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I would struggle to even define what "british humour" is tbh.
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Jan 3, 2021 13:59
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German humour to be fair is way better.
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Jan 3, 2021 13:59
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I don’t think Boaty McBoatface is that funny (reminds me of people who think googly eyes are the height of comedy), but I do genuinely think the one thing British people excel at is being quite funny. We’ve produced a lot of great comedy. Even my most Brit-hating mates from elsewhere seem to at least agree on that. Or maybe I’m just really funny and I’m dragging the average up for people who know me
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Jan 3, 2021 14:00
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Mebh posted:German humour to be fair is way better. Also presumably compatible with british humour given the continued popularity of mr bean.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:05
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Miftan posted:People keep saying that, but ya'll aren't that great at humour. There's some hits and a lot of misses, and when British people say this it always reeks of either nationalism or just people liking things because they grew up with them despite the things not being any better than the alternatives (see also: religion, chocolate oranges, parents' politics) Obviously it’s subjective, and I’m not British. I’ve lived in South Africa, the UK, the US and spent some time in Canada, so I have a few things to compare it to. Humour is determined to some degree by what one grows up with, of course. That said, I find humour in the UK much more prevalent and funnier than in the US.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:07
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OwlFancier posted:I would struggle to even define what "british humour" is tbh.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:10
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Pablo Bluth posted:Self-loathing and celebrating failure. business as usual but doing an impression of irony then
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Jan 3, 2021 14:14
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Re terry Pritchett: I was at the Cheltenham literature festival event where he first announced he had early onset Alzheimer’s. I think it was also the last time he did book signings because he was visibly struggling to do so which was truly heartbreaking to see. I’ve got a copy of making money with me and my brothers names only partially misspelled because of that. 
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Jan 3, 2021 14:15
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Pablo Bluth posted:Self-loathing and celebrating failure. also looking at really old, cheap, or stupid things on a sofa.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:19
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Gulping Again posted:also looking at really old, cheap, or stupid things on a sofa. 
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Jan 3, 2021 14:27
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goddamnedtwisto posted:For me the decline happened earlier than his diagnosis. By Thud basically all of the main characters had such massive suits of narrative armour that they started to come across as Mary Sues, incapable of ever making a mistake or finding themselves in a situation they couldn't handle. Now possibly this might have been related to the very early stages of his disease but it's a problem that almost all long-running series have - the author (and audience) get so attached to the character that it becomes impossible for them to be written into an actually interesting story. Vimes being an inexplicable fulcrum upon which the universe swings is a in-text joke as early as Jingo, though. I agree Thud! is a marked decline from the stellar Night Watch, but not for the same reasons as you perhaps... Thud! is much like Jingo in its plotting, right down to dragging Vimes out of the city for textual Plot Armour reasons, but Thud! doesn't sufficiently motivate the theme of apocalyptic ethnic violence, so its victories feel hollow and unearned. It's not so much that the character has inexplicable narrative armour - Vimes is unstoppable in Jingo, Fifth Elephant, etc. peak Watch books - but that Jingo dedicates pages to spelling out the 'alternative universe' where Vimes remains in the city and elevates it to a kind of mysticism, and this works much better even though the conceit of the alternate-universe Dis-Organizer is absolutely just as ad-hoc as having Vimes win moral victories by default in Koom Valley. It does come off as weak or rushed writing, but also as something a couple of editing passes might have patched up. Pratchett could certainly darkly hint at the horrors of war as late as Monstrous Regiment. Unseen Academicals does return to Rincewind, so he does make a comeback, but it's post-diagnosis.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:27
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The British rep for humour has suffered from a decade of TV panel shows dominated by the same twenty-odd faces, imo.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:27
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therattle posted:Obviously it’s subjective, and I’m not British. I’ve lived in South Africa, the UK, the US and spent some time in Canada, so I have a few things to compare it to. Humour is determined to some degree by what one grows up with, of course. That said, I find humour in the UK much more prevalent and funnier than in the US. That wasn't aimed at you specifically, but let's be honest here most of what the US considers to be comedy is absolute garbage. Other than some notable exceptions like Always Sunny, I don't think I've ever even moved a face muscle during a US sitcom/sketch show.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:29
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Miftan posted:That wasn't aimed at you specifically, but let's be honest here most of what the US considers to be comedy is absolute garbage. Other than some notable exceptions like Always Sunny, I don't think I've ever even moved a face muscle during a US sitcom/sketch show. that's because we have produced a grand total of one good sitcom (always sunny) and one good sketch show (WKUK) in like twenty years
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Jan 3, 2021 14:34
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It's all just capitalist monoculture to me.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:34
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Gulping Again posted:that's because we have produced a grand total of one good sitcom (always sunny) and one good sketch show (WKUK) in like twenty years And even your good sitcom has run for about 5 years longer than it should have.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:36
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Miftan posted:That wasn't aimed at you specifically, but let's be honest here most of what the US considers to be comedy is absolute garbage. Other than some notable exceptions like Always Sunny, I don't think I've ever even moved a face muscle during a US sitcom/sketch show. I thi k parks and rec is one of the most consistently funny shows ever made, and the first 2-3 series of arrested development are stellar. Then you have the cartoons which all seem to be on Netflix (and South Park, although admittedly I've not watched that for like 15 years). American comedy can be dire, true, but I think there's more than enough good stuff to show that it's not some universal law.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:37
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The Perfect Element posted:I thi k parks and rec is one of the most consistently funny shows ever made, and the first 2-3 series of arrested development are stellar. Oh for sure, there's so much of it some of it is bound to be good. I remember Parks & Rec being good, but South Park has always been edgy teenager humour from what I recall. Those are the things that consistently make it overseas. Have you ever sat down and watched what's on 90% of their comedy channels? Infinite sitcoms that are just.. 20 minutes of ads and 20 minutes of what I can only assume is someone filming a really bad improv group?
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Jan 3, 2021 14:39
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It feels like both the US and UK humour in the last 30 years suffered from the counter culture basically becoming the culture and then falling prey to all the same trappings of capitalism as before. Maybe that's just getting old? Maybe good comedy never really was good as a lot of it in retrospect is beating down on one minority or another. The UK panel show circuit that seemingly kicked off with the Hignfy Angus scandal causing rotating hosts and making the popularity soar certainly has gotten a bit stale recently though, I agree. I did enjoy catching up on taskmaster last year when I came back, some of that was quite funny. I haven't watched this year though.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:49
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Really the whole notion of professionally produced comedy is pointless when people on the internet can do it better. Sack all the comedians and pay people on the internet to post.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:50
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Mebh posted:I did enjoy catching up on taskmaster last year when I came back, some of that was quite funny. I haven't watched this year though. Taskmaster is helped by the fact that it's mostly just silliness for silliness' sake. Most panel shows are rooted in current affairs and politics in some way and the rot of the center-right always shines through. That's a side effect of most of them being Oxbridge graduates I guess.
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Jan 3, 2021 14:56
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I find Boaty McBoatFace genuinely hilarious, but the claim that it's some uniquely British piece of humour is just loving bizarre to me, and I'm fairly certain I've seen other countries sabotage polls with silly names and claim it as something unique to their humour. What culture doesn't love silly wordplay?
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Jan 3, 2021 14:58
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Miftan posted:Oh for sure, there's so much of it some of it is bound to be good. I remember Parks & Rec being good, but South Park has always been edgy teenager humour from what I recall. Those are the things that consistently make it overseas. Have you ever sat down and watched what's on 90% of their comedy channels? Infinite sitcoms that are just.. 20 minutes of ads and 20 minutes of what I can only assume is someone filming a really bad improv group? The Good Place is/was also very decent. e: vvv Seconded. sebzilla fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Jan 3, 2021 |
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Jan 3, 2021 15:04
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I find Boaty McBoatFace genuinely hilarious, but the claim that it's some uniquely British piece of humour is just loving bizarre to me, and I'm fairly certain I've seen other countries sabotage polls with silly names and claim it as something unique to their humour. What culture doesn't love silly wordplay? It’s not necessarily uniquely British. The first season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt is hilarious.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:06
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Miftan posted:Oh for sure, there's so much of it some of it is bound to be good. I remember Parks & Rec being good, but South Park has always been edgy teenager humour from what I recall. Those are the things that consistently make it overseas. Have you ever sat down and watched what's on 90% of their comedy channels? Infinite sitcoms that are just.. 20 minutes of ads and 20 minutes of what I can only assume is someone filming a really bad improv group? I Think You Should Leave is also good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwdYUIQzu-o
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Jan 3, 2021 15:07
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OwlFancier posted:I would struggle to even define what "british humour" is tbh. Well it's changed a huge amount and of course been homogenised massively in the era of international mass media, but I'd say it's a combination of low-key self-deprecation, surrealism and anti-authoritarianism. The Goon Show is probably the purest example, and this is always my go-to example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVHNF7sDds&t=306s (Don't worry, you don't have to listen to the whole thing, I've queued it up to my favourite joke. For those who prefer text: quote:enry Crun: Of course the show was written by an Irish man born in India and named for characters in an American cartoon but that's also very, very British. I'm not saying it's a superior form of humour to any other, but it's certainly something you can point at and say "This is British humour". It's also notable that none of those things currently exist in the things that The Libs love to point at in contemporary British comedy, which is chummy with authority, relentlessly "real", and of course desperately self-aggrandising - everyone in it is the cleverest person in the room and much, much better than any of the seven acceptable targets for joking about.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:10
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Everyone should watch Nathan for you Needless to say it was me who started singing hallelujah (the version from Shrek) https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1345726144159621120?s=19
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Jan 3, 2021 15:12
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Miftan posted:Oh for sure, there's so much of it some of it is bound to be good. I remember Parks & Rec being good, but South Park has always been edgy teenager humour from what I recall. Those are the things that consistently make it overseas. Have you ever sat down and watched what's on 90% of their comedy channels? Infinite sitcoms that are just.. 20 minutes of ads and 20 minutes of what I can only assume is someone filming a really bad improv group? Having been a member of several really bad improv groups, how dare you? Our most tedious iterations of Henry still have more actual humour in them than an entire series of the mechanically-extracted comedy product that the American networks turn out.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:13
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Pistol_Pete posted:It's funny that people are still insisting that there's this enormous unfulfilled demand for sensible centrism amomg the electorate, despite the copious evidence to the contrary. The numbers aren’t large, but neither are the margins of victory. Had Corbyn picked up another few million votes from centrists, he would have won. Similarly, if Starmer could, given an actual election, win back those who have abandoned Labour since Corbyn was kicked out, he would be very well placed to win. Either way, there is no time after April this year where it would have been legal to meet up with enough people that you could expect to see a member of either group. The problem of course is that there are no two political groups who hate and fear each other as much as leftists and centrists. And you need both to win. So it is going to be very hard for any single politician to win over one group without pissing off the other.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:14
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Also that small issue of the centrists being absolutely loving useless at running a country. To the point that we would be better off with no government than with them in charge.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:16
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Convex posted:I Think You Should Leave is also good This is the only show that's given me a stomach ache from laughing in a decade or more. Probably not for everyone but it's just so idiotic it's incredible
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Jan 3, 2021 15:16
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I find Boaty McBoatFace genuinely hilarious, but the claim that it's some uniquely British piece of humour is just loving bizarre to me, and I'm fairly certain I've seen other countries sabotage polls with silly names and claim it as something unique to their humour. What culture doesn't love silly wordplay? I would say it is sort of British in the way its satirizing the tradition of boat naming. What should be named a majestic or inspirational title, to honor someone who died doing a great service, or something like a city or place name. Silly wordplay can ruin things. It turned Mock the Week to poo poo.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:19
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Incidentally it's worth looking out for Avenue 5. It's Armando Iannucci doing sci-fi, so you've probably already got the shape of it. Some of it is *way* too on-the-nose but I think that's just his normal reality distortion field making Americans even more ridiculous.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:19
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British humour is punching down while you pretend to punch up.
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Jan 3, 2021 15:19
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vodkat posted:British humour is punching down while you pretend to punch up. British humour is punching yourself in the balls repeatedly (Brexit) while the rest of the world laughs
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Jan 3, 2021 15:21
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I find Boaty McBoatFace genuinely hilarious, but the claim that it's some uniquely British piece of humour is just loving bizarre to me, and I'm fairly certain I've seen other countries sabotage polls with silly names and claim it as something unique to their humour. What culture doesn't love silly wordplay? It was the ensuing public debate about whether the poll should be respected or not that brought the funniest moments for me. The poll was only a few years after 4chan abused the polling system for Time Magazine to get Moot as person of the year, and similar practices were occurring in other popular polls at the time. Additionally, its the British public so of course there will be a silly name that gives the majority a chuckle and they'll vote for it en masse. The debates got quite heated, with MP's crowing "Naming the arctic research ship Boaty McBoatface will make us look ridiculous on the world stage!" etc. The highlight for me was a radio interview with a former Royal Navy commander who strung the host and audience on for a few minutes saying how utterly ludicrous and foolish it would be to use the name Boaty McBoatface, concluding in a rather matter of fact way that any sailor worth their salt knows its a Ship and therefor should be named Shippy McShipface. 
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Jan 3, 2021 15:21
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I remember chuckling when the idiots at /b/ rigged the poll to name the new Mountain Dew flavour Hitler Did Nothing Wrong. Seems a bit less ironic now... Getting Pitbull to play a mall in remote Alaska was pretty unproblematically hilarious tho
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Jan 3, 2021 15:25
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Failed Imagineer posted:This is the only show that's given me a stomach ache from laughing in a decade or more. Probably not for everyone but it's just so idiotic it's incredible Thirding this. A really underappreciated gem. Me and my partner still shout PAUL BUFANO ITS PAUL BUFANO each other semi-regularly
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Jan 3, 2021 15:25
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Jakabite posted:Thirding this. A really underappreciated gem. Me and my partner still shout PAUL BUFANO ITS PAUL BUFANO each other semi-regularly The guy with the freak lips? He can hit the High C all night long?
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Jan 3, 2021 15:25
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Failed Imagineer posted:The guy with the freak lips? He can hit the High C all night long? Regular guest on the Colgate Comedy Hour?!
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Jan 3, 2021 15:29
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