Back again after a long break. ..
A few days ago I read an article on the BBC website about a group of British men being arrested in Greece for offensive behaviour because they dressed up in nuns' habits (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8067280.stm). The article reminded me about a conversation I had with a friend some weeks ago comparing the British and Americans – we were in agreement that you would find more “characters” among the British than among Americans. I doubt we would hear about a group of American men doing something similar! Then there is the recent You Tube sensation Susan Boyle – I doubt someone like her could be anything other than British.
I guess this affection (preference?) that a number of us (late thirties and older) have for things British is a product of our experiences when growing up. A number of us went to schools with British influences (e.g. Anglo-Indian schools or schools run by missionaries where many of them were from the United Kingdom or Ireland), read Enid Blytons and the only english comedy serials we saw on television were British: “Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em”, “Fawlty Towers”, “Yes Minister” etc. (there was no Cable TV at that time). I suspect the younger folks (i.e. early thirties and younger) are more American in their tastes or at least not biased towards Britain.
I personally prefer understated comedy to the over-the-top variety; it is easy to think of Hugh Grant as being representative of the former and Jim Carrey as epitomizing the latter and to then generalize this to label all American comedy as being loud but that would be unfair. I've enjoyed watching American sitcoms such as “Caroline in the City” and “Frasier” and like Steve Martin and Bill Murray. However the cult status Sienfeld acquired puzzles me, even though I liked quite a few episodes. There would be a small clip of him doing a stand-up routine at the end of each episode. I think he was trying hard to do some understated humour (if that is actually possible..) but actually came across as being rather smug (especially that slight smile accompanied by the nod of the head).
For an enjoyable description of Britain and British idiosyncracies read Bill Bryson's book “Notes from a Small Island”. Its been a while since I read it but I still remember its gem of a start where he describes how the British (wrongly) believe that Britain is a big place.
