Unit 25. Humour travels? Transatlantic laughs:

When two countries share a common language it is easy to assume that they also share the attitudes and points-of-reference which are the basic stuff of humour. Yanks and Brits really don’t. If proof is needed, remember initial Ameri-bafflement at things Pythonesque. Or how edited highlights of the vastly popular Johnny Carson Show laid a UK egg.

There are, of course, successes as well, which explains the frequent cross-fertilization of TV programmes; but choices must be made with care. Some things won’t travel. A Brit trying his favourite Rik Mayall impression on a Yank should prepare for a blank stare. And American comedienne Joan Rivers leaves her favourite ‘K-Mart’ jokes out of all her UK routines. The point is that, when your plane leaves LHR or JFK, you leave behind a whole series of cultural references, too.

AMERI-LAUGHS: American humour is about stand-up comics, rooted in Vaudeville and aspiring to Vegas (or a spot on the Johnny Carson Show) with a series of quick-fire gags and one-liners. ‘New wave’ comics are those who start out at theComedy Store or similar, before moving to Vegas and the Carson Show by way ofSaturday Night Live.

But, the influence of the ‘Greats’ – George Burns, Jack Benny – remains. The best (and most exportable) American sit-coms are a collection of high-quality laugh-lines bedded in the matrix of a story: (M.A.S.H., Rhoda, Cheers). The most popular funny films feature the likes of Eddie Murphy or Woody Allen, firing gags just as appropriate to the midnight show at Caesar’s Palace: ‘That’s my ex-wife ... I almost didn’t recognize her without her wrists cut.’ Or: ‘Hollywood’s so clean! No garbage in the streets – because they put it all on television.’ Or: ‘Been to Beverly Hills? They’re so rich, they watchDynasty to see howpoor people live. They’re so rich, the 7–11 has a fur department.’ Or (inAnnie Hall): ‘Nice parking. I can walk to the curb from here.’

To be funny in America, you have to be:

1. a member of an ethnic minority. There are no such things as ‘W.A.S.P.’ jokes – unless a Jewish comedian tells them.

2. from a large urban area, and (preferably) a deprived background. The scepticism which is the leitmotiv of Ameri-comedy is honed in adversity, which is the same as Brooklyn.

3. a natural cynic, with a tendency toward paranoia. (If you’ve suffered at the hands of the American medical profession, so much the better). Life’s a mess, human motivation is base, and they’re all out to get you anyway. Classic Ameri-comic sees himself as the long-suffering, hard-pressed realist (Jackie Mason, Lennie Bruce, Mort Saul, Bob Hope) ... the last bastion of sanity in a flakey world, knowing the score, telling it ‘like it is’, keeping his head when all around him are losing theirs. ‘I met a guy the other day ... wife’s left him, he’s got no money and no job. But he’s happy. Know why? Stupid.’

BRIT-LAUGHS: Modern British humour also derives from Music Hall – which is the rough equivalent of Vaudeville. It, too, is urban in outlook ... though onlyspecific urban areas will do. People from northern cities like Manchester and Liverpool are funny, because the alternative is suicidal despair. (In some northern towns, suicide is redundant.) Rural areas do not generate humour (Brits take the countryside too seriously) and Chipping Sodbury has produced few great comics.

Londoners can be funny, but only if they’re from the East End – with the chirpy, street-smart, wide-boy sense of humour which that implies. You can poke fun at people who come from NW3, or Islington or Surbiton. No one funny has ever come from Twickenham, Croydon, or Friern Barnet ... though comedians from the East End who have made money hurry to live there.