By Karen Bellcraft
A 2011 poll carried out by social networking site Badoo asked over 30,000 people in fifteen countries which nation they ranked as having the worst sense of humour. The answer to our title question seems to be 'not on your Nelly.' Our great country came fourth out of the top ten in the stakes and trailed behind America, Canada and...Belgium?
Spare a thought for the poor old Germans however, who were predictably voted the least funny nation in the entire poll. Is it that all Germans aren't funny? Really? Or is it that they just can't get a break since the whole, well, you know, Nazi thing. Generalisations about Teutonic peoples (and Indiana Jones) have seemingly contributed to a national stereotyping of Germanic personalities as ruthless, efficient and impassive. Not exactly qualities conducive to comedy, one might add. It seems the whole world spends more time laughing at tired old stereotypes of Deutscheland than laughing with the country's jokes.
We have tried our level best, giving the world high-brow Oxbridge slapstick by Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson. We have produced honest and loveable flat-cap and whippet types like George Formby. We have represented the common man with acts such as Peter Kaye and Bernard Manning tapping into the heart of working-mens-club drollery for generation after generation. British comedy at its heart is about representing its people, in all forms and however big, bad and ugly. Pompous
We have tried our level best, giving the world high-brow Oxbridge slapstick by Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson. We have produced honest and loveable flat-cap and whippet types like George Formby. We have represented the common man with acts such as Peter Kaye and Bernard Manning tapping into the heart of working-mens-club drollery for generation after generation. British comedy at its heart is about representing its people, in all forms and however big, bad and ugly. Pompous
We have tried our level best, giving the world high-brow Oxbridge slapstick by Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson. We have produced honest and loveable flat-cap and whippet types like George Formby. We have represented the common man with acts such as Peter Kaye and Bernard Manning tapping into the heart of working-mens-club drollery for generation after generation. British comedy at its heart is about representing its people, in all forms and however big, bad and ugly. Pompous? Perhaps. Politically incorrect? Sometimes? Vaguely smutty? Always. But UK comedy reflects the wordish, bone-dry and razor-sharp wit of the actual British public, not a roomful of TV executives.
We have given the world Fry and Laurie, French and Saunders, Victoria Wood and Tommy Cooper. More recently we have produced Ricky Gervais, Lee Evans, Michael MacIntyre and national treasure, Bill Bailey. The list goes on. We can do dry, wordy, slapstick, situational, intelligent, ridiculous and really filthy funny but the point is, it's all quality stuff. Give me the murderous drawl of Frankie Boyle or the cockle-warming cheek of The Two Ronnies any day over yet another cheeseball American sitcom.
If British humour isn't that funny, why do shows like The Office and Shameless end up being regurgitated and tweaked for the Yankee masses, to the greatest of acclaim? It's because our raw talent and ever-evolving comedic discourses are admired the world over and that quirky, acerbic wit unique to UK humour can't be matched. Now, let's have no more of this funny business. I firmly state the case that British humour is side-splittingly, belly-achingly and incontestably hilarious.
We have given the world Fry and Laurie, French and Saunders, Victoria Wood and Tommy Cooper. More recently we have produced Ricky Gervais, Lee Evans, Michael MacIntyre and national treasure, Bill Bailey. The list goes on. We can do dry, wordy, slapstick, situational, intelligent, ridiculous and really filthy funny but the point is, it's all quality stuff. Give me the murderous drawl of Frankie Boyle or the cockle-warming cheek of The Two Ronnies any day over yet another cheeseball American sitcom.
If British humour isn't that funny, why do shows like The Office and Shameless end up being regurgitated and tweaked for the Yankee masses, to the greatest of acclaim? It's because our raw talent and ever-evolving comedic discourses are admired the world over and that quirky, acerbic wit unique to UK humour can't be matched. Now, let's have no more of this funny business. I firmly state the case that British humour is side-splittingly, belly-achingly and incontestably hilarious.