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British Humour Deficit

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
6,053
Is this for real?

Britain suffers sense of humour failure due to worries of modern life

LONDON (AFP) - Britain is suffering a sense of humour failure, with laughter levels three times lower now than 50 years ago and nearly half of all adults unable to enjoy at least one big guffaw a day, research showed.

Money worries, relationship woes and even political concerns were among the reasons given for the collection of grim faces, according to the data, collected for the cruise company Ocean Village. "Laughter is an essential ingredient of a healthy, happy life and is one of the most effective and immediate antidotes to stress and tension -- it really is the best medicine," said Amanda Bate from Ocean Village.

"The findings of this study show a worrying trend towards glumness. In the 1950s we laughed for an average of 18 minutes daily but this has dropped to just six minutes per day," she said. Morning misery is rife, with almost half of Britons -- some 45 percent -- admitting they frequently wallowed in gloom until lunchtime. Around 16 million adults, totalling 40 percent, said they failed to muster even one proper belly laugh in an average day.

It is not all sulking and moodiness, however, as the research found that single women aged 18 to 24 in the northern city of Manchester were the happiest people in the country. In addition, Bristol, in western England, was named the most cheerful place for couples aged 25 to 34. Factors such as weather, time of day and age, were all cited as being able to spark the blues.

July and August were the happiest months of the year according to three out of four people quizzed, with January the most miserable. The study was carried out by ICM Research on behalf of Ocean Village who interviewed a random selection of 1,000 adults aged 18 or over.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050524/lf_afp/afplifestylebritain_050524214117
 
:lol:


Hold on its just gone up a little.
 
and this survey was so worth while as it is the highlight of anyones day getting stopped and asked stupid questions in the street
 
I'm not surprised by the results.

Disillusioned with politics - yes.

Unhappy with the increasing levels of youth misbehaviour and crime - yes.
(Only yesterday, the partially disabled father of my work colleague had stones thrown at him after he reprimanded some boys for interefering with someone else's property.)

Money worries, and frustration with bureaucracy - yes.

And in my case, rapidly approaching old age with its attendant woes. :(
 
Personally I'm a bit suspicious of the source.

If I'm reading the article correctly, the survey was conducted for a cruise company. I could see it being in a cruise booking operation to try and make people think that modern life is stressful so they need to get away from their worries...maybe on a cruise where they can laugh a little as their worries wash away...

:?
 
I Love to Laugh
From: Mary Poppins
Music: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
Lyrics: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
Performed by: Ed Wynn [Uncle Albert], Julie Andrew [Mary Poppins], Dick van Dyke [Bert]

Altogether now:

[Uncle Albert]
I love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
I love to laugh
It's getting worse every year

The more I laugh
The more I fill with glee
The more the glee
The more I'm a merrier me
The more I'm a merrier me

[Mary Poppins]
Some people laugh through their noses
Sounding something like this:
M-hmm hmm hmm - Dreadful
Some people laugh through their teeth, goodness sakes
Hissing and fizzing like snakes
Sss sss sss - not at all attractive

[Bert]
Some laugh too fast: Hee hee hee hee
Some only blast: Ha!!
Others they twitter like birds: Hee hee ho, hee hee ho
Then there's that kind what can't make up their mind:
Hmm hmm hmm, ha ha ha, hee hee hee, ho ho ho, hee ha ho huh?

[Uncle Albert]
When things strike me as funny
I can't hide it inside
And squeak: Hee!
As the squeakelers do
I've got to let go with a ho ho ho ho, ha ha ha ha
And a ha ha ha ha, ho ho ho ho

[Uncle Albert & Bert]
We love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
We love to laugh
So everybody can hear

The more you laugh
The more you fill with glee
And the more the glee
The more we're the merrier me
 
Cruises arent funny, they are fill of sexualy frustrated spinsters looking for a mate...
 
Hang on! We Brits have a low level of sense of humour? Are they kidding? The reason we have a sense of humour is that our weather is unpredictable, our politicans are venal, we won a few wars but lost an Empire, we invent games then lose them with predictable regularity and while our language is spoken in many places around the planet, it is one of the hardest to learn.

If we didn't bloody laugh, we'd cry!

No, but seriously folks...

Possibly the people who contibuted to the poll was irritated by some twonk asking stupid questions while they were trying to get to work via a cruddy public transport system.
 
I always thought the Brits had the best sense of humour in the world. (then again, I was raised by Germans in Canada so anything cheers me up ;) )
 
I think humor is one of those things that comes and goes. You enter little 'golden ages' where brilliant comic geniuses seem to be everywhere for a few years, then for a long while nothing is all that good.

For example, there isn't a lot of brilliant comedy or satire being done in the US at the moment, but we are coming off a pretty good run in the late 90's/00's. Maybe the flag is set to rise in the UK now. :)
 
Homo Aves said:
Cruises arent funny, they are fill of sexualy frustrated spinsters looking for a mate...
(Rynner rings travel agent to book a cruise...)
 
I remember when British Humour was all the rage:
Dave Allen, Benny Hill, Monty Python, Allo Allo etc.

You still got some good ones on your TV's like:
Little Britain, The Sketch Show and Absolutely Fabulous.

Edit: I almost forgot The Young Ones, Bottom and Black Adder.
 
I don't see any decent comedy coming out of the US at the moment (barring The Simpsons, The Daily Show etc.) and Canadian humour is dire; it's mostly political japing.
 
Are The Kids in the Hall still around? And whatever happened to the Frantics?
 
Humour levels do seem to have been diminishing over the years. It's hard to tell why or how it happened, but a lot of people have adopted the 'literal' attitude to life now. There's no room for irony or sarcasm, and many people just don't seem to understand when you're just jesting or taking the piss in a nice way and get all weird about it. My boss always gets loads of stick for being quite short with people, but she's actually really dry and quite funny, it's just that 3/4 of the office doesn't seem to be able to tell.

EDIT - I've just gotten rid of the rest of this post, as I don't think anyone got it. :roll:

EDIT2 - Would get it, I meant :oops:
 
I remember first losing my sense of humour - it was painful but worthwhile.
 
KITH are no longer together as a troupe. Scott Thompson has a new show. Mark McKinney (?) went to the US; dunno about the rest of them. I *think* the Frantics might be on CBC Radio sometimes?
 
I bought the KITH DVDs (where's season 3?) and they're still very funny, so Canadian humour isn't a total loss. I thought they occasionally got back together every once in a while? I saw Mark McKinney in a Canadian film called The Saddest Music in the World on TV recently. It wasn't all that funny, though. Funny peculiar, maybe.

Nice to know the Frantics are still around (somewhere). Put Four on the Floor on DVD! I want to see Mr Canoehead again.
 
modern so called humour isnt funny full stop!

and who the f*ck decided that peter kay, johnny "yeah, great, smashing, me mam made me one of those!. and im only wheeled out for the best 100 what ever programs :roll: " vagas is funny? :roll:

the office isnt funny either btw :twisted:

american "sitcom humour/comedy" is so damn predictable (sorry guys)

id rather listen to shakespears comedies (not that id get the "injokes", but at least they force you to think about them tho)
 
I think the Royle Family is the funniest television programme i've ever seen, apart from Hancock's Half Hour.
 
Humour levels sink in parallel to intelligence levels.
 
'Mr. Show' was probably the last truly funny US program in quite a while. 'South Park' was funny for all of 15 minutes. Is anyone else as sick of it as me?

Oops, forgot 'The Daily Show', which is usually pretty funny. But nothing else comes to mind.

'The Simpsons' have been going downhill steadily for at least the last 5 years. Time to wrap that one up.
 
Agreed on The Simpsons, it's nowhere near as funny as it used to be. Also agreed on Mr Show, they could be hilarious (the conquest of Everest sketch is a particular favourite!).

The US sitcoms never really appealed to me. Night Stand was a very funny show, but Channel 5 used to use it a filler at the end of the night and it deserved better. Can't think of anything more recent, although Wonderfalls was very funny too, but more of a comedy-drama. And it got quickly cancelled of course. Is Space Ghost still going? Much funnier animation than South Park.

EDIT: Hey, I've thought of a funny, recent US sitcom - Arrested Development. There is hope.
 
Hmm.. what I wrote in pseudo-jest and then deleted actually appears to have some ground to it on reflection.

It basically revolves around the idea that in the pursuit of a classless society where quite a lot of people apply a sense of fake self-importance (worked my way up from the gutter/want to be a pop star/hey I've got a kite making degree) to themselves, they will either actively go out of their way to try and not find something funny in order to appear a little more high-brow than others around them, or they are mingling with crowds where they just don't understand what is being said.

My housemate takes -everything- literally, and it's very difficult to try and have a laugh with her about anything that's not in the context of what happened to her today, or involves her friends or has been on telly. Is it because people have become so obsessed with their own little worlds? A broader view is needed to fully appreciate good humour, and less and less people seem to be taking this approach to life.
 
Is TV killing our sense of humour?

Most people seem to have what I call a 'passive' sense of humour. They'll laugh at sitcoms and comedians but they'll hardly ever say anything witty themselves or see the funny side of an issue until a comedian points it out for them. I'm sick and tired of people accusing me of having no sense of humour simply because I fail to roll around the floor laughing when they repeat a TV comedians catchphrase at me. "Suits you sir?" Yes, that was funny on TV. But it's not funny when you parrot it at me. What would be funny would be if you came up with some material of your own!
 
Often in the 'Would like to meet' ads in the papers, people claim to have a GSOH.

I wonder how many really do, and if it would coincide with mine.

To me, a really sexy woman would be one with a similar SOH to mine!
 
Heard somewhere that everyone thinks they have a great sense of humour, just as everyone thinks they're a good driver. I agree with graylien about the parroters; an ex of mine used to recite the same George Carlin quip whenever he burped (yes, really).
 
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