British humor

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Have enjoyed these posts very much. I have a couple of ideas as why there is a difference, incidentally I'm British. British popular comedy evolved from theatre, music hall, seaside, panto etc and during WW2 became widespread through the radio, although very few stations and all national, so the whole country became atuned to the same jokes and themes. I suspect with the size of USA and consequent range of localised environments, each with thier own stations, there was more fragmentation. (Also no or less/limited advertising and advertisers 'influence'?).
{As an aside, maybe Britain has a more anarchic side too, hence the lampooning.}
TV took off later here and again far fewer channels. We have a different concept of language too, double entendres and visual landscapes based on words.
I have heard that american films are so popular in-non english speaking countries, because they are easy to follow and use simpler language. Visual rather than language cues etc.
I could list hundreds of comedies here, but am going to limit myself to one sketch by the " Ronnies, it's very old now, but a classic - 'Four candles'. Apart from the words; the absolute, total attention paid to setting, clothing and body language mark this out in a class of it's own.
Can't post link, but it is on youtube - 2 Ronnies, four candles - HD one is better

Apologies if have been excessively pedantic, but you know how it is........

Your father is Prussian? Don't mention the war!! !

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xnNhzgcWTk[/youtube]

I'm getting some weird vibes off this post. It's like someone bragging about how humble they are.

Yep that's us, humble braggers..........

that is, if you don't mind me saying so.......

ha ha

I think some British humour goes over people's heads outside the UK if they're not familiar with the accents and dialects - the classic example is Only Fools and Horses with it's Cockney rhyming slang. It's a pity it didn't have a wider audience as it was very cleverly witten,
mixing pathos with humour.

I like British and American humour equally -I can laugh at Fawlty Towers and Blackadder as well as Cheers,Frasier and The Big Bang Theory.

The good thing about the British is we can laugh at ourselves & by ourselves we mean other people & by laugh we mean invade.

Nobody in Britain has a sense of humor.

They say the best way to gauge someone's sense of humour is their reaction when told that they don't have one.
Heeheehaha

Spike Milligan's Q9 - Episode 1:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRt3Wrkgmao[/youtube]

one of my favourite episodes of fawlty towers was where fawlty hired a cheap tradesman to build a wall, but when fawlty got back from a walk, he saw that the doorway to the kitchen had been walled off, and shortly after he noticed the doorway to the dining room had also been walled off.

i normally do not like humor based on someones reactions, but this scene is a classic in my opinion.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKaQLYPf5hM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtYfHW5wu8Q[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x70bndpc70[/youtube]

Father Ted is one of the very best in my opinion. Along with Monty Python, Faulty Towers and Blackadder.

Here's the king!:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIY4QEA2_LI[/youtube]

Coming from a non-british background and being brought up in an australian country town, I can assure you I was not familiar with british accents and dialects, in fact I still find some of them quite difficult to understand. I found british humour as exemplified by the Goon Show and other radio shows of the era, absolutely brilliant as it relied on taking things literally and following ideas to their logical and absurd conclusions.

In fact I put up with being molested by the choirmaster, who introduced me to this, and still think to this day that I got the better of the deal.

It was also a great introduction to be able to enjoy such brilliant TV programs as Monty Python and Fawlty Towers.

Ugh! I just cringe when people equate BritComs to Benny Hill and Monty Python (though I do love MP).

There is just so much more to it! I didn't watch much american sitcoms growing up. My mum raised me on the BritComs. We had ton on VHS and then on DVD when they became available. We always watched them on PBS on Sat night together my whole life up until she passed in 2007, I still try to watch them but I don't have cable or satellite anymore and trying to get a signal from an antenna is impossible. I do have many on VHS, DVD and many faves on my external hard drives which I can watch any time, but it just isn't the same. It was tradition, one I miss very much and hopefully by this Sat I will be watching them again once U-Verse TV is installed.

So these are the ones big in our home:

Are You Being Served?
Grace & Favour (Are You Being Served Again?)
Keeping Up Appearances
Bob And Margaret
The Mighty Boosh
To The Manor Born
'Allo 'Allo!
Father Ted
Rising Damp
Mr. Bean (tv series and the animated series)
Good Neighbors
Open All Hours
Last Of The Summer Wine
A Fine Romance
As Time Goes By
Waiting For God
Vicar Of Dibley
The Young Ones
(Full) Bottom
Coupling
Ab Fab
Fawlty Towers
Blackadder
Chef!
My Hero (this one is freakin' adorable!! !)

There are tons more but these were the most popular with us.

The Tattered Princess

Some more ideas?

• Benidorm
• Brass Eye
• Desmond's
• Early Doors
• Love Thy Neighbour
• Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
• Men Behaving Badly
• On the Buses
• Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
• Pets
• The Day Today
• The Grimleys
• The Royle Family
• TV Offal

Blackadder is my all time favorite, by far. Especially series 4.

I also really love Ab Fab, The IT Crowd, and Black Books.
I think I usually prefer British to American because the people seem a lot more realistic. I have found that most people who do terrible things don't suddenly turn out to have a heart of gold at the end of the day.
One American comedy I do love is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - I see the characters there as a somewhat accurate representation of a fairly large (and rapidly growing) segment of the US population.