Visual comedy transcends language barriers. I have fond memories of enjoying hours of Mr. Bean with my Chinese relatives who didn't speak any English, but could still enjoy the skits because there was almost no dialogue. The story was conveyed physically.
The is one thing I really appreciate about Just For Laughs Gags. No words or languages to understand, just silly harmless situations and pranks. AFAICT it's mostly done somewhere in French Canada, but there's a few from Singapore I believe.
Here's an example I remember that made me laugh, a good example - it's all about facial expressions and reactions rather than words -
Yup they do a great job. I guess human emotions are the same across the board. I think the reactions...of confusion, surprise, anger, fear etc seems to be what gets the laugh. The more unexpected it is the bigger the laugh. For me atleast.
Another interesting thing about pranks is how quickly the brain resets from excited state back to normal as soon as some one says 'there's the camera'. It should probably be used more to stop wars and stuff.
Good points. I think comedy boils down to absurdity, personally. So seeing absurd situations makes people act and feel weird until they realize it's only for show and they're not going crazy.
It also explains why people have different tastes. Some people don't like British comedy because their absurdity may be different than an American's. For example a lot I watched in the 90s was a man dressed as a woman or some such, which may not be absurd to us today.
Not so sure about Benny Hill. As an American, I couldn't see what the Brits found so funny about him. The keystone cop sequences of naked women chasing him, etc. and the silly situations he concocted (which required spoken language). Whereas Mr. Bean was truly universal situations and effectively no spoken words.
Not sure if you'll find many Brits under the age of 60 trying to defend Benny Hill or make a case for his comedy. I'm in my 40s and I don't remember a time when he wasn't seen as naff, and from some distant time before comedy got clever...
Sad fact: Benny Hill died penniless in a shabby council flat, his body wasn't found until two weeks after he died. Naff or otherwise, no-one should go like that. :(
There were amazing scenes just the other day when someone blasted Yakety Sax outside of Parliament as the government was collapsing. Made for some wonderful TV - and apparently was due to a suggestion by Hugh Grant, no less.
I was going to say something snarky about Hugh Grant and Pierce Brosnan and other charming Englishmen in suits getting to embrace the full national experience with Benny Hill, except evidently Pierce Brosnan is actually from Ireland. Today I learned.
Yakety Sax[1] :) but everybody knows it as the Benny Hill theme song.
Benny Hill helped popularize it but it was there earlier, and itself inspired by Yakety Yak (which is a name of Ubuntu release 16.10 - now we're full circle :))
Mr. Bean is how I spent time with my grandfather. We did not speak the same language, just sat and laughed at the same thing. And he had his own little physical comedy routine (finding a quarter behind my ear sort of thing).
Surprisingly, Zack Braff is actually a very, very funny physical comedian. I was watching some episodes of scrubs last week and it’s surprising how much he leans on physical comedy.
It transcends but some is lost in translation. There are youtube videos of people showing Mr Bean to tribs in middle east and they struggle to grasp some ideas due to different social norms.
"I Love Lucy" was a huge cultural touchstone for my grandparents, who immigrated to the United States after World War II. Their English was weak at the time, but they fell in love with Lucy's physical comedy. (they couldn't afford a TV, but were able to watch at a neighbor's apartment).
I just looked him up, he's really good! Though I seem to find his images faintly horrific, rather than funny. There's definitely no comfort there. His work reminds me of Alfred Kubin, actually.
