American humour. There’s some brilliant stuff. Steve Martin’s stand-up skit about taking hostages (« I finally got myself something I always wanted …… hostages ») so that he can demand the letter « C » be erased from the English language is tremendous, and just as surreal as anything in British comedy.
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Chief Broom
Veteran
Reckon i only like dark, gallows humour kinda jokes and they're more of a comment on existence where you can only submit to the condition and smile 
What do yah get if you cross a Pitbull with Lassie
Answer, A dog that bites your arm off...and then goes for help
What do yah get if you cross a Pitbull with Lassie
Answer, A dog that bites your arm off...and then goes for help
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
And Hitlers gang should have been banned for the use of performance enhancing drugs, mind the wheels soon fell off when they needed more and more to get the same effect, and the factories struggled to make the stuff, plus there’s only so much anyone can do on a drug fuelled sleepless rampage
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
I think there’s also a difference in the savagery of the humour depending on where you come from, when my daughter was at uni one of her friends she made was from a couple of miles from here, the others were from much further south, the southerners thought that mini DRM and her northern mate were particularly harsh when taking the p*ss out of each other and anyone/anything else
Dolorous Edd
Senior Member
The OP was war-related. It's no surprise that this was followed by war-related posts.
Look for a fish-related OP, and you will see a lot of fish-related posts. That doesn't mean the British are obsessed by fish.
No, true... just god awful puns.
winjim
Smash the cistern
We banged on about both the war and about fish and look where it got us.
All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
Dolorous Edd
Senior Member
I think you mean cod awful puns, surely?
Dolorous Edd
Senior Member
It's the most significant historical event that anybody alive today can remember living through. Pretty odd to regard that as boring.
It would be boring to mention to it at every possible opportunity, but I don't see much evidence of that on this forum.
What I find much odder is the insistence of some to recoil when it is occasionally mentioned.
winjim
Smash the cistern
I can see that there may have been a generation for whom jokes about the war were a means of catharsis but it's very nearly out of living memory. Of course we need to remember it and that includes making jokes about it but I find it a bit tiresome and some people seem obsessed. A lot of stuff has happened since.
We have just had a ridiculous thread about how e-bikes should be derestricted because of US intervention during the second world war so maybe I'm just feeling a bit cynical. But of course cynicism does form part of the famous BSOH.
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
Reminds me of that great story David Niven used to tell about Douglas Bader giving a talk to an upmarket girls’ school, and getting a bit carried away, ranting about 'the farkers' coming at him from all angles. This prompted the palefaced schoolmistress to interrupt with, “I should say, ladies, that the Fokker was a type of German aircraft,” to which Bader replied: “That’s as may be, Madam, these farkers were in Messerschmidts.”Sort of an aside to this...
The literal translation of messerschmidt is knife smith i.e. cutler
A Cutler 109 doesn't sound nearly as fearsome as a Messerschmidt 109...
lazybloke
Considering a new username
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Lazy explanation : the British are generally too stupid or arrogant to learn other languages, and therefore are ignorant of most "foreign" humour and think theirs is the best.
Best,
Lazybloke : A Brit who speaks only his native language
Longer explanation: Those that say "British humour is best" would best add "for Brits" because the appreciation of humour is massively influenced by history, language, class, age and various other factors. You can collectively describe these factors as cultural differences. And there are vast cultural differences between countries (see also : Brits hate American chocolate, and vice versa)
Come to think of it, there are vast differences in culture & humour just between the regions, which might explain why Peter Kay's standup humour does very little for me (as a soft Southerner) , whilst those from the regions seem to detest Michael McIntyre!
Best,
Lazybloke : A Brit who speaks only his native language
Longer explanation: Those that say "British humour is best" would best add "for Brits" because the appreciation of humour is massively influenced by history, language, class, age and various other factors. You can collectively describe these factors as cultural differences. And there are vast cultural differences between countries (see also : Brits hate American chocolate, and vice versa)
Come to think of it, there are vast differences in culture & humour just between the regions, which might explain why Peter Kay's standup humour does very little for me (as a soft Southerner) , whilst those from the regions seem to detest Michael McIntyre!
Tail End Charlie
Well, write it down boy ......
- Location
- In green and pleasant hills.
Carrying on with the WW2 theme.
A group of British POWs were caught trying to escape from a camp (by building a tunnel or somesuch). The German Kommandant lined up all the POWs and proceeded to harangue them thus as only Germans can do
"You British think you are so clever, you think you can escape and will win the war. You are wrong, we know all your plans, you can never escape. You think we know f**k nothing, but you are wrong, but we know f**k all"
Inescapable German logic.
A group of British POWs were caught trying to escape from a camp (by building a tunnel or somesuch). The German Kommandant lined up all the POWs and proceeded to harangue them thus as only Germans can do
"You British think you are so clever, you think you can escape and will win the war. You are wrong, we know all your plans, you can never escape. You think we know f**k nothing, but you are wrong, but we know f**k all"
Inescapable German logic.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
Something in that, Michael McIntyre is about as funny as an outbreak of rabies at the dogs trustLazy explanation : the British are generally too stupid or arrogant to learn other languages, and therefore are ignorant of most "foreign" humour and think theirs is the best.
Best,
Lazybloke : A Brit who speaks only his native language
Longer explanation: Those that say "British humour is best" would best add "for Brits" because the appreciation of humour is massively influenced by history, language, class, age and various other factors. You can collectively describe these factors as cultural differences. And there are vast cultural differences between countries (see also : Brits hate American chocolate, and vice versa)
Come to think of it, there are vast differences in culture & humour just between the regions, which might explain why Peter Kay's standup humour does very little for me (as a soft Southerner) , whilst those from the regions seem to detest Michael McIntyre!
