What makes British humor more unique (or not) than other English speaking humor (1 Viewer)

[Ryan_M_M]

I think that in general both are on the equal scale. There's some good and bad from both sides. The United States didn't get some of the awful TV sitcoms that appeared in the 70s and 80s here like Man about the House, Me and My Girl and of course Robin's Nest. These were all pretty bad and only get repeated on UK Satelite channels like UK Gold which specialises on all that. I am sure there are some bad American ones (i.e. Different Strokes).

 

[Christopher P]

No one mentioned my 2 favorites unless I missed them:

Fawlty Towers

Are You Being Served

In all I don't find British TV shows very humorous, but these two make me laugh as hard as anything on US TV.

Chris

 

[BrianB]

What does 'series' mean to the Brits? Here it means a full run of a show. So, all 11 years of The Simpsons would be called a series. It seems you are using it like we would 'season'. Is that it?)

Series in the UK == season in the US. I've confused people by using that term over here too
And the UK doesn't get the Daily Show as it's a direct rip-off of The 11 O'Clock Show

 

[TheoGB]

Bear in mind that 'season' is a bit misleading if applied to UK sit coms as they only ever last for 6-8 episodes...

I wouldn't class Sopranos as humour. Buffy is just as likely to make me laugh but it's hardly what we're talking about here, is it? Or maybe it is, but in that case we're just comparing drama, which is nearly always of a more subtle nature, reagardless of country of origin.

I did forget South Park (well series 1 & 2 anyhow), but I don't think that Sex and the City is all that funny. This is all naturally very subjective, but only Friends, Frasier and The Simpsons have actually been impressive ratings winners on our screens as comedies to such a large degree, I believe. But hey, I could easily be wrong.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

In defense of the USA's understanding of irony, I would like to point out that Alanis Morissette is Canadian. Despite what you may have heard, we get irony. Sadly, everything you have heard about our grasp of geography and non-English languages is true. Heck, our grasp of English remains tenuous at best.

Regards,

 

[Iain Lambert]

Anyone who accuses Americans of not getting irony, surely hasn't seen The Simpsons.

And I'd like to put a plug in for Black Books (or indeed anything with Bill Bailey in, including the aforementioned Spaced).

 

[Paul_D]

Did you ever see The Fast Show? Perhaps you're just strange, Paul!

It SUCKS! Hard. Just bad comedy.
I did forget about Spaced though. I love that show. And sitting here I've just remembered a couple more shows that I liked: I'm Alan Partridge and The Day Today.
"This is the Day Today."

 

[Rob Gillespie]

It SUCKS! Hard. Just bad comedy.

Yeah, terrible. I mean, NOBODY ever laughed while watching The Fast Show.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I think it has something to do with culture. England is traditionally a rather suppressive, stuffy environment- stiff upper lip and all that. It wouldn't behoove one to prance around like a clown with over-the-top showmanship. An English comedian is more likely to rely on dialogue and thick doses of sarcasm.

Also, more British comedians are formally educated, while it is very common for American comedians to be lower-class types. Tim Allen and Denis Leary appeal to the every-man. All of the members of Monty Python were very educated, including references to Sartre and medieval history in their act.

However, I think this lines are more blurred now than they used to be. I see English slapstick and American with, with both sides of the Atlantic borrowing from each other.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Brit comedy tends, like US comedy, to get pretty formulaic. At the moment, the critically-acclaimed stuff tends to revolve around comedies of situation rather than standard jokes with a punch-line. E.g. the Fast Show and League of Gentlemen both rely around the humour of recognising the same thing reappearing week after week in different permutations ('scorchio!', 'are you local?', etc). Personally I find that when you've seen one programme you've seen the lot. Unsurprisingly, they're popular with school kids and students because they can then repeat the catchphrases ad nauseum.

Incidentally, the reason why Brit comedy show generally only have 6-8 episodes per year is that they are written by single writers. The idea of a team of writers (which of course enables longer runs a la Friends or Frasier) is an American TV institution, though there are some Brit radio comedy programmes written on a team basis which are on all year round (e.g. Week Ending which is a satirical look at the week's news).

I think that Brit humour isn't necessarily more ironic than American, it's just that we accept a higher proportion of insults and self-deprecation as sources of humour rather than hostility or self-loathing.

 

[Paul_D]

Yeah, terrible. I mean, NOBODY ever laughed while watching The Fast Show.

My opinion. I know plenty of people love it. I just don't understand why.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

It's those wacky accents the British have! Heck, why don't y'all learns ta speak English like us here 'mericans???

 

[Malcolm R]

Brit comedy tends, like US comedy, to get pretty formulaic. At the moment, the critically-acclaimed stuff tends to revolve around comedies of situation rather than standard jokes with a punch-line. E.g. the Fast Show and League of Gentlemen both rely around the humour of recognising the same thing reappearing week after week in different permutations ('scorchio!', 'are you local?', etc).

Kind of like Keeping Up Appearances. I swear, they just recycle the same script week after week, and just change the setting slightly.
But I still love every minute of it. Everytime the name is pronounced "Bucket" instead of "Bouquet;" everytime Daisy and Onslow's car backfires; everytime Hyacinth falls into the hedge after the dog barks at her; everytime Elizabeth spills her coffee; everytime the milkman or mailman pauses with trepidation at approaching her house; everytime Hyacinth announces that her sister Violet is "the one with the mercedes and room for a pony"....I still get giggle-fits even though I've seen every episode about four times.
Is there a support group for this affliction?

 

[Keith Mickunas]

One thing I feel is that the British really handle sketch comedy better. It seems like they are more willing to be completely absurd than Americans now. I'm speaking of such things as French & Saunders, Big Train, Smack the Pony, Harry Enfield & Chums, Fry & Laurie, Goodness Gracious and the like, not just the classic Monty Python stuff. I also enjoy some of their sitcoms like AbFab, Red Dwarf and some others. AbFab is just over the top at times, and I think too many American studios are scared to go that far because of advertisers. Comedy Central is changing that with South Park and showing AbFab. Perhaps things will improve.

As for the attractiveness of British women, well there's a handful I know of. Cathy Rogers and the ever so elegant Mrs. Peel to name just two. Although I have noticed some facial features that are almost specifically British. But that's not to say they're necessarily ugly, just different. But like any country they got some really ugly women, but we aren't free of that either.

 

[Paul_D]

Extremely limited gene pool? Tenuous grasp on the concept of oral hygiene?

Funny joke. ...

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Funny joke. ...

..This clearly demonstrates why the word "self" is so important in the phrase "self-deprecating". Americans making fun of British dentistry - not as funny as Brits making fun of British dentistry.
Regards,

 

[Paul_D]

Whats so bizarre about all this is that I've never heard of British dentitry being unsanitary before I read it here a few weeks ago! For the record, I have never been to a dentist who didn't wear clean, new gloves, and operate in an emmaculate, pristine practise. So there. :p)

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Haven't you seen Austin Powers? Its not about it being unsanitary, rather a general perception that American's tend to take better care of their teeth than Brits. Of course, Austin did get his fixed as apparently its no longer as acceptable as it was in the 60's and 70's. But then we're exposed to a lot more older British stuff than newer.
I've also heard from others that have traveled abroad, which I have yet to do, that in many countries overall hygiene is poorer than in America. Most Americans tend to bathe daily, brush their teeth a few times a day, and the women shave more in addition to such things as having better dental care. I'm not making a judgement, as I said, I have no first hand experience in this. It just seems to be common belief over here.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Being a brit that immegrated out to Canada I get to see the effects of culture on comedy from two perspectives. There are a number of obvious differences between the two cultures. Looking at Canadian comdey we have the advantage of mixing a little of both which seems to work rather well...at least we have a long list of popular canadian comics (Jim Carrey, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Rick Morranis, Dan Akroyd, Dave Thomas, Mike Myers, Tom Green, Colin Mochrie, David Foley, Matthew Perry, Martin Short, Alan Thicke, Phil Hartman, Michael J. Fox, Leslie Nielsen...etc) Anyway both the british and american humour have differing styles (or used to before the global media took over) and each cater to different cultures. Personally I find most comedy on TV to be rude, tasteless and low brow humour. I'd much rather watch frasier with its witt and puns then shows that have to rely on slap stick situational humour or excessive laugh tracks.

 

[Martin Fontaine]

It's those wacky accents the British have! Heck, why don't y'all learns ta speak English like us here 'mericans???

And I think that is part of the reason...