LAUGHING ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE – END OF AN ERA..?
With the success of that ultimate comic iconoclast Eddie Izzard now universal in the English speaking world, it seems that the hitherto resolutely impermeable barriers that divided British & American humour have finally tumbled. The sticking point was always in the tendency toward irony, self-deprecation, pessimism & a certain kind of low-key sourness in British humour. It never managed to travel very far, having a particular vulnerability to journeys across the ocean.
Somehow we never had any difficulty dumping the sweaty, sniggering, pocket pool antics of Benny Hill on you. By all accounts that sad, lonely misfit managed to tickle the funny bone from Atlantic to Pacific. And I believe that the tit-trumpeting & general all-round toiletry of the Carry On films has its enthusiastic following in the States too. But until the Izzard blizzard struck - pace, the genre-busting Pythons - the wackier or drier comics simply never managed to break through.
And yet in the British Isles there has always been a huge & appreciative audience for the vast melting pot of content & style that constitutes the American comic experience. From the prat falls & eye gougings of The Three Stooges & Abbott & Costello through the brashness of Jewish & Southern European domestic comedy, through the high-speed verbal fireworks of Grant & Hepburn to the taste-challenging, confrontational humour of Lenny Bruce & his bastard son Bill Hicks, we’ve bought into the lot.
Now this going to sound patronising, & I really don’t mean it to, but I know that the Salon sophisticates have a weltanschaung that stretches from horizon to horizon – American homogeneity at its best lives here. So tell me the whys & wherefores of all this. If I ran the following selection of gags from the 2004 Edinburgh Festival (sent to me by daughter Zo) past the occupants of a NYC subway car, a Chicago elevator, or an Amarillo diner, which ones - if any - would be unlikely to make it to first base?
The dodo died. Then Dodi died, Di died and Dando* died... Dido** must be shItting herself.
Colin & Fergus at the Pleasance
My parents are from Glasgow which means they're incredibly hard, but I was never smacked as a child ... well, maybe one or two grams to get me to sleep at night.
Susan Murray at the Underbelly
Is it fair to say that there'd be less litter in Britain if blind people were given pointed sticks?
Adam Bloom at the Pleasance
My mum and dad are Scottish but they moved down to Wolverhampton when I was two, 'cause they wanted me to sound like a twat.
Susan Murray at the Underbelly
A lady with a clipboard stopped me in the street the other day. She said, "Can you spare a few minutes for cancer research?" I said, "All right, but we're not going to get much done."
Jimmy Carr at the ICC
I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat.
Marcus Brigstocke at the Assembly Rooms
My dad's dying wish was to have his family around him. I can't help thinking he would have been better off with more oxygen.
Jimmy Carr at the ICC
You have to remember all the trivia that your girlfriend tells you because eventually you get tested. She'll go: "What's my favourite flower?" And you murmur to yourself: "Shit, I wasn't listening ... Self-raising?"
Addy Van-Der-Borgh at the Assembly Rooms
The world is a dangerous place; only yesterday I went into Woolworth’s and punched someone in the face.
Jeremy Limb, at the Trap
Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation…
Jimmy Carr
I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help".
Mark Watson, Rhod Gilbert at the Tron
I went out with an Irish Catholic. Very frustrating. You can take the
Girl out of Cork ...
Markus Birdman at the Pod Deco
Got a phone call today to do a gig at a fire station. Went along. Turned out it was a bloody hoax.
Adrian Poynton at the Pleasance
Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.
Demetri Martin at the Assembly Rooms
The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears.
Chris Addison at the Pleasance
My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in Customs.
Patrick Monahan at the Gilded Balloon
Sleeping with prostitutes is like making your cat dance with you on its hind legs. You know it's wrong, but you try to convince yourself that they're enjoying it as well.
Scott Capurro at the Pleasance
A dog goes into a hardware store and says: "I'd like a job please". The hardware store owner says: "We don't hire dogs, why don't you go join the circus?" The dog replies: "What would the circus want with a plumber?"
Steven Alan Green at C34
Hey - you want to feel really handsome? Go shopping at Asda.
Brendon Burns at the Pleasance
I like to go into the Body Shop and shout out really loud, "I've already got one!"
Norman Lovett at The Stand
It's easy to distract fat people. It's a piece of cake.
Chris Addison at the Pleasance
I enjoy using the comedy technique of self-deprecation - but I'm not very good at it.
Arnold Brown at The Stand
If you're being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a tunnel, then on to a little seesaw, then jump through a hoop of fire. They're trained for that.
Milton Jones at the Underbelly
I was walking the back streets of Glasgow the other week and I saw this sign:
"This door is alarmed." I said to myself: "How do you think I feel?"
Arnold Brown at The Stand
*Jill Dando, a popular TV presenter who was shot dead on her doorstep.
** Dido, an inexplicably popular singer.
6:15:13 PM 
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