can someone explain british comedy to me?

[sedstar]

Okay... so even if it ever takes 20 years? most of life's many teensy mysteries eventually get solved.

here's one of mine that just crossed my mind, and YOU lads and chaps are, i think, JUST the experts to clear this one up.

first off? growing up, I enjoyed "benny hill"... also enjoyed the irish bloke with one missing finger, think that one was "dave allen at large" but i digress... this is a question about BENNY HILL

me and me parents (RIP) were watching the benny hill show, and there was a skit where benny was in WWII army outfit, and some outlandish scenario, i think he was captured by nazis, and a good looking female nazi was brought in to "get him to talk" since threatening him wasnt working.

anyways, she tells benny hill "come over to our side? and you can live out ALL your fantasies, darling..."

benny hill gets up, walks over to the wall of thte barn? and writes "B...U...M" on the wall.

then?? the audience goes into absolute hysterics. it HAD to have been hellaciously funny, as it took a minute or two to get them to quit laughing and applauding to get the skit going. Benny hill is pointing to the word "BUM", and making his trademark funny face.

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i didnt get it, dad didnt get it, mom was at a loss too... none of us could figure it out, and my parents said "that must be british humor"

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so... could someone explain that joke to me? it crosses my mind every couple years or so... if someone could be an EXEMPLARY chap and explain it to me, i would appreciate it. (for what its worth? i "got" all dave allen's gags, so i'm not completely clueless)

[Radagast]

Do you get Monty Python? The Goodies? The Two Ronnies?
British humor has a few levels. A lot of the best known BBC stuff came out of student revues at the major universities. Laughter at the rejection of ridiculous ideas: "He's not dead, he's just sleeping".
Benny Hill was more slap stick / Punch & Judy down at the village fair material. Laughter at the rejection of physical scenarios: Dirty old man in a nappy getting a beautiful woman.
Obviously the best combined both, such as the Ministry of silly walks.

FWIW B U M = Bum = ass. The humor would have been the social transgression, getting one past the culturally censored BBC where reference to anal sex would have been verboten (as the Beeb was harboring a pedophile ring for many years, the need to keep such things socially unacceptable to discuss was very high).
Couple that with the fact that no beautiful woman is going to give that up to a short, balding, inarticulate guy with the mannerisms of a 6 year old child and the laughter is the catharsis in the rejection of the scenario.

As a kid I could never watch Benny Hill, to me he was just a gross old man. On the other hand I have The Goodies on CD and can quote some Python skits. As an adult I saw an interview with him and found he was actually articulate and intelligent, he knew what his market segment was and provided a product. His show had a twenty year production run. The Goodies lasted 12 years, Python managed 3 years before splitting, although they got back together on and off for another decade making movies.

Your assignment is to produce a typical Sedders Wall Of Text explaining why American late night talk show TV and/or Seinfeld is funny. Protip: You can't because they aren't.

[sedstar]

think of my zany sense of humor and sarcasm? would you seriously expect me not to know monty python? ha ha.... but i dont know what ANY of the others you mentioned were.

there was a tad of a "bbc era" in the 90s when i was back at university, i caught a few episodes of the "department store comedy" MAY-be that was the one with the "get smart guy" in it? i dunno... i also caught a few episodes of that one with the 2 middle aged ladies? the upper middle class clusless ones? the one was always drinking?

oh, and i REALLY liked a few years ago, the BBC had a really cool sherlock holmes. he was younger than normally holmes is portrayed.

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seinfeld? maybe youd have to BE american and live here to "get it", i dont know... i knew seinfeld from his standup days, his brand of humor is sort of a low-key observational humor.

the american fascination with late night talk shows? i guess its just an american thing, i really dont know. if the HOST is zany and irreverent? i like them... then again, its all about the GUESTS. before the internet, you didnt really KNOW anything about your famous stars? THAT was your chance to see them in "real life" just talking and telling stories. if you liked the GUEST, you'd watch the show.

i like the "guy with the talking skeleton", i think its craig ferguson? he's off the hook, and isnt afraid to be non-PC to be zany funny. What is funny about a skeleton saying "balls" i am not sure, though... but people seemed to laugh at it...

[rodp]

think of my zany sense of humor and sarcasm? would you seriously expect me not to know monty python? ha ha.... but i dont know what ANY of the others you mentioned were.

there was a tad of a "bbc era" in the 90s when i was back at university, i caught a few episodes of the "department store comedy" MAY-be that was the one with the "get smart guy" in it? i dunno... i also caught a few episodes of that one with the 2 middle aged ladies? the upper middle class clusless ones? the one was always drinking?

oh, and i REALLY liked a few years ago, the BBC had a really cool sherlock holmes. he was younger than normally holmes is portrayed.

===================================

seinfeld? maybe youd have to BE american and live here to "get it", i dont know... i knew seinfeld from his standup days, his brand of humor is sort of a low-key observational humor.

the american fascination with late night talk shows? i guess its just an american thing, i really dont know. if the HOST is zany and irreverent? i like them... then again, its all about the GUESTS. before the internet, you didnt really KNOW anything about your famous stars? THAT was your chance to see them in "real life" just talking and telling stories. if you liked the GUEST, you'd watch the show.

i like the "guy with the talking skeleton", i think its craig ferguson? he's off the hook, and isnt afraid to be non-PC to be zany funny. What is funny about a skeleton saying "balls" i am not sure, though... but people seemed to laugh at it...

Absolutely Fabulous ??

[Radagast]

Are You Being Served is the department store one.

The Goodies was Python for kids, they did wonderful piss takes on, for example, King Kong (replaced with a kitten), real estate speculators, European Union subsidies to farmers, pirate radio stations, north sea oil, James Bond in Moonraker and an amazingly over the top send up of Apartheid South Africa and the demographic changes caused by immigration. An adult would get the adult over tones and laugh their heads off, kids wouldn't but would still love the slapstick.

Drunken, snobby old women? Could be any show, they were a staple. There was Two Fat Ladies, a cooking show with a real alcoholic lawyer. Possibly you are thinking of the Vicar of Dibley, or Keeping up Appearances.

Seinfeld was just snark, AFAIK. In British humor the snarky character is the one who gets taken down a peg, in American humor the snarky character is undermining others. YMMV.

[22-250jock]

watcha Sedders

don't suppose you got ''The Young Ones''' over your side of the pond, more early eighties student humour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHlPFfW ... b7uv3CSyXi

[rodp]

He's missed the best one out ............ Spike Milligan

[Radagast]

Spike was an Aussie. You guys cancelled his passport so he stayed here.
Loved his books about his adventures in WWII.

[rodp]

Spike was an Aussie. You guys cancelled his passport so he stayed here.
Loved his books about his adventures in WWII.

He became an Irish citizen when he couldn't become an English one surely ?

[Radagast]

He lived in Woy Woy, north of Sydney for quite a while, IIRC. He was pretty much a citizen of his own world though.