The death of British humour

 

Killed off by the forces of political correctness and bureaucrats who are beyond parody...

 

Shock values: Lucy Montgomery in sketch show TittyBangBang

 

 

 

The famous British sense of humour has long been our most cherished national characteristic. We have valued it above historic military victories and great works of literature, above our rich scenic landscape and our talent for invention.

Comedians, not generals or sports stars or scientists or politicians, are the truly loved public figures of Britain. We sneer at other countries, especially Germany, which we believe lack our gift for humour.

"He's a good laugh," is the warmest personal accolade any individual can receive from friends. Our ability to make a joke of anything is supposed to have seen us through wars and crises, saved us from revolution and political extremism.

The spirit of the Blitz in the Forties, when the Luftwaffe was laying waste to large swathes of urban Britain, was based on the determination to "keep smiling through", even in the face of terrible adversity.

But, sadly, there are signs that the great British sense of humour is no longer what it once was. The eagerness for laughs seems to be receding, increasingly replaced by a mixture of priggishness and grievance.

According to a survey recently conducted by the national tourist authority VisitBritain, foreigners coming here now feel that we are "arrogant, unfriendly and have almost no sense of humour".

In this poll conducted among 35 nationalities, some tourists rated us the least funny people in the world.

Zut alors, c'est impossible!

Accusing the British of having no sense of humour is like telling Rolls-Royce that its cars are downmarket. Humour is meant to be our national lifeblood.

But I have to say that I agree with the foreign respondents. For years, I have detected that something has gone badly wrong in Britain's humour department.

Aggressive

I see it in the tragic decline in British TV comedy. Once the finest in the world, it has become an embarrassment destroyed by political correctness and reduced to depending on shock values.

The recent BBC series TittyBang-Bang, a women's sketch show, set a new benchmark in this.

Among its regular characters were an elderly pervert with a fetish for urine, a female forensic pathologist who was also a necrophiliac and a teacher who gave classes in erotic dancing to primary schoolchildren.

I also see it in the hectic, humourless and often aggressive manner in which we now lead our lives, especially in the cities. There seems to be a growing reluctance to exchange a joke or a smile.

The contrast with France, where I have spent some time in recent months, could hardly be more glaring.

There, the local newsagent, baker and grocer seem only too keen to make a quip and have a laugh, despite the poor quality of my French.

The real thorn in all this is the influence of political correctness. The ruthlessly enforced official dogma of multi-cultural-ism, with its emphasis on social divisions, means that we no longer have a sense of shared values in Britain. And without that collective norm, we cannot all laugh at the same things.

This is nothing to do with ethnicity, as some commentators might piously claim. It is do with a mutual spirit of belonging, which cultural diversity has destroyed.

The brilliant black Yorkshire comic Charlie Williams, who died last week, achieved huge success largely because he could talk to his northern audiences in their language about shared experiences of growing up in the Depression and the Blitz.

He was also superb at dealing with racism. To hecklers in his working-men's clubs, he would say: "You just be careful, otherwise I'll move in next door to you," simultaneously exposing and puncturing their prejudice.

But that sort of response does not suit the modern political establishment, which prefers censorship to humour. Thanks to its obsession with race and gender, our national instinct for comedy is being undermined.

Censorship

So, in this distinctly unBritish climate of intolerance, TV presenter Anne Robinson is questioned by the police for making a "derogatory remark" about the Welsh, while football pundit Rodney Marsh is banished from the airwaves for a joke in which David Beckham thought the tsunami was a reference to the Toon Army, the nickname for Newcastle United.

The terror of giving offence - which is the enemy of any real humour - is seen at its worst in our response to radical Islam.

Because of the genuine threat of Muslim terrorism, a climate of self-censorship prevails across Britain.

Comedians and writers, who quite happily poke fun at Christianity, dare not utter a squeak against Islam - though I suspect that the great decent Muslim majority are relaxed about such humour.

I was told a joke the other day, in which a female Islamic terrorist in a burka asks a friend: "Does my bomb look big in this?"

Hilarious, but is it permissible to say such a line in cringing modern Britain? Perhaps not.

Apart from censorship, the ugly face of political correctness can also be seen in the way TV comedy is so fixated by the demographics of its diverse audiences.

Because we no longer have shared values, media executives think that they have to devise different shows for different groups based on gender and race.

As a result, instead of universal laughter at shows such as the Two Ronnies or Morecambe And Wise, we have 'women's shows', such as Smack The Pony and the wretched TittyBangBang.

Then there are Asian comedies such as the The Kumars At No. 42 and black programmes like the hugely unamusing Little Miss Jocelyn, which would not have got near the commissioning stage if it had not been written by and starred a black woman.

There are other negative forces at work. One is the cult of victimhood, which encourages us to emphasis our suffering to win more support from the state or more sympathy from colleagues.

Where once Britons felt they should look on the bright side, now we have to wallow in our misfortune. Tripping over a paving stone is not the cue for a laugh but for a writ against the council.

Just as importantly, growing ignorance among the public, especially young people due to the dumbing-down of education, has lessened the scope for humour.

Word play, double entendres and puns used to be a feature of British comedy, but they can work only when the participants have a decent grasp of our language and culture.

Absurd

Much of Monty Python, for instance, was inspired by jokes about French philosophers or English political history, which would have no meaning today. So, instead, we end up with crudities and slapstick.

Even the civic fabric of modern Britain makes satire impossible. It is difficult to parody the governing class when John Prescott is our Deputy Prime Minister, when firemen are disciplined for refusing to distribute leaflets at a Gay Pride rally and when an Exeter woman is prosecuted for not putting out her rubbish properly.

At times, we seem to be living in a parallel universe, where the theatre of the absurd has triumphed. How else can one explain the leader of the Conservative Party telling us that it is our public duty to "hug a hoodie"?

Sir Peter Ustinov said laughter was "the most civilised music in the world". Today we are in real danger of losing that music - one of the most precious assets of British civilisation.

British humor died when Trigger Happy TV went off the air.

I agree with that article.

It's a shame really, that they can't see that pc is counter-productive.

British humour was one of the reasons I belived GB was a country that had genuinely tolerant society, without a need for that pc crap.

P.s. Is it just me, or are there lately only bad news around?

All news is bad news

British humor died when Trigger Happy TV went off the air.

 

Best...show...ever.

No, no....there's still great british comedy about.

 

Ricky Gevais

& Steven Merchant

Chris Morris

Sasha Baron Cohen

 

they are always doing great new things.

Billy Connolly is still around too..

Billy Connolly is still around too..

 

Are you suggesting that's a good thing??:confused:

And hes Scottish...

 

To be honest alot of our modern day 'humour' is just copying the american sitcoms.

Hmmm, well none of the ones I mentioned copy the US sitcoms to any large degree. But all the rubbish TV sitcoms we have do try and mimic the American style....

 

And...last time I checked, if you're Scottish, you're still British. :)

Yea i like Chris Morris- althou he in that IT crowd and that was utter shite, even if it did have the leader in an episode.

 

Do you like Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace?

The I.T Crowd was shite wasn't it....

 

I do like Dave Gorman but not Danny Wallace, sorry.

Are you suggesting that's a good thing??:confused:

 

C'mon! He's hilarious imo

C'mon! He's hilarious imo

 

20 years ago, maybe!!:P

20 years ago' date=' maybe!!:P[/quote']

 

I must admit I haven't seen/heard him for ages so you could be right. His standup is class though..

Billy Connolly is still around too..

 

 

as long as Mark is still around:P

 

 

hahahahaha....:laugh4:

as long as Mark is still around:P

 

 

hahahahaha....:laugh4:

 

Of course!:smug::P