In my opinion, there are a surprising number of similarities between British and Chinese humour. British humour is notoriously known for its dryness, suffused with irony and sarcasm to the extent of bordering on offensive. It teaches you to not to take yourself too seriously. To put it brashly, it loves to ‘take the piss’: out of oneself, of the people you like and of the ones you don’t.
依我之見(jiàn)，腐國(guó)和大中華的幽默還真是驚人地相似。眾所周知，英式幽默的特點(diǎn)就是平淡無(wú)奇，卻又偏偏要盡挖苦諷刺之能事，簡(jiǎn)直有了冒犯的意味。笑話看多了，你就懂了：別太把自己當(dāng)回事。話糙理不糙地講，英式幽默能把所有人祖宗八輩地挖苦一遍：挖苦自己，挖苦喜歡的、不喜歡的三教九流。
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This is perhaps best represented by the once popular comic TV series Little Britain, a show that survived on crude, exaggerated parodies of your supposedly everyday Brit, poking fun at the working classes (the ‘Chavs’) and the obese. It traded on its British audience’s sense of self-deprecation. The Britishness of the humour may be reflected in the failure of the spin off of the show, Little Britain USA, to entertain an American audience, who are perhaps too used to the fluffiness of shows such as Friends to find humour in endless crude jokes about homosexuality, fatness and other sensitive topics.
這一特質(zhì)在紅極一時(shí)的電視喜劇《小不列顛》（Little Britain）中展現(xiàn)地淋漓盡致，劇中的大量橋段靠著粗暴夸張的模仿，挖苦著不列顛的蕓蕓眾生，嘲笑著中產(chǎn)階級(jí)（“小混混”）和肥胖人士。也是抓準(zhǔn)了英國(guó)觀眾的自嘲精神。如此英國(guó)特色到了美國(guó)佬那可沒(méi)人買(mǎi)賬，《小不列顛》的姊妹篇《小不列顛大美利堅(jiān)》（Little Britain USA）就沒(méi)能娛樂(lè)到美國(guó)人民，這些人可是看慣了《老友記》（Friends）里爛俗的段子，管他是拿同性戀、大胖墩還是其他敏感話題開(kāi)涮呢！
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THE ART OF SELF-DEPRECATION
自嘲的藝術(shù)
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While some topics may still be too taboo to joke about due to the ‘face saving’ culture in China, self-mockery, known as ‘Zi Hei’, is also becoming a more popular form of humour. This can be seen by the roaring and mostly favourable response to actor DengChao’s Weibo posts, filled with photos and clips of himself in drag and all sorts of weird and wonderful costumes and makeup. Rather, it is those who take themselves too seriously or think too highly of themselves that often end up as the butt of jokes in both British and Chinese cultures: think politicians in the UK, the and nouveau riche or ‘second generations’ in China (stemming off the ‘My father is Li Gang jokes’).
中國(guó)人愛(ài)面子的傳統(tǒng)給笑話設(shè)定了不可逾越的界限，而中國(guó)式“自黑”正變成大家喜聞樂(lè)見(jiàn)的幽默。看看鄧超那些一呼百應(yīng)，讓粉絲爭(zhēng)相點(diǎn)贊的微博你就懂了——什么偽娘扮相的照片、小視頻，什么奇裝異服、鬼魅妝容，“黑”得放蕩不羈。恰恰是那些自命不凡的人成了中英人民群起而“黑”之的對(duì)象：有英國(guó)政客，有中國(guó)土豪或各種“二代”（出自于“我爸是李剛”的段子）。
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“COLD JOKES”
“冷笑話”
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The deadpan nature in which some British jokes are delivered is comparable to Chinese ‘cold jokes’. Both take a moment for the recipient to register, and both are not necessarily funny to all who hears them. Eating dinner at a British restaurant the other night, we sat next to a group of men on a ‘stag-do’; each of them was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a sentence that was directed at the groom-to-be. One of them said: ‘some say he works from home, even though he lives only a few yards from his workplace.’ We could only guess that this was an endearing way of labelling their friend as lazy, but not having known them personally, our response was ‘that’s cold’!
英國(guó)的笑話和中國(guó)的“冷笑話”有得一拼。笑話不一定好笑，聽(tīng)笑話的人都得消化一陣才能聽(tīng)懂。有天晚上和朋友在英國(guó)餐廳吃飯，旁邊坐在一桌參加“單身聚會(huì)”的小哥（為祝賀某單身哥們即將結(jié)婚而舉行的聚會(huì)）；每個(gè)人的T恤上都印著一句和準(zhǔn)新郎有關(guān)的話。其中一句是“有人說(shuō)即使單位離家就兩步路，他也在家辦公?！蔽覀円仓荒懿聹y(cè)這句話萌萌地點(diǎn)明了他朋友是個(gè)懶蟲(chóng)，但萍水相逢，我們也只能默默說(shuō)一句“好冷啊”！
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PUNS
雙關(guān)
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Due to the wealth of Chinese characters and sounds, a lot of Chinese humour is inspired by homophones, and playing on words or characters. Equally, the Brits are fond of their puns, which are frequently integrated into everyday conversation. This is often followed by the disclaimer ‘no pun intended’ – although like many other forms of British humour, this serves the exact opposite purpose of what it says, by lightheartedly acknowledging that a joke has been made. One of my personal favourites belongs to comedian Leo Kearse, winner of the UK ‘pun championships’: I was at hospital last week. I asked the nurse if I could do my own stitches, she said “suture self.” (punning cleverly on “suit yourself”.)
中文的字音字形千變?nèi)f化、博大精深，很多的中文段子都運(yùn)用了同音異義詞，玩起了文字游戲。同樣，英國(guó)人也鐘情于英語(yǔ)里的雙關(guān)，把它們?nèi)谟谌粘?duì)話中，還總故意加一句“我可沒(méi)想用雙關(guān)哈”——其實(shí)就和其他腐國(guó)幽默一樣，說(shuō)者隨口承認(rèn)自己就是想搞笑，確實(shí)也就有了“笑果”。我的最?lèi)?ài)雙關(guān)語(yǔ)出自喜劇演員里約·基爾斯在英國(guó)“雙關(guān)語(yǔ)錦標(biāo)賽”上的金句：上周我住院的時(shí)候問(wèn)護(hù)士，我自己縫針行不行，她說(shuō)“請(qǐng)自縫（‘請(qǐng)自便’的好梗）。”
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A RICH HISTORY
歷史悠久
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Furthermore, both China and Britain have a rich and profound history and culture for comedians to work with. For example, Chinese humour may incorporate historical figures: ‘Yuan Fang, what do you think?’ (lines from a TV series based on a Tang dynasty magistrate and statesman). The Brits, if Little Britain is anything to go by, are always receptive to jokes about the centuries-old class system.
此外，中英兩國(guó)都有悠久的歷史和燦爛的文化，更為喜劇演員提供了素材。例如：中國(guó)的一些小幽默就和歷史人物有關(guān)：“元芳，你怎么看？”（此為描寫(xiě)唐代神探狄仁杰衛(wèi)隊(duì)長(zhǎng)的電視劇臺(tái)詞）。從《小不列顛》來(lái)看，英國(guó)人倒是愿意拿自己幾百年的階級(jí)制度開(kāi)玩笑。
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But this is only a tiny sample of what I’ve experienced in the enriching worlds of Chinese and British humour – and there’s so much more to discover. After all, is there a better way to get to know a culture than by learning its sense of humour?
在中英幽默的大千世界里，我也只是管中窺豹，略見(jiàn)一斑。說(shuō)到底，要是笑話都能聽(tīng)懂，你還怕自己不了解這種文化嗎？
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