British Humour Explained with examples

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welcome back to English with Lucy today

I’ve got a very different video but it’s

been extremely highly requested a lot of

you have been telling me that you don’t

understand British humour or that you

would like to understand British humour

so today I’m going to talk you through

British humour help you to understand it

a little bit more and give you some

phrases that you can also use to

participate in British humour so our

sense of humor can do two things it can

make people feel excluded because they

don’t understand what’s going on and it

can also make people feel offended

because it can be or it can appear to be

quite offensive but don’t worry we’re

going to cover all of that today this

video might be one of the most important

videos I’ve ever done on my channel

humor the British sense of humor is very

important to me quickly before we get

started and know this isn’t sarcasm but

we will cover that later I would like to

thank the sponsor of today’s video it is

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qualified teachers right let’s get on

with this very humorous lesson so what

is British humour well I’m going to

break it down into I think eight

categories but in general

we just love to ridicule and make fun of

everyday life the absurdity of everyday

life one of our most popular comedians

is Michael McIntyre and literally all he

does is make witty remarks about

everyday life he makes us laugh about

ourselves and the things that we do that

we don’t even think of he makes us

analyze them and think wow that’s

ridiculous I’ll leave a link to some of

his videos and his work in the

description box below so first let’s

talk about irony irony this is when we

highlight when something is different

from or the opposite of what is expected

this is incredibly important in British

humor an example of irony could be our

local fire station burnt down last night

obviously you would not expect a fire

station to burn down you would expect

that they would take care of their

building just as they take care of other

buildings that would be very ironic well

we love highlighting these ironic

situations we love highlighting irony

the irony of everyday life another

example could be you know our friend Pat

the marriage counselor

unfortunately her and her husband

getting a divorce we would find that

very very funny obviously we’d be sad

for Pat and her husband but the irony

would not be lost on us phrases we can

use so if somebody says something to you

that you think might be ironic you can

say of the irony oh the irony or you

could also say oh how ironic or better

yet say nothing at all just smile just a

coy smile would be fine now one step on

from irony is sarcasm this is something

that we are famous for sarcasm uses

irony to mock or ridicule a great

example of British sarcasm in its purest

form was actually performed by my father

at his father’s my grandfather’s funeral

we like to make light of any situation

here in the UK before we start my

grandfather had a great sense of humor

he was always laughing and he would

absolutely love this so my dad was put

in charge of writing the eulogy for the

funeral and he also had to read that

eulogy out in the I was gonna say

confident what is it well what’s it

what’s that place where you do a reading

in a church pulpit thank you I got it

okay so he had to give this reading of

the eulogy in the pulpit at the front of

the church to everyone who was attending

the funeral now because this eulogy was

so long they divided it into two parts

they were going to have a little break

and his sister my aunt Mary was going to

choose three songs that yetee really

liked that reminded her of yetee and she

was going to put them in this interval

so all was going well she turned on the

songs very well but when it came to

turning the music off it was quite

abrupt it was literally like

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my father still using his funeral voice

with not a smile on his face just said

beautifully faded out Mary and then just

continued delivering this eulogy and it

was hilarious but I did think had my

students begin at this funeral they

would have been like so shocked and

offended that my dad would make such a

like a joke at this my granddad would

have loved it and the whole family found

it hilarious and actually that’s a

really good example of deadpan or dry

humor which we’ll talk about next but

first a couple of phrases you can use

when you are attempting to use sarcasm

if somebody misunderstands you and gets

offended you can say I’m being sarcastic

also say that with no smile because

that’s quite funny or that was sarcasm

so if you’re worried that they might not

understand as soon as you say something

sarcastic you can say I absolutely loved

your dancing that was sarcasm so yes

I’ve mentioned before deadpan or dry

humor this is when you say something

amusing or funny with a very straight

face and a very serious tone the best

jokes are delivered dryly this is more

of a tactic because you know that your

joke is funny you have the confidence

and intelligence to know that what

you’ve said is funny because you’ve said

it with a straight face but people have

still laughed it can add that extra

shock factor this is why it’s so easy to

offend people with British humor we

often confuse Americans because they

their humor I love American humor but

the humor is more obvious and

in-your-face so sometimes if we say

something that appears insulting with a

straight face well they would normally

make a joke like that with a smile on

their face or making it obvious that

they’re joking so there can be some

confusion next we have my favorite one

which is wit making witty comments this

is making it quick and intelligent

remarks and comments preferably with a

straight face this is all about being

quick thinking and clever we love

feeling in or of someone when they make

a completely unplanned or off-the-cuff

joke that fits in perfectly with the

conversation

this can be really really hard for

non-native speakers I experienced

exactly what you’re experiencing in

Spanish because I’d want to make a quick

comment it would come into my head but

by the time it actually came out of my

mouth the conversation had moved on so

to make witty comments and to be witty

you have to be really clever and really

quick and good with your language skills

to be described as witty in the UK is

the mother of all compliments it really

really is so if anyone ever says that

was very witty or you’re very witty you

should take that as a really really big

one next we have self deprecation

self-deprecating humor this is one that

you may have seen in a lot of my videos

actually it’s quite an easy one to do

but it’s hard to not overdo it actually

it can just get depressing are for a

while this is simply making fun of

oneself so like me making fun of myself

or you making fun of yourself we don’t

like to show off too much in the UK this

is a very important component of British

humour and culture actually Americans

might say America is the greatest and

Brits might say Britain is a great place

to visit if you don’t mind poor weather

and questionable food we love making fun

of ourselves whether that’s ourselves as

a person or ourselves as a nation other

examples going into work and saying oh I

don’t like I got dressed in the dark

this morning or talking about how bad

you are at cooking so bad at cooking I

could burn water they’re just little

comments quite amusing that we throw out

and they are making fun of ourselves

then we have innuendos or double

entendre these are amazing this is when

we intentionally say things that could

be interpreted as taboo or sexual in

meaning these are a huge part of British

culture and British humour because

they’re so easy to slip in anywhere

because they’re not directly offensive

or rude but once you know the meaning of

them it can be quite shocking to see

that they are in the newspaper or in a

children’s TV program an example could

be there’s a plate of sausages over

there would you like to give her one

well to give him or her

one means to give them sexual

intercourse I guess and obviously the

fact that sausages involved make this

more emphasized but actually sexual

innuendos and double entendres can be

found anywhere especially in headlines

of newspapers and in general

conversation I remember being around six

years old my childhood home was very

near to my lover school and I was

sitting underneath a hedge so I was

hidden from the path that led to my

school and I was watching my dad do work

in his vegetable patch so I couldn’t be

seen but people could see in and see my

dad and I heard one of my teachers

walking along with another teacher say

to say to her companion I’d rather see

his meat and two veg and I remember

going daddy why did mrs. I want to see

your meat and two veg and he obviously

went very red they had gone by then but

I remember him telling my mum about it

over dinner and her being shocked and

also laughing loads and it took me a

couple of years to understand what they

meant

obviously meat and two veg means a man’s

private area I guess because of the

shape of anyway let’s not go too far

into it but it took me a while to

understand but yeah that’s a good

example of sexual innuendo and obviously

it was my teacher saying it she

shouldn’t have said that next we have

banter Oh banter is rife in the UK this

is playful teasing that can actually be

quite harsh it’s normally used with our

friends and family people that we are

close to we know we have that rapport

with but we can also use against other

cultures especially Americans Germans

and French there seems to be some good

banter going on between us it’s very

common in pub culture and lad culture so

for example if a male friend is starting

to lose his hair well he will probably

be picked on and teased about that in

his group of friends but don’t worry

it’s just banter it can be quite

offensive sometimes and covered up as

banter

in general it’s a really funny thing

there is a difference between banter and

witty banter witty banter is much more

intelligent and clever banter can just

be teasing sometimes with an excuse I

love it though I think it’s hilarious a

common form of like nationwide banter is

the rule that if anyone in a pub

anywhere drops a glass and it makes a

noise everyone has to go way and it’s so

embarrassing you for that person this

happened to me it’s happened to most

people but yes make sure you join in

with the way but don’t start the way if

you’re in a pub in the UK lastly we have

puns or play on words this is just

wordplay it’s making funny comments by

bending and using the language this is

something that we love to hate we all go

ah and groan when we hear a bad pun but

we might you know go very good if we

hear a really clever one it’s very

common to see puns on shopfronts shop

names for example there’s a fish and

chip shop called the Codfather play on

words with the Godfather we have a

hairdressers called a cut above the rest

which is hilarious kind of there’s a

kebab shop called abra cadabra which i

think is brilliant a bakery called bread

pit and a green grocers called planet of

the grapes hilarious love it they are

terrible but brilliant and they are very

very British in fact if you search shop

name puns on Google you can spend a good

couple of hours laughing and the

creativity of these shop owners right I

think we’ve covered most of the basis of

British humour if you have any other

doubts please comment them down below

and I’ll try and help you out and also

let me know about any similarities or

differences with your culture and

language I’d also love to know if you

have any good puns or jokes always up

for a laugh when I’m checking my comment

section it divides up the hate quite

nicely right and that’s it for today’s

lesson I hope you enjoyed it and I hope

you learnt something and I hope it

cleared up a couple of your doubts about

British

humor don’t forget to check out lingo

the link is in the description box and

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Lucy 11 to get 20% off all in go to

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and I shall see you soon for another

lesson yeah okay a little bit of a

different video but a highly I mean

gonna is an online language of school

languages school I am in Spanish my

language is cool

okay tengo de is an online language

something is echoing hey oh it’s cuz I

cleared this room there used to be like

loads of stuff and now it’s clean so

exactly

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William hello it’s mango thank you very

much say hello he’s been on the farm you

can’t do that oh he’s just describing

he’s not sponsored by added us but if

they’re interested he will be wall up

for that scene a bit another example

could be you know my friend Pat the

marriage counselor I think today why

can’t I speak Jay

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