In Britain we process happiness... differently, Bill Bailey - BBC

british happiness is quite different from happiness around the world because we process happiness in a different way in britain you know american friends i've met australians they're much more in the moment oh yeah they're in tonight they're much more much more upbeat much more positive i say to my australian friends how are you awesome awesome i mean genuinely non in a non-ironic way how are you mate awesome how was yesterday awesome mate today's going to be awesome what are you doing tomorrow i don't know picking up stones in the rain it's going to be awesome we never say that in a non-ironic way in britain the best you're going to get because our happiness is based on this premise things could have been a lot worse right that's as good as it gets in britain that's why the standard greeting in britain how are you not too bad that's as good as it gets in old blighty not too bad things are clearly bad but they're not quite as bad as we thought they're going to be we've dialed down our expectation to an acceptable level of disappointment we're eking out our expectation in diminishing increments of reduced joy things are not too bad there's the abyss we're not in the abyss we're in the car parking snack area adjacent to the abyss it's not too bad it's a meme it carries on from generation to generation my father recently found a cache of letters from his father writing in the trenches of northern france in 1918 and he writes this hopeful letter to his family presumably under mortar fire machine gun attack and it says we've got a candle the medical orderly got quite a nice tenor voice things are not too bad not too bad it's a first world war it's the greatest carnage the world has ever seen not too bad you know that is the ludicrous optimism of the british psyche in britain we have the highest per capita ownership of convertible cars in europe that is preposterous optimism right there when you see a couple with the top down in july their face is contorted in a richness of optimism as the horizontal hail drills into their retinas it's clearing up it's clearing up and not too bad that's just like uh it's a kind of a daily greeting you know somebody goes out in the week oh that was last night oh not too bad oh i was a night out not too bad but if you haven't seen someone in a while you get a little bit more you get a little bit you get a bit extra you say well i've seen you in ages how are you not too bad all things considered and when people say that a bit i want to say to them you have considered all things uluru uh the okavango delta the cradle of all life the alps the genius of mozart the limpid minimalism of arvo part the unplayable piano music of france list whose giant manatee like flipper hands means that if you're not a circus freak or a yeti you can't actually play the bloody stuff the tectonic plates inching around the planet knocking our brief dance on the surface those yogurts with a fruit in the corner all human artistic endeavor everything that has ever existed at a molecular level pushing someone in a pond when they least expect it sitting around the house in your pants eating gluten for a laugh wars religion ideology a rose opening up a new jar of instant coffee with a back end of a teaspoon the sensation of that the baffling longevity of linkedin standing on the rialto bridge at midnight covered in marmite naked chucking wine gums at tourists shouted i forgive you the uncountable stars the boundless universe beyond which our imagination found us on a distant shore where we dare to touch the hem of infinity's cloak you considered the opalescence that shimmers on the surface of a tear that wells up in a shepherd's eye as he as he marvels at the beauty of yet another patagonian sunrise you considered that yeah and how did you feel not too bad you

Channel: BBC

Views: 620,447

Keywords: BBC iPlayer, United Kingdom, British TV, British TV Shows, Watch UK TV Online, Watch British TV Online, Watch British TV Shows Online, bill bailey not too bad, bill bailey standup

Id: V7d79Knc8p4

Length: 5min 1sec (301 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021