What's the difference between the British/American sense of humor?

Question

Do you get the British sense of humor? Most of the time I just don't get their humor at all.

Answer 1

Brits are drier. In America, a joke isn't a joke if no one laughs. I find British humour sillier sometimes too, like cheesy chase scenes that Americans think are childish. Americans will laugh at toilet and sexual humour more readily than Brits. And, like someone else said, the British laugh AT a character more, while Americans laugh with them.

Answer 2

I think you might have to break it down more to really get to the answer of this question. I don't know if many answerers will be familiar enough with both cultures to answer it well. In addition, different segments of each culture have different senses of humor. However, I do have a couple of things to say about it.

On television: the British comedies that I see tend to be much more physical comedy than American comedies. In the United States the most popular shows are sitcoms where the humor basically comes from the things that people say about their relationships. However, in British shows like "Mr. Bean" or "Monty Python's Flying Circus" much of the humor comes from people doing funny things with their bodies (prat-falls, facial expressions, and so forth). In fact, one thing my friends and I talked about doing was watching a British comedy without the sound and filling in the dialogue for ourselves. This seems pretty easy to do because so much of the acting is physical and not verbal. Of course, not all British shows are like that, but it seems like that kind of show comes from Britain.

Also, I have noticed in some British humor that I'm familiar with that perhaps the British are more comfortable with talking about death than Americans. Consider the following lines from "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" by the Smiths:
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Would be a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
The pleasure, the privilege is mine
This is an example of dark humor that Americans would just stay away from, I think, because American culture is generally uncomfortable with death. (In fact, many Americans who read this answer might not find those lines funny at all!)

Those are my observations, but I don't think I'm the end-all-be-all expert.

Answer 3

They are totally different. Since I am a British living in America I have experienced both. I love British humor. Personally it is much more funny. However Americans don't get it. American humor is very crude.

Answer 4

American humor laughs with the character while british humor laughs more at the character.

Answer 5

I'm neither British or American. I find good American humour tends to be a bit more mature (less slapstick in general) than the brits but can often be a bit obvious especially in sitcoms. But the Americans just don't seem to get black comedy (this has nothing to do with race) which is a real shame.

Answer 6

Basically our humor in America is quite different from British humor because they use different words in their jokes. This is the reason why we don't understand their humor at all. For example, subway is different from tube because both of them mean underground train.

Answer 7

The British sense of it lacks mositure; the American don't have any U.

Answer 8

I'M BLACK BRITISH AND I THINK THE BRITTS ARE CORNY.....AND HAVE A DULL SENCE OF HUMOUR...COMPARED TO AMERICANS!