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'British humour' is a somewhat general term applied to certain comedic motifs that are often prevalent in comedic acts originating in Great Britain and its current or former colonies. Comedy acts and television programs typical of British humour include Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Keeping Up Appearances to name a few that have become quite popular outside of the British Isles. At times, however, such humour can seem puzzling to non-British speakers of English (references to English slang terms or people, who are unknown internationally for example) while certain Commonwealth nations (such as Australia, Canada and South Africa) tend to find it more familiar.
Many UK comedy TV shows typical of British humour have been internationally popular, and have been a strong avenue for the export and representation of British culture to an international audience.

Contents

Historical roots

General features

Themes

Smut and innuendo

Disrespect to members of the establishment

The absurd

The manic

The humour inherent in everyday life

The 'war' between parents/teachers and children

The British class system

The lovable rogue

The embarrassment of social ineptitude

Making fun of foreigners

Bullying and harsh sarcasm

Parodies of stereotypes

Tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric

See also

References

External links

Historical roots

Some deep roots for British humour are:

★ the historical reaction to the intolerance of Puritanism (thus the acceptance of saucy and smutty humour), although ribald humour existed much earlier. An example is the Miller's tale in Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'' (1380s-1390s).

★ the tradition of absurd and nonsense poetry made immensely popular by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll (thus the development of an eccentric form of 'home-brewed surrealism' that leads us to the Goons, Monty Python, Ivor Cutler, John Lennon, etc.)

★ the traditional Christmas pantomime, with its mix of social role reversals

★ the richness of the English language giving great scope for word play

★ British culture (with all its regional variations)

★ The broad farces so popular in British humour during much of the 20th century, owed a great deal to the influence of the French comic theatre, and are typified by the series of Whitehall farces starring Brian Rix and gave birth to not only such obvious offspring as Benny Hill and the "Carry On" films, but have also had an influence on everything from "Monty Python" to "Porridge", "Open All Hours", "The Young Ones", etc.
The changes in British culture are naturally mirrored by changes in humour.

General features

Some general features characteristic of British humour are:

★ Puns: these do not too easily translate into other languages (if at all).

★ Nonsense: has its origins in the writings of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear.

★ Black humour: main features of black humour can already be found in the drama of the Elizabethan era.

★ Eccentricity

★ Satire and sarcasm

★ The use of understatement and irony, so that many jokes pass unnoticed by those not familiar with it.
What stands out from this list is the importance of verbal humour as a key element. This is not to say that British humour has no place for visuals; but to take a classic example, Benny Hill, whose work was quite visual indeed, was extremely popular in his day, but has long since failed to arouse much interest with British audiences. In the U.S. and France, however, he is still widely regarded as a comic genius.
Compare this with typical "classics" of UK humour, such as the "Parrot Sketch" from Monty Python, which are usually notable for the fact that fans can repeat them ''verbatim''.

Themes

Some themes (with examples) that underpinned late twentieth-century British humour were:

Smut and innuendo

Smut and innuendo with sexual and scatological themes, typified by:

★ the seaside postcards of Donald McGill

★ the humour of Benny Hill and Julian Clary

★ the series of ''Carry On'' films

★ ''The Two Ronnies'', comedy show starring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker.

★ ''Alas Smith and Jones'', sketch show starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.

★ ''Hale and Pace'', sketch show starring Gareth Hale and Norman Pace.

★ the comic magazine ''Viz''

Disrespect to members of the establishment

Disrespect to members of the establishment and authority, typified by:

★ ''Beyond the Fringe'', stage revue from the 1960s

★ ''That Was The Week That Was (TW3)'', late night TV satire

★ ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', a series of short satirical films

★ ''Private Eye'', satirical magazine

★ ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'', satirical sketch show, notable for launching the careers of Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys Jones, and Mel Smith.

★ ''Yes Minister'', political sitcom

★ ''Spitting Image'', TV puppet comedy lampooning the famous and powerful

★ ''Saturday Live'', British equivalent of the American show ''Saturday Night Live''.

★ ''Discworld'', a series of fantasy books written by Terry Pratchett, heavy with irony criticizing various aspects of society.

★ ''Have I Got News for You'', a satirical panel game.

The absurd

The absurd and the surreal, typified by:

★ ''Black Books'' a surreal cult comedy show notable for its absurdity.

★ ''The Goon Show'', a surreal radio show involving different plots every episode with the same characters.

★ Spike Milligan's ''Q'', a sketch show and a direct inspiration for ''Monty Python''.

★ ''Monty Python'', a comedy troupe, noted for performing sketches with no conclusions.

★ ''Green Wing'', an experimental sitcom, using both surrealism, sped up and slowed down camera work, and strong female characters.

★ ''Big Train'', a sketch show with absurd situations performed in a realistic, deadpan style.

★ ''Shooting Stars'', a panel game with seemingly no rules.

★ ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'', a radio panel game with bizarre games, notably Mornington Crescent and One Song to the Tune of Another.

★ ''The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer'', a variety show of sketches and songs.

★ ''The Bonzo Dog Band'', a musical group playing songs inspired by the music of the 1920s and comic rock songs.

★ "Bus Driver's Prayer"

The manic

★ ''Vic Reeves Big Night Out''

★ ''Bottom''

★ ''The Mighty Boosh''

The humour inherent in everyday life

The humour, not necessarily apparent to the participants, inherent in everyday life (ish), as seen in:

★ ''Hancock's Half Hour''

★ ''Till Death Us Do Part''

★ ''Human Remains''

★ ''The Office''

★ ''The Royle Family''

★ ''Peep Show''

★ ''One Foot In The Grave''

★ The Giles cartoons

The 'war' between parents/teachers and children

The 'war' between parents/teachers and their children, typified by:

★ ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy'', comics of publisher D C Thomson.

★ ''Just William'', books by Richmal Crompton

★ ''Molesworth'' books by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle

★ ''St Trinians'' books and films also originated by Ronald Searle

★ ''Kevin the Teenager in ''Harry Enfield and Chums''
''

The British class system

The British class system, especially pompous or dim-witted members of the upper/middle classes or embarrassingly blatant social climbers, typified by:

★ ''Jeeves and Wooster'', books by P. G. Wodehouse (later dramatised by Fry and Laurie)

★ ''Dad's Army'', comedy TV series

★ ''Mr. Bean'', comedy TV series, Movie

★ ''Fawlty Towers'', comedy TV series

★ ''Keeping Up Appearances'', comedy TV series

★ ''You Rang, M'Lord?'', comedy TV series

★ ''Absolutely Fabulous'', comedy TV series

★ ''To The Manor Born'', comedy TV series

★ ''Blackadder'', comedy TV series

The lovable rogue

The lovable rogue, often from the impoverished working class, trying to 'beat the system' and better himself, typified by:

★ The ''Andy Capp'' cartoon strip created by Reginald Smythe

★ ''The Likely Lads''

★ ''Steptoe and Son

★ ''Rising Damp''

★ ''Open All Hours''

★ ''Only Fools and Horses''

★ ''Flashman'' books

★ ''Norman Wisdom''

★ ''Porridge''

★ ''Black Adder

The embarrassment of social ineptitude

The embarrassment of social ineptitude, typified by:

★ ''Mr. Bean'', comedy TV series starring Rowan Atkinson

★ ''The Office'' comedy TV series starring Ricky Gervais

★ ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', comedy TV series starring Michael Crawford

★ ''Alan Partridge'' comedy TV series starring Steve Coogan

★ ''Count Arthur Strong'' radio show

★ ''One Foot In The Grave'' comedy TV series starring, 1990 to 2000.

★ ''Peep Show''

Making fun of foreigners

Making fun of foreigners, sometimes bordering on racism and especially common in television sitcoms and films of the 1970s, typified by:

★ ''Love Thy Neighbour'', TV programme that Bill Bryson once referred to as 'My Neighbour's a Darkie'

★ ''Mind Your Language'', TV programme set in a language school in London

★ ''Till Death Us Do Part'', TV sitcom which mocked its own main character, Alf Garnett, for his racism

★ ''The Italian Job'', film starring Michael Caine in which British criminals mock the Italian Mafia and authorities

★ '''Allo 'Allo!'', British TV comedy series about a French village occupied by Germans during the Second World War.

★ ''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'', film starring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a news reporter from Kazakhstan, reporting on the American way of life, whilst exposing common American prejudices; while the character Baron Cohen plays is Kazakh, the criticisms made of Americans are characteristically British.

★ ''Fawlty Towers'', TV comedy programme featuring heavily stereotyped characters from the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Ireland, the United States, and Germany

Bullying and harsh sarcasm

Harsh sarcasm and bullying, though with the bully usually coming off worse than the victim - typified by:

★ ''Blackadder'', comedy TV series

★ ''The Young Ones'', comedy TV series

★ ''The New Statesman'', satirising a domineering Conservative Member of Parliament.

★ ''The Thick of It'', satirising the spin culture prevalent in Tony Blair's heyday.

Parodies of stereotypes

Making fun of British stereotypes, typified by:

★ ''Beyond the Fringe''

★ ''That Was the Week That Was (TW3)'', late night TV satire

★ ''Little Britain''

★ ''The Fast Show''

★ ''Harry Enfield's Television Programme''

★ Catherine Tate in her sketch show, ''The Catherine Tate Show''

★ French and Saunders

Tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric

Tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric, especially when allied to inventiveness

★ Heath Robinson cartoons

★ ''Professor Branestawm'' books

★ ''Wallace and Gromit'' animations

★ ''Doctor Who'' science fiction TV programme about an eccentric time traveller

★ ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'', situation comedy starring Leonard Rossiter.

★ ''Morecambe and Wise'', comedy show starring Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.

★ ''Last of the Summer Wine'', the longest running TV comedy series in the world. (Started 1973)

★ ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie'', sketch show written by and starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, noted for its eccentric and inventive use of language.

★ ''QI'' or ''Quite Interesting'', an intellectual panel game with questions so hard, points are given for being quite interesting and points are taken away for being pathetically obvious.

See also

★ British comedy and British sitcoms (which blend elements of all of these in varying weaves)

★ Comic Relief and Red Nose Day

★ History of the British comic

★ Understatement

★ Irony

★ American humor

★ Canadian humour

References

★ Sutton, David. ''A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939''. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, (2000) ISBN 0-85989-603-X

External links

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