Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny?

29.12.05, 13:51
It's a scientifically proven fact that he's not.
He uses the same visual gags endlessly repeated in every show, and his
wordplay is based mainly on deliberately bad puns, which aren't even properly
translated.
His impressions of 1970s UK tv stars and parodies of adverts might be funny
for some Brits over 40 with a good memory.
So why is he so popular in Poland?
And why do Polish newspapers always classify him along with Monty Python when
they write mindless uninformed shite about "British humour"?
And while we're on the subject, "Keeping Up Appearances" is crap too. Please
explain this to Poles.
    • varsovian Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 29.12.05, 13:56
      I must admit I'm as baffled as you are.
      • russh Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 29.12.05, 14:27
        It was the same in Italy. To them, British humour = Benny Hill and Mr Bean, and
        they loved it.

        I'm trying to educate some of my clients now, with Fawlty Towers, Black Adder &
        Yes Minister. They absolutely love 'em.
        • varsovian Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 29.12.05, 15:42
          Bloody Hell, ambitious or what!
        • usenetposts Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 29.12.05, 15:46
          russh napisał:

          > It was the same in Italy. To them, British humour = Benny Hill and Mr Bean,
          and
          > they loved it.
          >
          > I'm trying to educate some of my clients now, with Fawlty Towers, Black Adder
          &
          > Yes Minister. They absolutely love 'em.

          I think that one of the things humour has to have in order to be international
          is a lot of visual jokes. Benny Hill has whole sequences with no talking in at
          all, and that was the whole basis of Mr Bean - he only makes noises through the
          entire show. You don't need a translator for that tall guy slapping that little
          bald guy on the head, it's cross cultural.

          On the other hand nobody outside the English speaking world is going to watch a
          Ben Elton diatribe, as it is highly conceptual, politically charged humour
          unlike to meet with much understanding even if the translator managed to do a
          good job on it.

          The problem starts of course when foreigners think that these artists, who are
          only one aspect of the vastness that is British humour, are its very epitome. I
          met this Japanese person on a conference once who actually thought that British
          people went around like that, chasing each other in a long line and patting
          each other condescendingly on the head.

          I think it was quite a disappointment to him to learn that such antics were not
          the order of the day in our country.
    • kylie1 Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 29.12.05, 22:05
      > And while we're on the subject, "Keeping Up Appearances" is crap too. Please
      > explain this to Poles.

      Don't have to. I love Keeping Up Appearances. One of the best comedies I have
      ever seen. I have seen some Bristish luke warm sitcoms on TV and they were dull
      and boring - z z z z z . Many of them were taken off the air unceremoniously
      right after the first show. However, KUA proves that British humor still
      exists - a huge jump from the lame, dry and off beat humor that the UK is known
      for. That's why our networks don't import any of it. Definitely not a money
      maker for private networks.
      It's crap to you and I absolutely love it!
      (I agree with the rest of your eloquent critique though).

      smile
    • waldek1610 Polish humour is situational.. English "word play" 30.12.05, 10:17
      Ianek,
      It's not like Poles are "uninformed"...We simply laugh at different things,
      that's all.

      The whole discussion could end once you understand that polish sence of humour
      and jokes are "situational", while English prefer "world play".

      What you call good humour, poles would propably die of bordom from....

      We Poles like irony, funny stories with a twist, and unexpected ending that
      shows idiocy of human race, while English laugh at bizzare "word play" that I
      find rather irritating. Why should I laugh at someone who tho is "smart ass"
      and arrogant...that is sooooo...not funny.

      We Poles laugh at fools who pretend to be smart, you english laugh at smart
      guys who pretend to be funny.
      • russh Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 30.12.05, 11:07
        waldek1610 napisał:

        > Ianek,
        > It's not like Poles are "uninformed"...We simply laugh at different things,
        > that's all.

        In my experience, teaching English to Poles who live in Poland, so are therefore
        more 'Polish' than those who live outside of Poland (and are citizens of another
        country), once presented to English humour are appreciative of much of it.
        Obviously, a considerable amount of any country's humour is based on the events
        occuring in the country, and is therefore specific to that country.

        >
        > The whole discussion could end once you understand that polish sence of humour
        > and jokes are "situational", while English prefer "world play".

        And who invented 'situation comedy'? Do not forget that English humour is very,
        very extended.


        >
        > What you call good humour, poles would propably die of bordom from....

        Maybe, although as said above, I find that educated Poles appreciate much of it.

        >
        > We Poles like irony, funny stories with a twist, and unexpected ending that
        > shows idiocy of human race, while English laugh at bizzare "word play" that I
        > find rather irritating. Why should I laugh at someone who tho is "smart ass"
        > and arrogant...that is sooooo...not funny.

        The above comment is absolute rubbish, and shows your own ignorance of the Poles
        and of English humour. I would suggest that it is your inability to understand
        word play that iritates so much, although I would repeat that your thinking of
        English humour being solely based on word-play is sooooo wrong. Get smart wise guy.

        >
        > We Poles laugh at fools who pretend to be smart, you english laugh at smart
        > guys who pretend to be funny.

        I'm in Poland now, playing the Pole, and laughing at you.

        • waldek1610 Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 30.12.05, 11:58
          russh napisał:

          > waldek1610 napisał:
          >
          > > Ianek,
          > > It's not like Poles are "uninformed"...We simply laugh at different thing
          > s,
          > > that's all.
          >
          > In my experience, teaching English to Poles who live in Poland, so are
          therefor
          > e
          > more 'Polish' than those who live outside of Poland (and are citizens of
          anothe
          > r
          > country), once presented to English humour are appreciative of much of it.
          > Obviously, a considerable amount of any country's humour is based on the
          events
          > occuring in the country, and is therefore specific to that country.

          I'm actually one of those Poles living abroads, and just to clearify one thing;
          I do laugh at English humour, but as you yourself admitted I've been exposed to
          anglo-saxon reality and therefore I understand englo-american psyche better
          then someone living in slavic Poland.

          > >
          > > The whole discussion could end once you understand that polish sence of h
          > umour
          > > and jokes are "situational", while English prefer "world play".
          >
          > And who invented 'situation comedy'? Do not forget that English humour is
          very,
          > very extended.

          You're right but English humour is more type of "funny says" than..."funny
          does"..which is exactly what explains why Poles find Benny Hill and Mr.Bean
          funny...those guys say little, and just do funny things.


          > > What you call good humour, poles would propably die of bordom from....
          >
          > Maybe, although as said above, I find that educated Poles appreciate much of
          it
          > .

          Are you implying I'm uneducated? I was explaining Ianek why Poles laugh at
          Benny Hill, and why they find him funny. So I had to speak from their
          perspective (someones who was never wxposed to anglo-saxon culture).

          > >
          > > We Poles like irony, funny stories with a twist, and unexpected ending th
          > at
          > > shows idiocy of human race, while English laugh at bizzare "word play" th
          > at I
          > > find rather irritating. Why should I laugh at someone who tho is "smart a
          > ss"
          > > and arrogant...that is sooooo...not funny.
          >
          > The above comment is absolute rubbish, and shows your own ignorance of the
          Pole
          > s
          > and of English humour. I would suggest that it is your inability to understand
          > word play that iritates so much, although I would repeat that your thinking of
          > English humour being solely based on word-play is sooooo wrong. Get smart
          wise
          > guy.

          As I said before, I do find english humour funny, and I enjoy watching "Are you
          been served?"...but because I grew up in Poland I see clearly polish
          prespective as well.


          > > We Poles laugh at fools who pretend to be smart, you english laugh at sma
          > rt
          > > guys who pretend to be funny.
          >
          > I'm in Poland now, playing the Pole, and laughing at you.


          Than you doing terrible job....Was that suppose to be funny? See you' just
          proved me right, just as I said; your humour is "smart ass and arrogant"...and
          not funny at all....
      • ianek70 Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 02.01.06, 12:38
        waldek1610 napisał:

        > The whole discussion could end once you understand that polish sence of
        humour
        > and jokes are "situational", while English prefer "world play".

        Do all Poles have the same sense of humour?
        Do all English people prefer word play?

        > What you call good humour, poles would propably die of bordom from....

        How do you know what I call good humour?
        I just mentioned what I consider to be crap humourless humour.

        > you english laugh at smart
        > guys who pretend to be funny.

        I'm not English, and I laugh at anything which is funny.
        Monty Python is funny, Father Ted is funny, Billy Connolly is funny, Louis de
        Funes is funny, Cabaret Moralnego Niepokoju is funny. There are some extremely
        good American and Czech comedies. These are all different styles of humour from
        different countries and they are all funny.
        But Benny Hill isn't.
        • firemouse Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 03.01.06, 15:26
          Waldek is right in what he wrote, some Poles think he is funny and some don't.
          The other thing is why BH is so popular and this can be because he is one of a
          few British comics who were broadcasted in Poland. The same with Mr. Bean, who
          is infact pathetic but he is SO pathetic that this is funny.

          FM
          • kylie1 Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 03.01.06, 21:41
            The other thing is why BH is so popular and this can be because he is one of a
            few British comics who were broadcasted in Poland.

            If there are no other comedians to laugh at, that would explain a thing or two.
            Gotta laugh at something.

            smile
            • ianek70 Re: Polish humour is situational.. English "word 04.01.06, 11:37
              kylie1 napisała:

              > If there are no other comedians to laugh at, that would explain a thing or
              two.

              It's often said "If you can't laugh at yourself, then what can you laugh at?"
              And now we know - Benny Hill.

              smile
    • ejmarkow Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 31.12.05, 13:36
      First, Ian, just by referring to why "Poles" consider Benny Hill to be funny is
      a stereotypical and generalistic comment. How would you know that all or
      most "Poles" even enjoy Benny Hill, have you taken a poll recently of the 40
      million individuals living in Poland? If you can provide a link that states
      this fact, then your question would be more legitimate. Generalizing is a
      serious common error in the media and forums. I've seen this quite too often
      already on this forum, grouping "Poles" into one mind set and category. We are
      all individuals and have unique tastes and preferences. An entire country's
      personality or frame of thought rarely can be specifically categorized. We
      could say, for example, as statistics have proven, that 'over 90% of Poles are
      Roman Catholic'. That is true because it's a fact shown in statistical church
      records in this country.

      I'm an American and I must say, Benny Hill ran for a long time on television in
      the USA and I, my parents, brothers and sister, simply love his humor.
      Outragiously funny to say the least. However, I wouldn't say that all Americans
      like Benny Hill, even if it ran on American television for a long time.

      So, I would rephrase your question, "Why do some individuals think Benny Hill's
      funny?" My answer: Because he makes me laugh. The answer is much simpler than
      you think, and doesn't take an immense psychological or ethnological group
      analysis to come to the conclusion. smile

      Happy New Year, and Belated Happy Holidays
      Eugene
      • usenetposts Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 31.12.05, 15:02
        I think the point is that people in TV know what the audience finds funny and
        what they don't.

        I speak as someone who actually bought and paid for the whole complete works of
        Benny Hill from the owner Thames TV, and paid for the dubbing into Russian when
        I was FD of a TV station in Russia. The reason why we bought it was that the
        people in the statistics departments and the programming departments had exact
        figures on the reach of all our programmes. In Russia this is done by Gallop
        Media's set-top black boxes, and in Poland a diary system is used from a
        representative sample.

        You can be pretty sure if something reaches its sixth or seventh run on TV in a
        country that it is still getting viewing figures. Channels will not even run
        for free material that destroys their viewing figures, and one of the critical
        performance indicators in TV is the ratio "reach/dollar budgeted on
        programming".

        And Benny Hill's free-to-air rights are not too cheap, from what I remember,
        for a programme that would normally be as tired as hell by now.

        Hill was, however, not at all the same sort of merry person ion real life as he
        was on screen though. My first serious girlfriend at the age of 16 was the
        daughter of his carpenter, and he was a pleasant chap, and I asked him what
        working with Benny Hill was like, and he (her dad)explained that he (BH) was a
        perfectionist, and not worried about redoing a set ten times over if that was
        what it took to get it right. Sometimes he would alledgedly get quite uptight
        with his team, and yell at them also.

        I don't think they found that funny, but there weren't that many Poles in
        Elstree studios at that time.
      • ianek70 Re: Why do Poles think Benny Hill's funny? 03.01.06, 10:12
        ejmarkow napisał:

        > First, Ian, just by referring to why "Poles" consider Benny Hill to be funny
        is
        >
        > a stereotypical and generalistic comment. How would you know that all or
        > most "Poles" even enjoy Benny Hill, have you taken a poll recently of the 40
        > million individuals living in Poland?

        I know it's a generalisation, but it's a fact that he's popular.
        A better question might be "How is it possible that any Pole can find him
        funny?"
        My point being, as I wrote, that his wordplay is peculiarly British and
        probably wouldn't make sense even if it was properly translated (which it
        isn't) and he parodies (sometimes, I admit, quite cleverly) long-forgotten
        adverts and personalities from 1970's British TV.
        And he does the same visual gags all the time:
        1. Man pours medicine from bottle into spoon, drinks from bottle/ man cuts
        small slice from cake, eats whole cake.
        2. Man sees young woman bending over, drops tray/ man sees young woman bending
        over, hits someone with ladder.
        3. Man hits someone with ladder, turns round and hits him with ladder again.
        And again.
        4. Man gets sexually excited at sight of young woman, turns out that young
        woman is Scotsman in kilt or heavy metal fan with long hair. Scot/ metal fan
        hits man.
        5. Man drops something in woman's cleavage, man looks at camera.

        Happy New Year to you too smile
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