Lost in Translation

Hello everyone. I've been on this board a while now and, every now and then, slip into the humour section of SYW. And each time that I do, well, the same thing always happens.

You see, kind folks, I am from England, where the humour seems to be, well, a little different. The work that I read on SYW is, for the most part, always well written and presented and I often I see critters referring to something being so funny that they spit out their coffee or fall on the floor laughing. And I just sit there not getting it. I will read over a piece again, just to make sure it isn't me then, with a heavy sigh, move my mouse towards the top of the page.

Out of all the genres it seems that humour is the one that lmost loses in translation. Mysteries, thrillers, romances, sci-fi, none of these seem to have this problem.

A lot of the humour on this site seems to be centred around hometown or domestic experiences experiences, gently told in a homely style that is always pleasant to read. And that is the problem, for me. It is nothing more than pleasant.

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this. Is humour the most difficult genre to cross those cultural boundaries or am I looking at it in the wrong way . . .

Kind regards,

Lifelong

AKA Eraser...

Now that is funny ...

I have never found Mr Bean funny, clever in parts, but never actually funny.
The Monty Python films, particularly Life of Brian, have always made me laugh. The Meaning of Life was also really funny, if a little less consistently so. 'A wafer thin mint, sir' . . .

I suppose the humour that I like, which appears to be particularly British, although I may be wrong here, is the surrealistic lunacy of the likes of Spike Milligan, some of the Monty Python stuff, Eddie Izzard and, more recently, Sir Ricky of Gervais.

On this board, I find Angelus very funny.

British humour runs the gammut from the old Benny Hill slapstick, which I hate, to the observational brilliance of Peter Kay. It tends to be sardonic, sarcastic, and, sometimes, merely a stream of consciousness that makes very little sense. It is the last of these that I find the funniest.

I hate sitcoms with a passion, wherever they come from.

Coming from an English working class background, most of the humour I encounter tends to be somewhat near the knuckle, which wouldn't translate well on the page. My own humour is a little off the wall and not really based, I suppose, on what you would call a literal reality.

When I get a moment, which may not be for a couple of weeks, perhaps I will post a little something on SYW, should make for interesting discussion . . .

Kind regards,

Lifelong