Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
I don't understand the difference between American and English humor
I have watched "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead", but I still really cannot pinpoint the differences in humor between the US and the UK. There were things I thought were funny and things I did not. Humor has been a part of 007 films from 1962 to 2002 and I understand the jokes, some are funny and some are not.
Can someone help out in explaining?
Can someone help out in explaining?
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I, being American, watched an episode of Law & Order: UK, and found it hilarious, even though I know it's a representation (presumably accurate) of actual police procedure in the UK, and a serious show all around (just like American Law & Order). The wigs on the judges, and the fact that the cops can't carry guns, they just seemed like they were humorous limits placed on police, when in actuality, they are what really happens in the UK (I still don't believe the wig thing).
If you want to see a good example of the difference between American and British humor, watch both versions of The Office, and you'll find that the shorter-lived British version is far funnier than the disturbingly long-lasting American one.
American comedy is crude. Rude.
Why don't you believe it?
Wigs are ludicrous!
While the Wright/Pegg films are very good, I thought The World's End was superb, they are a Brit pastiche of American cinema. To see genuine British comedy, see Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
I've never seen anything from the US resembling the kind of material created under the stewardship of these three geniuses. Not to say there's no good American comedy, there's plenty of it. But for some quintessentially British comedy, the likes of which could only be made here, look no further.
@RC7 being British myself I do agree with the likes of Iannucci and Morris et al but I think it only fair to add the likes of Woody Allen and Larry David to that list.
And lets not forget that for at least the first ten seasons, The Simpsons was pretty much untouchable. It truly did capture the zeitgeist.
To split the difference between American and British comedy seems rather hard IMO. The so-called 'dry' British humour is of course a fact. Just watch some of the great comedy shows like Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.
I doubt this has a lot to do with understanding the comedy. I think it's mostly just a matter of taste. I'm like you, pretty much selecting between the jokes the ones that I find funny and the ones I don't. Hot Fuzz and SOTD are great comedy flicks IMO but I don't expect to chuckle let alone laugh with everything I see. Sometimes puns simply don't work for me and I'm sure the same or different puns won't work for other people.
A minor few things can, of course, be explained through understanding. If people are unfamiliar with the great zombie classics, like Night Of the Living Dead, some jokes in SOTD will be lost on them. "We're coming to get you, Barbara", a line from SOTD, makes no sense as a joke in that case. And it's a fact that, more generally speaking, comedic references to politics or celebrities only work when one understands the political climate or the current showbizz. Imagine when in 35 years from now, a 14 year old digs up a film that's loaded with jokey references to Obama, Justin Bieber, Twilight, ... Little of that will make sense. But I doubt that all cases of unclear jokes can be explained this way.
For a Frost/Pegg film you might struggle much less with, @Perdogg, I can recommend you watch PAUL. I think the comedy is far more accessible to non-British audiences. However, you might want to brush up on some of the alien classics, like Alien(s), Close Encounters, E.T., ... ;-)
Sorry, I did not mean in terms of quality. When I say 'resembling', I mean it quite literally. I was saying that I feel most of their material and it's execution is distinctly British and not particularly reproducable elsewhere. I have lots of favourite examples of US comedy, but as a Brit I don't want to speak on behalf of an American. Any generalised examples we give on here, I'm sure others will be able to easily rebuke.
Liked Johnny English but not like Mr Bean.
Season 2 of Spy whas better then the first season, stil there are not things i not get. Judi Dench joke whas funny in the first season.
Spider-Man, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder i also like because of the humor.
Because it's absolutely ridiculous.
(By the way, I know it's true.)
Why is it ridiculous? Because it's not prevalent in the American judicial system?
I was also making a Shaun of the Dead reference in my post. At one point, a character calls the zombies "zombies" and the main character tells him not to "because it's ridiculous".
Maybe we're on to something here. You find wigs funny, I find the sale of firearms in supermarkets funny. But, we're dealing with two 'types' of funny. Literal and contextual. Maybe Americans like their comedy to be more literal?
Yes what was it Michael Moore said in "Bowling For Columbine"? "I'd like to open the bank account which comes with a free gun".
Now, understand two things.
One: It's just judges wearing those funny white wigs that I find funny and ridiculous.
Two: I find the sale of firearms in supermarkets outrageously stupid. I have no problem with the right to bear (bare? I keep forgetting which one to use) arms, but the idea that I can go into a Walmart and right next to the automotive supplies is the guns is just plain stupid. I'm going to stop there, because this is not a thread about guns.
As far as whether or not we Americans prefer our comedy more literal... as far as I'm concerned, it's subjective. Sometimes more literal comedy is better, while sometimes more subtle comedy is better.
I was watching a YouTube video of the recent Family Guy video game, Back to the Multiverse, I believe it's called, and one of the levels has Stewie and Brian doing a favor for an alternate universe Mayor Adam West, which involves assassinating Mayor McCheese. Mayor West hides a rifle on the top floor of a book depository, obviously hinting at the Kennedy assassination (and the assassination proceeds to parody the real life event even more), which both Stewie and I thought was funny (Stewie says, "I see where this is going."). (Again, don't get me wrong, the real event wasn't funny, just the parody.) What was funniest about it was that, while it was obvious, nobody outright said it was going to happen in the same manner as the Kennedy assassination, it just happened that way. This is almost an example of both literal and subtle comedy.
Nor is it a thread about 'judges wigs' but you felt the need to openly ridicule it along with the notion that UK police officers not carrying firearms is in some way humerous.
This topic was opened to debate the difference between UK and US comedy and not for you to poke fun at the culture of another country.
I think the main differences are as follows.
It's part of the British psyche to play down your achievements and accomplishments. It's called "understatement." Most Americans I have met have little concept of this. They think that being good at something is something that everyone else might be interested in. That's why Americans are seen as loud and overbearing.
Only the anglicised Americans I have met understand and appreciate sarcasm and taking the piss. I once met an American who said the British sense of humour was annoying because he never knew whether anyone was being serious in what they said.
I think the English have a love of language and wordplay. Although we share a language we use it differently.
Americans are so damn optimistic and this comes across incorrectly as naiveity. It's rare to watch an American comedy where the last 5 minutes don't turn into thinly veiled morality plot where a character "learns something" about them selves. Even the Simpsons does this.
Lastly, British people like bleakness. And dark comedy. Did anyone see The Trip with Steve Coogan. Fantastically bittersweet and subtle.
All this is based on personal experience.
However, the worst British humour is just as bad as the worst US humour and the same can be said for the best of it.
Actually, I was using those two examples as things that I find funny, because it is to me. I wasn't saying you were wrong in your beliefs, just not trying to escalate discussions about guns, because that's happened a thousand times over in different threads. I also was not intending any harm in my examples.
I think Matt here got the gist of it. Especially the wordplay is something Americans seldom use in comedy, where the Brits use it very often.
One aspect that hasn't been mentioned, is that humour often uses taboos. And in both countries the taboos are very different. Britain has a far more liberal morale, which is why American humour often is seen as childish. For only children in the UK have such taboos.
When I think of American Pie vs Love Actually, you'll see that AP has far more physical humour (i.e. the apple pie), whereas LA runs more on akward moments (Housekeeper swearing in the PM's presentation to the staff).
Though personally I prefer British humour, I do enjoy good American comedy as well. Though indeed sometimes the happy endings are just a bit too cheezy. There's one thing for certain, films from the USA always end on a happy note. In British films, and even more so in films from 'the old continent' this isn't a given (even in LA not all ends well).
Oh and @Agent007391 , those wigs serve a purpose: it's a sign that you're not dealing with 'a judge' but with 'the law'. It's meant to institutionalise judges and lawyers.
...and on these "Rappers" that they have now...and James Bond even gets a mention here:
'Deeply annoying' I think would be the response from most.
I really fear that he probably is, but not by myself, it has to be said. Nor Michael McIntyre or the crass Frankie Boyle. Stewart Lee (above) is currently our most brilliant stand-up, in my opinion, anyway. Very subtle humour, though that rather deconstructs (Jacques Derrida) the stand-up routine and comedy itself more generally. Worth tracking down.
@Dragonpol
That's the impression I have of him LOL.
Yes, he is a deeply unfunny and smutty idiot who constantly self-references the fact he is gay (A gay on TV, you say?! 1950s-style shock value!!!) He used to be on the shock-value Channel 4 before he was moved to BBC1 to replace Jonathan "Wossy" Ross and Russell Brand - two other idiots we have over here. As Stewart Lee might have said Graham Norton is known as the leading funnyman in the UK in His Own Imagination!
That's why he's on late-night BBC1, I guess. Everyone knows the real cutting-edge comedy is on late-night BBC2! See Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle on You Tube or DVD for more details of the best of British talent in comedy!
Or 2012, even.
I don't completely dislike Norton even though I don't find him funny one bit, but Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand I cannot stand. In fact, I think I don't dislike Norton because he got slagged off by Brand.
I don't really dislike him either. I just find him and his routine tiresome and repetitive and basically very unfunny. That's something of a cardinal sin in comedy/light entertainment programmes in my book.