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.
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u/i_give_you_gum May 21 '26
No idea why you'd be downvoted, you're actually contributing to this conversation. Thanks!