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Sense Of humour

skinny

skinny

Nigh
Joined
May 30, 2010
Messages
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I'm convinced the Irish have the best one of all. Have a shot at it, but have a laugh at the end of it. We don't mean to belittle, but belittling is the only way we can bring you to our own and understand you. And that, in the end, is what we want ~ for everyone to be like us. We want you to belong with us. Am I wrong?

Is that not the essence of humour? Yet humour is the most culturally subjective of attitudes. I've learned my lesson as a teacher of the English language over 20 odd years. Humour does not translate immediately, but it does melt difference when it's given its stand. My own culture, Australian, links most closely with those I would never have imagined in my youth - the Irish (obviously), the Korean (happily - I ended up living there, enjoying their humour and hospitality and marrying one) and the Serbian (astonishingly - hardcore racists but sure they can laugh out loud at just about everything). What's your brand? If not, what do you appreciate most, culturally?
 
I enjoy a wide range. Frankly, any culture which CAN'T have a damned good laugh at itself from time to time is not one I'd wish to be a part of.
 
I was a huge fan of the novelist J.P. Donleavy throughout a lot of my youth. That's Irish-American humour, if you like.

The English novelist Anthony Powell also has a nice line in dry humour - in his earlier novels at least ( the best example being `Afternoon Men`, his debut).

A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie - through the late Eighties and Nineties really hit the spot with me: that cocktail of camp bufoonery, intelligent word gymnastics and social satire was (and is) spot on. I haven't much liked anything they've done individually since though.

More lately I have much enjoyed Garth Marenghi's Darkside (perhaps predictably) and, from the same stable - Man-to Man with Dean Learner.

I have yet to encounter a culture that has no sense of humour. For example,Russians, I can report, for all their unearned `gloomy` reputation, have a very healthy ability to laugh at themselves and the world.

You raise a good and timely point, and thanks for it Skinny: I have become way too serious in my old age.
 
Now that is the reality. Every tribe chuckles at that which tickles it. It is our own good destiny to find out what it is that tickles them
 
I think the idea of different countries..or locations having a unique or "best" sense of humour is a bit of self congratulatory fantasy everyone indulges in...humour is basically the same everywhere, its only the subject matter and cultural references that differ...and perhaps what's deemed polite or impolite (belching and farting are presumably not universally amusing). But the basic nature and variety of humour is surely universal, otherwise no one would ever find anyone else funny at all.

Every city in the UK, every region, every country in Europe believes itself not only to be uniquely humorous/friendly but that it is famed for being so. I recall a documentary about a town in Bulgaria almost none of us is aware of which hosts an annual comedy festival in the absolutely sincere conviction it is globally famous as the capital of comedy based upon some medieval joke about a cat.

My own city of Liverpool believes itself to have a reputation- and probably does with in the UK -of being distinctly full of comics and witty folk..but really whether there's any objective reality to that beyond memories of a lot of stand up comics on a particular tv show in the 1970s is something worth questioning.

The irish do have a distinct way of interacting that involves a - compared to the english - greater degree of confidence, gregarious chatter etc...but is the humour itself any different from anywhere else? If you're from elsewhere and find it funny then its clearly not unique to the place or the people.

Anytime someone on TV says "we British are/have/are famous for the best (insert whatever you like)" I always wonder how immersed they could possibly have been amongst the French or Germans or Finns in order to make such a claim. There's a line from Kipling "What do they know of England who ONLY England know?"
 
Having said all that I reserve the right to contradict myself.... I wonder if it may be that certain societies elevate and honour a gift of humour more than others.

It does strike me as remarkable the number of succesful British comedians of iranian parentage...off the top of my head Shapi Korsandi, Omid Djalili and Kayvan Novak all come to mind. I can't think of an equivalent number of brit comics from greek or arab or italian families. So perhaps there is a cultural distinction in appreciating comedians.
 
I've never got slapstick. Could just be the black Yorkshire humour that I adore in Bennett is almost the antithesis of slapstick.

It's those final ripostes, a sarcastic "really?" that I love. Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of a long winded tale of the Ronnie Corbett variety too, or that waxing FB post that's somewhere here on the board - I honestly had tears running down my cheeks at that one - but a well delivered final line is everything to me.



This clip probably demonstrates both, killer letterbox quip, and the winding tale.
 
Rats apparently also laugh, though it's more the kind of laughter that comes from being tickled than the kind made in appreciation of a witty aphorism.

I think humour generally consists of either pratfalls or wordplay. Too much of either alone grows tedious. Lastingly popular humour - think Python or the Zucker bros -successfully combines both.
 
gattino said:
Having said all that I reserve the right to contradict myself.... I wonder if it may be that certain societies elevate and honour a gift of humour more than others.

It does strike me as remarkable the number of succesful British comedians of iranian parentage...off the top of my head Shapi Korsandi, Omid Djalili and Kayvan Novak all come to mind. I can't think of an equivalent number of brit comics from greek or arab or italian families. So perhaps there is a cultural distinction in appreciating comedians.
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Self deprecation and wry observations, can be very humorous and can be born out of need, hardship and deprivation And, of course, depression. That may explain lots about what makes a good comedian. Naturally, the ability to convey this humour is somewhat dependent upon the audience, who for their part, must be able to identify with the issues being joked about. One could, therefore, make the observation that Greek, Arab and Italian brit's are, actually, petty satisfied with their lot?
 
skinny said:
I'm convinced the Irish have the best one of all.
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I moved from Dublin to Vancouver 5 years ago, and aside from family, friends and real tea, the Irish sense of humour is what I miss most. There's a beautiful irreverence about it. Maybe it comes from centuries of oppression. The whole outlook of fun is different there too; try as I might, I am yet to succeed translating 'having the craic' into Canadian.

Canadian humour is horrendous; it's all based around puns. They get so confused when sarcasm is involved, and they get plain upset if you say anything that's in any way bold. Plus, people here say things are 'hilarious' when they haven't even cracked a smile.

A Canadian joke:

"Oh, you use the same shampoo as me? That's hilarious."

If it's hilarious, why aren't you laughing? Wanker.
 
I think it was Miles Jupp that said "I wish I had an Irish accent, then I wouldn't have to write any material". I know what he means. Things that wouldn't be funny in any other accent just sound funny with an Irish twang.

Except when Tommy Tiernan says it.
 
I think Irish are funniest, closely followed by the Scots.
 
Oooh, ohh, and those folks from the Magic faraway Tree, thingymabubs, erm, POLITICIANS!
 
Mythopoeika said:
I think Irish are funniest, closely followed by the Scots.
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It's difficult to generalise. I've encountered dull and dreary Irishmen, and many Scots are described as 'dour'!

There are quite a few good Welsh comedians too, although some of them are considered as simply British. My favourite was Tommy Cooper - his act and his jokes were multi-layered constructions of sheer joy.

Many of the best comedians become internationalised. How many of the Pythons or the Goodies were actually English?

But humour is more than just comedians. Comic actors perform in shows created by wonderfully talented writers, such as Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who brought forth many, many comedy classics. I regularly watch Dad's Army repeats because the humour runs from top to bottom and doesn't grow stale.

Humour is a very big subject!
 
Living in the U.S., the easy answer is "Jews"-- "Seinfeld," Woody Allen and Mel Brooks movies, the Marx brothers, Phil Silvers, Jack Benny, really too many to start on. But there are legions of unfunny hackwork comedians in that sphere, too. So we move on to WASPS' drier, more deadpan work--Tina Fey, Bob & Ray, to name comics in a couplet. Do read Robert Benchley and enjoy.The Black experience, oppresion, and the freedom to be down and dirty has given us Wanda Sikes, Bernie Mac, but integration gives the freedom to have Black nerds--Larry Wilmore's Blerds. (What's the difference between pickpockets and peeping toms? Pickpockets snatch watches and. . .~Redd Foxx.) But we are English speaking (admit it, we are) so I have to say that sometimes I'm sure Canadians are best. Is anything better than the 80s-90s flowering of the Great White North that gave us SCTV and the Kids in the Hall? Back to the mother country and the mother tongue, Wodehouse, Noel Coward, Goons, Beyond the Fringe and all its alums, Python, Ronnies--these folk know how to use the mother tongue. We love the latest season of Moonboy and we love yellow 90's Oscar Wilde quips, hats off to more than a century of the Irish.
SO, basically I'm just nattering and calling it a tie for every English-speaking example of humor.
 
Thi
Cultjunky said:
I've never got slapstick. Could just be the black Yorkshire humour that I adore in Bennett is almost the antithesis of slapstick.

It's those final ripostes, a sarcastic "really?" that I love. Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of a long winded tale of the Ronnie Corbett variety too, or that waxing FB post that's somewhere here on the board - I honestly had tears running down my cheeks at that one - but a well delivered final line is everything to me.



This clip probably demonstrates both, killer letterbox quip, and the winding tale.
Click to expand...
This man is the only person on Earth who can tell a long "Shaggy Dog" joke and have it be funny--very funny.
 
Living in the U.S., the easy answer is "Jews"-- "Seinfeld," Woody Allen and Mel Brooks movies, the Marx brothers, Phil Silvers, Jack Benny, really too many to start on. But there are legions of unfunny hackwork comedians in that sphere, too. So we move on to WASPS' drier, more deadpan work--Tina Fey, Bob & Ray, to name comics in a couplet. Do read Robert Benchley and enjoy.The Black experience, oppresion, and the freedom to be down and dirty has given us Wanda Sikes, Bernie Mac, but integration gives the freedom to have Black nerds--Larry Wilmore's Blerds. (What's the difference between pickpockets and peeping toms? Pickpockets snatch watches and. . .~Redd Foxx.) But we are English speaking (admit it, we are) so I have to say that sometimes I'm sure Canadians are best. Is anything better than the 80s-90s flowering of the Great White North that gave us SCTV and the Kids in the Hall? Back to the mother country and the mother tongue, Wodehouse, Noel Coward, Goons, Beyond the Fringe and all its alums, Python, Ronnies--these folk know how to use the mother tongue. We love the latest season of Moonboy and we love yellow 90's Oscar Wilde quips, hats off to the Irish.
SO, basically I'm just nattering and calling it a tie for every English-speaking example of humor.
 
Living in the U.S., the easy answer is "Jews"-- "Seinfeld," Woody Allen and Mel Brooks movies, the Marx brothers, Phil Silvers, Jack Benny, really too many to start on. But there are legions of unfunny hackwork comedians in that sphere, too. So we move on to WASPS' drier, more deadpan work--Tina Fey, Bob & Ray, to name comics in a couplet. Do read Robert Benchley and enjoy.The Black experience, oppresion, and the freedom to be down and dirty has given us Wanda Sikes, Bernie Mac, but integration gives the freedom to have Black nerds--Larry Wilmore's Blerds. (What's the difference between pickpockets and peeping toms? Pickpockets snatch watches and. . .~Redd Foxx.) But we are English speaking (admit it, we are) so I have to say that sometimes I'm sure Canadians are best. Is anything better than the 80s-90s flowering of the Great White North that gave us SCTV and the Kids in the Hall? Back to the mother country and the mother tongue, Wodehouse, Noel Coward, Goons, Beyond the Fringe and all its alums, Python, Ronnies--these folk know how to use the mother tongue. We love the latest season of Moonboy and we love yellow 90's Oscar Wilde quips, hats off to the Irish.
SO, basically I'm just nattering and calling it a tie for every English-speaking example of humor.
 
This bit of my reply read a bit awkwardly and didn't really express what i was trying to say clearly - no diss intended

What we can contrast are the styles pop-culturalised and broadly displayed on TV. My mrs is currently watching Korean comedy/infotainment style which relies heavily on pratfalls and mouth sounds/reactions to surprises. I get nothing from it. I appreciate that the Koreans are familiar with it and I enjoy that at the dinner table or the pub, but the forced nature of their TV style makes me cringe. As the American styles used to until recently. Comedy Central and certain expat yanks and canucks have brought their own absurd out finally. I adore Andy Kaufman's edge and the cultural cringe he brought was fascinating.
 
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I'm going to contradict myself again as I recall I have in the past noticed a very distinct difference in humour between two neighbouring but also "British" countries.

Back in the 90s I visited friends in Australia a few times and one trip included a stop over in New Zealand. Both in person and on TV (Shortland street!) I did notice a difference.

Australians understood facetiousness of course (constantly mislabelled sarcasm...the number of times I was accused of that word) but didn't really use it. It struck me the Australian idea of a joke often seemed to be little more than saying somethng that wasn't true. Pulling your leg or having a lend I suppose being the intention. Whereas New Zealanders struck me as indistiguishable from people in the UK in their humour with jokiness and put downs being a constant instinctive punctuation to conversation. A limited non-scientific observation but I did notice it.
 
This one's been finely honed over many many years, to be sure, but I'll always get a snort out of it.

A publican after my own heart:
 
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