I think the british are willing to laugh at the dark side of life. Sarcasm is part of life. The good guy doesn’t necessarily win. It about accepting life as it is rather than painting a nice face over it!!!

I think the difference is in Britain, comedy/ humour is happy to test boundaries. In the US, there's a fear to cause offense/ offence, so the model is to use the blueprint of 'safe' options (which is why 'Curb' and 'Chapelle' are so popular as they rail against that). The British don't want to give you that option of being 'safe' and can (and will) push the boundaries even in 'safe' family comedy.

There was an episode of the 1970s British comedy "The Goodies" where one of the viewers at home laughed so much that he had a heart and died. His wife wrote to the show thanking them for making her husband's last moments so happy.

With some British programmes, you can watch something several times and notice different things each time. It’s the gift that keeps giving.

Tyler - if you think the 'absurdity of everyday life' is a defining attribute to British comedy & you may be right, you really must watch 'One Foot in the Grave'. It is often voted as our best ever sitcom, or top 3 at least & I totally agree, it is wonderful, hilarious & can be very dark - enjoy!

You can’t get better than British and Australian humour, we have a very dark side of looking at things

A fellow British friend said that he couldn't cope with watching the British version of The Office. He said he had worked with people like that and for him it was too close to reality.

The chap on the right you pointed out was Terry Gilliam, the, Wait for it the American in Monty Pythons Flying Circus. That sketch was the "Spanish Inquisition" sketch. Terrence Vance Gilliam (/ˈɡɪliəm/; born 22 November 1940)[2] is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Tideland (2005), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Being the only Monty Python member not born in Britain, he became a naturalised British subject in 1968 and formally renounced his American citizenship in 2006. Gilliam was born in Minnesota, but spent his high school and college years in Los Angeles. He started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. He joined Monty Python as the animator of their works, but eventually became a full member and was given acting roles. He became a feature film director in the 1970s. Wikipedia.

One of the difference I always noticed (and this may be in older comedies) was that in US sitcoms, when the star of the show makes an entrance, the studio audience go wild before he or she has even spoken. This doesn't really happen in a UK sitcoms, where no-one reacts to the star until they deliver something worthy of a raction. I watched a fascinating video about the difference between the UK version of The InBetweeners, and the US remake - and why these probably led to it failing. It's on YT somewhere.

In my opinion the one show that sums up British comedy is Fawlty Towers. Highly recommend you watch an episode. It's dark, irreverent, ridiculous, it makes fun of old ppl, foreigners, dead ppl, the upper classes and it is played completely straight..

This covers the contemporary "intellectual" British comedy. There is also a long history of British "non-PC" comedy along the lines of Benny Hill and Are You Being Served. Which were also very popular in the US. Which are much closer to US films like Naked Gun. There is a huge back catalogue of British comedy shows that will never be repeated on TV again.

This is so true. I'm a Brit and we want and love realism, not made up fluffy nonsense. We laugh at uncomfortable and awkward situations, and can't stand any fakeness. Don't get me wrong, we like a happy ending, but only if it feels real. Also we can't stand cheesy or condescending 'lessons learned' like you have at the end of a lot of American programmes. Also we like 'subtle' and not 'in your face' humour.

If you want to see British comedy at its best try 'Dinner Ladies' set in a works canteen. Perfectly normal everyday situations turned into subtle absurdity with superb writing and acting. :-)

The funny thing about that last Month Python clip is that everyone expected the Spanish Inquisition, they would send a letter informing that they were coming.

Playing the loser is a mark of strength and confidence. We can face reality and laugh at it. No hero needed.

There's nothing better in comedy than Monty Python. I grew up with the "Flying Circus" TV series which was available here in Canada. Later, I fell in love with the movies. Both John Cleese and Terry Gilliam have mentioned in interviews that the initial premise was to create a comedy series unlike anything else, they did not want to be categorized. They did it so well that "Pythonesque" was actually added to the dictionary.

British humour generalisation, dark, innuendo, sarcasm, sometimes really subtle. American humour, errrrrr didn't know it existed 😂🤣

Have you ever seen only fools and horses? it's a British classic everyone one loves it's absolutely hilarious 😂

You should watch the Blackadder, My family, one foot in the grave, only fools and horses. These are a few of my favourites.

i don't think it's just the uk, i think it's europe in general that has that type of humor. and a lot of it revolves around laughing at other people's misery. we're all very sadistic people, and so a comedy show that shows people getting into bad situations for us to laugh is our favorite thing. just look at another popular british show "mr. bean", it's all about that character having the biggest misfortune in the world, and that's what's humorous to us. we like laughing that other people's suffering. while in america, that tends to be frowned upon and the comedy tends to often depict those instances as underdog moments to make people root for that character to have a better ending

You should watch the film called 'Four Lions' I personally think it captures all elements of British Humour perfectly. A reaction to it's trailer would be much appreciated 😁

The last clip was the Monty Python crew. They basically had a genre all to themselves.

You should watch Stephen Fry’s “full” explanation on the differences between UK and US comedy!

Allo Allo encompasses all elements of British humour: Satire, parody, slapstick, wordplay, self-deprecation, silly catchphrases, sarcasm, poking fun at foreigners, farce and lashings of innuendo.

You should react to current / most recent Prime Minister's Questions!!! It's a half hour session once a week where the UK MPs and opposition parties ask questions of the Prime Minister (currently Rishi Sunak) directly! It happens every Wednesday afternoon. Most recent ones can be found on the UK Parliament KZfaq channel!! Its very entertaining!!!!

There are a lot of videos breaking this kind of stuff down, if you're interested I would look up videos talking about American remakes of classic British comedies that failed, like Faulty Towers for example. These do a great job of breaking it down more and you'll probably find more of the nuance differences between the two by comparing why the remakes often get it so wrong. Often it just doesn't work taking British culture and humour and remaking it in an American way because there are so many differences between the two countries; small ones yes but they all add up.

For me the scene in The Office (UK) where David Brent is doing that dance sums up the fundamental difference between UK and US humour. Most of us Brits enjoy the uncomfortableness of it. Perhaps enjoy isn't the right word... We can relate to it... It feels real. It's because of moments like this that happen throughout the two series, that make the ending after the Christmas Specials feels so much more rewarding. When those small victories or glimpses of happiness come about we truly enjoy and cherish them. It's the whole, without the bitter the sweet isn’t as sweet thing. This is also why I think The Office (UK) is far superior to the US version. To me the US version is just another sitcom.

I was really hoping we'd see Richard Wilson's 90's show One Foot In Tbe Grave. It's just so brilliantly written and performed! It follows the everyday life of a guy called Victor Meldrew and his wife Margaret. It's a laugh-a-minute but sometimes with a 'dark' top. It's a show EVERYONE should watch. It's just so funny!!

Stephen Fry does a fantastic interview on the differences and why it is. You'll recognise him from both film AND comedy EDIT: Stephen Fry does some of what I'm talking about just after The Office section of the video

While growing up in Québec, I loved to watch Monty Python's sketches or even later on movies! "The adventures of Baron Munchausens" is certainly to this day one of my favourite movie...

i think you should watch the inbetweeners, weather you post it or just watch it in your own time! it’s super well known over here and i don’t think you’ll find anyone here who hasn’t seen at least 1 episode. it definitely sums up british humour amazingly

I think we do have a very dry and often dark sense of humour. I remember many years ago a sitcom called “In loving memory” set in the 1920’s (I think) about a funeral director. A dark subject but at times extremely funny

I think we British are so use to misery that we have come to like it. Hence our humour reflects this. Gallows humour is a good example.

try watching the end of Blackadder goes forth for a "real" ending

Hi Tyler - Absolutely Fabulous, Keeping up appearances & The Royle Family (Not to be confused with, The Royal Family) are some personal favourites of mine! You should do some reactions to, "The Catherine Tate show!". Her 'Nan' character is a good place to start!🤣

Watch Stephen Fry’s talk on the difference.

I believe humour is something that is engrained in we Brits and just part of our everyday lives. It is not something that is planned or forced. We use humour to explain and deal with everyday celebrations or tragic events. If you take any of the worlds most devastating events whether school shootings, 911 or the death of loved celebreties or reknowned figures their will be a British joke that follows very shorlty afterwards. We do not mean any harm by it or we feel the tragedy any the less it is just our way of explaining things. A lot of our humour can also be very subtle and difficult to pick up on to those not in the know. Many from the US may not understand whether we are at times insulting them, joking or just being real as a lot of the English language in general does not come down to the words we use but how they are delivered. As you said I find a lot of American humour very in your face and direct adn not something that generally appeals to me. Also I remember some of those US teen type shows which I found way to sickly as they always had to teach some form of morals. In a way it was and probably still is a form of propaganda. There really is no such thing as good or bad humour as it is really targeted at a specific audience so there is no reason why I should find American humour funny but that does not make it bad.

The "guy on the right" in the final clip ("Spanish inquisition") is Terry Gilliam - an American

We had no idea that 'The Office' was a comedy. So we never saw an episode of it. There is a tremendous amount of very positive humour over here. Much of it is not on TV.

A major factor is that UK tv comedies are very commonly written by and or staring actual comics... US shows are not. Comedians are far more likely to go further with the material then a team of Network Writers, and because the UK is used to it the UK networks (if thats really the correct term in the Uk) let them run with it.. The BBC also has its safety net of Channel 2.. where its experimental shows get their shot and if sucessful then move to BBC 1, similar with C4 and ITV. not that they switch but C4 is way more open to experimental TV. In the USA everyone is competing over the same things.. even HBO no longer has the freedom it did because Showtime, Starz, ect.. will do everything they will, so staying safe and working the proven formulas is way more favorable.... one thing this vid touched on was the optimism/pessimism angle. American shows will feature wealthy characters far faster then poor ones.. total opposite in the UK. even Ab-Fab which kinda broke that mold had Patsy and Edina totally inept and their money didn't save them. Roseanne in the US showcased he poor character, but it also stared and was created by a comedienne.

Check out the British & American versions of Shameless, if you want to see wide differences

Fun fact Tyler , the guy on the right in the "Spanish Inquisition" at the end is Terry Gillam, who is an American.

You might enjoy the rest of "the funniest joke in the world sketch" from the Monty Python team to seee how it is resolved.

Clever analysis and opinion. I get a lot out of both humour styles. And there's a lot, a lot, of overlap. (UK)

In the UK I grew up on stuff like Taxi, Moonlighting, The Simpsons, Cheers and Frasier😁

There's a lot of gallows humour in British comedy, especially Scottish comedy. It's 'if you didn't laugh, you'd cry'. I love a lot of American comedies though -Roseanne, Cheers, Friends, Arrested Development and Frasier are amongst my favourites. I don't think it's morbid though, it's just the reality that there's darkness in life. I honestly thought the funniest part of the UK Office was the cars on the roundabout at the beginning, with 'Handbags and Gladrags' as the theme tune .It just makes me laugh whenever I see it.

British Office you laugh at Brent blundering through, making a glorious funny failure. American Office you laugh at his wise crack jokes. I know what I prefer. Laughter is the straw for a drowning man.

British humour is laughing at ourselves, American humour is laughing at other people.

I think one show to look at for this sort of breakdown would be Red Dwarf. It would be good for a comparison like this even though the American version never got past the pilot episode. It would definitely cover the whole negative Vs optimistic view. Lister in the UK version is one of the most lazy, disgusting excuses for a human being ever who gets by on sheer luck. US Lister is the likable loser with a heart of gold. Handsome and quick witted. The US version just loses the whole point of the show right from the get go.

The British have been involved with comedy and drama when the Romans introduced auditoriums during Roman occupation 1900 years ago. So our comedy is very much entrenched from the classic comedies of ancient times and obviously 1900 years of traditional theatre of comedy and drama has left its mark on British culture today and in future. American comedy has evolved from British America to US network radio and TV. The domination of radio and TV in the US during the 40's and up until 2000 had networks airing adverts, those paid the networks to run at profits. Obviously those advertisers had a lot of power, that power was to make sure the audience was happy and had an advert in segments during a show, that means the audience had to stay happy to hear the advert or see them, to stay engaged with the show, this is why American light entertainment has happy moment. British audiences wanted to laugh at themselves more no matter how. Where as Americans audiences are used to happy endings.

American is a gene pool of people who had no boundaries however now ur new land is all owned n resources n learning to live together is a new challenge.

Never seen spongebob but I feel the same as Tyler about Mork & Mindy.

Some mothers av em is amazing

Barely touches on the range and depth of British comedy. There is something so drastically different between American sitcoms like Friends, How I met your mother or The Big Bang Theory and British comedy like 'The Vicar of Dibley', 'Father Ted', 'Black Books' or 'The IT Crowd'. Let alone some of the more out there stuff like 'The Mighty Boosh'. I would suggest you go find some episodes of the 'IT Crowd' and just see if that gels with your expectation of British comedy. Most of the examples in that video are very dated. The office is one of the few examples of a show that was taken from the UK to the USA and survived - mainly because it went in a different direction. The British inbetweens is a perfect example of something that didn't translate well when replicated 'across the pond', much like 'shameless'. So those are also good ones to examine for differences.

If you really want to experience British TV comedy, then watch plenty of Monty Python's Flying Circus, where we British revel in stupidity in an often clever way, watch some very clever sitcoms such as Porridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin, I Didn't Know You Cared, BlackAdder, and so on....where were satirise normal life and find the humour and sometimes outright stupidity/silliness in it (often a shout against so-called authority); and then there's shows like the Young Ones, anything done by 'Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer' such as Shooting Stars, which are hilarious abstract, silly comedy, almost in the vein of the late, and great Spike Milligan. British comedy covers so many facets, and until the more modern PC brigade came along, watering everything down, was able to cover outrageous, semi-sexual, politically motivated, socially inept situations without censure; situations that could be made fun of in equally outrageous ways that we all understand and love!

Love this. I'm a brit and I'm the same as you, I know the difference but I can't quite put my finger on it.

I saw an interview with some British comedians who'd worked in America, and they felt Americans didn't want people to laugh at them (Americans). At their jokes, sure, but they didn't want to be the butt of the joke. There's also a fairly common idea in the UK that Americans don't want to be hated or feared - so if the bad guy just has to drive a fast car and shoot a lot, they'll do it, but when it comes to properly sinister baddies, they get a Brit in. (Think Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon, or even Alan Rickman in Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves.) I don't know if either is true, but they are believable to the UK population.

American comedy has some classics like Cheers and Frasier though it could be argued they borrow from British comedy. Watch the old children's series Magic Roundabout for an example of how much adult humour they put into children's programmes in the 1960s.

'Curb' and 'It's Always Sunny' are my favourite US comedies purely because they have that British-ness about them.

Spongebob took off the way it did because it was obviously a show that kids wanted to watch, but that parents could also be intrested in watching with them

I think you need to watch four candles by the two ronnies and the FULL dead parrot sketch by Monty python to fully understand our humour these are Instant classics ingrained into us British citizens

I wrote a dissertation on the difference between American and British television, and when discussing comedy I said a key difference was American humour is based on ego and self love, British humour is self deprecating and appreciation of the underdog. Also, in regards to some American comedies being witty and intelligent, I bet for 90% of those the inspiration for the writer came from enjoying British comedy.

You have to watch the whole of "the deadliest joke". I just watched 1 1/2 episodes of the American version of "Ghosts" I found it hard to watch and only believed in the Viking character they are just different in a bad way.

I’m from England if you want some British comedy look up burniston it’s a Scottish comedy sketch! Thank me later 😂

Little Britain you must react to that!!

We do like the absurd, Monty Python was absurd. Try Spike Milligan, he was absurd, brilliant and hilarious, sadly long gone RIP.

Hi from the UK I think the difference between UK and US comedy is the UK only have 1 or 2 writers but US comedy has a large collative of writers on each show.

You need to see some Fawltey Towers or if you can find it The League of Gentlemen ( the dentons house rules is classic )

Please take a look at the British king of comedy Lee Evans this guy is a legend 👍

Ricky Gervais is brilliant.

Check-Out Still Game Please Tyler.x

Growing up in the 70’s. We had a lot of British comedy series. Eg. Man about the House was great. The American version Three’s Company was not as good. In my opinion. You really need to watch Monty Python on the Holy Grail. The crew played it mostly straight. Too funny. Also the original Pink Panther movie series is hilarious.

In american comedy, the guy getz the girl. In british comedy, the guys best mate gets the girl

You got to remember we are always like really drunk when watching comedy 🤣👍

One distinguishing feature about British humour which sets it apart from American humour. Is American humour is based on Hope English humour is based on misery.

Honestly American humour makes me laugh very rarely because i feel it’s all about making fun of one particular person rather than society as a whole so I definitely prefer the risky British way

Pretty sure the first and last clips were from Monty Python, they had their own unique style of comedy.

The US version of The Office is one of my all time favourite shows. It’s brilliant and so funny. The British version was kind of groundbreaking for its concept but the comedy was more cringe worthy, I never seemed to laugh at it whilst watching it but we would always talk about it the following day in work and laugh then.

Ahh, the Spanish inquisition, classic Monty Python. Fantastic stuff.

U said it right we make fun of existence

The office (UK) is the original, the office (US) is a rewrite copy.

i love dinnerladies. give it a go, also vicar of dibley

British comedy is generally written by a single person or a couple of writers, they have the licence to take a while to develop the characters. There isnt a pressure to have a certain number of laughs per minute. The writers also usually kill the comedy after a couple of good series, rather than milking it and running when they have run out of ideas - the verybest comediesonly ran to maybe a dozen shows. I think the writers have more power here rather than the TV executives, or at least they are trusted by the executives.

Silence is the most consistent part of British comedy compared to its American counterparts. Americans always feel the need to fill the awkward silence!

As a Brit, I have to admit that the US office is better

When you watch something American like curb your enthusiasm, compared to a similar show in England like Lead Balloon in the UK, 2 shows about grumpy guys getting themselves into trouble, Larry David gets into arguments multiple times throughout each episode. Rick Spleen on the other hand supresses his irritation and his petulant behaviour results in uncomfortable yet humourous situtions that could happen to anyone. I think these reflect examples of the different stereotypes in America and the UK which we can relate to.

For dark British comedy, it has to be The League of Gentlemen. Brilliantly done.

If you want to get an understand British humour you should watch Blackadder Goes Fourth. It features pretty much every point on your Wikipedia list. Sarcasm, wit, a fatalistic sense of realism along with a desperation to survive along with a fair amount of sillyness. In fact all of the Blackadder series (apart from the first one) feature the main charecter stuck in a certain position which he tries to improve and those efforts are always in vain.

A great show on Netflix is Still Game

US teachers: you can be President!!! UK teachers: you’ll be lucky to work In McDonald’s with those GCSEs!!

Mr Bean is the best way to describe our humour.

Well done Tyler. Do not believe everything Stephen Fry says. He has his own demons. British humour is far more complex as you say!

I don't know who said this originally: In the USA life is serious, but full of hope; in the UK life is hopeless, but not serious

I think the simplest difference is that the British are willing to let the Bad guy win, we don't require everything to have a happy ending.

Thank you learned so much from your side, I wonder if English stand up works with you? Ie: Sarah Millican or Peter Kay

Not an outdated theory. The girl would never be able to escape in a helicopter in a British comedy. She would have to just sit there, and it would be painful to watch 🤣🤣

The British love an underdog. Americans love a winner.

There is a very zany aspect to British humour too (Spike Milligan, Python, Young Ones, Bottom...) and I love dark British humour. The League of Gentle is an excellent example of dark British humour. We had a great history of classic 60's-80's sitcoms, but they seem to have died out now... in fact British humour as a whole seems to have died out.

Also a surreal aspact in UK humour.

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