recent shows have done it best...ala Curn Your Enthusiasm, and to a lesser extent, Seinfeld.

British humour can be dry and sarcastic as in Blackadder. Mostly it isn't. What used to set it apart was the sheer quality of the writing and the touchingly tragicomic nature of its protagonists. That is what made it sophisticated as opposed to slapstick. Some of the stuff such as Monty Pythons parrot sketch, Tony Hancock, and Steptoe and Son was as close to a piece by Samuel Beckett as you can get. American sitcoms have come a long way, and the best today are every bit as good as the early British masterpieces.

[ezed]

Humor is humour! God bless our comediens from both sides of the lake! And let us not forget our brothers down under.

[CORVETTEDUDE]

I just enjoy humor!!! I don't give a shit who's flag is wrapped around it. Shit, none of us are getting out of here alive....we may as well laugh about it!! :jerkoff :claps

[4star4]

I've never understood the English comedy's like "Are You Being Served" or "Mr. Bean." It's dry humor, I've never really laughed out laud watching it though. Sienfield is funny, Cheers was great americana comedy. I hated Rosanne Barr. Married With Children was the best. Al Bundy was awesome!

[odelay24]

I still cannot get over the fact that for Little Britian to be shown in America, even on HBO, it's going to be completely re-done, like Ali G was (except that was for different reasons).
Yeah, it's crass, but that's the point! lol.

[TJT]

Has it been? I've been watching "Little Britain" on BBC America for a couple of years and think it's hilarious.

[TomSelis]

Vicki Pollard is hilarious with all her chavvy goodness.

[Azanti]

Americans have a sense of humour?

[Steve-Russell]

Think the biggest difference is that the brits are more easily able to take the p**s out of themselves, which is why we occasionally come up with stuff that the US could never do. On balance however, when was the last time the UK came out with something as popular as Friends, think both countries have their strengths, heck, as long as it makes us laugh.

Steve

[peggygee]

British humor is dry and sarcastic. But frankly, I don't see how anyone could see it as "more sophisticated." The question of irony as well I don't understand; it has always been a crux of American humor/sitcoms. But recent shows have done it best...ala Curn Your Enthusiasm, and to a lesser extent, Seinfeld.

British humour can be dry and sarcastic as in Blackadder. Mostly it isn't. What used to set it apart was the sheer quality of the writing and the touchingly tragicomic nature of its protagonists. That is what made it sophisticated as opposed to slapstick. Some of the stuff such as Monty Pythons parrot sketch, Tony Hancock, and Steptoe and Son was as close to a piece by Samuel Beckett as you can get. American sitcoms have come a long way, and the best today are every bit as good as the early British masterpieces.


:

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I've never understood the English comedy's like "Are You Being Served" or "Mr. Bean." It's dry humor, I've never really laughed out laud watching it though. Sienfield is funny, Cheers was great americana comedy. I hated Rosanne Barr. Married With Children was the best. Al Bundy was awesome!


http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2/magi43/uk_100.gif

I have a dry wit and sarcastc sense of humor. So I get Mr. Bean, Black
Adder, AbFab, Are You Being Served, et al. Eddie Izzard so-so, and you
can keep your Dame Edna across the pond.

I don't care for slapstick comedy, so no 3 Stooges or Benny Hill. :smh

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2/magi43/benny-hill.jpg

I like Curb Your Enthusiam, but Seinfeld kinda got on my nerves, maybe
because he lived in a New York with no Black people.

Alongst those lines I like ethnic comedians, Black comedians, Latino, Asian, etc.

Dennis Miller, Dennis Leary, Margaret Cho,Ellen Cleghorne, Wanda Sykes, Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, Cedric The Entertainer,
Janeane Garofalo, Ellen De Generes. Groucho Marx.....http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2/magi43/duck_soup_200_145.jpg

Bill Maher

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2/magi43/jess-blog-20060825062126944.jpg

and of course the comedic geniuses of HA. :lol:

[iloveshemales77]

Seinfeld!? Smug git!! ;-)

[iloveshemales77]

And it truly amazes me to hear that "Are you Being Served" is such a hit in the US. It was made way back in the 70s and nobody in the UK laughs at pussy jokes or gay store attendants anymore. But then again, humour is a weird thing, some of it travels well, some doesn't.

[Chica]

borat is british and you love him :P
lee evans is my favourite stand up comedian though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt55FfETSvk

[LG]

I have a dry wit and sarcastc sense of humor. So I get Mr. Bean, BlackAdder, AbFab, Are You Being Served, et al. Eddie Izzard so-so, and you can keep your Dame Edna across the pond...

...and of course the comedic geniuses of HA. :lol:
:lol:

Izzard is surreal, a little like Groucho Marx but with an edge. He comes up with the weirdest shit.

For example, here he takes a topic- doing one's laundry and just runs with it (it's funnier when you hear it one tape or watch it live):

And it’s quite a ceremony! Washing your clothes, you can take it down to the launderette; that’s one way. You’ve got a bag- three months’ worth easy of laundry, you pushed it into a bag, and you drag it down to the launderette, wearing clothes that should be in the bag, really, yeah? That’s what you wear to the launderette, that’s why you’ve gone to the launderette, because you’ve got nothing left! You’re wearing dressing gowns to work, it’s that bad! So you throw it in the wash, and you’ve got big machines down the launderette, huge machines with the big porthole windows, and you shove it all in; you never separate out the laundry, shove it all in! And you’ve got one choice – “bizarre wash”! That’s what you get. And you sacrifice a few socks and a pair of pants to the god of launderette, who sits in the back of the machine with a pair of chopsticks, going, (mimes eating with chopsticks) “Oh, lovely, yes… A sock, lovely! A bit of fabric softener… Yes, in it goes…”

And you take the washing out, shove it into a tumble-dry, and the tumble-dry glues it together, with static electricity, so that you get the washing out, put it on your head, and walk out (mimes balancing the washing on his head). Next day, you put on a pair of socks, and the rest of the wash says, (motions following)

“We’re coming, too! We’re coming!”

(mimes kicking the rest of the wash) “Go off! I’m just wearing these.”

“Nooo… static!”

All day, you’re trying to chat someone up – “Yeah, I know… (kicking wash away) Piss off! Sorry, I don’t know whose it is… it’s stray washing! Yeah… Look, fabric softener! Go! (mimes throwing fabric softener like a stick)”

Or you can wash your clothes at home, and at certain people’s houses, they have machines with a huge dial with all the letters of the alphabet on… and no instructions. You just have to guess. “Well, I’ll have an ‘H’ wash – want an ‘H’ wash.” And you stuff it all in, and once you get the stuff going there’s a pair of socks coming, “Sorry, we’re late! Sorry! We were in the back, where you left us. Oh, is the program started? Oh…” And then you let the socks back in the wash, and they’re going, “Excuse me… sorry, pardon me… I’m supposed to be in, I’ve got tickets!”

Or you’re doing white clothing wash, you say, “I’ll wash all my white clothes,” and you shove all the whites down, in a big pile, and you put some clothes in there that are almost white. You shove them in there, and then you take them out, put them to the side… “Actually, that would be fine in there… Maybe not… No, I’ve washed them a few times now…” And for a couple of days, you just go back and forth, and then you shove it all in. The rest of the deeper coloured clothes say:
“Oh, he’s doing a whites wash first! That pisses me off! Okay, blue underpants, you will infiltrate whites wash. You are our best undercover clothing! We’ve done you some forged papers, you’ll be disguised as a white handkerchief, okay? These have been done by Donald Pleasance, so they should be good. I believe you’ve been practicing a white handkerchief accent?”

(high pitched) “Yes, I have, yes, I have…”

“Very good, now off you go!”

And the blue underpants go… (mumbling in high pitched voice) sneaks inside the white wash, usually inside a shirt; shirts are a bit dopey, aren’t they? (mimes dopey behaviour) So it gets in, the whites wash goes in, and as soon as the clothing start going around the wash, the blue underpants comes up to the window, and goes:

“Hello! Blue underpants here!”

“Blue underpants in the white wash! Get them out! Let’s smash the glass!”

And the blue underpants are going, “I’m draining, I’m draining…” And if all your clothes came out a vibrant blue, it would be fine, wouldn’t it? But your clothes tend to come out a color that’s called “Pants Left In Wash.” And people know, and they point, “Yeah, yeah…” And then they stab you! Apparently, sometimes, you know… Yeah…


And here's some thing by Rowan Atkinson you might like (from his live show):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBeguUvuDzs&mode=related&search=

[iloveshemales77]

borat is british and you love him :P
lee evans is my favourite stand up comedian though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt55FfETSvk

:lol: :lol: :lol:

here's a classic for ya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GipFyAsYK1M

[LG]

borat is british and you love him :P
lee evans is my favourite stand up comedian though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt55FfETSvk

:lol: :lol: :lol:

here's a classic for ya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GipFyAsYK1M

That's certainly a classic. Here are two more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDat9zdw7Gs

But see if you can get your hands on Rowan Atkinson's live one man show. Here are some clips (the first is puerile but hilarious):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qffCXkhodks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4t03uBWYCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBeguUvuDzs

And I agree with Chica that Lee Evans is brilliant. Surreal humour and physical comedy. He looks like he's made out of rubber sometimes- he's incredible.

And then there's this guy. A genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYHY8msFTpk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9AK0fLAsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Mijk1dxx8

[LG]

A classic song by Dudley Moore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9Lih3F7Wc

As I was walking down the street one day
I saw a house on fire
There was man, standing at an upper-storey window
Shouting and screaming at the crowd that was gathered there below
For he was sore afraid

Jump! You fucker, jump!
Jump into this here blanket what we are holding
And you will be all right
He jumped, hit the deck, broke his fucking neck -
There was no blanket

Laugh?! We nearly shat!
We had not laughed so much since Grandma died
Or Auntie Mabel caught her left tit in the mangle
We are miserable sinners
Fi-i-ilthy fuckers

Ahhhrrrr-soles

Reminds me of the Ruthless Rhymes by Harry Graham, who wrote things like:

Father heard his Children scream,
So he threw them in the stream,
Saying, as he drowned the third,
"Children should be seen, not heard!"

and

“There’s been an accident!” they said,
“Your servant’s cut in half; he’s dead.”
“Indeed!” said Mr Jones, “and please
Give me the half that’s got my keys.”

[iloveshemales77]

Great stuff LG.! I could do this all night! Here's the Pete and Dud classic. I remember seeing this on TV back in the early 70s. I nearly wet myself...

"So anyways, I fought... funny! Then I felt this 'and on my cheek"
"Which cheek was that then Dud?"
"Upper left"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOe1ywCEMtI