NWR: Humor (work in progress)

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Sharon Bowman

Sharon Bowman
I feel like I have had a breakthrough.

I have always been puzzled by the French sense of humor. Sometimes I like things; sometimes they are painfully, awkwardly unfunny.

I have often, often liked the British sense of humor, and it is world-renowned as full of delicious quirks.

(I am using a broad brush here, obviously.)

But tonight I realized a commonality and a difference in the way the two work, when they work.

The British sense of humor is about how one is meant to conform in a society—and the humor: hey, this is totally not conforming. It is unintentionally socially awkward. Someone (the main character, a Basil Fawlty or what have you) does not realize he is being socially awkward and making everyone else uncomfortable by dint of said ignorance.

The French sense of humor is about how one is meant to conform in a society—and the humor is that one brutally, drastically does something inappropriate on purpose.

Both are of societies that are full of social codes and ways of acting, but whose humor reacts to such a native condition in different ways.

A British humor: ? (Many come to mind, but I can't think of an iconic one.)

A French humor: Moncuq.
 
Also, as in your Moncuq example, the French seem to love toying with language, especially via puns, alliteration, and the like. Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists and their literary jeux, etc.
 
That's a great point. But I was also thinking of "prank" French comics like Jean-Yves Lafesse and Michaël Youn and things like that....
 
Most interesting musings, winegrrrl. As you say, that's a pretty broad brush. Whenever Americans speak of "British" humor as a monolithic entity, I think of the divide: for every Python or Goon Show there is also a Benny Hill. As for French humor, there is of course M. Hulot and related characters. Nonetheless, your thesis bears some consideration. FTR, where does the legendary American sense of humor (SNL, Red Skelton, etc) fit into your schema?

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Most interesting musings, winegrrrl. As you say, that's a pretty broad brush. Whenever Americans speak of "British" humor as a monolithic entity, I think of the divide: for every Python or Goon Show there is also a Benny Hill. As for French humor, there is of course M. Hulot and related characters. Nonetheless, your thesis bears some consideration. FTR, where does the legendary American sense of humor (SNL, Red Skelton, etc) fit into your schema?

Mark Lipton
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Slapstick is a good point and maybe a stumbling block. Will have to mull and respond. Likewise, I'd excluded American humor precisely because we don't have as rigid a set of social appearances. You can't do fumbling like the Brits, and you can't do calling madame monsieur or what have you like the French.

But tonight I watched a French (very French) parody of 007 films and loved the French takedowns and the food for thought of the weird intersections (or dispersions) of what we three cultures (and others) find mirth-making.

More demain.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman: I'd excluded American humor precisely because we don't have as rigid a set of social appearances. You can't do fumbling like the Brits, and you can't do calling madame monsieur or what have you like the French.
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Is that really the cross-cultural line you want to draw?

Top comedy always plays with social expectations on some level, whether explicitly or implicitly. (In the US I think of Seinfeld, Louie CK, Chris Rock, Key and Peele are recent favorites in the sketch genre)

So how important is it that one social expectation is formed around pronouns and another is formed around responses to common situations. Perhaps our version is more fragmented and we're less prone to Nationwide Comics that speak to us all?

But is that really the dividing line?
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman: I'd excluded American humor precisely because we don't have as rigid a set of social appearances. You can't do fumbling like the Brits, and you can't do calling madame monsieur or what have you like the French.
Click to expand...

Is that really the cross-cultural line you want to draw?

Top comedy always plays with social expectations on some level, whether explicitly or implicitly. (In the US I think of Seinfeld, Louie CK, Chris Rock, Key and Peele are recent favorites in the sketch genre)

So how important is it that one social expectation is formed around pronouns and another is formed around responses to common situations. Perhaps our version is more fragmented and we're less prone to Nationwide Comics that speak to us all?

But is that really the dividing line?
Click to expand...

Speaking of standup comics, while the references are different, it seems to me the style and attitude of comics like Jamel Debbouze and Gad Elmaleh aren't that different from many U.S. comics.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Zachary Ross:
...the French seem to love toying with language, especially via puns, alliteration, and the like.
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Unlike which country exactly?
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Of course you're right. Then again, it's telling that in English we use the French term "double-entendre."
 
originally posted by Zachary Ross: it's telling that in English we use the French term "double-entendre."
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But telling of what exactly?

I always laugh because it fits the stereotypes perfectly that in German they pronounce the word 'restaurant' in the French way. But they do the same thing for 'budget' and their word for wallet is 'porte-monnaie', and the national stereotypes around finance have certainly changed since whenever those terms entered the language.
 
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