47 British Memes That May Be Even Funnier If You’re Not British (New Pics)

British humor, at its core, is quite different from ‘other’ types of humor around the world because of the different characteristics that it combines. For example, it focuses excessively on witty language, puns, wordplay, and double entendres.

As the British Council points out, it is this clever use of similar-sounding words for the sake of comedic effect that makes it a hallmark of British humor.

Another common characteristic of British humor is the dry and emotionless delivery of jokes. This can often make the jokes even funnier because the straight-faced delivery catches the audience off guard.

Sarcasm and irony are frequent ‘guests’ in British humor, too, especially when they’re used subtly to simultaneously critique society and amuse the audience.

Meanwhile, observational humor, which focuses on dull, daily events, can turn even boring situations into highly hilarious ones when comedians put their absurdities under the spotlight.

Not all types of humor are equal, however. The effect that they have on the comedian themselves can vary quite a bit.

Recent research on the relationship between humor and psychological distress found that certain comic styles had protective qualities. Others, however, had destructive effects.

For example, the study found that benign humor was a protective factor against all three factors: depression, anxiety, and stress.

Furthermore, the study showed that using irony, in fact, was linked to greater anxiety and stress.

On the positive end of things, wit protected users from anxiety. And yet, if you’re a fan of sarcasm, you put yourself at greater risk of depression.

In other words, if you’re a big fan of British humor, you probably use a lot of wit, sarcasm, and irony. So, you simultaneously make yourself more vulnerable to anxiety and stress thanks to irony and more vulnerable to depression due to sarcasm.

However, you can at least be proud of the fact that your amazing wit makes you somewhat more resilient to some anxiety.

Who knows, maybe it cancels out some of the effects of your overuse of irony?

The ‘Great British Memes’ subreddit—a part of the massively popular publisher and creative social media agency GBM Group—currently boasts a whopping 523k weekly visitors who make 11k weekly contributions.

The main draw of this online community is very straightforward: relatable, humorous content that the “wider British public” would enjoy.

Meanwhile, one of the main reasons why the ‘Great British Memes’ subreddit has seen so much success is its dedication to quality content. Low-effort posts, duplicate images, AI-generated content, and submissions that don’t have your heart in them do not have a place on ‘Great British Memes.’

But there’s always room for quality! It's always welcome.

During a previous interview, the Bored Panda team reached out to GBM Group Director and CEO George Bacon, who was kind enough to shed some light on the history behind the project and later the subreddit itself.

He shared that he started the original ‘Great British Memes’ account around mid-2017, more than 9 years ago, while he was still at university. It was a few years later that he expanded to create a community on Reddit, too.

“It's great to see that the group has grown in popularity along with the brand across other channels, we've built a very strong community who support us on everything,” George shared his thoughts about the British comedy-focused subreddit’s success.

“There's so much to talk about when it comes to British culture. Some of our favorite topics/talking points [are]: the weather, North versus South divide, 'What are you having for tea?', British cuisine such as fish and chips, etc. and British dads using the thumbs up emoji.”

“The members in the subreddit are very active and are always looking to upload suggestions into the subreddit, which is great! However, there's a lot of moderation to do to keep on top of it,” he told us.

Meanwhile, during another interview, GBM Group Director and CEO George shared a few more thoughts about comedy and content creation with Bored Panda.

He said that the types of memes that resonate with the audience of ‘Great British Memes’ the most are “definitely British, of course!”

“However, we jump on reactive and cultural things happening in the UK, which really helps with keeping our audience up to date.”

We were curious to get the project founder’s thoughts on content creation, too. George emphasized that consistency is incredibly powerful when it comes to this.

“Consistency definitely helps,” he said, stressing the positive impact that posting several times per day, every single day, has on one’s brand.

We want to hear your perspective, Pandas! Share your thoughts in the comments under the memes or at the bottom of this list.

Which of these memes did you vibe with the most, and why? What’s your relationship with British humor like? Do you love it or do you loathe it?

What are your favorite British comedy shows? For instance, yours truly can’t get enough of ‘Blackadder’ and ‘The Thick of It.’ What about you?