Today I'd like to share with you something that makes me very happy, something that brings little rays of sunshine into my life every day. I trust that all my friends have refined and exacting tastes and have not totally been brainwashed by mainstream American entertainment. Not one of you watches American Idol, I would venture to guess (and if you do, please don't tell me – it would break my heart). As thoughtful and educated members of society, I'm sure you would be willing to give any recommendations I might make a chance. Like many good things in life, what am I about to pitch to you is definitely an acquired taste (for most Americans). But since it brings me so much joy and pleasure, it would be wrong of me not to tell you, my dear friends, all about it. I'm talking, of course, about British comedy.
British comedy is, I believe, superior to its American counterparts in nearly every single way. I don't expect you to come to the same conclusion, but I'd hope you can learn to appreciate the fine and subtle wit that is the British sense of humor. Actually, these statements are a bit misleading; I don't mean to suggest that all British comedy is the same. There are as many different styles and types of comedy in the United Kingdom as there are here. If you think that all the humor the UK is capable of is “Monty Python” and “Benny Hill” then you are sadly mistaken. Those particular comedy acts come from the “silly/surrealist” and “dirty old man” schools of British humor, respectively, but there are countless others types.
For one thing, the UK comprises many different subcultures, many of which have their own languages separate from English, though they aren't in all that common use anymore. What we call “British” incorporates peoples who were culturally autonomous for hundreds of years before invasions and wars forced them into an uneasy political body; peoples like the Scottish, the English, the Welsh, and the Irish and all their various subgroups. This makes for a great hodgepodge of accents as well as styles of humor. Indeed, there are British comedians and comedy shows which I don't particularly like, so keep that in mind whenever I used the term “British comedy” as if its all one big thing.
The United Kingdom and the USA are geographically far apart, as can be verified by even a casual glance at any world map. Therefore, the major problem for any British comedy connoisseur living in America is trying to get their hands on the stuff. Sure, PBS runs a few old BBC sitcoms in their late hours and “The Search for the Holy Grail” is available in any video rental store, but there is so much more. Fortunately we live in the modern, digital age where nearly anything is available over the magic of the internet. The BBC has very kindly made many of its radio shows available on its website over streaming audio for one week after they air live over there. You can check it out at www.bbc.co.uk/radio (click on the “Radio Player” button). You'll find “Comedy & Quizzes” under the “Genres” list.
We think of radio as just being for music. That's mostly what its for in Britain these days too, but they have a long history of other radio programs as well. Dramas, sitcoms, sketch shows, game shows: the kind of stuff we think only belongs on TV started on radio over there. There are number of BBC radio stations, but when it comes to comedy programs the best place to look is BBC 7. BBC 4 has stuff sometimes, but not that often. BBC 3 is BORING. FYI. Anyway, BBC7 is singlehandedly responsible for the fact that after over six months of full-time work in the corporate world, I am still reasonably sane, because listening to it at work has made even the most dull or stressful workday seem a little brighter. They play both very recent “contemporary” comedy and a lot of “classic” comedy from the 50s and 60s. In case you would like to see what all this is I'm making a fuss about, I've taken the liberty to list some of my favorite shows for you to check out:
“I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue” - the king of kings. This long-long-long running “antidote to panel games” (it started running in 1972 and is still going with most of the original crew) is pure British silliness. The regular panel members are engaged in a number of weird parlor games such as singing the words of one song to the tune of another, improvising titles of strange movies, and playing the delightfully mysterious and confusing game of “Mornington Crescent.” Graham Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Barry Cryer (who has one of the best laughs ever) are the regulars; lately there have been a number of guests taking the fourth chair including one of my favorite British comedians Jeremy Hardy. The real star of the show, however, is the chairman, Humphrey Littleton, who announces each game in his dry baritone voice and sounding like he'd rather be someplace else. Everything he says he loaded with double entendre and clever, usually dirty, alternate meanings. He never laughs at his own jokes, and indeed sounds totally bored with everything. He's hilarious, and without him the show would be fairly mundane. This is, by far, my favorite show available on the BBC internet radio player at the moment. It updates every Monday.
“Just a Minute” - a very fun and fairly erudite panel game (which also began in the seventies and is still going strong) hosted by the charismatic yet not-as-funny-as-he-thinks-he-is Nicholas Parsons. Each week four players attempt to speak on the subject which Mr. Parsons gives them for sixty seconds WITHOUT hesistating, repeating any words, or deviating from the subject. Other players can buzz in and try to take control if they feel somebody has broken one of the rules of the game. Hilarity often ensues when the contestants argue over whether that was really a hesistation or just a breath, or if that word really had been used before, or about whatever else they feel like. Regulars include Clement Freud, Peter Jones, and Derek Nimmo (who, along with the now departed but SO FUNNY Kenneth Williams made up the original four), and newcomers like the very funny Paul Merton, Graham Norton, and even sometimes people like Tim Rice (the lyricist) and Eddie Izzard. Great fun for lovers of the English language. It updates on Mondays and Thursdays.
“Old Harry's Game” is a radio sitcom written by and starring another one of my favorite British comedians, Andy Hamilton. It takes place in hell, and major characters include Satan, his servant Scumspawn who is in love with him, and the Professor, a recently deceased and idealistic humanist who befriends Satan and tries to convince him that he's wrong about humans being worthless and wretched. Its not as blasphemous as you might think; in fact, thought brilliantly funny with perfect comedic timing, its often quite touchingly poignant. Updates on Tuesdays, sometimes.
“Parsons and Nailer's Pull-Out Sections” is a topical, current-events based sketch show that is quite unabashedly liberal, from our perspective, because they are clearly anti-Iraq war and anti-Bush. But then, pretty much everybody outside the US is. Still, they aren't all politics. There are a lot of good jokes and sketches here, even though the episodes broadcast on BBC 7 on the internet are usually from a year or two ago. Updates on Thursdays.
“The Mark Steele Lecture” is a half hour lecture by the passionate and left-leaning Mark Steele on famous people in history. He has a knack for being extremely informative while also being very funny. He brings the object of his lecture to life, lets us see the human side that is often blotted out by their historical celebrity, and makes a lot of jokes by imagining if what happened then had happened today. To date, I've listened to him lecture on Oliver Cromwell, Billie Holiday, Che Guevera, Thomas Payne, Karl Marx, and Beethoven. Its a solid show. Updates Tuesdays.
“Hancock's Half Hour” is a classical show from the 50s starrying Tony Hancock as a self-centered comedian who, along with his Australian roommate, European girlfriend, and dubiously criminal friend from down the street, gets sucked into some adventure every week. In many ways it reminds me of a distant ancestor to America's beloved “Seinfeld.” The show is really at its laugh-out-loud best when it guest stars the great Kenneth Williams (the one I mentioned in Just a Minute) who was just fantastic in everything he did. Updates Tuesdays.
“The Masterson Inheritance” used to be my favorite show on the BBC radio player, before they stopped running it and before I really got sucked into “I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.” I'm mentioning it here because if it ever starts being offered online again you have just got to listen to it. A team of performers improvise a 30-minute long drama based entirely on audience suggestions, usually satirizing the Victorian moral novel genre. It's great fun for the whole family. When it was on, it updated on Thursdays, but your guess is as good as mine if it'll ever be back.
Thats all I'll talk about specifically. There are a bunch of others, but these are my favorites. One common trait I've found in British humor is that they are so self-depricating. They aren't afraid to make fun of themselves and their cultural eccentricities (for example, they suck at sports, they can be overly and awkwardly polite, they be very picky and prudish, and they elected Tony Blair, who they mostly all hate.... well, the comedians hate him anyway). We should be more like this in America. We take ourselves too seriously sometimes. Honestly, Americans can be ridiculous. If you've ever been abroad and seen American tourists, you'll know what I mean.
Anyway, please give the Brits a chance. Maybe its just not for you, but I just had to share this passion with you. Cheers!
British comedy is, I believe, superior to its American counterparts in nearly every single way. I don't expect you to come to the same conclusion, but I'd hope you can learn to appreciate the fine and subtle wit that is the British sense of humor. Actually, these statements are a bit misleading; I don't mean to suggest that all British comedy is the same. There are as many different styles and types of comedy in the United Kingdom as there are here. If you think that all the humor the UK is capable of is “Monty Python” and “Benny Hill” then you are sadly mistaken. Those particular comedy acts come from the “silly/surrealist” and “dirty old man” schools of British humor, respectively, but there are countless others types.
For one thing, the UK comprises many different subcultures, many of which have their own languages separate from English, though they aren't in all that common use anymore. What we call “British” incorporates peoples who were culturally autonomous for hundreds of years before invasions and wars forced them into an uneasy political body; peoples like the Scottish, the English, the Welsh, and the Irish and all their various subgroups. This makes for a great hodgepodge of accents as well as styles of humor. Indeed, there are British comedians and comedy shows which I don't particularly like, so keep that in mind whenever I used the term “British comedy” as if its all one big thing.
The United Kingdom and the USA are geographically far apart, as can be verified by even a casual glance at any world map. Therefore, the major problem for any British comedy connoisseur living in America is trying to get their hands on the stuff. Sure, PBS runs a few old BBC sitcoms in their late hours and “The Search for the Holy Grail” is available in any video rental store, but there is so much more. Fortunately we live in the modern, digital age where nearly anything is available over the magic of the internet. The BBC has very kindly made many of its radio shows available on its website over streaming audio for one week after they air live over there. You can check it out at www.bbc.co.uk/radio (click on the “Radio Player” button). You'll find “Comedy & Quizzes” under the “Genres” list.
We think of radio as just being for music. That's mostly what its for in Britain these days too, but they have a long history of other radio programs as well. Dramas, sitcoms, sketch shows, game shows: the kind of stuff we think only belongs on TV started on radio over there. There are number of BBC radio stations, but when it comes to comedy programs the best place to look is BBC 7. BBC 4 has stuff sometimes, but not that often. BBC 3 is BORING. FYI. Anyway, BBC7 is singlehandedly responsible for the fact that after over six months of full-time work in the corporate world, I am still reasonably sane, because listening to it at work has made even the most dull or stressful workday seem a little brighter. They play both very recent “contemporary” comedy and a lot of “classic” comedy from the 50s and 60s. In case you would like to see what all this is I'm making a fuss about, I've taken the liberty to list some of my favorite shows for you to check out:
“I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue” - the king of kings. This long-long-long running “antidote to panel games” (it started running in 1972 and is still going with most of the original crew) is pure British silliness. The regular panel members are engaged in a number of weird parlor games such as singing the words of one song to the tune of another, improvising titles of strange movies, and playing the delightfully mysterious and confusing game of “Mornington Crescent.” Graham Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Barry Cryer (who has one of the best laughs ever) are the regulars; lately there have been a number of guests taking the fourth chair including one of my favorite British comedians Jeremy Hardy. The real star of the show, however, is the chairman, Humphrey Littleton, who announces each game in his dry baritone voice and sounding like he'd rather be someplace else. Everything he says he loaded with double entendre and clever, usually dirty, alternate meanings. He never laughs at his own jokes, and indeed sounds totally bored with everything. He's hilarious, and without him the show would be fairly mundane. This is, by far, my favorite show available on the BBC internet radio player at the moment. It updates every Monday.
“Just a Minute” - a very fun and fairly erudite panel game (which also began in the seventies and is still going strong) hosted by the charismatic yet not-as-funny-as-he-thinks-he-is Nicholas Parsons. Each week four players attempt to speak on the subject which Mr. Parsons gives them for sixty seconds WITHOUT hesistating, repeating any words, or deviating from the subject. Other players can buzz in and try to take control if they feel somebody has broken one of the rules of the game. Hilarity often ensues when the contestants argue over whether that was really a hesistation or just a breath, or if that word really had been used before, or about whatever else they feel like. Regulars include Clement Freud, Peter Jones, and Derek Nimmo (who, along with the now departed but SO FUNNY Kenneth Williams made up the original four), and newcomers like the very funny Paul Merton, Graham Norton, and even sometimes people like Tim Rice (the lyricist) and Eddie Izzard. Great fun for lovers of the English language. It updates on Mondays and Thursdays. 
“Old Harry's Game” is a radio sitcom written by and starring another one of my favorite British comedians, Andy Hamilton. It takes place in hell, and major characters include Satan, his servant Scumspawn who is in love with him, and the Professor, a recently deceased and idealistic humanist who befriends Satan and tries to convince him that he's wrong about humans being worthless and wretched. Its not as blasphemous as you might think; in fact, thought brilliantly funny with perfect comedic timing, its often quite touchingly poignant. Updates on Tuesdays, sometimes. 
“Parsons and Nailer's Pull-Out Sections” is a topical, current-events based sketch show that is quite unabashedly liberal, from our perspective, because they are clearly anti-Iraq war and anti-Bush. But then, pretty much everybody outside the US is. Still, they aren't all politics. There are a lot of good jokes and sketches here, even though the episodes broadcast on BBC 7 on the internet are usually from a year or two ago. Updates on Thursdays. 
“The Mark Steele Lecture” is a half hour lecture by the passionate and left-leaning Mark Steele on famous people in history. He has a knack for being extremely informative while also being very funny. He brings the object of his lecture to life, lets us see the human side that is often blotted out by their historical celebrity, and makes a lot of jokes by imagining if what happened then had happened today. To date, I've listened to him lecture on Oliver Cromwell, Billie Holiday, Che Guevera, Thomas Payne, Karl Marx, and Beethoven. Its a solid show. Updates Tuesdays.
“Hancock's Half Hour” is a classical show from the 50s starrying Tony Hancock as a self-centered comedian who, along with his Australian roommate, European girlfriend, and dubiously criminal friend from down the street, gets sucked into some adventure every week. In many ways it reminds me of a distant ancestor to America's beloved “Seinfeld.” The show is really at its laugh-out-loud best when it guest stars the great Kenneth Williams (the one I mentioned in Just a Minute) who was just fantastic in everything he did. Updates Tuesdays.
“The Masterson Inheritance” used to be my favorite show on the BBC radio player, before they stopped running it and before I really got sucked into “I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.” I'm mentioning it here because if it ever starts being offered online again you have just got to listen to it. A team of performers improvise a 30-minute long drama based entirely on audience suggestions, usually satirizing the Victorian moral novel genre. It's great fun for the whole family. When it was on, it updated on Thursdays, but your guess is as good as mine if it'll ever be back. Thats all I'll talk about specifically. There are a bunch of others, but these are my favorites. One common trait I've found in British humor is that they are so self-depricating. They aren't afraid to make fun of themselves and their cultural eccentricities (for example, they suck at sports, they can be overly and awkwardly polite, they be very picky and prudish, and they elected Tony Blair, who they mostly all hate.... well, the comedians hate him anyway). We should be more like this in America. We take ourselves too seriously sometimes. Honestly, Americans can be ridiculous. If you've ever been abroad and seen American tourists, you'll know what I mean.
Anyway, please give the Brits a chance. Maybe its just not for you, but I just had to share this passion with you. Cheers!
Comments
Yes, I quite agree, British comedy is far above and beyond American comedy.
My violin teacher is British. Besides the fact that he is the best teacher I've ever had, and besides the fact that I learn more with him than anyone else, and besides the fact that he is a phenominal violinist, HE IS HILARIOUS! and sometimes I'll go to lessons just to hang out with him and hear him tell his stories. Violin lessons are fun! Who ever thought they could be!
Also, I went to Forum today. It was James Burke. I'd heard of him and even read some of his literature. I did not know, however, that he was British. HE WAS HILARIOUS! He talked fast and he made significant points and was highly educational and thought provoking... but above all, he had me rolling on the ground! There was one point in his talk where he said a very sly and witty comment. I BUSTED up... only to notice, ten seconds too late, that I was the only one laughing... and that I had disturbed quite a few people.
Such a shame that Americans dont understand good British humor.
BBC is one of my favorite stations as well. I just wish I could listen to it more often. Alas... school... bane and pain of my existence.
This is a long post.
Sorry.
But I will tell you a new British joke that I learned today... hoping that you didn't watch or listen to the forum (somehow) and havent heard it yet:
We often and usually learn things by association; examples would be blue water, peaceful music, peanut butter and jam, apples and bananas (or oranges, if you prefer). What our brains find funny, and the things that make us laugh, are when people are ingenius enough to put two things together that normally dont go together. This is why we laugh.
I will now place together fruit and a bird, without a verb (ex: the bird eats the fruit)
A bunch of Brits were having a party, and, as parties go, there was alcohol and quite a few drunkards there as well.
A drunkard came up to the party host and said "excuse me, sir, but I have a very important and very imperative question to ask you!"
The host, in response, exclaimed "ask me whatever it is that you need to ask, if it is so important."
The drunkard spoke up. "Do lemons whistle?"
"Well, thats certainly an odd question," the host replied, "no, lemons do not whistle. May I ask why you needed to know that so desperately?"
"Well, damn," said the drunkard, "I think I just squeezed your canary into my gin and tonic"
Now, this isn't an especially funny joke. In fact, I just told it to my roommate... she laughed out of courtesy. But get James Burke, BRITISH James Burke up, and have him tell it... people were laughing for minutes about it!
Really, what is it that makes Brits so funny? I want to steal their secrets! I long to have British humor. Hmm. Britain, here I come!
(such a long post...)
S Jizay
I miss you! Are you preparing for URTAs? I still need to return Eddie Izzard to you.
I think I'm going to cry...
I wish I could watch more BBC TV. If they ever make that available on the internet, I'll be first in line.
I'll check out that radio program you recommended!