A winning perspective on the great continental divide between the American Comic and his British predecessor. Stephen Fry describes that what makes British humor great is its starting point at, quite literally, original sin. British humor, unlike the American one-liner, involves the capacity to accept one’s own unchanging failures, which actually makes for true character development. While it could be argued that, while the American hides behind the glory-story, the Brit hides behind his or her self-abasement (or even his or her nihilism), it certainly seems to make realer on-screen personalities. The first two minutes are golden, ht CE:
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3 responses to “A Glory of Our Failure: Stephen Fry on the Anthropology of British Humor”
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This is tremendous….
Loved when he was talking about the scene in “Animal House” where Belushi finds a guy on the back stairs playing a guitar and singing a folk song, and then proceeds to take the guitar and smash it to bits.
[Paraphrase] “In that scene the British comedian would rather play the role of the poor schmuck with the guitar, than he would the role played by Belushi”
That is such a great way to illustrate the difference…….and why I find films like “About a Boy” and “Bridget Jones Diary” so much more re-watchable than many American comedies.
In fact, for me, some of the most inspired funny moments in film are in British dramas – “Secrets and Lies”, “Billy Elliott”, and the Jane Austen adaptations all come to mind.
I do think that Louis C.K. is the American comedian that most resembles this style.
Amazing. A-plus … or maybe it’s an F-minus. But still, amazing.