Quote seen :

English humor resembles the Loch Ness Monster in that both are famous but there is a strong suspicion that neither exists.
- George Mikes, English Humour for Beginners (1967)

The quote continues:

Here the similarity ends: the Loch Ness Monster seems to be a gentle beast and harms no one; English humor is cruel.

Of course, George Mikes is a foreigner, which explains why he doesn't understand British humour (and why he doesn't know how to spell the word humour either).

I've only read Mikes's How to be an Alien, written in the late 1940s.

Its chapter on sex in England consisted of one line:

quote:

Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles.

I found the book to be amusing, although even by the time I read it (1960s) it was dated, as there was little resemblance between the England I knew and that Mikes was writing about in the immediate post-war period.

However it's spelled (spelt?) I'll put the Monty Python bunch against any humo(u)r troupe I've ever seen and heard. Of course, subtlety is not their strong suit, so one cannot paint all British comedy and wit with one broad brush.

I am reading P. G. Wodehouse's "The Code of the Woosters." Hysterical.

Yesterday I went to see a stage adaptation of Spike Milligan's "Adlof Hitler: My Part In His Downfall". It was an interesting adaptation performed by a five piece trad jazz band. It featured lots of jazz and incidents from the books and turned very grim in the second act. The actor playing Spike (Sholto Morgan) was very good but, when not playing the music, the performance lacked a bit of pace. It was a great night out though and anarchic enough that IU'm sure SPike would have approved.

Now Spike's humour was definitely very British.

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Now Spike's humour was definitely very British.

Interesting because he wasn't British (at least not fully British).

He was actually born in India to an English mother and an Irish father who was serving in the British Army.

Mind you, I am not sure how the Irish were classified back in those days, when Ireland was part of the UK. Nowadays, of course, Ireland is as foreign a country to the UK as is the USA.

I'd say that Spike Milligan was as British as anyone. As Richard says, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the time, as was England. The fact that he was born in India is immaterial.

His education in India (and later in Burma) was at British schools and in those days members of the Raj didn't mix much, if at all, with the 'locals'.

He did, however, take Irish citizenship, which is a little odd since he spent his early years in India and Burma, and most of his later years in England (apart from WWII) and Australia, to where his parents and brother had emigrated.

And, of course, you will notice that I didn't claim the Spike was British, only that his humour was.

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And, of course, you will notice that I didn't claim the Spike was British, only that his humour was.

Of course it's quite difficult to attribute any kind of humour to a particular country; Spike's humour tended to be quite surreal and I wouldn't have said that was a particularly British characteristic of humour. I would have thought that the humour of Benny Hill and Donald McGill was more typically British.

Not that I don't enjoy Spike Milligan's work very much - especially the Goon Show, whose crazy world I grew up alongside (temporally, that is, not spatially).

Please tell me this is merely an example of English humor that I fail to understand.

It doesn't seem very humourous to me - more pathetic.

Oh I don't know.

I chuckled quite a bit, not at the award but at the reaction. I especially liked

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He was particularly surprised because he doesn't look out the window.

Well for me some of the funniest works in the language hail from the east side of the pond-- "Noises Off" to name just one. Though I distinctly remember that when GBH out of Boston imported its first Brit sitcom in 1971 (something set in a hospital?), I was competely lost.

Here's a clip I enjoyed from a 2002 Weekly Standard article entitled Fawlty Humor

"But in the early 1960s any sort of political humor on the BBC, one of the nation's most powerful cultural institutions, was sure to stir attention--particularly since "That Was the Week That Was" dealt, however obliquely, with religion and sex, broadcasting's oldest taboos. Carpenter cites one particularly contested sketch marking the close of the Second Vatican Council. It showed the cast costumed as cardinals and singing "Arrivederci Roma." This, forty years ago, was still considered shocking--an "insult to religion" and "near blasphemy" in the words of the British press."

The cachet of British humor from the American viewpoint-- IMHO of course: no one can do the banana-peel slip as well, because no one can waltz along with his nose in the air as convincingly beforehand.

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Originally posted by bethree5:
Brit sitcom in 1971 (something set in a hospital?), I was competely lost.

Probably Only When I Laugh. And nobody over here liked it much either.

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Probably Only When I Laugh. And nobody over here liked it much either.

Richard Wilson was funny - but then he is a good actor whatever he does.

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I am reading P. G. Wodehouse's "The Code of the Woosters." Hysterical.

All Wodehouse's writing is excellent.

The Fry and Laurie adaptations of the many Jeeves stories are being re-run right now. To my mind the very best of any TV adaptation made to to date. Not only are the main characters spot on but all the supporting characters are good as well - especially Gussie Fink-Nottle.

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Originally posted by bethree5:
Though I distinctly remember that when GBH out of Boston imported its first Brit sitcom in 1971 (something set in a hospital?), I was competely lost.

Perhaps you're thinking of "Doctor in the House." A series I really liked was "Private Schulz", shown on Masterpiece Theater.

I don't remember Private Schulz. Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes I remember, but not the British show. When was it on?