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
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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
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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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