I don’t really understand why everyone seems to think that Benny Hill is considered to be the pinnacle of British humour, I dont know anyone who see’s Benny Hill as anything but an example of slighlty crap comedy from a bygone age much like ‘Carry On’ films. We dont all wear bowler hats you know…
Is it irony we don’t get, or cynicism?
I think that the part that many Americans don’t get is the very dry, deadpan delivery. You may disagree with me, but I think that they are less thick skinned, and they are really…earnest about things. So, they aren’t sure if it’s a joke a lot of the time.
American humour is just different than Brit or Aussie humour, many Americans find the level of sarcasm and biting wit almost aggressive. It’s just another cultural difference. That’s one disadvantage to being expat. I miss the Brit and Aussie boys, they are generally cheeky irreverant funny bastards, and that’s a good thing imo.
I really do like the people here in Cali, they are really sweet…however I would kill for a good bunch of Glaswegians to hang out with.
I saw the thread quickly degenerating into insults and such, so I skipped ahead and am posting this, without looking to see if something similar has been mentioned. Please accept my apology for that. Now, on to the post:
This may not be too relevant, but I’m hoping it may be interesting. A couple years ago I was talking to a woman who teaches English at a university. She remarked that America was becoming an increasingly literal country. For example, she said that it was next to impossible to teach analogy to American college students. I asked, even begged, her to expand on that, but she never would.
Anyway, if what she says it true, then a general American tendency toward obliviousness to irony may be part-and-parcel* with an increasing trend toward literalness. To me, that would make a certain amount of sense, since irony often involves (as I understand it) taking a non-obvious yet true interpretation of a set of events. Most examples of irony in American pop culture that I can think of involve ultra-obviousness, such as the “irony” we see in Austin Powers.
Well, it’s a thought anyway.
- Is that the right phrase?
Here in the Netherlands we do ‘get’ American as well as British humor (what with all the sit-coms on the telly), but we do consider there to be a significant difference. I wouldn’t call it irony per se. Mostly we consider quintessential British humor to consist of the understatement. Which goes well with irony, but isn’t exactly the same.
toadspittle and !ceQueen rightly refered to the difference in delivery. js_africanus pointed similarly to an American overload in obviousness, which is the converse of the understatement. In fact, the reference given by !ceQueen does support this: in The Nanny the butler mostly does a good job at delivering his lines in a more understated manner, while Fran finds her humor in a more expressive kind of self-irony by acting it out.
My 2 Eurocents (which beat 2 dollarcents these days 
).