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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
by boberoni 4y ago
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.
- nickm12 4y ago"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).
- silisili 4y agoThe 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 - https://youtu.be/2Zs6mi5bvic https://youtu.be/2Zs6mi5bvic
- sedatk 4y agoBenny Hill, similarly.
- ternaryoperator 4y agoNot 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.
- mbg721 4y agoTo appreciate Benny Hill, you have to recognize both time and space. It's not 1965 anymore.
- lostlogin 4y agoHowever… put the music on and I expect to see a fiasco play out.
- mbg721 4y agoI would expect a similar result if someone had a record of the "The Price Is Right" theme music.
- DyslexicAtheist 4y agoYakety 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 :)) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakety_Sax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakety_Sax
- mattkevan 4y agoThere 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. https://mobile.twitter.com/nickfthilton/status/1544992559692480512 https://mobile.twitter.com/nickfthilton/status/1544992559692...
- mbg721 4y agoI 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.
- mrwh 4y ago
- gsatic 4y agoYup 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.
- silisili 4y agoGood 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.
- stavros 4y agoI've always liked how harmless their pranks are. When the recipient laughs along, you know you have a good prank.
- agumonkey 4y agoIt 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.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- swayvil 4y agoThere's an American cartoonist. Jim Woodring. Fabulous. Mystic. Almost all of his stuff is wordless. Apparently it was just easier that way. Then suddenly the Japanese discovered him. Now he's got this giant new audience. The power of no words. Also, I've noticed, words can be too precise. Pictures and pantomime can let you talk with greater accuracy.
- taylorius 4y agoI 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.
- ycombinete 4y agoI did too, more Dali draws Alice in Wonderland, than Garfield for sure.
- bcbrown 4y agoI grew up around the corner from him. I distinctly remember his house having some great halloween decorations. His comics are amazingly good.
- wnolens 4y agoMr. 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).
- rideontime 4y agoFor evidence of this, Tribal People React to Mr. Bean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzAgGWSm_gU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzAgGWSm_gU
- Forgeties79 4y agoSurprisingly, 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.