British Humour Explained (with examples)

[Music] 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 lingo de lingo de is an online language school where you can study French Spanish German English and business English 24 hours a day seven days a week from anywhere in the world as long as you have a stable internet connection you learn with native qualified teachers in both group and private classes when you complete enough courses you receive AC EFR certificate ranging from a1 which is beginner to c2 which is advanced you follow a structured curriculum and can choose from over 1,000 classes which means you can tailor what you learn to your profession and interests lingo to have given me a special offer to pass on to you if you click on the link in the description box and sign up using my code Lucy 11 you will get a 20% discount on all lingo de packages for your first month I've tried lingo to myself and I think it's a fantastic way to improve your language skills and practice with native 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 [Music] 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 you can use my code Lucy 11 to get 20% off all in go to packages for your first month don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my facebook I've got my Instagram and I've got my Twitter 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 [Music] 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 [Music] [Music]

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 1,241,478

Rating: 4.9033017 out of 5

Keywords: british humor, british humour, british sense of humor, british sense of humour, british humour examples, british humour explained, british humor examples, american vs british, american vs british humor, american vs british humour, british humor explained, english with lucy humour, english with lucy humor, british sarcasm, british innuendo, british comedy, british wit, british puns, puns, british irony

Id: LNFw1XcRu_E

Length: 16min 31sec (991 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2019