American Vs British Comedy - Which Is Better?

[Applause] what is the difference between British and American humor a lot of people out there believe it's down to optimism and pessimism many think that naturally Americans are more hopeful so as a result their media is more happy and the British are well miserable so we like to see the world burn through which is reflected and how often sad and dark a lot of our media is now there is some truth to that but if you're to ask me that's only scratching the surface and while it is correct it's only a fragment of a larger picture and it's kind of misleading because using that logic American people are more happy than the British are but according to 2018 census by the UN the happiness levels in the UK and the US are almost identical in fact they're so similar they're ranked dead next to each other when compared to every other country in the world so when people say that the difference in humor is because America is more happy than Britain well it's just not true because nowadays were all as depressed as each other that was British humor right there quite dry pessimistic and self-deprecating we're the victim of the joke is myself the joke teller as I say it now in the UK if you make a joke similar to that about for example how bad your grades are at school it would probably be received with quite a few laughs but if you made the exact same joke in America a lot of people might be genuinely worried and think that you lack confidence in yourself some wouldn't even recognise that you're making a joke at all that's not necessarily a bad thing it just highlights the difference between the two cultures but I think a great place to start off and break down how they're so different is by comparing the average British sitcom and the average American sitcom and they really ask some very interesting differences one of the biggest is in how almost all British comedies it ends in disaster tik Fawlty Towers or Black Adder for example two of the most popular British comedies ever made every sing episode of both of those shows without exception ends in total disaster the protagonist will have a task he will try to complete that task and just when all seems well everything goes horribly wrong and it ends with quite frankly an unhappy ending for example in one episode of Fawlty Towers there's a health inspector having a look at the hotel all the world is wrapped on the loose and the staff are trying to catch it and after a huge amount of effort and shenanigans and some very close calls they finally catch the rat and all is well except the last shot of the episode is the protagonist pulling off the lid of the biscuit into the inspector for the rat to be munching on the biscuits leaving the audience to imagine what kind of awful consequences are going to happen or in black head aware one episode he has to rat out a German spy in the field hospital there's a German spy in the hospital and it's my job to find him and all seems well in the end he's caught a spy and she's off to be shot by firing squad without a trial except just at the last moment it's revealed that there was no spy it was all just a misunderstanding and black henna just sent an innocent nurse off to be executed and the final moments are of him learning that alongside his fellow officer who hates him as they both dash off to tell the commander leaving us all to imagine what dire consequences Blackadder is going to face I mean the very last episode of Black Adder ends with all the characters going over the top and die I mean it doesn't get much more depressing than that but when you look to the other side of the Atlantic you do see more hopeful shows it's quite common for American sitcoms to end happily for there to be a great emotional catharsis - not so much leave the audience laughing in tears like the British do but rather more inclined to leave the audience with actual tears for example in the American office Michael and Dwight are two characters who have a very bitter hate-filled relationship except when Michael leaves the show he leaves Dwight with a letter of recommendation and this happens to whom it may concern good real personal thanks Michael the dictionary defines superlative as of the highest kind quality or order I define it as Dwight Schrute as a sales executive as a man and as a friend he is of the highest kind quality supreme and the character realizes in that moment just how much he grossly underestimated how much Michael means to him and it creates this powerful revelation that brings the audience to tears there is nothing wrong with that approach to comedy Futurama is a cartoon comedy you wouldn't expect that to be these heartwarming moments that bring the audience to tears but a huge amount of episodes tug at the heartstrings for example Fry becomes a master musician with a fictional instrument and becomes beloved by the public but when he loses his talent at the end of the episode everyone leaves his concert except for one please don't stop playing fry I want to hear how it ends and then his girlfriend stays behind and watches his performance because she truly doesn't care how talented a player he is she only cares about making him happy that is a really satisfying ending and you could bet that if Futurama were a British comedy that episode would have ended in total disaster where even his girlfriend left him in the end American comedy is just more happy than British comedy and that's no real secret and from a certain way of thinking it's a flaw with British comedy as characters are often denied that ability to be real to create genuine emotion in the audience the IT Crowd is a very funny British comedy but I just can't imagine one of those characters having a serious heart-to-heart with one another they just aren't given that chance now it's one thing to talk about how the two styles of comedy are different but in this video I want to do something more I want to address a side of the argument that has never been really talked about I want to try and explain why they're different why Americans enjoy happy shows and why the British don't so much and if you ask me humor is a construct of culture the culture of a country has a massive effect on the sense of humor that country has and few things affect culture more than the news now this next bit is no great social theory or proven idea it's just my own opinion so taken as you will but in my opinion one of the biggest things that affects the fact American prefer their media to be happy is because of the news more specifically because the news in the USA is so dark and fearful it's no secret to anybody that the news is just a constant battering ram of fear-mongering if you want to be terrified there's never-ending coverage they can make you scared shitless now it's no secret that there is a massive fundamental difference between the news in the UK and the news in the US and in my opinion is a difference so important that it actually affects the taste in media those two cultures have when you actually sit down in England to watch The Evening News you realize something it's cold they will address the day's news in a detached way the anchor will read out the news emotionless from the teleprompter almost like a very good text-to-speech program and will never directly say their own opinion to the audience that's something you would be well let's say hard-pressed to find in US News they will rarely sensationalize stories and to be honest what you the news in the UK is kind of boring the thing about the BBC news is like it or hate it it's state-funded which means two important things then on profit and thusly they don't run ads the people telling the news on TV in the UK are not incentivized to make money they really don't care how many people tune in and watch every day however in the u.s. it's the exact opposite when you look at CNN Fox and all the other news providers they are private companies above all else they want to make money so they run as the number of viewers they have directly links to how much money they earn so those new sources are heavily incentivized to sensationalize the news - in all respects make the people afraid because when the people are afraid what do they do they watch the news even more which means those companies earn much more money as a great example you can look at how back in 2014 the Ebola virus was starting to spread and it was a big worry for many people he is how that viral outbreak was covered in the UK of British troops are being sent to West Africa a small number of cases will reach the UK we can contain it Britain is at the forefront of preventing the spread a message for the public don't worry and here is how that exact same story in the USA in a country just as well equipped to stop a viral outbreak as the UK was covered here in America the killer virus spreading much faster than efforts to contain it spiraling out of control stop admitting West Africans into America right now the difference is uncanny and the reason why is really quite simple if you're worried about something you switch on the news and they say everything is fine don't worry about it then you probably switch off and go do something else but if the news is saying that everything is spiraling out of control and heavily implying that that deadly virus will be at your front door soon and because you keep watching you spend more time watching their adverts which means more money goes into their pockets the immigrants are trying to take your job and pedophiles are trying to your kids and terrorists are coming to blow up your Ford Focus in particular now this all comes back to comedy to why Americans enjoy happy movies and happy comedies so much more than the British do and my theory is that it's all a result of that culture of that well fear culture because usually rather well intentionally toxic messages American news spreads it makes the people more fearful more distrusting more paranoid but in the UK that kind of news coverage is so much more rare and that results in the American people having a proclivity to escapism they want to lose themselves in the happy fantasy of their media to escape from that culture of fear the news works so hard to create and I think what's quite interesting on that point is the straight man he or she is a character in comedy where they are totally normal when every other character is stupid or naive or has a massive ego or any other character flaw that straight man has no flaws very often you'll see this take the form of the wisecracker someone who is always incredibly wet he always has some clever one line or something funny to say and there is no better example of the wisecracker than in Seinfeld the protagonist Seinfeld is a near-perfect character and he fills that role of the wisecracker like a glove name please Seinfeld you made a reservation for a midsize and she's a small getting around a foot unfortunately we ran out of cars but the reservation keeps the car here that's why you have the reservation I know why we have reservations I don't think you do in Seinfeld the protagonist is exceptionally witty he always has something clever to say and this comes back to the whole notion of the straight man the idea of that character and comedy who is normal and has no big character flaws where the butt of the joke is not him but more so the people around it and it's a pretty common trope in American comedies for example Michael in Arrested Development where everyone in his family is seemingly insane except for him why does everybody think that I'm scared of girls because you're a chicken but in British comedies such a character is very rare now there are exceptions on both sides for example Parks and Recreation is an American comedy with no real straight man everyone in that show is flawed for example Leslie the woman who is desperately naive April the intern whose nihilistic and hates everyone run the guy who is okay I have no clue how to describe Ron Swanson hi my Yorkshire Terrier has chewed up the legs on my kitchen table is there a cheap way to repair that great question ditch the Terrier and get yourself a proper dog any dog under fifty pounds is a cat and cats are pointless and that straight man troupe is one that's pretty popular in America and it's pretty rare in Britain and I think that's an extension of that escapism as Stephen Fry once excellently put it the American comic hero is a wisecracker who is above his mature and who is above the idiots around him all the great British comic heroes are people who want life to be better and on whom life craps from a terrible height and whose sense of dignity is constantly compromised by the world letting them down in a sense comedy is the microcosm that allows us to examine the entire difference between our two cultures the thing about a straight man is that they are more than just a character they do more than just create comedy because in a sense they are a vessel for the audience to project themselves onto you on a subconscious level when you see a wisecracker saying funny one-liners and pushing customer service people into their place on a subconscious level the audience projects themselves onto their character which assists in that escapism and that example of Seinfeld tearing apart the customer service I think it's a wonderful reflection of that idea everyone has had crappy experiences with customer service but in this scene Seinfeld does what we all wish we had done with witty comebacks he essentially destroys the employees dignity and outlines in great detail why they've done their job wrong so you know how to take the reservation you just don't know how to hold and that's really the most important part of the reservation anybody can just take again there is nothing wrong with that style of comedy as it is just that a style of humor that's no worse or better than the others but what do you think am i right or is the real difference between British and American comedy something else entirely I'd love to know what you think in the comments down below so today I want to end this video on a note that hits quite close to home and that note is internet security Sonor VPN has very kindly sponsor today's video and honestly I couldn't be happier because it's one of the few services out there that I would and have recommended to friends and family and that service is what myself and many respected reviewers are calling the best VPN you can get in fact their service has helped me so much as long as they have it I know I will never stop using it and well why is a service like Nord VPN so important to have well the simple truth is that nowadays if you are someone who your privacy and security online you need a good VPN what no VPN does is it uses military-grade encryption on all your coming and going information to your PC laptop phone and tablet so if there are any prying eyes looking at your information it will 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Channel: undefined

Views: 1,172,120

Rating: 4.8724918 out of 5

Keywords: vpn, net neutrality, vpn for android, vpn for pc, humour, humor, british, american, english, vs, british vs american, america vs britain, england, america, ron swanson, monty python, futurama, video, essay, video essay, seinfeld, blackadder, the office, office, the closer, look, the closer look, closer look, news, media, bbc, now you see it, now you, see it, comedy, stand up

Id: -tXuvzZKTI0

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Stay-a-while]

If you like British and government humour then watch Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Bloody hilarious.