British humour

From Free net encyclopedia

British humour has a reputation for being puzzling to non-British speakers of English. Nonetheless, many UK comedy TV shows which use it as a basis have been internationally popular.

Contents 1 Themes 2 Historical roots 3 See also 4 References

Themes

Some themes which underpinned twentieth-century British humour were:

• Smut and innuendo with sexual and scatological themes, typified by:
  • the seaside postcards of Donald McGill
  • the humour of Benny Hill
  • the series of Carry On films
  • the comic magazine Viz
• Disrespect to members of the establishment and authority, typified by:
  • Beyond the Fringe, stage revue from the 1960s
  • Private Eye, satirical magazine
  • Spitting Image, TV puppet comedy lampooning the famous and powerful
  • Discworld, a series of fantasy books written by Terry Pratchett, heavy with irony criticizing various aspects of society
• The absurd, typified by:
  • The Goon Show
  • Monty Python
  • Vic Reeves Big Night Out
• The banality of everyday life, as seen in:
  • Hancock's Half Hour
  • The Office
  • The Royle Family
  • Peep Show (television)
  • The Giles cartoons
• 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 and St. Trinians, books and films
• 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
  • Dad's Army, comedy TV series
  • Fawlty Towers, comedy TV series
  • Keeping Up Appearances, comedy TV series
  • You Rang, M'Lord?, comedy TV series
• The lovable rogue, usually an impoverished working class lad trying to make some money and better himself, typified by:
  • Steptoe and Son
  • Only Fools and Horses
  • Flashman
• The embarrassment of social ineptitude, typified by:
  • Mr. Bean, comedy TV series starring Rowan Atkinson
  • Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, comedy TV series starring Michael Crawford
  • Alan Partridge
  • Count Arthur Strong
• 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
  • 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
• Harsh sarcasm, typified by:
  • Blackadder, comedy TV series

Historical roots

Some deep roots for British humour are:

• the historical reaction to an intolerant Puritanism (thus the acceptance of ribald 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, etc.)
• the long-standing free press and coffee-house tradition that led a 'politics of visual satire' to develop in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom (that led eventually to political satire to become a major TV comedy form)
• a wide tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric, especially when allied to inventiveness (which led to Heath Robinson, via Professor Branestawm, Wallace and Gromit and Doctor Who)
• the Pantomime with its mix of social role reversals

See also

• British comedy and British sitcoms (which blend elements of all of these in varying weaves)
• British comics
• Understatement
• Irony

References

• Sutton, David. A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, (2000) ISBN 085989603Xde:Britischer Humor

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