davywavy | The difference between the British & American sense of humour

OK, that's funny.

If you check, you'll find that the message is a link as well.

yeah noticed that, and it seems (on the quick glance I gave it) to be fairly informative as well...
amusing..

'tis funny - glad I've got you on friends list now.

It's also and actually quite clever. One of my housemates does work in autistic homes and one of the most telling things about people that really care people with problems is that they can still laugh about it. It means they can treat everyone as human beings rather than coming up with patronising terms.

As it's my day for mental illness...

George Farthing, an expatriate British man living in America, was recently diagnosed as clinically depressed, tanked up on anti-depressants and scheduled for controversial Shock Therapy when doctors realised he wasn't depressed at all - only British.

Mr Farthing, a British man whose characteristic pessimism and gloomy perspective were interpreted as serious clinical depression, was led on a nightmare journey through the American psychiatric system. Doctors described Farthing as suffering with Pervasive Negative Anticipation - a belief that everything will turn out for the worst, whether its trains arriving late, England's chances at winning any international sports event or even his own prospects to get ahead in life and achieve his dreams.

"The satisfaction Mr Farthing seemed to get from his pessimism seemed particularly pathological," reported the doctors. "They put me on everything - Lithium, Prozac, St John's Wort," said Mr Farthing. "They even told me to sit in front of a big light for an hour a day or I'd become suicidal. I kept telling them this was all pointless and they said that it was exactly that sort of attitude that got me here in the first place."

Running out of ideas, his doctors finally resorted to a course of "weapons grade MDMA", the only noticeable effect of which was six hours of speedy repetitions of the phrases "mustn't grumble" and "not too bad, really". It was then that Mr Farthing was referred to a psychotherapist.

Dr Isaac Horney explored Mr Farthing's family history and couldn't believe his ears. "His story of a childhood growing up in a grey little town where it rained every day, treeless streets of identical houses and passionately backing a football team who never won, seemed to be typical depressive ideation or false memory. Mr Farthing had six months of therapy but seemed to mainly want to talk about the weather - how miserable and cold it was in winter and later how difficult and hot it was in summer. I felt he wasn't responding to therapy at all and so I recommended drastic action - namely ECT or shock treatment".

"I was all strapped down on the table and they were about to put the rubber bit in my mouth when the psychiatric nurse picked up on my accent," said Mr Farthing. "I remember her saying 'Oh my God, I think we're making a terrible mistake'." Nurse Alice Sheen was a big fan of British comedy giving her an understanding of the British psyche.
"Classic comedy characters like Tony Hancock, Albert Steptoe and Frank Spencer are all hopeless cases with no chance of ever doing well or escaping their circumstances," she explained to the baffled US medics. "That's funny in Britain and is not seen as pathological at all." Identifying Mr Farthing as British changed his diagnosis from 'clinical depression' to 'rather quaint and charming' and he was immediately discharged from hospital, with a selection of brightly coloured leaflets and an "I love New York" T-shirt.

That is quite funny! Thanks David!

We call it humor, and you call it humour.

I'd bet that has some impact :-)

"Humor" is used by the British (especially in speech, by stressing the 'or' into a crap American accent) as a disparaging term for any cripplingly unfunny American humour, such as any film Robin Williams has made in the last 12 years, Chris Rock, and pretty much any sitcom ever produced by ABC.

Hmmm.. Hard to argue that one. However, I am quite fond of Robin Williams' stand up. It's like watching someone with MPD :-)

Although I can say I prefer George Carlin of late.

Robin Williams is a stand up genius, but I defy you to approve of "Patch Adams".

I've not seen it so I won't even try to do so :-)

Basically, anything the US media (TV or Hollywood) produces which can be described as "heartwarming" may be reliably assumed to cause vomiting, jeers, catcalls, violent incidents, and the possible call in of the SPG at showings in the UK.

*heartwarming*

Usually makes me gag too. I'm a bad American I guess :-)

SPG?

Special Patrol Group maybe?

Special Police Group.

They were actually disbanded in the mid-80's for being far too violent, but the acronym just seemed to flow in the context of that sentence.

OH!!! Cool.

Do you need any smug & patronising British NPCs for the ICC? (Assuming I'm there, consider it 50/50 at the moment).

I'm sure we could find one for you :-)

Hmmmmm... Maybe we could use an archon NPC for Mr. Q. Talk to Dan (sithtremere@nyctophobia.com)

The difference between the British & American sense of humour

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Depressed man diagnosed as 'British'

Oh my!

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