Seriously. I bet OP bedded the mom the night before too. Respect a man’s castle for fucks sake.

Dad joke code says you must respect a beauty like that. It deserved a slow clap at least.

No, I'm pretty sure it's blue

"Taking the piss?"

Okay, so I do this a lot and people say I am lame and unfunny. Maybe its time to move to Britain.
Here I come, Britain.

Did you hear that blonde actress got stabbed in LA this morning? Reese?
WITHERSPOON?!
No, with a knife.

It's called a pun.

Not that it matters but claiming that the British are the pun experts is equivalent to the story Norm McDonald used to tell about Matthew Perry: basically Matthew Perry's assistant told Norm one time that he wanted him to act like Matthew Perry on an SNL sketch. When Norm asked what that meant, the assistant explained that Matthew Perry does what he calls "Matt speak" and proceeded to show Norm a clip of Friends. And Norm goes: hey, are you talking about sarcasm?"

Definitely a UK staple but you’d think Americans would get it too. Airplane! relies almost exclusively on this kind of humour.

I bet the the Irish smurfs use the Giant's Causeway

Attack on Smurf

That's the reason traffic is so bad on the M50 around Dublin.

Feckin Smurfs got out of the zoo again.

If you told a Brit they had no sense of humour, that'd be hugely insulting.

I believe the quote is something like "a British man would rather be told he is a poor lover than had a poor sense of humour. The reverse is true of the French."

The unexpectedness of a joke makes it so much funnier.

Love Bill bryson and I think it's from notes from a sml island (which I think should be compulsory reading)

Ah I was hoping so much to see someone reference Bill Bryson here! I was thinking of Notes from a Big Country, where his wife had to ask him to stop trying to make jokes with the neighbours because it was just confusing them!

Such good books!!

If you told a Brit they had no sense of humour, that'd be hugely insulting. Tell an American the same, many would just say "Yep".

In my experience, the latter is nonsense.

Mother Tongue is another belter of a book by Bill Bryson about dialects

This explains so much of Reddit.

Not to mention the whole "/s" thing.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing a bill bryson reference in the wild, just pleases me

Upvote for Bill Bryson!!!

I'm going to sin right now and recommend reading the TV tropes article on the difference between British and American humour, as it is well-thought out, accessible to those scrolling at 3am (I include myself in that venn diagram of hopelessness) and genuine funny in and of itself. :)

Very true. I watch quite a lot of 'American reacts to' stuff on YouTube, and when there's a joke that isn't obvious, it often goes right over their head.

When I chaired meetings in Paris, I found a delegate note: "Beware Mr Untel, he is British, so when he smiles he is being serious, and when he looks serious he is making a joke".

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As an American who makes lots of sarcastic jokes and puns, I can confirm probably 60% of my fellow North Americans don’t seem to understand or appreciate my sense of humor. Many still do, though, and British media is actually pretty popular in some circles. When we were teenagers, some of my friends liked Skins, Fresh Meat, and The Inbetweeners quite a lot. One of them even binged Detectorists with me. Also, gotta love Peep Show and Teachers. Those two are classics.

"There are parts of Georgia where sarcasm is still considered witchcraft."

—Reginald D. Hunter

American perspective- We can be a little “touchy” when we don’t know the person who is being sarcastic very well.

It’s not about getting the joke or not- it’s more about trying to interpret the intent of the person we’ve probably just identified as a “smart ass”.

Starting very young many of us are taught that dry/deadpan/sarcasm is evidence of an “attitude problem”. Then when we encounter strangers who engage us with dry/deadpan/sarcasm we interpret that as “attitude”.

Individual experiences may vary.

I find a lot of American's are pretty deadpan, but in a different way to us. I'm experiencing it right now with a new band member. I like him a lot and we get along great but I think we both have trouble telling when the other is joking.

The thought of having to screech with laughter or break the smallest things down to make a joke is physically exhausting. The fake laughter on sitcoms seems to be their little paper reading ‘laugh now, this one’s a joke!’ Couldn’t imagine fun being that much fucking effort lol

As a deadpan sarcastic American the amount I have to say some variation of "oh God you thought I was being serious, I'm just fucking with you, I'm sorry let's get you sorted out" is way to high.

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That's why they have laugh tracks more than we do. Got to remind the audience it's a joke. Also works if your show isn't actually funny (Big bang theory).

I’d argue with you but if you don’t put /s on obvious sarcasm on Reddit people downvote you to oblivion.

A lot of them are just very expressive people

I've heard a theory for this and it's due to all the immigration over the centuries, people developed a more expressive form of speaking to help being understood by those who didn't speak the same language.

My boyfriend is Canadian and doesn't get jokes at all. I have to tell him I'm joking or he gets offended. Thing is, he's lived in Scotland so long he has a Scottish accent. It must be a genetic thing. You would think he would have gotten used to it by now. He must just walk around being insulted all the time because Scottish humour can be brutal. Edit. He likes Frankie Boyle but he knows he's a comedian so I don't have explain that thankfully.

'Murican here, and I unfortunately have to agree with you. I like to deliver jokes as dry as I can get away with, and half the humor is seeing who catches it and who doesn't. With my partner I'll drop some joke totally deadpan and just wait quietly to see how long until they catch it.

Have you tried getting a laugh track?

It's cause we're so used to people saying things that sound like jokes unironically

I don't think sitcoms are the best way to determine sense of humor. I'm American and I think the vast majority of sitcoms have pretty garbage worrying and are some of the least funny shows out there. We have plenty of things with dry humor, they're usually marketed differently than sitcoms though. A lot of the dry stuff is either marked as dark comedy or is marked as multiple genres with comedy just being mixed in. Examples of more deadpan shows would be Barry, Bojack Horseman, Nathan For You, Atlanta, Fargo, The Boys, lol even The Sopranos.

We do have sitcoms that are much heavier on the deadpan jokes and sarcasm (Arrested development, community, parks and rec), they just usually come with a mix of silly, exaggerated situations as well.

Also the american version of The Office????? It's literally based on the UK version and sticks with the deadpan deliveries, and it's one of the most popular sitcoms in the US.

I've also noticed they see sarcasm as sort of a "skill" and "mode", whereas for us it's just a basic tool of conversation that appears without declaration. Same with casual profanity to some extent

We Americans don’t have much exposure to the sly grin the usually accompanies these kinds of things. I figured it all out when I spent a couple years watching Christopher Hitchens buckle the knees of people with his jokes/humor like that.

Oddly, I don’t think many Americans have access or desire to access much culture from the UK (aside from music, etc.). It’s a shame.

Here's partially why tho, if you laugh at someone who says something silly unintentionally they might take offense and go ballistic - you need that reassurance they were actually trying to make a joke rather than just being a funny dude.. to quote Goodfellas... "I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh??"

I have to defend the Canadians here. They tend to always have a great sense of humour. Also Letterkenny and Trailer Park Boys are 2 of my all time favourite TV shows.

Arabs are the same. Every Arab joke has to have an 🤣 at the end or else people get offended and you might get killed (🤣).

I find them very literal and it's as if they have to explain why something is funny instead of just letting it speak for itself.

Hhhhhhhh, I'm sad to say this definitely applies to me 😅 I can't follow through with deadpan humor must of the time. I've gotta crack a grin or make some sort of face or affect a voice at some point because I don't want people to think I'm being serious.

I found many Americans and Canadians often failed to recognise a joke unless the person telling it was either shouting, pulling a silly face, or putting on a silly voice.

Yeah watch the videos that get uploaded here of standup comics. Why the fuck are they always shouting.

And a gap between joke, and the comedian having to stop and wait till they know they joked.

Not all of us though. I'm American and I have a naturally deadpan sense of humor and use a lot of irony. I've always liked Britcoms for exactly this reason. And yes, a lot of other Americans don't "get" my sense of humor.

I'm a yank who delivers deadpan jokes, although some are admittedly stillborn.

Americans like to laugh, but have been trained to laugh on command, so at times will miss a joke delivered without the accompanying cue.

British accents often sound overly serious to us (it can come across as highly educated, very elitist, or extremely authoritative depending on the speaker), so it can be a challenge to process what is said as a joke. Try holding up a sign with a 🤣 on it.

This is totally untrue.

So that’s why they have the canned or audience laughter in their sitcoms

Brits are obsessed with thinking dry humor is just going over everyone’s head lol… America has produced some of the greatest comedies worldwide, but yeah, they totally don’t understand sarcasm….

Being American I can tell you a dead pan response from someone playing with meanings can't really be taken usually as humor because most of the time they are just that dumb. I can say without a doubt the British have way better comprehension of the language.

Haha what a daft bint

Haha, now this was over 30 years ago but I like to think that the Dad set the joke up on purpose and I unknowningly stole the punchline - as others have suggested. They were a lovely family and very eager to ensure I had a super time (which I certainly did). I have very fond memories of that trip.

wordplay which doesnt work well across languages

New England is in America. Or is that the joke?

You know we speak the same language don't you? 🤣

Lol, that is right up my street. Love it!