British Humour

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:04 am

Bsuker Sean's thread reminded me of a Joke Beth told me as an example of British Humour:

1st Man: A friend of mine goes down to the ocean every day and plays his cello to the seals.

2nd Man: Really?

1st Man: Of course, they don't take a blind bit of notice...

I very nearly busted a gut at this one, do you guys find it funny? Is it a good example of British Humour? Do you have a good British joke? What makes British Humour different to American Humour (apart for the u, say).

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:10 am

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GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:20 am

The principle difference I find is that British humour is funny.

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:35 am

And of course it was Monty Python (dear old British Monty Python) who wrote The Funniest Joke in the World... too funny for me to write here or you'll all die laughing. You'll have to take the risk and google it. If you can find a copy, because:

"In 1945 Peace broke out. It was the end of the Joke.
Joke warfare was banned at a special session of the Geneva Convention, and in I950 the last remaining copy of the joke was laid to rest here in the Berkshire countryside, never to be told again."

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:36 am

Martin Milner wrote:I very nearly busted a gut at this one, do you guys find it funny?

The only part about it that I find funny, MarMil, is the fact that you thought it was funny. I'm chuckling heartily thinking about you busting a gut over it

In other words, I don't get the joke at all.

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Mon May 23, 2005 6:50 am

I think it's funny! It reminds me of a joke my dad liked to tell a zillion years ago.

Two construction workers sit down for a lunch break atop a building they're working on and open their lunch boxes. One looks into his and says, "Oh man...not another bologna sandwich." The other says, "Why don't you ask your wife to make you something else?" "My wife?" says the first. "I make my lunch!"

Carol

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:17 am

That's a real gROaNinish Martin

MarkB

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:37 am

From The Xenophone's Guide to the English, ISBN 1-902825-26-8:

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - as crucial to living among the English as a good sense of humour. Having one means you will cruise through the obstacles and vicissitudes of English life with everyone as a friend and the approval of all you encounter. Not having one, or being perceived not to have one, is social death. In English eyes, half of what is wrong with the rest of the world is that they don't have a sense of humour, or at least not one the English can understand.

Say what you like, even devoted Anglophobes will have to concede that the English sense of humour is one of their strongest points. Admittedly, TV schedules are clogged with mediocre sitcoms featuring charmless middle-aged couples and centring on lame references to sex and social envy. But British comedy, from the older generation's Noel Coward, Max Wall, Jimmy Clitheroe and the Goons through Tommy Cooper, the Carry On team, and That Was The Week That Was, to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Harry Enfield and the mimed humour of Mr. Bean has produced comedy of ever increasing complexity, surrealistic inventiveness and sophistication.

In everyday life, especially in the workplace, humour is the balm that makes life bearable. No matter how tired, lame, crude the jokes, how trying or wearisome the pranks, it is adviseable to laugh like a drain lest you be marked down as serious or - much worse - taking yourself too seriously. Humour is the enemy of pompousness and the English prize every sign of self-deprecation. When Princess DIana spoke publically of being 'dim' at school her popularity became unassailable.

The English love every kind of comedy: the good-natured, infantile smut of Benny Hill, the satirical savagery of Spitting Image, the surrealism of Monty Python and the cerebral, dark nasty humour of the League of Gentlemen.

Much of their humour is elusively subtle. Like the will-o'-the-wisp, it often refuses to be caught and examined. For example:

Two men are reading their newspapers when one says: 'It says here there's a fellow in Devon who plays his cello to the seals.' 'Oh really', says the other. 'Yes', says the first, 'Of course, they don't take a blind bit of notice.'
Since the English rarely say what they mean and tend toward reticence and understatement, their humour is partly based on an exaggeration of this facet of their own character. So, while in conversation they avoid truths which might lead to confrontation, in their humour they mock that avoidance. For example:

At dinner in a great country house one of the guests drinks rather too much wine and, without warning, slumps across the table. The host rings for the butler and says: 'Smithers, could you please prepare a room. This gentleman has kindly consented to stay the night.'
...

A fun series of books. They have them for many different nationalities, and Californians get their own volume.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:48 am

Well, I have to say that I just don't get the seal joke. I am also famous, though, for not getting jokes here although I do get some. So I wouldn't be the one to ask about differences in British and American humour.

I did like Fawlty Towers an awful lot. But maybe that humor is more broad and less subtle than a good British joke.

Is anyone going to explain the seal joke? I guess that might spoil the thread.

I can see that it is a funny thing to do to play your cello to the seals. Is it that there is one unexpected event (man playing cello to seals) which the 1st man seems to find quite normal and one expected event (seals not noticing) which the 1st man seems to find strange and requiring a bit of censure? Well, I think looking at it that way it is kind of funny.

Like it is the man telling the joke who is crazy? Hmmm.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:01 am

Cynth, Martin's explained it to me twice and I still don't think it's funny

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:12 am

I find it funny. I think I would have found it funny before I lived in England too. Australian humour was always close to English, Irish and Scots humour. British comedy shows are just played here straight without any attempt to modify them for us. No need to.

Curious. If sombody didn't find that joke funny I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to explain it.

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:22 am

It's a joke? Sounds like a perfectly normal British conversation to me.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:23 am

I thought it was funny - and wouldn't no how to explain it either.

Humo(u)r is funny (no pun intended). I'm sure there are national generalizations you could make about humor, but it's individual too. I find the people I'm closest to are the ones who understand my humor or who have the same type of humor. Then again, I'll giggle uncontrollably over something I find bizarrely amusing, send it on to my brothers, and they'll scratch their heads.

Susan

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:31 am

The first British joke that I "got" was:

1 - Haven't you got it working yet?
2 - Well, I am trying.
1 - Yes, you certainly are.

Since then, I have looked for double meanings and word play in all British jokes. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, which makes a joke like cello to the seals kind of fall flat due to over-examination.

djm

OnTheMoor · Post by **OnTheMoor** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:37 am

Everyone read Bryson's Notes from a Small Island?

"How much for the coffee?"
"Coffee's free, cup'll cost you 90p"

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British Humour

British Humour

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