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 !

OMG I love this 🤣

@SallyWD what is British humour? What exactly makes it unique?

Also by British... do we mean English , Scottish, Welsh , N Irish all mashed up together/is it all the same?Or just English humour?

British humour

Each country can't speak for the other but I would say there is a common thread (my family are English and Scottish). It is self deprecating in a way I think, say, America, isn’t (they are conditioned early on to believe their country is the best in the world at everything even when it clearly isn’t but British people will generally say, yeah we’re shit.

@BunnyLake fair enough, however I wouldn’t say self deprecation is specifically or uniquely British. It’s quite common in plenty of other countries too.

Where I’m from a very common joke is “beautiful country… shame about the people”.😀

I’m sure you’re right. I don’t think anyone is saying it is exclusively a British trait (how would we know unless we could speak all the world’s languages) but it is a strong one.

Ooh where are you from. I wonder if it’s a country I’ve said that about lol.

British humour is just unique. Its varietal, subtle, dry and the timing is bang on the mark. Maybe you just have to be a Brit to get it.

Kerry Mucklowe, The Reverend Francis Seaton.....well researched and spot on acting.

Jethro's "What happened was......" and then on stage "Sit down you wanker!" as an audience member fidgets to go to the bar.

Catherine Tate's posh mum, "Chloe and I are having a gooseberry and cinnamon yoghurt, would you like a gooseberry and cinnamon yoghurt".

Lots in there for non-Brits not to understand, but for Brits its absolute brilliance.

Can you positively say no other country has humour like that though?

And I can understand British humour very well thank you very much. I also can appreciate it and enjoy a lot of it (even some that a lot of MN posters hate with the passion of a thousands suns).

It's the claim that it is unique and the best in the world (I don't think any country/region is) that I don't understand.

Have you experienced EE humour? Or Brazilian humour? Or Japanese humour (often listed in the top 10/15 funniest countries in the world)? To be able to make that claim?

If you have, and still make that claim have you considered that maybe you just don't get it? You know, being a foreigner and all.

I have to agree. So many people I know say that American humour is superior to British,but am I alone in not finding most American humour funny,or just not understanding it?

If I’m bored of an evening I sometimes watch those reaction videos on YouTube of people (usually Americans) watching UK/Irish comics.

They genuinely can’t fathom that we don’t find it insulting! Like the others commenters say, it’s a sign of affection - we only take the piss out of you if we like you!

No one does humour quite like the Scots!

Saturday Night Live being a prime example, I really don't know why they rave about that

Can you positively say no other country has humour like that though?
Yes, all countries have unique senses of humour. While there is some overlap, different cultures have subtleties than can tell them apart.

And I can understand British humour very well thank you very much.
You seem very sensitive. What are you 'thanking' me for?

It's the claim that it is unique and the best in the world
You were replying to my post directly. Note that you are the only person implying that British humour is the best in the world. Can't see it anywhere else.

Have you experienced EE humour? Or Brazilian humour? Or Japanese humour (often listed in the top 10/15 funniest countries in the world)? To be able to make that claim?
Yes there is plenty of that around. Swiss, German....all unique. I particularly like Belgians and Irish when it comes to humour. As well as Brits.

We are not all as simple or uncultured as you seem to want to project.

@Talonz

British humour is just unique. Its varietal, subtle, dry and the timing is bang on the mark. Maybe you just have to be a Brit to get it.

By claiming it's unique, you're saying no other country has humour with the same qualities, which are rather vague and universal tbh. Then you set the tone with who can understand and why like it's some ancient language literary masterpiece.I responded in kind.

I'm not saying it's not good, I'm just not seeing its uniqueness since I experienced several kinds, in several languages and there's a massive overlap, from slapstick, to dark humour, to self deprecation, to experience humour , to "philosophical " humour (not a fan tbh). I can't name one particular country to say that has completely unique humour (or that theirs is the best, not your point I know , I know, I can understand you just fine).

Saturday Night Live being a prime example, I really don't know why they rave about that

It's the equivalent of Benny Hill, just with more words and bad songs.

One does not need to qualify unique by adding 'in their own way' because that is what uniqueness is.

Bread is unique from country to country, but all good bread is of a similar quality. Dakos, Swedish rye, French stick. Its diverse, but its bread.

Daisy May Cooper in This Country makes me roar. So does Remi Gaillard on You Tube. Both are unique. Yes they are ancient languages. Contrasted with Cheers and Frasier, which I watch in the morning before the Countdown rerun. Not funny at all. A different language.

Our television dramas and comedies are often superb and having watched a lot of TV in other countries it’s definitely superior!

I agree. Documentaries too.

Glad I live in a country - not UK - where we get BBC 1, 2. First and World Service.

The accent helps a lot. I love Limmy’s accent and find some of his anecdotes very funny (although I’m not an expert on him or anything, just came across him on an audio book sample).

I watched a bit of Gilda Radnor on SNL in a documentary on her life and I just didn’t get it. No offence to her (and her stuff was many years ago) but that humour went right over my head.

What do you mean by foreigners? I think this is absolute rubbish. Mr. Bean is huge or was huge in lots of countries, especially around Asia. Benny Hill ( no idea while he is being constantly referenced as it was so long ago) was big in Germany and other parts of Europe when I lived there and Little Britain was all over Australia.

On TV I love the early Red Dwarf (big international Reddit audience who quote phrases) - I remember carter the unstoppable sex machine quoting the 'fat bastard' rant. I also love Father Ted and Yes Minister was pure genius.

These days I love radio 4 comedy

Cabin Pressure is a great example of quintessentially British humour but the best I have come across lately are the stories told by Sarah Kendall. Very funny and very moving. Brits and Americans don't seem to be able to do that without seeming mawkish. Although British comedy's do seem able to undercut - eg Rodney's reaction to del boys son being called Damien in only fools.

This is My favourite Scottish humour.

While I agree that there are often threads where Brits moan about their country have you missed the many, many, many, threads where someone is moving to the US/Australia/NZ/any other country and half of MN piles on to tell them what a dreadful place it is and how much more superior the UK is? Not to mention the many "the NHS is the envy of the world" posters (it really isn't).