Stephen Fry on American vs British humour

I think he has a great point:


I mean, obviously this isn't true 100% of the time, I'm sure we could all think of the British comedian who's a hero, or the American comedian who's the downtrodden mass, but in general, this is a pretty good comparison of, for instance, American sitcoms versus British sitcoms.

(And don't say the Office - the Office was British first, and it's even more cringeworthy. God, it's painful. Ricky Gervais makes me sometimes unable to watch a scene from sympathetic embarrassment.)

And then you've got Canadian humour, which is kind of stuck in the middle of the two. You have TV shows like "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (which is apparently airing in the US as just "Little Mosque," according to Kelsey. I find it a little strange, mostly because the title was supposed to be a play on "Little House on the Prairie," and I thought that was an American TV show (looked it up and it definitely is. Now I'm even more confused)) and "Corner Gas," Rick Mercer (link is to his "Talking to Americans" thing. Some things I agree it's not fair to expect Americans to know, but others are just so ridiculous that it's kind of hilarious to see people taking them at face value. You should at least know the name of your closest neighbour's prime minister. We know your president's name!), etc and so on.

I just think it's kind of interesting when you see Americans who think British humour isn't funny (seriously, who hates Monty Python? I've had Americans tell me they hate Monty Python, at which point I stopped talking to them entirely because seriously, watch this skit and if you don't laugh YOU HAVE NO SOUL), or Brits who think American humour isn't funny (because they think it's lowbrow/lowest common denominator), and to see how much that is a cultural thing.

Because, like, it makes sense in a way that an American goes for the "lowest common denominator" humour, because it's such a huge country and most people in it will probably laugh when someone takes a soccer ball to the genitalia. Britain is smaller, set in its ways (I mean, it still has a monarchy), so it makes sense they like the sort of stuff that came from Black Adder, or Monty Python.

I don't know, I enjoy them both. Although I will generally pick British comedy over American, I still totally love shows like "Raising Hope." Have you watched it? It's ridiculous, and hilarious.

I don't remember where I was going with this. My conclusion: I like funny things, and most things amuse me because I am easily amused. And I try to amuse people because I like funny things and I like to like myself.