I wrote recently that it’s difficult to be a writer in a foreign country.
An example happened to me last week.
I was at Hampstead tube, and the ticket collector had a new walkie-talkie.
He was obviously very proud of it.
He spoke into it loudly enough for us all to hear.
He said:
“Tango 1 calling Tango 2.
Tango 1 calling Tango 2.
Over.”
I heard a muffled voice reply something.
Then the ticket collector said testily into it:
“No Chris: you’re Tango 3, Terry’s Tango 2.”
I laughed to myself, and thought something that silly could only happen in this country. It makes you proud to be British.
Then I thought, why is that?
Why are we so proud of looking silly?
Germans or Spanish or Chinese would die before they’d let anyone see them looking silly.
We revel in it.
Take the war in Afghanistan.
The British and American forces were involved in really heavy fighting with the Taliban.
The worst of the fighting was in and around the caves of Tora Bora.
The American forces dubbed them, ‘The Caves of Death’.
The British forces referred to them as, ‘Tora Bora Tomkinson’.
Later I read a report about the airborne tanker crews.
The American pilots were flying missions from carriers in The Gulf.
They didn’t have enough fuel to make the return trip unless they refuelled at night, 30,000 feet up, from British airborne tankers.
One American pilot said, “These guys flew missions that saved our lives. But when we linked up with them, they held signs up to the window saying, CASH ONLY, NO CHEQUES.
I don’t know, is that your humour?”
The same thing happened in World War 2.
It was 1940 and America wasn’t in the war.
France had just fallen and everyone knew Britain was next.
Ed Murrow, the famous American reporter, was doing a weekly radio broadcast back to the US from London.
He said,
“Sometimes it’s hard for an American to understand the British.
Today the whole of Europe has fallen to Nazi Germany.
Only the people of this small island are left, on their own against a mighty war machine.
And yet as I went on the street this morning, the mood of the population seemed somehow lighter, more optimistic.
It didn’t make any sense.
Then I saw a newspaper seller with a placard in front of him that read, BRITAIN AND GERMANY IN THE FINAL.”
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That post made me swell with patriotic pride. I think our self-deprecating humour is one of our greatest cultural assets.
Conversation overheard in a pub off Bishopsgate: two old lags comparing prison conditions:
“Fackin’ freezing in Pentonville – won’t even give you a blanket.”
“The food in the Scrubs! You wouldn’t feed it to a dog,”
Like the bleedin’ 18th century it is.”
“Wodja mean?”
[incredulous] “Aint you seen the Hogarth engravings?”
Only in England.
Hallo
Being Chinese, one of the things I admire about the British is their sense of humour.
But maybe the lack of humour is a geographical thing?
I was once working in an advertising agency in the Far East. We had shifted to new offices and the designer had opted for swanky curtains over walls.
After a very long wait, the very ghastly curtains finally arrived.
I was a very junior writer then.
Standing on top of my chair, I shouted, “it’s curtains for the Agency, then.”
Everyone laughed. Except the Chairman, who was an Englishman with a double first from Oxford.
Also reminded of the time David Abbott lost the police pitch with his opening greetings.
Rumour had he that when he walked into the board room, he went, “Hallo, hallo, hallo”.
The coppers were not amused.
Allan re: Dave Abbott’s gag.
They probably weren’t amused because it was the millionth time they’d heard it!
Post-it note CV…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffql52ixHT4
to me these anecdotes are not so much about type of humour but more on ability to express the funny side of some situations.
whether this is a national charactaristic or personal, remains to answered.
at least that’s what I think.
Dave, with regard to the Anglo-American relationship there’s a William Faulkner Short Story called the Turnabout, which if you haven’t read may be of interest.
Thanks Ian.
I’ll get hold of it and read it.
I personally think that British sense of humour is the best but maybe because I grew up in the UK and Im used to it.
I think that people with very little confidence in themselves hate the British sense of humour. British sense of humour is all about making fun of yourself and especially others.
I think thats hilarious.
On that note i would just like to say that you are all a bunch of twats and i hope you have a crap day.
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