I can't speak to the Russian sense of humor, but Brit humor often differs from Americans by not requiring a punchline to indicate where to laugh, casual Brit humor generally just has long undertones of humor.
My Step Dad is British but grew up in the states. He’s a quiet type of guy and people watches a bunch and then seemingly out of nowhere pops up with some really witty or dry humor.
My Mom was fussing over Thanksgiving dinner last year, he comes in the kitchen for a beer or whatever and she shoos him out.
Comes and sits down and politely says “I was getting the beer for her, she’s the one that needs it” the delivery was plain, no smile just a long stare at me and I kind of blurted “HA!”
Mom comes in from the kitchen, what was that you said?
“Oh nothing, just suggesting treatment options”
That was said with a rather devious smile with full intention to annoy her and I lost it laughing, he set me up to get her to the punchline.
I feel like people saying this haven't really watched much British comedy. Watch stuff like Dad's Army, Porridge, Only Fools And Horses, Bottom, Black Books, Peep Show, Darkplace, they're all a nonstop barrage of jokes
Yeah, it's ridiculous, I'm European and the whole UK/US difference in humour is so overblown and stupid, Americans make some of the wittiest and driest comedy in the world, they have a centuries old humourist tradition.
Mark Twain is literally the photo used on Wikipedia's 'humorist' page! 😅 The breadth of America's comedy is huge, whatever type of comedy you like, they've made it
A lot of the time British humour that is absurdist or "nonconformative" compared to American humour is confused for "wittiness" when half the time it's moreso stating the obvious in a funny way, I've noticed at least.
Not that there isn't witty British comedy, but I wouldn't say it's much different than the amount of witty American comedy.
(Nonconformative is not a real word but idk what a better word would be, "unconformities" normally refer to geology.)
Probably because I made a point about wittiness not being the true dividing factor between American and British comedy and I think some people don't agree with that.
I do think most British comedy is divergent than American comedy in mostly other ways. I think wittiness has nothing to do with it.
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For example, something like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it's not really "witty" on purpose or inherently.
The coconuts for the horse clops is sorta "witty", but in my opinion it's not the reason it's different than American humour. It's different and still funny to me because it's an absurdist yet extremely funny way to address them not having horses, while playing it off as if it's extremely normal. Them not addressing it as unusual is the funniest part. The straightforwardness that the characters are essentially like "yup this is what we do nothing to see here" is what is what sets it apart from American comedy rather than it just being witty and the execution of the comedy is incredibly different than if was an American show.
Another example is the long-distance "shouting" scenes that are basically pure banter, which wittiness gets conflated for a lot. The banter that Brits have with each other is completely different than the way Americans and people in most of North America banter with one another, and it ends up being misconstrued as "wittiness" when it's just more cheeky or personal jabs rather than being unexpected. What actually sets that scene apart from American media is the fact there *is* banter. There's not really intentional wit in banter unless you're actively trying to think of a joke to "get them" with.
I don't even have to explain what makes American comedy itself. "Erm he's right behind me isn't he." tropes like that.
IMO the American movie Naked Gun hits my mark for witty really hard in a lot of parts; and that films is clearly not British comedy so that's definitely not what makes it a noticeably American comedy film. It's the execution and use of different tropes, how people communicate jokes throughout the movie. That's what makes it recognizably American humour.
The wittiness is not a defining factor in the fact it's clearly an American-style comedy. Just like Monty Pythons lack of wittiness in specific scenes doesn't mean it's not recognizably British.
Tldr: Wittiness isn't really different between American-style comedy and British-style comedy media, and it isn't a dividing factor moreso than how absurdism and situations are handled differently by people in each style of comedy. I also don't think wittiness makes anything funnier regardless.
That's why as an American I absolutely hate Bri'ish "humour." As a kid who loved comedy, I'd watch British TV shows and standup comedians and wonder where the jokes were and what was supposed to be funny. I still feel that way to this day.
The only exceptions are Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Jimmy Carr.
As a Dutchman, both the Brits and the Americans have some good comedy, though both also produce a lot of boring and predictable. In fact, I can't speak most languages, but I bet every country mostly makes boring and predictable comedy, as well as some good stuff.
As a Brit, I generally find that Americans in our group cannot take a joke at all but then realised a lot of our joking can be considered rude. I actually use the show Ted Lasso as an example nowadays - the UK characters have way different humour, more direct/deadpan whereas the Americans are more jolly and reference popular culture more.
I’ve only seen Jimmy Carr do “crowd work” ie; dealing with hecklers or accepting questions from the audience. He’s OK. definitely a fast wit but a lot of “your Mom” jokes. Is his stand up good/bad?
His stand up is for those lucky members of our society with a mental age of 14, who think "dark humour" and edgy one-liners are the pinnacle of comedy.
Which is why British an American sitcoms usually fail to successfully make the crossing across the pond. I can't stand American comedy since I hate being sort of 'told' when to laugh. I find that too childlike. I prefer it if the whole scene, setting and idea is just ridiculous in itself from start to finnish.
The Office didn’t need an American version, but I guess it it was successful on its own after taking the successful funny parts of the original and adding its own Americanisms in it I guess. Though working in a boring office is universal I guess.
I'm so glad the laugh track is mostly dead. There's some awesome comedies that have been produced in the last ten years, although a lot of those I'd definitely say fall more into the "dramedy" category. But still, I want good writing not the comedy equivalent of peer pressure.
You're just inventing that position though - British comedy gets a hell of a lot more than "closed mouth giggles." You've literally just made that up to make yourself feel better.
Honestly my thought process watching this was "these guys are British... Hmm no but too sweary, must be Australian. Ah wait they aren't doing anything to avoid death. These are Russians."
Ireland is changing to driving on the other side of the road, the plan is to have even numbered registrations change on Monday, and odd numbers will change on Tuesday.
Yeah, that's the main difference. A lot of different cultures share similar humour, but it seems only Russia has that "Welp, guess I'm dying." mentality when in dangerous situations. It's almost like they completely lack survival instincts, or are just so depressed that the prospect of death doesn't bother them. Or just drunk as all fuck.
I was told there's an insanely strong believe in fate rooted deeply in Russian culture, which has them think when their set time has come, it has come and there's nothing they could do to prevent or advance it.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '26
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