Megan Amram on the transatlantic comedy gap and why Britain does bleak better
By Megan Amram | Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
I went to a comedy night in Portland last week that billed itself as “politically engaged stand-up.” Seven comics. Three of them did bits about awareness. Two did bits about the correct way to respond to injustice. One did a bit about a type of bag. One the only one who made me actually laugh did eight minutes about the specific way his landlord said “maintenance” to avoid doing any. He got the quietest reception. He was also the only one doing what the British tradition means by stand-up: naming the exact specific wrong thing rather than the general category of wrong things.
The Transatlantic Gap
British comedy names the landlord. American progressive comedy names landlordism. Both are correct about the problem. Only one is funny. This is not a political observation. It is a structural one. Specificity is funnier than category. The individual detail carries the moral weight better than the argument does. This is why working class British humour lands so cleanly: it never generalises. It names the parking meter noise. It names the specific thing the boss said on a Tuesday. It names the neighbour’s specific attitude to bin day.
The World, Named Specifically
Britain is reopening the Strait of Hormuz via Zoom and a proper British comic would name the exact font of the Whitehall letterhead, the specific Zoom background chosen, and the exact phrase used to describe the plan as “a step forward.” Bohiney on AI apologising insincerely names the specific absurdity perfectly. Chortle, the UK comedy database, has everything else.
I am writing a set. It is about Portland. It is about the bag comic. It is the most British thing I have done since moving here.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
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