"British Humour"

[davesondrums]

Dunno about you, but I spend a lot of time online.

Not just porn, but using forums like these for comedy, Tottenham Hotspur, music etc.

I also spend a lot of time on Youtube, as, if I am honest, for me it's probably the best website on the planet.

Lately, and maybe it's just me, I've noticed a massive smugness from the Brits on the comment sections on the UK comedy videos:

"Ahh British humour"

"You Yanks just don't get it"

"Love it! Only in Britain!!!"

"Unique!!"

etc etc

I find it really embarrassing, it's just so wanky.

For example, I guarantee if you go to any clip of the US version of The Office, there will be some pleb from Basingstoke telling the harmless Americans who are quoting "That's what she said!" that they are inferior, that their version of The Office is rubbish, that the UK version "was art".

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm a thief.

I popped over to The Pirate Bay the other day to illegally download the Inbetweeners movie (ain't been to the cinema since the last King Kong was out) and as I was waiting for the torrent to download I browsed some of the comments, and frankly it's a disgrace.

Read for yourself:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6876867/The_Inbetweeners_Movie_(2011)_DVDRip_XviD_AC3-26K

Shameful stuff - "Don't bother Yanks", "Only for us"

blah blah blah

Now I wont lie, for me, British comedy is the best.

My top tier comedies are:

Only Fools, Partridge, The Office and Fawlty Towers.

I love US comedy, but I am yet to come across anything that (for me) gets to the level of the above, but that's just my opinion, I wouldn't dare try to trample a US video with my own preference, and watching others from my country do it makes me cringe.

I only posted this because in the LTS thread I mentioned Ricky Gervais' performance at the Golden Globes, and having not watched it in all it's glory in at least a month, I thought I'd indulge.

Lo and behold, the top rated comment -
Priceless British humour.
rajan246 1 month ago

Fuck off!!!!

I can't be alone in this.

(Sorry for gaps between sentences, but that's just how I roll).

[spanky]

On a similar note it frustrates me when people say that US comedy is no good, as if Larry Sanders and Everybody Loves Raymond may as well just be the same show.

[Dead kate moss]

I love US comedy, but I am yet to come across anything that (for me) gets to the level of the above, but that's just my opinion, I wouldn't dare try to trample a US video with my own preference, and watching others from my country do it makes me cringe.

I noticed similar comments, both from Brits and not, when I was watching some old Pete & Dud clips on YouTube. The UK is good at modesty, it is not for us to say we do the best comedy. That is for others to say.

[Little Hoover]

People still seem to be under the impression that Americans don't understand irony as well.

To be fair, if your only exposure to current American comedy is what's shown on TV over here your left with what? Big Bang Theory and How I met your Mother?

And Simpsons/Family Guy/American Dad I guess.

[davesondrums]

People still seem to be under the impression that Americans don't understand irony as well.

They get bashed for not 'getting' sarcasm too.

But it's all about context, and consideration for things like accent.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I was in America not so long ago, sitting on the runway of a plane from Miami to Houston, and whilst sitting there chatting to the nice lady and her daughter sitting next to me, the Captain came over the speaker system and said something along the lines of: "We'll be setting off soon folks, just tightening up a few screws on the wing" and me being in a completely new environment, with new accents, money, etc I said to the lady "did he just say they're tightening up some screws?"

What a plum!

She very politely said "I think he was joking" but I felt like a complete bellend!

[Famous Mortimer]

The "Youtube" tagger hits the nail on the head. There are specific cultural references that people from other countries might not get, but I don't think Brits are hardwired to have a different sense of humour than, say, Americans.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

To be fair, there are also plenty of non-brit comments along the lines of 'Just never got British humour', but I agree that when people are furiously trying to make British Comedy some sort of exclusive club, it's embarrassing.

Every time I read something about Americans not getting irony/sarcasm, a little bit of me dies. Aren't we past that by now?

[Treguard of Dunshelm]

Somebody once said something along the lines of "every nation has a sense of humour, but only the British claim other countries don't."

[Dark Sky]

I think the line's blurred a lot between British and American styles of humour and has been for ages, especially in terms of irony and sarcasm.  I always thought that Seinfeld was in many respects the epitome of sarcastic, sardonic, ironic humour laughing at people failing, combined with the occasional doses of slapstick and ludicrous surrealism, yet there's a programme which was a mammoth in the US and is practically unheard of in the UK. 

For many Americans I've spoken to, "British comedy" makes them think of Monty Python.  And whereas the British used to rule the roost with the madcap sketch show, which would you rather watch now...The Mighty Boosh, or Wonder Showzen? 

As far as I can see, the only things which remain distinctively "British" in (some) British comedies are:

1) lower classes / underdogs [US comedies do seem to favour those with good jobs, at the top of their profession.  Even in Arrested Development where the family has lost nearly everything, they still have a lot of the luxuries of wealth and high society living].

2) a sense of underlying bleakness/nastiness [whereas US comedies tend to be 'feel good'...that's probably one of the biggest differences between the UK and US versions of The Office, for example]

Any examples of those things in US comedies which destroy my theory welcome!

[biggytitbo]

We should put these minor cultural differences aside and all agree that Lithuanian comedy is shit.

[davesondrums]

We should put these minor cultural differences aside and all agree that Lithuanian comedy is shit.

High five!

[Tiny Poster]

It's spelled "humor", ya cockamamie galoots.

[Little Hoover]

Well no it's Americans that don't get "British Humor" when Brits are talking about it's superiority it's "British Humour"

I tend to consider the audience who'll be reading my posts and go with humor or humour depending on what the majority will be.

[biggytitbo]

Lithuanians still think slightly rude shaped vegetables are funny.

[Little Hoover]

So do you.

[biggytitbo]

So do you.

Only if the vegetable looks like Paul Shane fisting a nun.

[davesondrums]

Only if the vegetable looks like Paul Shane fisting a nun.

I'd laugh.

[davesondrums]

Lithuanian Comedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNHY2sda2k

Better than Birds of a Feather.

[davesondrums]

I want to delete that now as I am now becoming the wanker I hate.

I'm sure Lithuanian comedy has it's moments.

[The Boston Crab]

It doesn't bother me because anyone who boasts that others don't 'get' something are inevitably nowhere near as clever as I am and I know full well they won't 'get' what I see as real comedy.

Circle of Life.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Lithuanians still think slightly rude shaped vegetables are funny.

They are.

I have it on good authority (from an elderly Lithuanian relative) that a common insult in Lithuania is "seiti ir šūdas į butelį" - this translates as "go and shit in a bottle"

I've always thought this was highly amusing.

Please think for longer in future before you insult the Lithies.......there are quite a few of us in ex-industrial parts of Scotland who are descendents of these hard-working rude vegetable-loving people who came in peace to work in our dirty, dangerous industries.

RESPECT THE LITHIES! otherwise seiti ir šūdas į butelį!

[thenoise]

It's not that Americans can't do irony, it's that they are very good at sincerity - something we (ok, I) struggle with.

[biggytitbo]

They are.

I have it on good authority (from an elderly Lithuanian relative) that a common insult in Lithuania is "seiti ir šūdas į butelį" - this translates as "go and shit in a bottle"

I've always thought this was highly amusing.

Please think for longer in future before you insult the Lithies.......there are quite a few of us in ex-industrial parts of Scotland who are descendents of these hard-working rude vegetable-loving people who came in peace to work in our dirty, dangerous industries.

RESPECT THE LITHIES! otherwise seiti ir šūdas į butelį!

You just don't get irony, like Americans.

[Dead kate moss]

I thought it was that some Americans are good at sarcasm and irony, but they are not very good at self-deprecation? And their sit-coms generally have the happy status-quo threatened but okay by the end, while we tend to have desperate losers failing to escape their misery. We are not so different though, it's a big drop-off after us and the Americans. Like with pop-music and genocide. Which reminds me, the mythical, mysterious German Humour. Was it here where this was discussed, and one famous German joke was 'the ball rolled round the corner, naturally' (!?) and the other was a shaggy-dog story about a man who stole some loo paper? If not google german joke about loo paper I suppose and let me know why its so funny.

[biggytitbo]

Germans think sausages are funny because they look like a poo.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

I may be carrying on a conversation myself here, but I found the following list of Lithuanian insults:

http://www.myinsults.com/all-insults/lithuanian-insults

Sadly 'my' insult isn't listed.  Worthy of note, however, are:

Geniukas -    Small woodpecker
Apsishik aukshtielninkas -    Shit on yourself upside down
Trilinkas sau ant kelio triesk -    Bow yourself threefold and shit on your own way (traditional curse in Northeastern Lithuania)
Pimpis, pympis - Small penis, acne hanger-on man
Tu shudu maishas be rankenu! - You shitbag with no handles!

Does no-one else want to talk about Lithuanian insults?

[Dead kate moss]

Was it Lithuania where Norman Wisdom is/was/forever will be worshipped as a Pagan Fertility God?

[Dead kate moss]

Ahem. The German Toilet Paper Joke.

From here, some thread about German humour.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-302672.html

I used to share an office with a man from Germany who told the following joke at lunch.

There is this man who works in a large office. One day he goes to the mens room, stuffs a roll of toilet paper under his jacket and takes it home. Then, for the next two years he goes to the mens room once a week, takes a roll of toilet paper, stuffs it under his jacket and takes it home.

One day his boss calls him in and tells him they have proof that he has been stealing from the company. The police arrest him and the judge gives him five years for stealing.

The first day in jail, his cellmate asks him what his crime was and the man answers "I stole over 100 rolls of toilet paper from my job!".

"Ach" cries the cell mate, "you should have just taken one roll a week for two years!"


Every german at the table laughed like crazy but the Americans just looked confused.

The humour arises from the fact that his cellmate has misunderstood and assumed he took them all at once. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA....? Something lost in translation maybe.

[biggytitbo]

I may be carrying on a conversation myself here, but I found the following list of Lithuanian insults:

http://www.myinsults.com/all-insults/lithuanian-insults

Sadly 'my' insult isn't listed.  Worthy of note, however, are:

Geniukas -    Small woodpecker
Apsishik aukshtielninkas -    Shit on yourself upside down
Trilinkas sau ant kelio triesk -    Bow yourself threefold and shit on your own way (traditional curse in Northeastern Lithuania)
Pimpis, pympis - Small penis, acne hanger-on man
Tu shudu maishas be rankenu! - You shitbag with no handles!

Does no-one else want to talk about Lithuanian insults?

I might use some of those actually. I take it all back, it's actually the Ukranians who are unfunny cunts.

[Dark Sky]

Germans think sausages are funny because they look like a poo.

The British think sausages are funny because they look like willies.