Why do Americans not understand the British sense of humour?

Answer 1

Because its too dry and intelligent for them.

Americans prefer the stupid obvious, explained humour. British humour tends to be more subtle and as a result, much more funny.

Answer 2

It's a cultural thing. Americans are raised on fast pace TV. We have short commercials , short attention spans, and we enjoy a more slap stick sort of quick blunt joke.

British people have longer commercials, The feel they are more educated (and probably are) and they have a more monotone since of humor.

You can see a clear difference in the things we draw our attention to in the difference between our news. Britain is more about discussion and politics and we want to know how many people were killed and raped that day.

A good example is The Office. There are two versions. You can see that we do understand there humor but our culture is different and thus we need a different angle. So the answer your looking for as to why many Americans don't understand British humor is culture.

Answer 3

Its because the Atlantic Ocean separates us and theres so much distance between us. We do not talk about the same things, share the feelings of the same news, and barely share the same culture. Things in Britain are not as appealing as they are in the US, thats why many British TV shows are "Americanized" before they are played here, and vise versa. Its really no difference from saying "Why don't Americans understand Israeli humor?" Its just that were too far away and have different tastes/cultures. However, I view Sean of the Dead as one of the funniest spoof movies ever.

Answer 4

Dude,

This crap question has been asked over and over again, and time and time again it has been proven wrong. And the whole thing about Americans not getting irony either.

When Monty Python started (which by the way, isn't your only humorous export, just letting you know that I know that) they were very reluctant to bring it to the U.S. Like you, they thought that their humor was "above the yanks" and too "sophisticated". Eric Idle chalked it up to them just being "arrogant old buggers". When they did do it over here, very British humor, the U.S. couldn't get enough of it.

Spamalot, a broadway show about Monty Python which ran about a year ago, won a bunch of Tonys.

Why some of the British seem to think that we don't get your humor, when it's so blatently obvious that we do, is beyond me.

Answer 5

two nations seperated by a common language,,,,,,,,,,,,,
We the Brits love to mock ourselves,Dads army.Keeping up appearances,Hi De Hi, Ali G etc. we hate others doing it to us.Taking the mick out of the Brits is a British reserve.
The American humour appears to the British as contrived,a bit predictable,that doesn`t make it unfunny ,just different.
I used to live in Spain and a big comedt show there was called Homo Zapping,it was a sketch show we watched because we couldn`t believe they thought it was the slightest bit funny,in fact it was shite,but they laughed.
There is a lovely word in German meaning the homour you derive from watching disaster fall on others.ie tripping over etc it is Shardenfruoder

Answer 6

The British have a sense of humor?

Answer 7

Why do we have to understand your humor? I find it hilarious that some of u british will critize us up and down for us expecting other people to know everything about our culture, while ur doing the exact same thing right now...

Answer 8

Are you sure that the British have a sense of humour?

Answer 9

Why do the British not understand the American sense of humor?

We are different cultures, and we therefore find different things humerous in our societies.

Answer 10

I happen to enjoy little britan!...

jokes aside, like someone already mentioned - humour is often very culture related, and so if we didn't grow up in or around britan or europe some things might be hard to understand for others. :] easy answer I say!