The UK has its own breed of humor and what gets a Brit laughing may leave outsiders scratching their heads.
Heavy on self-deprecation, almost undetectable sarcasm, and constant deadpan delivery, it can feel like a totally different language.
But fear not, we’ve put together a new piece about the social media magazine 'British Memes' to help you understand (and use!) their jokes just as effectively as they do.
So continue scrolling and happy learning!
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I see the problem, you were far too kind about it, those who delight in irritating our cat lords must not live
From Shakespeare’s comedies to Billy Connolly’s command of an audience, Gavin & Stacey’s taste of Welsh whimsy to Derry Girls’ earthy look at life in the 1990s, humor has been central to the history of storytelling across the UK for a very long time.
But if you ask an academic to come up with a description for British humor, they will most likely run into some trouble.
Dr. Ian Wilkie, a lecturer in performance at the University of Salford, said: “Having taught younger American students, they take the British sense of humor to be Monty Python, by which they mean a sort-of slightly erring towards the surreal, very iconoclastic in terms of attacking the big targets, very silly.”
Thank you! I hate those awards, because I missed one day off of school before, and despite being told I'm one of the best students, like in the top five, I got nothing. It unfair and stupid Edit: I got a prize for attendance today 🙃
However, Wilkie said that, while those traits can become shorthand for ‘the British sense of humor’, he doesn’t think “that cuts the mustard.”
Dr. Wilkie highlighted that there are already differences in popular humor in the four home nations. It diversifies even more between the major cities, making it difficult to pinpoint a blanket ‘British’ humor.
I grew up in England and now live in Australia. I can confirm both these comments
One example is the Scottish brash-with-a-twinkle style of Billy Connolly or the more gentle approach of his compatriot Susan Calman. “Scottish people like witty jokes, there is a lot of respect for learning and that it likes quite hard-hitting jokes, ones of mockery,” Wilkie explained.
While he noted there are similarities between Glaswegian humor and that found in other port cities, such as Liverpool, that Scottish style might not necessarily translate into a Welsh sense of humor or a broader English one.
Attending a comedy night, with many different acts, would show how difficult it is to categorize humour along geographical lines.humor
“You may laugh at different aspects of their schtick, but it would then be difficult to say, ‘well, there’s a British sense of humour’ because of the disparate kind of approaches and world views coming across.”
Another element worth considering is how much the humor of other countries has influenced British comedy.
If you’ve sat and enjoyed the exaggerated characters in Fawlty Towers, the characters and scrapes they find themselves in reflect the sketches of the Commedia dell’arte, a form of theatre from 16th Century Italy.
Among other elements, it involved a series of recognizable characters from all aspects of society engaged in witty dialogue.
You can fill your boots now, son. It's what she would have wanted.
Surrealism, long considered a staple of British humor was, as Dr. Wilkie describes it, performed by: “Dadaists from countries that we may choose not to think of as particularly funny, such as Germany."
“They were doing surrealism to the nth degree, quite deliberately as a performative art, in the early part of the 20th Century. I think it’s something we like to appropriate in a way and imagine that we’re the custodians of it, but it’s not culturally specific at all.”
With Monty Python held up as a good example of leftfield humor from the UK, the Carry On… series of films suggests a national affection for a less sophisticated bawdiness loaded with double entendres.
While they did enjoy popularity outside the country (Carry On Nurse ran in Los Angeles for more than two-and-a-half years on its initial release), Dr. Humor Wilkie doesn’t see the humor contained within the 30 titles of the franchise as something that defines a nation.
“Carry On… kind of made fun of itself in its day, it was already slightly self-consciously old-fashioned and seaside postcard, but people could enjoy it because they could say, all bets are off really, we’re going to see something that’s sexist, end of the pier and a bit silly and that was fine,“ Dr. Wilkie explained.
Hate those hypocrites who say work harder: your college education was paid for even when you were failing, your job was nepotism, and your wealth was inherited.
At least ALL of them would come home without getting shot at.
I was going to say the opposite would also be a fun tv series, but I can't see any parent signing a permission form to allow their children to attend a school in the US.
Load More Replies...Can I join you with agreeing on that?
Load More Replies...While it wasn't televised, I attended 6th grade (age 10-11, 1980-81) in Brighton, England (was otherwise growing up in Massachusetts). Their public school (Balfour Middle School, represent!) was way better and I loved it there. A full hour of genuine PE daily (in the US... half-hour of light exercise twice a week, pathetic). Already learning a second language. Better science class. Although the kids were amazed I knew cursive writing. And unlike what another commenter suggested, I was the smartest kid in our class by most measures.
A full hour of PE daily is rare. At most schools it's 2 hours a week.
Load More Replies...They'd ask why there were 6th graders (yr 7) in high schl
Load More Replies...I am an American mom. It is scary sending my kids to school. They have "Active Shooter" drills in addition to the fire drills. Other than being shot at, there's knives, beatings, and sexual assault. The scary s**t is real! As far as the education being less, it really is affected by the teachers not being allowed to discipline the problem students. The students who really want to learn are constantly disrupted by the "behavior" kids and they must stop the lessons and wait while the teachers deal with the distractions. There is a class for the most problematic discipline cases, but they try to integrate everyone as much as possible. It is disgusting that the kids who really want to be educated are always waiting for these daily distractions. I understand where you are coming from.
Yes,please. I just not sure if it would be hilarious or depressing.
Just imagine, they'll hear the word " maths " and think, " wow, they do it more than once!?!? "
I went to a UK (junior) school and an Australian state school (also junior) in both cases we had all of our lessons in our single classroom, taught by just one teacher. We didn't need a locker, we kept all of our "stuff" in our desk...we did have a different PE teacher. In my Australian high school, we had a locker and moved around to different rooms and just went back to our locker for whatever we needed. Wearing school uniform was mandatory. We did mess around with our summer uniform straw boater though (that's a hat) it's amazing what you can do with a drop of water and an electric iron😁 One big difference I found between Australian schools and UK schools, is dancing. I only went to ordinary State schools, but in junior school we learned English country dancing and square dancing. In high school we had to learn ballroom dancing ( Which I continued well into my twenties) Such fond memories.
Load More Replies...🎶UK SCHOOOLLLLSSSSS!!! WHERE KIDS SWEAR TO THE OTHERS AND NOBODY GETS SHOTTTTT!!!!!!!🎶
With the British sense of humour, will their confidence and self esteem ever recover?
In my mom's day, they were called foreign exchange students. She went over to England for a few weeks and also hosted some kids from the UK and other places.
How I want the first day to be: Calling all the parents back, because all the US kids are out of uniform.
As long as the UK kids use as much British slang to confuse the US kids I am in!
As an American, I would so watch this. I would send recommendations to all my friends and family. This would be epic. I can't wait for the all red marks on words that don't have "u" in the spelling..colour, neighbour, etc.
And the Amerikeren that would come out the first time someone is called a c%nt
Load More Replies...Any European school, actually. They'd get home alive AND with an education.
When I was in school (a long long time ago) in the UK there weren't any lockers you carried your books with you all day. Don't know if that has changed.
All of the schools I've attended, or worked in, had lockers. Children have a choice to use them or not.
Load More Replies...American students having to carry cooking equipment and PE kit on the same day in year 7. I am glad my school days are long over.
I don't know what UK schools are like, but American kids would not do well just for the difference in how English words are spelled.
There's really not that much difference, mostly just the odd u here and there. I'd be more concerned about British kids going to an American school and asking if they could borrow a rubber. Especially when they say they'll return it once they've used it.
Load More Replies...I would like to see how I'd cope in an American schl
Load More Replies...It’s these different styles and presentations of comedy by British performers that. Dr. Wilkie believes make it impossible for an academic to point, with confidence, at various elements and state categorically that they alone make up the nation’s famed sense of humor.
Red telephone boxes look so cool and posh and aesthetic and then you have the one on the right
There's a really nice frozen custard place about 45 min. away from my parents. They'd make the trip once a month or so, and bring the dog. He got a spoonful of everyone's custard. Once they went, and it was cold, rainy, and crowded. They decided to go to the Baskin Robbins across the street. They got their ice cream, and a paper bowl so they could share with the dog. He wouldn't eat it. I guess he decided that if he was going that far, it had to be the custard or nothing.
“No, I wouldn’t say there is a British sense of humor,” he concluded. “I think the best you can hope for is some big, beacon terms (eg. sarcasm, understatement, self-deprecation), that maybe, over a fair amount of time, might hold water."
“Comedy and humor have always been so open to counter-examples that you can never really pin anything down. It’s like trying to nail jelly to a wall.”
However, if you'd like to see more 'British Memes,' fire up our first publication on this fun little project.
Same in the US: rich people find loopholes to get out of paying taxes, so the taxes on the workers get increased.
I actually feel it's a win if you haven't set foot in Dubai. Seems like a soulless place
Everyone was enjoying the Donner Kebabs at the Christmas Party. Then they ran out. So they started on the Blitzen Kebabs.
They have use of full lanes in my city, whether one or a gaggle of them. Tons of cyclists around here. HATE getting behind them but good on you for exercising. Now get out of my way. I have snacks at home.
The first person to win Deal or No Deal, her long term boyfriend left her a couple of weeks before. Not the same scale, but it did give us a nice warm feeling
oh you poor intellectually deprived dears, why would the government waste valuable tracking devices on you?
Well to be fair, if you're on enough *illegal medicine* it can happen again
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Finally a thread where the Americans don't understand half of what is being said. I get fed up of being the one saying "I don't know what this means" or "I don't know who that is".
Is this a joke? Because I am from Argentina and I understood all of them...
Load More Replies...I'm still laughing at the 'Birmingham' one. These are all so true #BritishLife
Finally a thread where the Americans don't understand half of what is being said. I get fed up of being the one saying "I don't know what this means" or "I don't know who that is".
Is this a joke? Because I am from Argentina and I understood all of them...
Load More Replies...I'm still laughing at the 'Birmingham' one. These are all so true #BritishLife