Friends, pandas, countrymen, lend me thine ears! For 'tis a page of memes from the island of Britain that I present upon you. Okay, okay, no more poor attempts at Shakespeare-speak, I promise. I won't bore you with the usual British stereotypes either – mentioning crumpets, double-decker buses and saying 'rubbish' when something's really bad.
Yet Britain indeed has its own unique charm. Just like any other culture does. And while it's true that The Commonwealth doesn't have the best track record when it comes to honoring other cultures, we here at Bored Panda often honor the British sense of humor. This time we're covering the British Memes page on Instagram. Check out our selection and don't forget to upvote your favorites!
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Image credits: britishmemes
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The British Memes IG is one of many pages under the Pubity Group entertainment. Their 'about us' page boasts having more than 20 channels, which, according to them, cover diverse subcultures. It's not all about entertainment and popular culture – they have pages about sports, travel and even news.
The Pubity Groups is a true entertainment powerhouse tailored for Millennials and Gen Z. Most of their pages have a considerable following too – the British Memes page, for example, has a whopping 1.9 million followers. Their most popular IG page is Memezar with a 22.7 million follower count – a page that is all things meme and meme-culture.
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Image credits: britishmemes
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While scrolling through these memes, you might notice that British humor (or, rather, humour) is quite distinctive. People often complain they don't understand British comedy shows or stand-up. That's especially true for Americans. Researchers from Birkbeck, University of London, even published a study on this topic.
They showed the participants two excerpts from two British television shows. The study sample included 128 British individuals and 95 American English users. The people had to rate the funniness of the two clips. A bigger portion of American English users rated British humor as less funny. They said they did not get the ironic and sarcastic aspect of British humor.
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Image credits: NoContextBrits
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Image credits: britishmemes
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Many people think that the comedy ensemble Monty Python is the best example of British humor. Dr Ian Wilkie, a lecturer in performance at the University of Salford, reiterated this sentiment to the BBC.
"Having taught younger American students, they take the British sense of humour to be Monty Python, by which they mean a sort-of slightly erring towards the surreal, very iconoclastic in terms of attacking the big targets, very silly."
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Image credits: britishmemes
As David Woods writes for PBS, American humor tends to be positive and upbeat. The British, on the other hand, derive their humor from oddities and misfortunes. Take, for example, Mr. Bean, another canonical British comedy character. He's always getting into some kind of trouble. Yet, we find his misfortunes funny – it can make us feel better about ourselves.
Mr. Bean is also an odd character. The way he moves, talks, even thinks – there's always something unusual about him. Same with Monty Python. Take the 'Ministry Of Silly Walks' sketch. It's full of absurd physical comedy, just like Mr. Bean.
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Image credits: britishmemes
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British comedian Stephen Fry also talked about the differences between American and British humor. He said that humor in classical American sitcoms comes from jokes.
And British sitcoms, in his opinion, rely on character, usually on the failure of a character. Fry describes these protagonists as "trying to be grand in a world that's letting them down." He cites such examples as Alan Partridge and David Brent.
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Image credits: britishmemes
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"The American hero is faster, sharper, cleverer," Fry explains. He uses the toga party scene in the 1978 comedy film Animal House as an example. John Belushi's character smashes a guitar player's instrument in that scene. Americans want to be Belushi at that moment, Fry explains, and a British comedian would rather play the folk singer.
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Image credits: britishmemes
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Image credits: britishmemes
Fry believes that the British laugh at themselves. Americans, on the other hand, are not that good at self-deprecation. "Americans, I think – and I wouldn't overstate this – are not that good at laughing at themselves."
But not everyone believes there's such a clear distinction between American and British humor. Dr. Wilkie also told BBC he doesn't exactly think there is a British kind of humor. "I think the best you can hope for is some big, beacon terms (eg. sarcasm, understatement, self-deprecation), that maybe, over a fair amount of time, might hold water."
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Image credits: britishmemes
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Image credits: SimpleFacks
Oscar Wilde has famously said that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Is that a sign that British humor is maybe not so "streets ahead" compared to its American counterpart? In a previous interview with Bored Panda, researcher of humor studies at Keuka College Steven Kapica agreed that sarcasm is somewhere near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to ranking forms of comedy.
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"It doesn't take much skill to inflect a phrase with sarcasm in response to an authority's power move, or to use sarcasm to point out what is already obvious to everyone. The jokester who feels inclined to perform what everyone else is thinking isn't [a] comic genius," Kapica told Bored Panda before.
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Image credits: britishmemes
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However, Kapica admitted that sarcasm plays an important role in human interaction. "I think it is better to think of sarcasm as a rhetorical device than as a form of comedy.
As a rhetoric device, sarcasm can be an effective means of gauging, guiding, and winning one's audience 'in-the-moment.' But that's 'live' sarcasm. Internet-based sarcasm is... oof."
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Image credits: britishmemes
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