You can’t beat British humour! One thing we are still best at in the world

[JennyTals]

I know it a time of terrible doom and gloom
trump, putin, shit weather, people struggling

but thank FUCK
for our good old sense of humor that keeps us strong !

When I was young I remember being in hysterics from a Billy Connolly stand up routine (real crying with laughter) about religion and his family. It was hilarious to me because it could have been my own family he was talking about. Someone else who couldn't relate to it on a personal level might not have raised so much as a chuckle. I thought it was the funniest thing I ever heard (at the time).

I found Limmy’s recanting of his time at school when he couldn’t hear some song lyrics very funny.

It's quite an awkward humour though, it can be just embarrassing.

So what tickles your funny bone MasterBeth?

Too many to list, but...

Recently,
Stath Lets Flats
The film, A Real Pain
Things I Should Have Done
Alistair Green

Historically,
Peep Show
Flight of the Conchords
Porridge
Dame Edna
Victoria Wood
Frasier
Stewart Lee

Now, maybe you'll answer my questions about national comedy pride.

The reason we are funny is because we can take the piss out of ourselves

I've got a Welsh side and a Liverpool Irish side. Both funny, but in very different ways.
The Welsh side is more gentle and given to absurdist, narrative humour. They're good physical performers.
The Liverpool Irish side is sharper and faster and can be quite cutting.
We're quite a dry family, although one of the dc really doesn't get it.

Your OP did make me lol.

Well I'm hilarious , and not in the DM sense.

So what is British humour? People are talking about wit, then about Mr Bean, Norman Wisdom, Love Thy Neighbour, Benny Hill and Mind your Language-all in the same breath! And then the British habit of using the word wanker as a term of affection. Hilarious!

One of the things that’s so noticeable in London nowadays is the humour level. Londoners have always been great at friendly banter and ready wit. Nowadays there is so much less of it. A lot of deadpan faces nowadays.

I never mentioned Norman (Mr Grimsdale!!) Wisdom so that question was aimed at someone else.

Frasier is brilliant, i agree with that choice 🤫

This thread has made me smile. So much irritation at Brits daring to say they’re good at something. We are supposed to despise ourselves aren’t we? 😁.

But as my Dad always used to say “no one likes The Boss…” 😉

I’ve always loved Benny Hill

was watching it at age 7

Only Fools and Horses always cheers me up. I often think of Del Boyisms when I want a little laugh to myself. One of my favourites, because it's so dry, is when he's trying to explain something to Rodney to get himself out of bother. He says, 'And I said...and I don't know why I said it...'
The context of the whole scene is brilliantly done. The facial expressions of both brothers is spot on. Reminds me of my family 🤣 👌

Rumour has it he was quite a nice man, but the whole 'women running around with boobs jiggling' hasn't stood the test of time.

Monty Python however was quite prescient. I find Ricky Gervais quite cunning too. (you could stick a tail on him and call him Mr Weasel- as they say)

@FreddoSwaggins you lost all credibility about that is funny when you said Mrs Browns boys raises a smile with you. It is total and utter dross.

Slapstick is fairly world wide, its not a particularly 'British' type of humour, British humour is about wit, sarcasm, self deprecation, irony, dry humour.

Thats why the likes of Benny Hill and Norman Wisdom have been 'adopted' by many a country, its more of a European type of humour if you have seen any of their TV at length

Someone mentioned Curb your Enthusiasm, NY humour is very much like British humour, particularly NY Jewish humour. Lots of the rest of the US just doesnt get it at all.

I believe this is a peculiarly British thing to do. From what I've heard / read.

I'm sure someone will be along to tell me I'm completely wrong and unless I've experienced every culture and unless I can speak every language I have no right to utter a word on the subject.

I grew up in the 70s and DM didnt find Benny Hill amusing then either.He was like an overgrown schoolboy .very crude and silly and misogynistic even then .The "British sense of humour" is not all encompassing of middle age leery old men .We loved The Good life,The 2 Ronnies and so on .We have a unique GSOH and the BBC was in a league of its own!

Doris in Gavin and Stacey and the salad.

Had DD and I in stitches.

we are able to laugh at ourselves it’s part of British humour it’s self deprecating so at times that’s why many of the better comedies are about people in challenging situations or the foolishness of peoples actions/behaviour. Dad’s Army or Only Fools and Horses would never have been made in the US

and the world wide appeal of Benny Hill was that it was so visual (not just the chasing women) some early Benny Hill was very funny

I love Benny Hill but the one thing I absolutely didn’t like was the Reeves and Mortimer quiz thing - Shooting Stars? Just awful

This! Tbh when I lived abroad, the only things I missed were British humour and British supermarkets. Not because of any professional or broadcast comedic output, but the little foibles and interactions. Like saving our worst insults and most egregious swears for our best friends, our talent for nicknames, normalising very dark humour with nothing out of bounds, etc.

Some miserable people on here that give the impression it’s wrong to big up something you love about British folk.

It doesn’t always translate well. I remember showing my Lebanese French-speaking friend that Monty Python scene in Holy Grail with the French knight guarding the castle. “I fart in your general direction! Your mother was an ‘amster and your father smelt of elderberries!” All the Brits in absolute stitches, everyone else looking slightly alarmed.