Some British Humor

[Uncle Al]

I hope you can see & watch this clip

The Jolly Jovers

I know this is from 1980 but the humor is ever lasting

Uncle Al

[melsav]

[denimini]

I am not sure about the British humor but I think it would be British humour if it was so.
It certainly illustrates the decorum provided by a short dress.

[Fred in Skirts]

I love the British brand of humor! It can be so off color and yet it is good clean and very funny at the same time. I loved Benny Hill, Monty Python and so many others.

[SkirtsDad]

I love the British brand of humor! It can be so off color and yet it is good clean and very funny at the same time. I loved Benny Hill, Monty Python and so many others.

I love Benny Hill too, his films were fabulously un-PC in a most hilarious way

Personal Trivia:
When I was growing up our milkman had worked with Benny Hill when Benny Hill was also a milkman.
Benny Hill's family home is less than 1.5 mils from where I live now, and even when he was famous he still used to stay there often until his death in 1992.

[Kirbstone]

....and very athletic, too. Strange that I was living there at that time and never even heard of them. That was dated 1980 and by then we had gotten rid of our television, so we never watched that.

We still have no time for TV watching, so a lot goes on & we never see it.

Tom

[Ralph]

I love Benny Hill too, his films were fabulously un-PC in a most hilarious way

I have a rather low bar for humour, but Benny Hill and his ilk still didn't manage to reach it for me even when I was very young. I always preferred the dry, sarcastic style: The Two Ronnies (Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker) were always my favourites. Ah well, to each his (or her) own!

[crfriend]

I have a rather low bar for humour, but Benny Hill and his ilk still didn't manage to reach it for me even when I was very young. I always preferred the dry, sarcastic style: [[[.]

I am much the same way in that I always preferred proper satire to parody. Monty Python usually had me howling, and some of the lines there-from have entered my lexicon (e.g. "He's mastered the Art of Not Being Seen.") and I found Fawlty Towers absolutely hysterical along with Yes, Minister. Later on the scene were Clark and Dawe ("Well, the front's not supposed to fall off for a start!" or "Maybe some owls think they're cats.") who I cannot listen to nor watch with a straight face.

Benny Hill, though, always struck me as rather low-brow.

[Ray]

I've just watched the clip. Sorry - I don't find it funny at all. It's slapstick; no real wit on display. It's also horribly dated.

For humour of that time, I much prefer the Two Ronnies and of course, Monty Python (although their sketches were very hit and miss). Yes Minister was also great.

Nowadays I'm a big fan of Kevin Bridges, while the only comedian I actively dislike - to the point that I cannot bear to hear, let alone watch him, is Michael McIntyre. Desperately unfunny, and plays to the simpletons in the galllery.

[Grok]

I think of Monty Python as a special treat. I have a particular liking for Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[r.m.anderson]

What was neat was the pan straight face of the actors in the skit (clip) while the audience is howling and laughing up a storm (Ah er maybe canned).
With Benny Hill often he would cast a glance off with a smirk on his face - did we just say or do that then resume the action.
Jack Benny and Victor Borg come to mind as stone face actors dropping the punch line without any show of emotion.
Jack when he was being held up by a robber "Your money or your life?" after a pause his response was I am thinking about it don't rush me.

Other episodes of Laurel and Hardy - Abbott and Costello - George Burns and Gracie Allen - the Three Stooges etc. etc. etc.

Ah the thrilling days of yesteryear - comedy rides a high horse off into the setting sun - neigh neigh gallop gallop whinny whinny a high ho joke !
Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies - Ah That's all Folks !

Yah I know not same type of comedy but the time frame is close and definitely a cigar - but British comedy still lives on and brings the house down !

Bravo - Encore - real applause !!!

[crfriend]

Jack Benny and Victor Borg come to mind as stone face actors dropping the punch line without any show of emotion.

Properly dead-panning something is always a special moment -- and especially hilarious when delivered in real life. I recall the time when I went to one of my local liquor stores and picked up a 12-pack of Bass Ale and a bottle of peanuts, and the clerk behind the counter asked in a very helpful manner, "Would you like a bag for your nuts?" In spite of all the various options open to me, I dead-panned the response -- delayed a moment, and simply queried, "Pardon?" It took a few moments, but once the utter absurdity sank in the laughter started in earnest. (That was two or three years ago. I was in there a couple of months back and picked up a bottle of peanuts and had the same clerk scan them -- and remarked, "You'd think I never learn.", which brought it all back again for the both of us.

[Sinned]

Ronnie Barker was the master of language and sounds and the play upon them. It was epitomised in his Four Candles sketch which played upon the similarity of the sound of different words and in particular the accent used. But he had other original ideas - his Mastermind sketch in which he is answering the question before last is sublime especially in the way the questions and answers are interleaved.

You mentioned Yes Minister but the follow-up Yes Prime Minister was equally good and I do hope that they don't try and do remakes because the cast selection for both series was spot on and NOBODY and I repeat NOBODY could do a Sir Humphrey but him.

In general, I consider that we have lived through the Golden Age of Comedy in that we have appreciated comedy from the turn of last century - Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton through a whole panoply of stars. I'm sure that we all have our favourites. I remember in the sixties listening to Round the Horn and Beyond our Ken and having aching sides from laughing so much. How the writers such as Barry Took and Marty Feldman got the scripts past the censors or the Beeb Beeb Ceeb management is a mystery. All I can think is that they just didn't understand the scripts and that the printed word was a mere shadow of what was presented over the radio. Kenneth Williams' Rambling Syd Rumpo and Hello I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy. Genius If you don't know what I am talking about then Goggle them.

[pelmut]

... I remember in the sixties listening to Round the Horn and Beyond our Ken and having aching sides from laughing so much. How the writers such as Barry Took and Marty Feldman...

Most of the Beyond Our Ken scripts were written by Eric Merriman, the son of Percy Merriman who wrote sketches for "The Roosters" concert party shortly after WWI. I have recordings of The Roosters from the 1920s and some of the gags are remarkably similar to those in B.O.K.

[Sinned]

pelmut thanks for that.

Perhaps one of the more subtle jokes I remember is two blokes talking and one says to the other, "I passed your house this morning." And the other one says, "Thank you."