Today's topic is British humour.
We are going to be talking about humour in general in the UK and in other countries, and I'm going to tell you about the different features of British humour.
What do people find funny here and what do they often joke about?
I really apologise that it has been so long since I last recorded a podcast.
Almost two weeks.
I have been extremely busy and so much has changed in my life.
I've recently found out that I can return to Russia for a very short time as a tourist this month.
I have just finished my application for a visa and I will be flying to Russia on the 19th of August.
Unfortunately, I can only be there for about two weeks.
And whenever I return to the UK, I have to go into quarantine to sit in quarantine for two weeks.
But I really want to see my girlfriend and have some time in Russia, so it's worth it for me.
So, the topic of humour.
Humour is something that I think is very, very important.
It adds a nice element to life.
It adds a happiness to almost everything that it covers.
Life without humour would be a lot more boring, in my opinion.
When thinking about making this podcast episode, I asked myself what are the main features of British humour.
What makes it different?
Because I really do think the humour here is very different to the rest of the world.
The first point is to laugh at yourself.
The key to understanding British humour is not taking yourself too seriously.
What this means is that you freely make jokes about yourself.
People call this self depreciation humour.
We often make light of, which means to make fun of or make jokes about.
We often make light of our failures and the things that go wrong in our life.
In a way, it's a way of dealing with difficult things.
It's better to make jokes about an embarrassing moment, an awkward encounter, even a mental health issue.
It is a way that British people often deal with these things.
It is also seen as a sign of self-confidence.
Confidence in yourself.
If you can make jokes about yourself and not be offended or embarrassed about that.
It turns many bad things into something funny.
It makes the bad things in your life funny and almost appreciated.
Some examples of comedians that you can look for or search to see examples of this type of humor.
The first would be Jack Whitehall.
Jack Whitehall.
He is a very, very popular British comedian and he uses a lot of self-depreciation humour.
He laughs at himself a lot.
He doesn't take himself too seriously.
There are other comedians like this as well, such as John Richardson.
The next key element of British humour is sarcasm.
Sarcasm and irony are extremely important in Britain.
It often leaves people wondering Was that a joke?
Was that actually a joke?
Or is he being serious?
For many foreigners, sarcasm can be very difficult to detect, very difficult to understand and see.
But don't worry.
After living here for some time or watching lots of TV shows or speaking with natives, you will soon be able to spot it and understand it.
The usual way to spot it is hyperbole, which means exaggeration.
Hyperbole is exaggeration, making something bigger than it is, or an overemphasis on adjectives, for example.
For example, wow, I really love your coat.
So I overemphasised the word really and also the word wow.
So this lets the person know that I'm being sarcastic.
It is sarcasm.
It actually means that I don't like their coat.
Another example could be good job which, by the over emphasis and the tone in which I spoke, means that someone did a bad job, not a good job.
These are very small examples of sarcasm and for many people they use this tool of language in jokes.
This sort of humour is very common in TV shows such as The Office, The British Office, especially The IT Crowd and The Thick of It.
Even if you aren't extremely sure of whether someone is being sarcastic, often you will see it in the person's face.
You can kind of tell that they are being sarcastic.
Perhaps they will say a sarcastic comment with a very serious face, and then at the end smile or start to laugh, and then you realise, oh, he was just joking.
The third and well final part of British humour that I will discuss in this podcast is that you can't take things seriously.
You cannot take British humour serious.
There is not much place for being offended in British humour.
We pretty much joke about everything.
Everything and anything.
Sometimes jokes might seem offensive or insulting and really bad.
But you need to understand that these are jokes and actually often when someone makes jokes that may be offensive to you so, for example, they might seem a little bit insulting it can actually be a sign that that person likes you or is comfortable with you as a friend to be able to make those sort of mean jokes.
These mean jokes back and forth are usually quite a playful exchange of verbal fighting, i guess verbal fighting.
They are often said with a smile.
But of course an important aspect of humor is understanding what the other person finds funny, and that's what people often do here.
As you get to know someone, you will begin to understand if they find dark humour, offensive humour funny, or maybe they prefer more stupid humour like puns or silly little sayings.
Even though nothing is really off limits for British humour, it is important to understand someone else's boundaries.
If they do get offended with what you're saying.
It is, of course, important to not make those sort of jokes with someone.
After all, although there are cultural stereotypes and norms, everyone is different and everyone has a slightly different set of humour.
And there will always be people who are more sensitive to certain aspects of humour.
I personally really, really love humour.
I love comedy, I love watching comedians, listening to stand-up comedy.
I think it's wonderful and for me there isn't really many aspects of humour that are off limits.
I think people should be able to joke about almost anything.
There is a difference between saying something as a joke and saying something very seriously and actually meaning it.
So if you ever go to the UK, Number one, just don't be offended by what people say.
Sometimes it might seem a little bit offensive, a little bit crazy, but as long as you know they are joking, it's nothing serious.
Just don't take yourself too seriously.
Be able to make jokes about yourself people really like that here and also be able to understand, maybe even use, sarcasm.
It is a super important part of the british language well, of the english language not the british language, i mean, of course.
Sarcasm is used in america too, In American TV shows, for example, Friends.
Chandler from Friends is an extremely sarcastic person.
But American sarcasm is sometimes quite different.
It's hard for me to explain why, but I think in the UK sarcasm is very, very common.
Much more common than in America.
It's something that people use so much that they don't even really think about it.
It's just a normal part of conversation.
I would love to hear about what humour is like in your country.
I don't actually know a lot about humour in Russia and I would be very interested to hear more.
I hope that this podcast was interesting and useful for you.
If you would like to hear about a certain topic or you have a question that you would like for me to cover on my podcast, please send it to me.
On instagram.
You can message me and i will try to read and respond.
And, of course, if you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes or whatever platform you are listening to this.
I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thank you so much and have a lovely day.
