h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What humor from Germany ??? I can receive several german tv-channels and I've never ever seen anything funny that I could understand...

BTW, I don't know if he's really American though he sounds like it but I think the funniest man in the U.S. of A.(who's doing it for a living) is Steve Wright. Anybody know where I can get Videos/CD's etcetera...


- If Barbie is so popular why do we need to buy her boyfriends ?
- I bought some powdered water. Now I don't know what to add...
- I bought a dog, called him Stay. I used to walk him and I'd go 'Come here Stay, come here Stay'. Drove him crazy...nowadays he just ignores me and keep on typing...

TM.

-What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
-Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into a open sewer and die.

LMAO!!!!!

Robin Williams

Everyone is patriotic, sine qua non. We are probably more ignorant of each other's cultures than we believe (except me of course). I suspect that we British like americans individually, it is just en masse that we find you repulsive. That and your belief that you know better than anyone else - we used to think that, but we are older and wiser now. Build an empire, lose it and then you will understand British humour, and maybe even spell it correctly too!
I am going off now to play rounders, which you americans call baseball and take seriously - we play it for fun.
LOL

OK, humour v. humor - who cares? If you want a good fight about spelling, see that argument over in the Mark Moxon forum.

I've lived in the UK, married a Brit...even he admits (and he is one self-centered, egocentric, foreigner hating, git) that the US is just like the UK...some people are nice...some people would be better off dead...some people are posers...etc. He found the greatest difference to him was the chocolate...candy bars to be specific (although you can find a proper dime bar here now, if you look real hard).

I found this to be pretty true. It doesn't matter where you are from, it matters who you are! The more we share, the more our humour will be conjoined. Sure there is bad TV out there. Guess what, lousy Brit TV exists you know. I've seen breakfast TV. When we have humour in common, we take from the best -- sometimes its from the UK, sometimes its NOT!

GET a sense of humour, stop arguing about it.

wsfn

Oh, geez. I'm sure that was some more of your "zany, sarcastic British humor", Jan, but I've learned through the years that every joke is tinged with the truth. You think that we don't play sports for fun?!?! Who's telling who not to stereotype here? I'm sure a few of your footballers (soccer players, sorry if I can't sling the lingo) get paid behemothic salaries to play their sport and to play it well. Same over here, and trust me we have plenty of fun watching them do it. And we try not to trample each other or incite riots up in the stands as we do. I suppose, then, it would be stereotypical of me to tell the UK to not be so serious about their sport

For the rest of us who play baseball, softball, rugby and others for fun - there's nothing wrong with a little healthy compition. I suppose that this ideology is what helps to make our country an unsurpassable world power. Which isn't to say that we don't have fun and enjoy ourselves in the meanwhile - conquering the planet with McJunk and laughing at the downtrodden in the process is a hoot! I think you should read this, and perhaps gain some insight into the collective US mind in reference to sport: http://www.theonion.com/onion3526/softball_league.html

Then poke around a little while you're there; it's amazing what you can learn about a culture if you take the time to discover who they really are, not just what the book cover tells you about them.

Dear Amanda,

I can think of lots of funny things and persons from the U.S.A. as well as from Britain, Belgium, Holland, Australia, etcetera etcetera. Coming from a small country beneath the dykes I feel that we have had maybe 20 people or so in Holland in the last 25 years who were really funny. So let's maintain a nice social atmosphere shall we

HOWEVER ! You stated that you do have some fun ON THE SIDE when you play a match. I say you should have fun at what you do first or you'll NEVER be good enough to reach for the prizes.

This may be were the differences between the old world and the new world begin. Ofcourse everybody loves to win(well I do and I don't know anybody who doesn't) but although commercialism has taken over sports we still have this silly oldfashioned notion that you should win in an honest way or even better : With Style ! In Holland you may get respect by winning but you will be admired if you do it in style.

If I interpret what you say correctly people in the States want to win first and they hope they will win gracefully, but it's not the main thing. If that's the general feeling among the general American publid then you all certainly do need us as a counterweight just as we need the U.S. of A.

Now where's my tea...?

BFN,

TM.

And to quote the immortal Mark Twain : Generalizations are no damn good !

Hear, Hear! Well said. I agree.
Cancel the Big Breakfast NOW!
Not to mention Good Morning Britain (or whatever it is now called, not to mention Richard and Judy.........

Ummm, right. I think what I was trying to say is that when we play sports in the US it's for fun. Same as anywhere else. Unless you're playing it for money (i.e. you're a professional), which is something completely different but the same, I'm sure, as is it in other countries. And we can be competitive when playing sports. I'm sure that's the same, also, in other countries. And I'm sure that there's also some nit-wits out there who take everything a little much to heart. Yeah, they're everywhere...the US is too small to keep them confined just to one country.

I also think I was trying to get across another point (that we're all essentially the same, blah-blah-blah), but someone did a much nicer job of that a few posts up so I won't bother with reiterating. And I'm not quite sure how all of this got on sports, but there you are. And off I go to bed because I just suddenly realized that I'm not making any sense and that I shouldn't hit the "Post Message" thingy, but it's too late. Whaddareya gonna do?

Oh dear, a Sense Of Humo(u)r Failure.
"Two countries divided by a common language", and seemingly an uncommon sense of humour.
Some of my best friends are American, including my step-brother, and I have been to the States - it is like the UK only larger and emptier. I'm afraid my half-brother is a naturalised Canadian. I've been there too. My step-sister is in NZ, half-sister in OZ. I try to take a wider view. Someone has to.
More in sorrow than in anger,
jan

Aw damn now we're thinking along the same lines again...
BTW if you have to go to bed now where on Earth are you ???

P.S. Amanda - just read your latest - PAX OK?
and btw, the only sport I watch is the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race - elitist or what!!!!!

Am I allowed to BE on this forum. I'm from a small insignificant little green country called The Netherlands so I don't see how I could be part of the Britain vs U.S.A. debate.

I wouldn't want be anyway, I wouldn't even participate in a Holland vs Germany debate.

I think my thingy about Mark Twain was a little bit in the right direction(back to the humor and all that).

And to prove that ya all will lose here's this one :

A Russian, an American and a Dutchman from Rotterdam are in the same boat cruising the harbor. The Russian says : 'Zo you knov the Kremlin ? Ve built that in two veeks'. Well says the American : 'That's nothing. Remember the White House ? We put that up in just five nights'.
Suddenly they see the Euromast(a tower in the harbour about 80 meters high). The American asks the Russian : 'What is it?' but the Russian is just as puzzled. Finally they turn to the dutchman and ask him :' Sir, can you tell us what that tower is ?'

Couldn't tell you, the dutchman says, wasn't here yesterday...

Tee, Hee, Ha, Ha, Ha. Clap, Clap, Clap

I like that one. Thanks for the laugh!

Oh, yah, in defense of the rest of this continent - "America" is an unspecific name for a CONTINENT of people and countries...NOT for the United States of America. It is offensive to people from say - Canada and Mexico, whether or not they speak English. I hear this one abused way too often (and yes, I am from the US). Lets all give a conscious thought to the politically correct (and not too correct, mind you, just on the polite side of things).

I spell checked that last post, and I still managed to screw up something didn't I?

Thanks,

wsfn

My, that's funny. I'll have to remember that. Next time I'm at a Ambassadorial convention

I just want you to know that I write lyrics and I consider myself to be absolutely 'Polyrically incorrect'.

I thank you for your attention.

TM.

It is also offensive to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Columbia, San Domingo, the British Virgin Islands (so that's where they all went), Jamaica (no she went of her own accord), and so on, so don't worry about it. I think we all know what we mean. (and apologies to all the countries I left out)

For a forum on humour, with or without the u, this is getting singularly humorless. Anyone know a good joke?