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Are we losing our rather quirky British sense of humour ?
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AOG
You asked:
Are we losing our rather quirky British sense of humour ?
The answer is most definitely not. If anything, British humour is getting more 'un-PC'. If you look at the most popular/groundbreaking comedies over the past decade the evidence speaks for itself:
Extras, The Office, The League Of Gentlemen, Nighty Night and especially Little Britain, all of these have been huge hits, and all of them to one degree or another display the kind of humour which could only ever originate from Britain.
You asked:
Are we losing our rather quirky British sense of humour ?
The answer is most definitely not. If anything, British humour is getting more 'un-PC'. If you look at the most popular/groundbreaking comedies over the past decade the evidence speaks for itself:
Extras, The Office, The League Of Gentlemen, Nighty Night and especially Little Britain, all of these have been huge hits, and all of them to one degree or another display the kind of humour which could only ever originate from Britain.
They may well be amusing to some sp1814, but even those are written so as not to offend certain groups.
I know you will say what about homosexuals & cross dressers in Little Britain? For some strange reason the portrayal of very 'camp' characters will always have a place in English humour.
But that is where it stops, before one is forced to look over one's shoulder, when attaching humour to some other groups.
I know you will say what about homosexuals & cross dressers in Little Britain? For some strange reason the portrayal of very 'camp' characters will always have a place in English humour.
But that is where it stops, before one is forced to look over one's shoulder, when attaching humour to some other groups.
In Little Britain, David Walliams blacks up to play an overweight American woman in a health club.
In Extras, there's a whole episode devoted to Ricky Gervais' awkwardness around a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis.
The character of David Brent in The Office frequently comes out with jaw-dropping comments.
I think it's fair to say that there isn't a single PC comedy currently on television.
Nighty Night, Black Books, The Mighty Boosh...all sail close to the wind. All display an admirably quirky sense of humour and all are very popular.
Furthermore, the American comedienne Sarah Silverman is getting a lot of attention over here and is beginning to sell out venues, and she's hugely un-PC.
In Extras, there's a whole episode devoted to Ricky Gervais' awkwardness around a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis.
The character of David Brent in The Office frequently comes out with jaw-dropping comments.
I think it's fair to say that there isn't a single PC comedy currently on television.
Nighty Night, Black Books, The Mighty Boosh...all sail close to the wind. All display an admirably quirky sense of humour and all are very popular.
Furthermore, the American comedienne Sarah Silverman is getting a lot of attention over here and is beginning to sell out venues, and she's hugely un-PC.
But that is where it stops, before one is forced to look over one's shoulder, when attaching humour to some other groups.
I can distinctly remember a series (it was called 2D something... I didn't care for it so only watched a few episodes, but I remember it being very popular, at least among people my age) where there was a regular sketch involving a muslim terrorist 'recruiting' two young British students, with the boys' mum always commenting how nice he seemed. That was the jist of it anyway. It was a few years ago so my memory is hazy.
Peep Show also featured one episode which featured one of the main characters befriending someone who was then revealed to be a militant racist.
Little Britain not only featured Mitchell blacking up as SP pointed out, but also an elderly man with an Asian prostitute girlfriend (or it may have been a mail-order wife, I can't remember) deploying a direct racial stereotype. Plus a regular sketch featuring a woman who'd taste locally-made foods
Plus have you heard some of the dead baby jokes going around? Or Madeleine McCann jokes? I won't repeat them for the sake of good taste, but believe me, the British are not afraid of being un-PC or even downright disgusting in our humour.
So if you really look we're hardly tiptoeing around anyone. What exactly is it that you'd prefer, AOG? What is it you're really complaining about?
I can distinctly remember a series (it was called 2D something... I didn't care for it so only watched a few episodes, but I remember it being very popular, at least among people my age) where there was a regular sketch involving a muslim terrorist 'recruiting' two young British students, with the boys' mum always commenting how nice he seemed. That was the jist of it anyway. It was a few years ago so my memory is hazy.
Peep Show also featured one episode which featured one of the main characters befriending someone who was then revealed to be a militant racist.
Little Britain not only featured Mitchell blacking up as SP pointed out, but also an elderly man with an Asian prostitute girlfriend (or it may have been a mail-order wife, I can't remember) deploying a direct racial stereotype. Plus a regular sketch featuring a woman who'd taste locally-made foods
Plus have you heard some of the dead baby jokes going around? Or Madeleine McCann jokes? I won't repeat them for the sake of good taste, but believe me, the British are not afraid of being un-PC or even downright disgusting in our humour.
So if you really look we're hardly tiptoeing around anyone. What exactly is it that you'd prefer, AOG? What is it you're really complaining about?
If they took their heads out of the sand long enough, they would have noticed that this was reported not only in the D.M. but all over the media.
I can't speak for the others, but I wasn't saying that the DM were at fault for reporting it. My point is that how many of those other sources would you read and then come to the conclusion that the British sense of humour was dying? How many of them play up the negative responses to the extent the Mail does?(though to be fair the Mail doesn't focus exclusively on them, but it's very slanted)
I can't speak for the others, but I wasn't saying that the DM were at fault for reporting it. My point is that how many of those other sources would you read and then come to the conclusion that the British sense of humour was dying? How many of them play up the negative responses to the extent the Mail does?(though to be fair the Mail doesn't focus exclusively on them, but it's very slanted)
You will notice that I did not include a excerpt from your post Kromovaracun, but if you insist.
This seems to be just the DM seizing on all the negative responses and proclaiming the death of British humour.
This was the daily Mail's view,
All of which makes it hard to understand why, days before the anniversary of the September 11 atrocities, he chose to attend his village's carnival dressed as Osama Bin Laden.
Where the hell did the Daily Mail proclaim the death of British humour?
Don't ever accuse the Daily Mail of sensationism, when you are the one guilty of this practice.
This seems to be just the DM seizing on all the negative responses and proclaiming the death of British humour.
This was the daily Mail's view,
All of which makes it hard to understand why, days before the anniversary of the September 11 atrocities, he chose to attend his village's carnival dressed as Osama Bin Laden.
Where the hell did the Daily Mail proclaim the death of British humour?
Don't ever accuse the Daily Mail of sensationism, when you are the one guilty of this practice.
Well... the thing is, AOG... ah....
Crap. Crap. You know what? You've got me. I stupidly mistook your question for the DM's stance and kind of jumped into my habit of slagging off the DM this time without thinking about what I was writing properly. Combined with the fact I was gaily mashing my keyboard to oblivion in my eagerness to respond makes for a crappy response all round.
I've kind of screwed up my attack on the DM here (though I still stand by my stance on the paper generally), so I thus apologise to the author of that specific article and to the author of this thread - AOG. I'm going to leave the other points I made (unrelated to my DM slant) regarding AOG's humour question to stand, and retreat out of this debate now 'fore I get too excited again.
Crap. Crap. You know what? You've got me. I stupidly mistook your question for the DM's stance and kind of jumped into my habit of slagging off the DM this time without thinking about what I was writing properly. Combined with the fact I was gaily mashing my keyboard to oblivion in my eagerness to respond makes for a crappy response all round.
I've kind of screwed up my attack on the DM here (though I still stand by my stance on the paper generally), so I thus apologise to the author of that specific article and to the author of this thread - AOG. I'm going to leave the other points I made (unrelated to my DM slant) regarding AOG's humour question to stand, and retreat out of this debate now 'fore I get too excited again.
-- answer removed --
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