Stuff Your Dad Likes: English Humour

Jacob Zinn can’t give you fatherly advice, but he can fall asleep during your dance recital.

I never really got into English humour. Aside from Rowan Atkinson’s signature character Mr. Bean, I admittedly didn’t find the satire particularly gut-busting. There were only so many times I could laugh at someone with an exaggerated accent or a man in a dress.

My dad, however, grew up on the stuff, and he made sure I grew up on it too. You probably got your sense of humour from your dad, and he got his from the British.

The truth is, the Brits were historically funny people. Dating back to the silent film era, Charlie Chaplin’s bumbling vagrant known as The Tramp captivated American audiences and taught the world slapstick in films like The Gold Rush and City Lights.

But unless your dad is 80 years old, you’re probably more familiar with The Benny Hill Show, with its increasingly ridiculous uptempo pursuits, or Fawlty Towers, highlighting the futile efforts of John Cleese’s character to “raise the tone” of hotel.

The holy grail of British comedies is, well, The Holy Grail. Monty Python’s critically acclaimed 1974 sophomore film is widely considered one of the funniest films of all time. Even for someone like myself who can’t fully appreciate humour, there’s something to laugh at between the vicious bunny rabbit, the so-called town witch, the bridge of death and the knights who say “Ni!”

The comedy group returned to the box office with more sarcasm and wit in 1979’s Life of Brian and 1983’s The Meaning of Life.

Nowadays, British humour seems more Americanized, with such successes as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz garnering North American audiences, and with the HBO-developed American version of Da Ali G Show.

But your dad didn’t grow up with Sacha Baron Cohen’s character acting. Traditional British humour doesn’t rely on racist, anti-Semetic or homophobic jokes to get a laugh.

The BBC still regularly airs current British sitcoms like Little Britain, but even that can’t compare to the nostalgic hilarity of the dead parrot sketch.

“And now, frontal nudity.”

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Party like it’s Woodstock ’99

Welcome to Woodstock

In the summer of 1999, more than 200,000 concert-goers traveled to an abandoned Air Force Base in Rome, New York for Woodstock ’99, one of the largest music festivals in history.

For Generation X degenerates, it was the party of the millennium.

Woodstock ’99 ran from July 23-25 and was broadcast live by HBO. Stations such as MTV and MuchMusic also covered the event with their own crews.

Even though many attendees complained of expensive ticket prices ($150 plus service charges for three days), the line-up was top-notch.

(Some of) The Line-Up: Buckcherry Bush Creed DMX Elvis Costello Everclear Everlast James Brown Kid Rock Korn Limp Bizkit Lit Megadeth Metallica The Offspring Our Lady Peace Rage Against The Machine Red Hot Chili Peppers Sheryl Crow Snoop Dogg Willie Nelson

The Offspring was touring for Americana, Korn’s Follow the Leader was still selling well and thrash metal bands Metallica and Megadeth were on the bill for some headbanging performances.

People moshed, crowd-surfed and jumped with the music, and when they weren’t at the stage, the crowd made its own fun by rolling in mud, making music with garbage cans and throwing hundreds of frisbees at once.

Protesting Peace

But after “3 More Days of Peace and Music,” the final night turned into an evening of chaos and looting. Rage Against The Machine and Limp Bizkit were blamed for inciting riots.

During the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ set, an audio tower caught fire and a concert organizer went on stage, announcing that the fire department was on its way.

“If you look behind you, we have a bit of a problem,” said the organizer in an understatement.

It didn’t help that RHCP returned to the stage to cover “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix, an homage to Woodstock ’69.

A big mistake on the promoters behalf was to only allow its 1,200 security guards within the Woodstock grounds rather than hire police officers to overlook the event. After two days, nearly half of Woodstock’s security was gone–some were fired, others just left.

By the end of the show, more bonfires had been lit with candles that were intended for a candlelight vigil. Trash was all over the place, concession stands were burnt to the ground and still, the NYPD was on the outside looking in.

State Troopers were finally called in to help regain control, but a lot of damage had already been done. Four rapes were reported, seven arrests were made and police reviewed video to identify looters of overpriced vendor merchandise.

Dave Mustaine said it best when Megadeth finished their set: “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?”

Today ’09

Looking back, people seem to only remember the bad parts of Woodstock ’99.

They remember how disgusting the porta-pottys were, how expensive the food was, how hot it was outside.

It was not your mothers Woodstock.

One Beavis and one Butt-head is enough, but when you get some 200,000 of them together, surely even former MTV VJ Kurt Loder (who was at the event) should realize that the elements are combustible.

In reality, it’s a sad thought that ’90s teens could be so depraved, but it’s unlikely that even a small percentage of the turn-out partook in tearing down Woodstock ’99. With only seven arrests and six injuries out of 200,000 people, that might be a record.

The main thing to remember is the music; there were dozens of great bands on one bill and being there would’ve made you one of a lucky 200,000 to see them all live.

The rest of us could watch it on HBO, without the riots, $4 water bottles and drunk frat boys yelling, “Show us your tits!”

Conchords get Flighty

The Flight of the Conchords have gone from playing an audience of none to performing sold out shows all over North America.

Some years ago, the New Zealand comedians played a show in Vancouver to no one. Since then, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have released two comedy albums and a hit TV show on HBO, making their Sunday concert in Vancouver much more successful.

Set List Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor Hurt Feelings Robots The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room) I Told You I was Freekie Jenny Stana Bus Driver’s Song Albi The Racist Dragon I’m Not Crying Business Time Foux Du Fafa If You’re Into It Sugalumps Bowie (Mutha’uckas)

The Grammy Award-winning duo took the stage wearing robot costumes, playing keyboards while strobe lights moved throughout the Center in Vancouver for Performing Arts. They opened the show with “Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor,” which they said was inspired by a previous trip to Vancouver where… well, the rest is self-explanatory.

After removing the robot suits, they played “Hurt Feelings” from season two of their HBO television series, then “Robots,” but they didn’t put the suits back on.

They might’ve been trying to impress “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room),” until they told them they were freekie in “I Told You I Was Freekie.” Clement stumbled twice over the tongue-twisting lyrics, but McKenzie slowed down the acoustic guitar and they got through the song.

At one point, they announced they’ve been touring with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and brought them out. Due to budget cuts, the orchestra had been cut down from three musicians to one cellist named Nigel, who stayed on for the rest of the show.

Clement and McKenzie went back and forth in “Jenny,” where they each mistake the other for someone else numerous times. They kept the new material going with “Stana” (an anagram of Satan, or Santa) and “Bus Driver’s Song.”

Somewhere during the show, they played “Mutha’uckas,” complete with self-censorship and a few improvised lyrics.

Fans got to hear “Albi The Racist Dragon” from season one, followed by “I’m Not Crying,” both of which got big laughs from the audience.

Clement then asked if the audience had any requests. A man from a lower section yelled, “Business Time,” and they played it, even though it wasn’t Wednesday.

Keeping with season one songs, they went into “Foux Du Fafa” and “If You’re Into It” before Clement and McKenzie got up from their stools to show the audience their “Sugalumps.”

Lastly, they finished the show with “Bowie”–still no robot suits–but kept the audience laughing to the end.