How the English Tell Jokes Essay Example for Free

How the English Tell Jokes Essay I assume that the reader of this essay may have had heard of the story of the tower of Babel. It is a story from the Bible (no intention of offense to those who aren’t supposed to read it) about men trying to reach the heavens by building a really, as in very tall tower. In the story, all men initially had one language that can be understood by all. God was offended and infuriated by the tower so He had effortlessly destroyed many years worth of efforts of all men back then. God had punished all men by giving them so many languages so that there was confusion because men can’t understand each other anymore. So those with the same languages had grouped together. I had assumed that in this story, the Englishmen were very easy to pinpoint among the crowd consisting of all of humanity. The Englishmen were probably the only race that was laughing about what happened to the tower. The Englishmen could have been joking about the tower looking like a Poseidon’s boner and consistently laughing at the ‘bloke’ who had thought of building such a tower. American comedy sure is popular around the globe, but people forget to give the credit to the ones that inspired some American comedians excel in the field of making people laugh until tears fall from their eyes while having stomach spasms from laughing uncontrollably. Who would forget the English classics like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Little England, not to mention contemporary shows like Mr. Bean, The Office, The Monty Phyton, and many more? (Taylor, 2004)There was certainly something special with English comedy for it to gain worldwide appreciation. Was it because there were something different in the way English people tell and deliver their jokes? Or is it that the English humor itself is very different thus making it a special kind of humor? Does the accent of the English people have something to do with their world-renowned good delivery of funny jokes? Of course these inquiries are quite improbable to arrive at single answers. But still, this essay will try to present the possible reasons why Englishmen are so funny. The essay will also strive to give the reader a concrete idea of the manner of how the Englishmen tell their funny jokes. The Englishmen, and that include women of course, take pride in being one of the happiest, if not craziest (in the most admirable sense of the word) cultures that has made this world laugh and laugh all over again. In fact, it is one of England’s best known positive traits, being funny like hell. There even exists such extreme notion that goes something like the country of England is the nation that has more humor than any other nation. But wait, that extreme notion doesn’t end there. The country of England even believes that they are consistently funnier too. For me, that notion doesn’t really give out a negative feel to it. Well, of course some other nations may have the same claims. But still, those other nations won’t have the archive of evidences of comedic superiority of the Englishmen. There even exist testimonies from foreigners that have set foot on England. They had testified that England is indeed a place wherein you’d be remembering jokes when you remember your stay there. England’s incomparable humor is something that every Englishmen should be proud and boast about their country. We can even consider that one of England’s best and highest-quality of imports is English humor. It is England’s gift to the world. It appears that the music wasn’t the only gift of England to the whole of the world, it was but laughter. Another almost equally admirable about the Englishmen is that they have this really commendable humor that can laugh at themselves and at their own failures. That trait gives a very positive and a cheerful quality to the Englishman, which are I believe necessary traits for every comedian regardless of race. But still of course, foreigners may have a very different reaction, since everything in this world is relative. Some foreigners wouldn’t even find the jokes of England as funny as their own personal taste won’t adhere to the mild dose of self-deprecation, hefty amount of sarcasm, and a barrage of irony and satire. These comedic elements are conventionally found in the jokes of Englishmen. Some people may find the English jokes as dry humor, at least, or humorless at worst. The reason behind this conflict in the differences of humor is that some people are conservative, while some are even more conservative beyond the word conservative can even define. Some English jokes go to the extent of being vulgar and green-mannered. Ergo, some of the non-English, or even some English conservatives, can’t help but be offended. But since England is such a fun loving nation, I guess the number of the â€Å"some† that got offended is not worth in comparison to making people laugh (Burton, 1857: 322). I certainly agree with the Englishmen with this kind of thinking since I also believe ethics, religion, and rules of conventions are what make this world a sad place. Why can’t we all not laugh about them just like the Englishmen do? The reason why I had spent almost half of the paper discussion about how a fun and humor loving nation England is, is because I believe that that is the main reason why English jokes are so funny. They are people who loves fun and they pass time making jokes and laughing at them. In that sense they have much practice in the field of humor more than any other country. Through that argument we can even call the people of England as experts of humor. Another reason of why is started praising England’s fun loving attitude is that they believe in their jokes, they are confident about it that is why these jokes are so effective. We all know that believing in something really makes that thing work. Just like how many high-school basketball team that doesn’t win a game tell its players to believe to achieve. But what make English humor so special is the people of England themselves. Since England really believes that they are the funniest people in the world, they become what they believe they really are. It is like some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in the world of humor. I guess a comedian should be first convinced with one’s self that he or she is funny before that individual sets out to do something funny. England’s self-concept of being the funniest nation is really ideal for aspiring comedians. That maybe the why there are so many comedians in England, from the local comedy bar to the television (or telly as how they put it) to the streets or even in their politics. One of the most probable reason why England posses such good-humored self-concept (of the country) is because they had they had a rich and very interesting history. Instead of crying over sad parts of their history, the Englishmen had learned how to laugh at their own misfortunes. Here is an example of a joke that expresses England’s frustrations about their failures in the World Cup: Two Blokes talking while watching a soccer game†¦ Bloke 1: Is there a difference between the country of England and a bag of tea? Bloke 2: I don’t know. What? Bloke 1: There is much chance that the bag of tea will stay longer in the cup. (The English Sense of Humor) If we really try to asses how the people of England tell their jokes, we are bound to discover that they just tell their jokes like most cultures do. The English humor is not much different with the whole of the world. If we dissect popular English jokes, we would discover that they also employ basic elements of comedy like proper timing, understatement and exaggeration. These elements are not even advanced techniques in the field of comedy. These are just basic elements that even a ten-year-old can employ with his jokes. These comedic elements are just common knowledge that we hear and even do execute on a daily basis without even knowing it. The English are just telling jokes just like everyone of us. The English also follow certain conventions of delivering good jokes. Among these conventions is the use of the situation, action, punch line technique. This technique is so familiar to us I believe that it doesn’t require elaboration. This is the comedic technique that is made popular especially by stand-up comedians. (Howe, 1898: 12) To give us more light regarding the issue of English humor, the essay of Nicholson, aptly given the title The English Sense of Humor, he had specified elements that he believes constitute the very funny English jokes. Some of these elements are kindliness, fancy, and laziness (Nicholson, 1946: 43). Setting aside the kindliness element, we can see that the other elements, fancy and laziness are giving out a negative connotation. I know that the author had no bad intention of portraying the people of England in a negative light, but it is beyond the control of the author to control the opinion of others who might interpret the essay as portraying English people as fanciful and lazy. One the main reason why the people of England are so good in delivering jokes is that they are honest people. Honest in terms of being comfortable to express their opinions and share their experiences, may it be sad or glad, through beautifully constructed and delivered jokes. I guess since I arrived to the conclusion that the humor of the English people is not much different from they the whole world is delivering their jokes. It guess that since we can’t arrive in a substantial concrete answers to the query, we will just have to go with the most practical explanation. We can conclude that the English are good at telling jokes because of their cheerful and fun loving attitude. They love to laugh, so they make jokes to continue the thing that they love. Also their unique accent is quite efficient for delivering jokes. List of References Burton, W. E. (1857)Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor, of America, Ireland, Scotland, and England. New York: D. Appleton Co. Howe, W. H. (1898)English Wit and Humor. Michigan: University of Michigan Press Nicholson, H. (1946)The English Sense of Humor: An Essay. London: Dropmore Publishing Taylor. I. (2004)Exploring Englishness. Available from: http://www. zyworld. com/albionmagazineonline/features2. htm The English Sense of Humor. [Internet Discussion]. Available from: http://www. anglik. net/britishjokes. htm [Accessed 8 March 2008]