Humour as part of the British national culture

to give yourself a sense of superiority by making fun of other people, and only people of lesser worth do this. “

Sigmund Freud
“Laughter is a safely discharging nervous energy. It provides relief and self-gratification and makes potentially damaging conflicts harmless.”

best medicine. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring our mind and body back into balance than a good laugh.

Without laughter
life on our planet
would be intolerable.
(Steve Allen)

location
culture
maturity
level of education
intelligence
the history of the nation
social values
traditions and ideology

British are known in the outside world, their sense of humour is one of the best-known and most positively regarded.

Laughter is the
closest distance
between two people.
(Victor Borge)

melancholy

the surreal

the whimsical

Traditional British Humour

just ordinary.

Word-play and verbal nonsense

The Goon Show
a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by BBC from 1951 to 1960.

- Why did the bus stop?
Because it saw the zebra
crossing.

Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.

please?
Policeman: Well, first you turn on the hot and
cold taps then ...

Round the Horne
a British radio comedy programme, which influenced the British
taste for linguistic humour

group

- Why did the bees go on strike?
- Because they wanted more honey and shorter working flowers.

Henry: The cat wants to go out.
Min: How can you tell?
Henry: He’s put his hat on.

the author creates a parallel universe governed by rules which appear ridiculous to the reader, but are entirely logical within their own dimension.

A joke's a very
serious thing.
(Charles
Churchill)

of a bee?
It`s bee-hind.

- Doctor, I keep thinking that there are two of me.
OK, but don`t both speak at once.

- My dog has no nose.
- Then how does it smell?
- Terrible!

be especially
appealing to the English when it is
allied to a gentle melancholy.

Fielding is a chronicle of the life of
Bridget Jones as a single woman
in London as she tries to make sense
of life and love.

screenwriter, “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”

Diary of a Provincial Lady.

Jane Austen
an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature.

for his fourteen comic operas .

Parody

playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams and plays.

“The Importance of Being Earnest”
is a comedy in which the major themes are the triviality with which society treats marriage.

British are sure that
no other nation is allowed to laugh
at them except themselves.

This probably comes from the
British pride, self-respect
and a high self-esteem.

characteristics, precisely because they have found it so adaptive and helpful in hard times.

British Humour

Humour is one of the British national peculiarities. Humour is like a drug to many of the British; they can’t get enough of it, and they are endlessly inventive in creating more of it.

Pearson Education Limited, 2009
2. Peter Legon, Martyn Ford, “How to be British”, Lee Gone Publications, 2010
3. David McDowall, “Britain in close-up”, Pearson Education Limited, 2006
4. Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2007
5. Thejokes.co.uk
6. www.learnenglish.de
7. Wikipedia.org
8. www.guardian.co.uk
9. Alan Stanton, Susan Morris, “Fast Track to CAE”, Pearson Education Limited, 1999
10. David McDowall, “An illustrated history of Britain”, Longman Group UK limited, 2009

Bibliography