Exhibit of British Television Comedy

The Ant, An Introduction

The recent controversy stemming from Ricky Gervais’ hosting job at the Golden Globes Awards has provided the perfect opportunity to examine British humour in general, and British television comedy, in particular, the medium that made Ricky Gervais a household name.  Why did American critics rankle at the apparently unbridled humour by Gervais and what does this highlight about the character of British humour? 

    

People go on quite a bit about the differences between American and British humour.  To sum up generally, the difference can be stated as sentiment versus irony.  Both places have both types, but each concentrates on one style and does not understand the others’ apparently excessive use of the other style. 

What is British Comedy, anyway?  The thing is, British comedy is rarely just one thing and is often a combination of many things.  Those things include, but are not limited to laughing at naughty words, sexual innuendo, satire of the class system, mocking authority figures, slapstick, farce, puns and word-play, accenting the British tendency towards embarrassment, and generally pointing out the absurdities of modern life, often by putting it in a foreign context for contrast.  

British television comedy can plausibly be separated into two eras, before Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974) and after.  Monty Python having been described as The Beatles of comedy had their precedents and influences and then there are the comedies that were influenced by Monty Python.  

There are also those milestones in British comedy that have sometimes changed the face of comedy worldwide.  Monty Python is of course one example of this. Though it must be said that one of the true hallmarks of British humour is its unrestrained nature, and that is why it has garnered so many non-British fans around the world.  The original cast of Saturday Night Live have said many times that their main influence was Monty Python.  They were put on at a previously unwatched timeslot on American television, where they still reside, because of their take on uninhibited British comedy.   

To be continued...