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“British Moments”: 30 Hilarious Memes About Being British That Are Absolute Jokes
You probably know already how much we love the British and their culture here at Bored Panda. This quirky nation which is home to a smashing sense of humor mixed with brilliant sarcasm and self-reflection has proven time and again that Brits are some of the best entertainment sources.
Just take a look at our previous features about funny British pics with no context here and here, and it becomes self-evident.
This time we’re taking a look into British memes, which possess a hilarity in their own right. Shared by a Facebook page “British Moments,” it perfectly captures the everyday absurdity and fun in the life of Brits.
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The British sense of humor has a reputation for being among the funniest and most unique types of humor there is. So to find out more about what role culture plays in our sense of humor as well as about the key elements in British humor that make it stand out, Bored Panda reached out to professor Sophie Scott, the British neuroscientist and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at University College London.
It's true! Bap, batch, barm, bun, cob, muffin, teacake, etc. The British have about twenty words for bread roll.
Prof. Scott told us that culture and its people play an enormous role in one's sense of humor. “That’s because there are very few things that cross time and place and that are funny to all humans. If you look at things that are funny for all human beings, you tend to find most commonly found things across cultures that are not particular to a culture,” prof. Scott explained and added that these things include “slapstick, or taboo things to do with toilets and farting [laughs].”
What an absolute legend! Too drunk to recognize his girlfriend, but still mindful to be faithful to her. If they made this into a movie, it would star 1990s Hugh Grant.
"Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill...and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah"
According to the professor, that's because you don’t need much cultural understanding to understand it. “You don’t need language to understand jokes based on toilet humor or slapstick and there are fewer barriers to accessing the meaning of the joke,” prof. Scott argues.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of that is where cultural humor stands. Prof. Scott argues that it depends on a person being able to understand what things mean in that culture. “Any one culture will have specific humor to that culture which would seem quite hard from anyone from the outside to understand.”
That's a dude on a budget that can't afford the price of everything rising
“Some scientists translated Australian jokes into French and French jokes into English and presented them to Australians and what they found was that people didn't find the jokes funny. It’s not just the words, its that cultural meaning whether you find it or not find it funny,” prof. Scott explained.
When asked what makes British humor unique, prof. Scott said that it’s hard to say because there are no scientific studies done on it.
“I suspect that anything that’s important to the culture will be something that will influence the comedy and the humor in that culture and all the sorts of things that jokes are made about.” Prof. Scott explained that British culture still has a pretty distinct class system and she believes that influences their sense of humor and things they laugh at.
Daffodils are toxic. You're lucky Dave didn't slap these on a sandwich.
Another thing specific to British humor is a tradition of the underdog kind of humor: “like Tony Hancock and Ricky Gervais and The Office, which I think are speaking to that kind of class-based interest that our culture has.”
According to prof. Scott, a sarcasm you often encounter in British humor can be understood as a stance that you are taking for humorous purposes. “You could take a number of different approaches, like an aggressive stance, a playful stance, or a sarcastic stance, which is this cynical position,” she explained.
Last night, my husband let a woman with more items than he had jump ahead of him when a new register opened. She insisted on paying for his fish and bag of veggies. That's never happened to him before and he was totally dumbstruck. Thanks, mysterious lady - you've shown my husband a side of humanity he's not experienced until you came around.
On the other hand, nobody owes anyone else an easier time of it. Brian up there is just a d**k.
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Why are we applauding bullying like this? She was first in line, offering you to go first is optional, not an obligation. How can you be so entitled that you think you have the right to mess up someone's groceries because they didn't get to go first? Disgusting.
The hell, she was in front of you mate!! She don't have to give up s**t.
Uncool. What is she supposed to do? Let every wankers with fewer items jump in front of her??
This guy's not funny. Wasting food and causing other people grief because he feels entitled to jump the queue. Tw@.
If she was in front of you with that many items then her items were on the belt, right? That seems entitled to expect to go in front just because you had less. And to steal her items, and waste them besides? I hope this is just passive aggressive humor.
I don't think it is passive aggressive at all. It's just humour. It might not be your humour, but it is a thread about Brits.
Load More Replies... It's Aldi. 107 items scan in about 2 minutes tops. They're mental fast in there.
To all those shrieking about first come first served and entitlements etc. it's called having good manners.
I think only someone with arthritis in hips/spine will understand: walking around can be uncomfortable but tolerable and the exercise is good but standing still is excruciating. Walmart doesn't have express lane, people buy baskets full, half as many registers as before. Am I entitled to jump ahead of the 2 full baskets with my 2 items? No. Would it have been nice to not wait 15 minutes in pain? You bet.
Load More Replies... It's not true. Brian is joking. Probably he is the type of guy who lets people jump ahead of him, but someone didn't reciprocate and he imagined doing something mean. No way he went to Aldi to buy one carrot and a turnip (most Aldis need a car to get to, and it would not be worth petrol or hassle when he would most likely have passed a few co-ops on the way) that type of exaggeration clearly marks this to my British ear as joke.
If this is supposed to be funny I am at a loss as to how someone can be so vicious and others think it is funny.
It's funny because that's what he was thinking, not what he did. His exaggeration of the 1 carrot and a turnip and the precise odd 107 items stand out as obviously not true story. More likely, he had a small basket and she had a big trolley and if just before her first item was scanned she had noticed him and offered to let him in he would have said he wasn't in a rush.
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It's sarcasm . I don't think citizens of the US of A know what that means. Otherwise known as wit. 🙄
Normally I think people should let those with one or two items go ahead- I’ve been on both sides, it’s a nice bit of camaraderie- but why didn’t this guy just go to another checkout?
I (Canadian) lived in the UK for a decade. On more than occasion, I offered to let a person behind me in the grocery store queue with fewer items go ahead of me . Every time, the person declined and seemed horrified that a stranger had spoken to them. I stopped asking because I assumed I was committing some kind of faux pas.
Why should you be entitled to go first in the 1st place? You are the 2nd in line. You wait. Oftentimes I get asked if I want to go first because I have a few groceries. I often decline and thank them... they were there first. 1st come 1st serve. Take your time. Wait. Engage in a conversation, relax. You get to pay your carrot and turnip.
Brits can be very precise about queueing etiquette - but letting others in is very common in most of the country. Asking if you can cut in is usually considered very rude unless you clearly have an emergency such as you are buying medicine, nappies or baby formula.
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A sarcastic stance is when you find humor by not being too enthusiastic about things, prof. Scott argues. But she believes that’s unlikely to be specific to British people. “Finnish people seem to have quite a similar sense of humor to British people in some respects. Monty Python was famously considered to be very funny by people in Finland,” the professor concluded.
Yikes. British citizens, I'm sending you a shipment of sunscreen on behalf of my people, the pasty-skinned Irish-Americans of Boston, Mass.
Tangy Tom's, Spicy Bikers, Space Raiders? Are those actual names of chips or character names from a Benny Hill skit?
Note: this post originally had 39 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Warning, if living in a hot country and don't like cold stay at least 20 miles away from Scotland in winter. You will freeze.
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We have so many problems in Britain at the moment, but one thing we have in spades is our sense of humour.
The sun never set on the British empire, because God didn't trust us in the dark.
What a boring piece of c**p. Humor? ye sure. Use the language, English, which people across the world understand and blow your own trumpet about British humor. I don't know what was humorous in most the posts above. (now pls start sucking up to Brits and say how horrible this comment is. go on)
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeecause we’re grumpy and sarcastic and just ✨overall fantastic✨
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Warning, if living in a hot country and don't like cold stay at least 20 miles away from Scotland in winter. You will freeze.
Load More Replies... We have so many problems in Britain at the moment, but one thing we have in spades is our sense of humour.
The sun never set on the British empire, because God didn't trust us in the dark.
What a boring piece of c**p. Humor? ye sure. Use the language, English, which people across the world understand and blow your own trumpet about British humor. I don't know what was humorous in most the posts above. (now pls start sucking up to Brits and say how horrible this comment is. go on)
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeecause we’re grumpy and sarcastic and just ✨overall fantastic✨
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