Hi, my name’s Ed. Welcome to Ed explains English, life in the UK
You could say that when you live in a country, where reportedly the weather and food are
so bad, you would need to have a good sense of humour to compensate, and I would say that
we do. I also think most foreign people would agree with us, because for many years, people
from all over the world have laughed at our exported TV shows, for example; Monty Python,
Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean, Little Britain, The Office and our biggest export,
Keeping up Appearances, which highlights, among other things, the absurdity of the UK
class system, an often used theme in our comedy shows.
Of course, Monty Python, probably the most popular show over the past 50 years, did that
too, but also so much more. One could say their TV shows, which ran from 1969 to 1974,
as well as the 6 films they made, included all the aspects of comedy, that I will explain
to you, in this video.
Let’s start with the macabre, because we are well known for our dark humour. We can
use a funny example from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. In a scene where Arthur battles
with the Black Knight, who even after having his limbs cut off, will not be defeated, and
tells Arthur to ‘Come back here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs
off’! We sometimes laugh about death too. This is known as gallows humour.
One aspect of our humour that I know a lot of foreigners are confused by, is self-deprecation,
in other words when we make jokes about ourselves. This type of humour can often make ourselves
more likeable. For example, Dan here (picture of tubby man) could joke about his weight,
by saying he’s on a sea food diet. When he sees food, he has to eat it! Okay, not
funny? Tough audience…
Dry humour requires the person telling the joke to keep a deadpan expression. I can’t
do that, because the dumb cartoonist who drew me, makes me smile all the time. Come on mate,
give me a normal expression. Who smiles all the time?
Maybe I should lighten up. After all we smile and laugh at everyday situations, err every
day! All the TV shows I mentioned at the beginning, especially Mr Bean, are loved by UK audiences,
years after they were made. Political satire is very popular too. Who doesn’t like laughing
about the people running our countries? Eh, Donald? Who did you think I meant?
Sarcasm and irony also go down well with us too. The ironic thing though is a lot of viewers
will have clicked away by now. I don’t know what they were waiting for: me to do a tik-tok
dance? I could be sarcastic about impatient people, and say, ‘I’m sorry I used up
3 minutes of your precious life, trying to explain life in the UK to you’. But they
say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, so I won’t.
Furthermore, if they come back, I’m not very good at banter. This is when people make
light jokes about each other, like, ‘my football team’s better than yours’, ‘yeah,
so why did they lose last weekend, then?’, that sort of thing. Just teasing, joking,
jesting or whatever word you want to use, I’m not arguing.
Talking of words: have you heard of puns? Here’s an example: an American duck walks
into a bar and says he wants a beer. The bartender says, £5 please, and the duck says he doesn’t
carry cash, just put it on my bill. Ha ha ha. Hey, you’re not laughing?! For this
joke to be funny, you have to know that bill has two meanings. The first is, the thing
at the front of the duck’s face and the second, the American word for a tab. If you
like these types of jokes, be sure to check out the English comedian, Tim Vine, who tells
very funny one-liners.
Watching English comedies is a great way to learn authentic English and make sure you
get your daily dose of laughs. On average, the people in The UK laugh out loud 11 times
a day. So, I hope I’ve been able to make you laugh, chuckle, giggle, or at the very
least, smile.
Visit Instagram, where you can find complementary vocabulary for this and my other videos. Please
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watching. Cheerio for now.