On Reading Guides to the Thing One Does
Alan Nafzger reviews the guides to British humour and finds them insufficiently funny
By Alan Nafzger | Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
On Reading Guides to the Thing One Does
Someone sent me the complete guide to British humour this week. They sent it, I think, as either a compliment or a challenge. I have been editing satirical journalism for years and being handed a guide to the thing you do is one of those experiences that is either galvanising or deflating depending entirely on whether the guide is better than you. In this case it is good. I am therefore calling it a challenge and rising to it by writing something that is also good but in a different register.
What British Humour Actually Is
British humour is not, as the Americans often believe, simply understatement plus awkwardness. It is understatement plus awkwardness plus a genuine philosophical position about the relationship between dignity and failure, specifically: that dignity is not lost by failure but by the refusal to acknowledge it with appropriate lightness. The comparison with American humour is instructive here. American comedy often wants you to feel better by the end. British comedy often wants you to feel worse but more accurately.
I also read the full archive on the word prat this week as part of what I am calling editorial research and my colleague is calling “procrastination dressed up.” Both are true. The prat article is genuinely good and I say this as someone who did not commission it.
The Week’s Edit
Rejected: four pieces that described real events sarcastically without establishing a satirical premise. Accepted: two pieces that made me laugh despite knowing the subject matter. Edited heavily: one piece that was excellent from paragraph three onwards and I gave the author’s opening back to them in red with the note: “Bury the lede next time, not the comedy.” They took it well. This is what good contributors do.
Bohiney Magazine runs the good stuff. So do we. We are allies in the project of making important things funny and funny things important.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
Further reading: The Daily Mash