English Humour - Does it exist and how to understand it!

British people have a sense of humour? Really? YES! Of course we do….we just hide it really well…. Hahahaha!

They say if you can understand a joke in another language, you’re doing really well. But it’s not just understanding the language used - the  vocabulary and grammar. It’s about understanding the cultural context that goes with the joke, which is the difficult part at times. 

Understanding humor isn’t just about enjoying yourself and having a laugh. Humor is an ice breaker and help you to form friendships with native speakers - enjoying a humorous moment can be a great for bonding with new friends. If you don’t get the joke you can feel left out and isolated from the others. 

This happened to me several times. Once I remember sitting at a table full of Spanish speakers who were discussing a funny situation. I was desperately trying to keep up with the conversation and understand what they were talking about. They spoke so quickly and with lots of slang, so it was very hard for me to understand. Just as I managed to understand the main topic that they were talking about, they all exploded into laughter. They were all laughing and smiling at each other and I found myself the only person not laughing. I quickly started smiling because I didn’t want to seem like I was having a bad time or for the other people at the table to think that I wasn’t a fun person who didn’t know how share a joke.  I felt like I must seem like a really serious person who didn’t know how to have fun - totally unlike me. It’s strange as well because you feel like nobody knows the real you. So, it’s hard. Even when you start getting stronger in learning a language, sometimes it takes even longer to be able to understand humour. 

But even if you don’t necessarily get the joke, you can still show a sense of humour  - when you make mistakes , laugh at yourself and show that you are ok with this learning period. Remember that if you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t learning! When you make a mistake and are able to laugh at it, then you relax and have fun, which helps you to remember the lesson. It’s always better to have fun when learning. It is said that laughter is the best medicine!

British people don’t like obvious humour - we prefer irony, understatement, dry humour, or just plain dead pan sarcasm. These can be tricky for those who aren’t native Brits. It can be hard to work out when they are being jokey or not - most of the time the humour is delivered with a straight face. You need to ask yourself if what the person is saying makes sense or not….if they have a deadpan face (serious or neutral) and are saying something ridiculous, then chances are they are joking with you. 

The main forms of  types of British humour are:

•  Sarcasm and Irony
•  Understatement
• Self Deprecation

Sarcasm and Irony

They are mostly used to keep conversations light and friendly.

 Sarcasm means saying one thing but actually meaning the opposite. This is meant to amuse and to point out or highlight something. Sarcasm is used to make fun of something or someone else.

“That’s delicious….yummy!” when you hate their cooking

Brits usually use sarcasm when they’ve been asked an obvious or pointless question or with insincere speech. 

For example, when asking the winner of  a marathon if they had trained at all….

“No, I just got out of bed and thought I’d do a bit of exercise this morning….”

The use of irony in British humour usually is about the situation you find yourself in, with the opposite result occurring to the one that was expected. For example - 

“What a beautiful day for a wedding….”  when it’s pouring with rain.

Understatement

Brits like to make statements that are understatements - when someone deliberately makes out that something is less significant than it is and refusing to be overwhelmed by anything. 

“Oh dear, that’s going to hurt a little bit! ” when someone has just had their arm cut off.

“It’s a little warm out today…” when it’s 40 degrees and people are fainting from the hot weather.

Brits aren’t really into showing extremes of feelings and prefer moderate statements when describing something. We use adverbs of degree a lot such as “Not bad” when we want to say that something was actually good.

Brits use understatement in humour in sad or stressful situations to make things seem less serious and to make the other person laugh or smile. It’s a way to make stressful occasions less ‘heavy’.

Self Deprecation

Brits are the first to laugh at themselves. Mostly, we try not to take ourselves too seriously and we look for areas where we are not so strong and laugh at ourselves and our weak spots. In Britain, people who stand up and declare themselves very important or knowledgeable will find themselves the brunt of jokes. That doesn’t mean that Brits don’t value those who are important or knowledgeable, but they prefer it when people don’t self congratulate. This is why the British don’t talk about their achievements or boast about how clever they are. Modesty rules! Brits are famous for putting themselves down and being humble is admired. I think it means that if you are able to look at your errors or weaknesses and bring them to the surface and talk about them openly, it means that you are a confident enough person to be able to deal with more negative traits that you may have.

Well, we are a sarcastic nation, and our humour often gets lost in translation. But don’t give up! I think the key to success is to not take yourself too seriously and enjoy your language learning rollercoaster ride. Laughter is the best medicine! I hope these tips have helped you a little. 

Keep smiling and enjoy your English language learning journey with World Language Explorers!