British Humor.....

[Boris]

Funny or not? And for the sake of simplicity let's define British as including Wales, Scotland, Ireland, etc...

Myself, I never really understood it. I thought Monty Python was boring and the Jack Benny (I think that's his name) show also fell in to the unfunny category. In my view the Brits are funniest when they are being so cool in the face of extreme adversity, not when trying to make jokes.

[Phat Mack]

Jack Benny wasn't British, Rochester was.

(Bee joke was hilarious.)

[ThaSaltCracka]

I think its funny, but not as funny as American or Canadian humor. British humor seems to be more acting dumb humor, ya know, sort of like silly humor. The North American comics created the one liner though, the real story type humor.

[HDPM]

Funny.

I never watched much Benny Hill tho. Monte Python is hilarious.

But I have been accused of having a cynical, dry, and sarcastic kind of outlook. In my limited experience in England I got along OK and for whatever reason "got" the humor.

[Boris]

my mistake. I just remember some TV show with a short fat bald guy ogling the big booby chicks.

[HDPM]

see why I like it? /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[John Cole]

Rochester was married to Bertha who was kept in the attic. I think she set fire to the manse. Seems she resented the intrusion of Jane. I missed Jack Benny, though.

[MMMMMM]

I like British humor.

John Cleese = five stars. Did you ever watch Fawlty Towers?

[Sundevils21]

Monty Python makes me want to die. One of the most mindbogglingly stupid and unfunny group of movies in history. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[bingledork]

Monty Python is hilarious.
Benny Hill is juvenile and stupid.

[ACPlayer]

Dry, tongue in cheek, modestly self deprecating, exploiting the english language -- British humor is priceless.

My complete set of Wodehouse attests to my admiration for that style of writing.

Note also that many successful American humorous TV shows are knockoffs of TV shows that originated on BBC.

An example of the difference between American and British look at the hosts of Who's line is it Anyway. On the American side is Drew Carey -- loud, boisterous, bit slapsticky; on the British <if forget the name>-- dry, quiet though quite funny. As they say here in Vietnam-- Same, Same but different.

[andyfox]

The restaurant scene from History of the World(?) where the guy explodes is as funny as anything I've ever seen.

"I'm f*cking full."

"A bucket for Monseiur. And a cleaning woman."
/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[HDPM]

Meaning of Life. And remember what the cleaning woman said about your kind. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Zeno]

Every Sperm is Scared
Every Sperm is Great
If one of them is Wasted
God gets quite Irate.

-Monty Python

[CCass]

'ow 'bout a nice wafer thin mint?

[MMMMMM]

Sundevil, if you just saw the movies you did not see much of Monty Python. The show itself was often quite good.

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
My complete set of Wodehouse attests to my admiration for that style of writing.


[/ QUOTE ]

Another Wodehouse fan! I have a whole set of his novels also. He was one of the best comic/humor writers of the 20th centaury. It is interesting that he spent most of his formative years in American. He also wrote plays, songs, and movie scripts in addition to his output of humorous novels.

************************************************** *****

'Do you know what you are my lad? You're an obstinate relic of an exploded feudal system'

'Very good sir.'


'The lunches of fifty-seven years had caused his chest to slip down to the mezzanine floor.'


'She uttered a sound rather like an elephant taking its foot out of a mud hole in a Burmese teak forest.'


Just a few gems from 'In His Own Words' a biography of his life through his works. This book is by Barry Day and Tony Ring and is well worth getting.

The only American that can compare to Wodehouse, in my opinion, is Jamas Thurber (make sure to run if the dam breaks).

-Zeno

[stripsqueez]

i've liked nearly all the americans i've met - the ones i didnt like made me laugh a bit - much like the knights from monty pythons holy grail - absolutely no sense of thier own crappiness

i like chinese food
the waiters never are rude
a fourteen
a seven
a nine and lychees

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[phishfan]

Try Red Dwarf. The first time I saw Rimmer hitting himself in the crotch with a hammer again and again and again I almost passed out.

[superleeds]

Excellent show, my favorite when they are squirted by the giant squid and start hallucinating - thinking thay are just in a Virtual Reality game.

Other greats are
The Likely Lads, Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Til Death do us Part and Only Fools and Horses.

[Rushmore]

I just purchased the entire series of Fawlty Towers at EBAY.

Believe me when I tell you that if you do not think that Fawlty Towers is funny, there is something lacking.

Any program (programme?) which features the main character shaking his fist at God for laughs is OK in my book.

[superleeds]

Fawlty Towers is consistently rated as the best Comedy Programme ever made whenever they do TV polls in the UK. And rightly so.

Basil: That is Torquay, Madam.
Mrs Richards: Well, it's not good enough.
Basil: Well, may I ask what you were hoping to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom-window? Sidney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest? sweeping majestically?
Mrs Richards: Don't be silly. I expect to be able to see the sea.
Basil: You can see the sea. It's over there between the land and the sky.

Classic

[Gamblor]

IMO, Oscar Wilde is the epitome of British humour.

The Importance of Being Earnest is far and away my favourite book, and I've read it annually since age 13.

[Rushmore]

The episode where the moose falls on his head is perhaps the funniest thing ever put on television, seriously.

[David Steele]

It is close between the Moose episode and the food inspector one that ends with Basil saying "Care for a rat?"

D.

[CORed]

I never card much for Benny Hill, but I loved Monty Python. The "dead parrot" sketch, is IMO a classic. I also loved "Fawlty Towers".

[pudley4]

[ QUOTE ]
An example of the difference between American and British look at the hosts of Who's line is it Anyway. On the American side is Drew Carey -- loud, boisterous, bit slapsticky; on the British <if forget the name>-- dry, quiet though quite funny. As they say here in Vietnam-- Same, Same but different.

[/ QUOTE ]

Clive Anderson

Everything about the shows highlighted the differences between British and American tv/comedy.

British - understated, wry host
American - loud, boisterous host

British - dark, quiet set
American - bright, loud set

British - spontaneous audience reaction
American - "APPLAUSE!!!!" signs

British "Who's Line" >>>>>>>>> American "Who's Line"

[Phat Mack]

I've always maintained that the two best stories illustrating the pure joy of gambling are The Purity of the Turf and The Great Sermon Handicap. I was once going to start a thread about Wodehouse's books with gambling scenes, but I couldn't think of any of his stories that didn't have gambing in them.

When I first started reading him, I tried to memorize some of his better phrasing, but soon gave up the attempt. Perhaps not exact quotes, but here is how I remember some...

"After all, golf is only a game," said Millicent.
Women say these things without thinking. It does not mean there is any kink in their character. They simply don't realize what they are saying.

She snuffled like a bulldog who has been denied cake.

What a curse these social distinctions are. They ought to be abolished. I remember saying that to Karl Marx once, and he thought there might be an idea for a book in it.

Eyeing them (babies) he is conscious of doubts as to whether Man can really be Nature's last word.

[Zeno]

I love the Bertie/Jeeves story when they place all sorts of underground bets on the winners of the anunal church summer picnic games. The egg carry, the sack race etc. The plot gets all very elaborate and convoluted with lives and fortunes hanging in the balance on the outcome.

I agree that a thread with the best gems of Wodehouse, Thurber, and Wilde would be a fun thing to get going.


'He tottered blindly toward the bar like a camel making for an oasis after a hard day at the office.'


-Zeno

[ThaSaltCracka]

I am gonna say it cuz no one has....
While British humor is/may be funny, none of it is as funny as American Humor, and thats a fact jack. The only place where the British dominate in regards to comedy is wit. They really are quite funny, however the silly humor (Ie Monty Python, Benny Hill) is in fact very dumb and juvenile.

[Bill Murphy]

England has Noel & Liam Gallagher. America has, well, Gallagher.

I'll let others elaborate. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Eihli]

Give "The Office" a try. It's a series on BBC, i think it comes on monday at 9. I have seasons 1 and 2 and it's the funniest show on television. Way better than that "Friends" crap that it seems like everyone is in love with.

[Chah Ngo]

Has anyone mentioned Mr. Bean (the tv show, not that awful movie)? I saw an episode of that where he takes a baby to an amusement park and almost pissed my pants.

[baggins]

If you don't get Monty Python, you are really missing out.

[Martin Aigner]

COUPLING, maybe the best thing ever put on TV (dunno wheather this has been on air in USA though). Next best thing is american though: Ally McBeal, the first episodes.

BTW, Monthy Pyton was great.

And: I´m surprised nobody mentioned The Life Of Brian. Nobody liked that one???

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[nicky g]

Monty Python and Benny Hill aren;t remotely comparable, although I;m not a fan of either. Monty Python was ground-breaking surreal humour. Benny Hill was a fat man being chased by scantliy clad girl )or at least, that;s the period that;s remembered today).

Most of my favourite comedy is American; Futurama, old Simpsons, Bill Hicks, Firends had its moments. The Office is pretty good. Most of my favourite stand-ups, other than Hicks, are Irish, which "for convenience sake" arguments aside just isn;t British. Which goes for Oscar Wilde, by the way.

[Michael Davis]

n/m

[smudgex68]

No-one has mentioned Blackadder - great series. Best bit in Blackadder goes Forth is when he's in the trench about to go over the top, the guns stop and he says "it's over, the Great War, 1914 to 1917"
Funny and clever

[nicky g]

Yes, Blackadder was great. I used to go to sleep listening to it an audio and consequently could recite more or less all of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th series.


"Well surely one of the crew will know how to pilot this thing."

"Crew?"

"Yes..."

"What crew?"

"I was under the impression it was customary for a ship to have a crew".

"Aaar. Opinion is divided on the subject."

"Is it."

"Yus. I say it isn't, all the other captains say it is."

"I see."

[superleeds]

How could I forget - Another true great