How to Learn English Humor

English humor is moderately complex, and generally different in tone than American humor. To learn the intricacies of British comedy you'll need some time, but it will be time most pleasantly spent. If you already enjoy reading and watching comedy, you'll have a leg up in understanding the dry tone of English comedy, and mastering it's peculiar wit.

Things You'll Need

• Copy of William Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing
• Copy of the BBC television series Fawlty Towers

Instructions

1. Read or watch a production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. This English Renaissance comedy typifies the English sense of humor. The characters display clever rhetorical skills, but this highbrow humor is woven together with sexual innuendo, bawdy puns and visual gags. The title itself is a pun on the female genitalia, referred to in Renaissance slang as "nothing."

   Though Shakespeare's play contains themes of misdirected love and confusion, the crux of the humor relies upon these confusions, and the characters' abilities to negotiate them. Ian Johnston, a noted Shakespearen scholar, has written that "An important point in the comedy is the way in which the main characters have to learn some important things about life (especially about themselves) before being able to resolve the conflict (this is particularly true of the men in Shakespeare's comedies)."

2. Discuss the play with a friend. Note which characters traffic in high-brow rhetoric (e.g., Benedict and Beatrice) and which characters provide lowbrow humor (e.g., Dogberry). The main male characters are often woefully ignorant of the female characters' intentions and agendas. This has analogues in American comedy (Homer Simpson from American television show "The Simpsons" typifies the clueless American male comedic trope). The difference in English comedy is that while the clueless male archetype exists, male ignorance can still coexist with a sense of culture and sophistication in the same character.

3. Watch the BBC television series Fawlty Towers. Though this series only ran for twelve episodes, it's place in the English comedy canon is undeniable, and it is widely revered by fans of English comedy. The main character, Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese), personifies the distinct mixture of highbrow and lowbrow comedy. In any given episode, he is trading witty jibes with his wife one minute, and performing pratfalls the next. While American comedy contains examples of both highbrow and lowbrow humor, it generally does not weave the two veins together with the same zest as English comedy.

4. Discuss the show with a friend. Note how English comedy relies on cerebral jokes and witty dialogue, as well as more crass sexual or bodily innuendo and visual gags.

Tips & Warnings

• For recent examples of English Comedy check out: Men Behaving Badly The Office (British version) Da Ali G Show The IT Crowd

References

• Studies in Shakespeare
• The Unofficial Fawlty Towers Fansite