常听到英国人的笑点很怪，有哪些相关经历与笑话值得分享？

英国人的笑点，首先在于自嘲，其次是讽刺，第三是制造各式「不合时宜」的窘境。此外很有特色的当属善于玩弄文字游戏，例如这段经典的视频，「My Blackberry Is Not Working」：

youtube.com/watch?

几乎每一句都是双关语。而其中自嘲的部分（呃，这个笑点单独拿出来看比较荤，但是放在场景里看，A 得浑然天成）：
—— And how big's your dongle?
—— Well, I don't know much about these things, but my wife's seen a few dongles in her time... and she says a little bit on the small side.
我主观臆断一句，以地球上各国人自嘲能力而论，无出英人右者。而难能可贵的是，他们自嘲起来几无下限。从个人、家庭、家乡、祖国，凡可以自我认同者，皆可以自我嘲讽。个中范例应属剧集《Little Britain》——标题又是一个文字游戏——肆意嘲弄着关于英国人的一切。而自嘲却是中国人不太做得来的事情，就算能笑笑自己，也不太能达到自嘲家、国、天下的水平，所以初涉英式幽默时，这可能是个巨大的文化隔阂。

至于讽刺，也许是英国人总是端着温文礼貌的架子，所以含沙射影指桑骂槐的功夫很好，而且挖苦起来同样可算「有教无类」。《Top Gear》的主持人 Jeremy Clarkson 当属个中翘楚，我怀疑他大脑布洛卡区安装着一颗真随机刻薄发生器。若干语录如下：
  • (On the BMW X3) If you are clinically insane, by which I mean you wake up in the morning, and you think you are an onion, this is your car.
  • Telling people at a dinner party you drive a Nissan Almera is like telling them you've got the ebola virus and you're about to sneeze.
  • Whenever I'm suffering from Insomnia, I just look at a picture of a Toyota Camry and I'm straight off.
  • This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying 'Oh good, I've got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!'
  • I've seen better looking gangrenous wounds than this. (Clarkson on the Porsche Cayenne)
（是，我知道还有更刻薄的英国人在，挑 Jeremy 是因为他基本只侮辱车。（呃，是，我也知道他讲过「Chinese people have no souls」。））

最后，不合时宜的窘境，史诗级的 Monty Python 系列剧集即属于此类。剧中每个人都一本正经，但每个人都脑袋有病。以《Monty Python and the Holy Grail》为例，亚瑟王未出场时观众听到马蹄声，一出场发现其实无人骑马，只是做着骑马的样子，马蹄声是随从用椰子壳敲出来的；遂即守城军士诘问亚瑟王「椰子哪里来？」，亚瑟信口说是燕子带给他的，两个守城军士接下来就欧洲燕还是非洲燕该如何才带得动椰子展开探讨，完全不理会亚瑟众人。再比如随从歌唱 Sir Robin 勇武的歌词：
Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die, oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways,
brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin.
He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp,
or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken.
To have his kneecaps split,
and his body burned away,
and his limbs all hacked and mangled,
brave Sir Robin.
His head smashed in and heart cut out,
and his liver removed, and his bowels unplugged,
and his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off and his penis...

又比如亚瑟王与农民的对话：
King Arthur: I am your king.
Woman: Well I didn't vote for you.
King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.
Woman: Well how'd you become king then?
[Angelic music plays... ]
King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king.
Dennis: [interrupting] Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

……不胜枚举。请注意这是一九七五年的电影，周星驰刚满十三岁，离他奠定与英式幽默或许有些殖民地渊源的港式无厘头还有十几年。

其实对比 TBBT 和 The IT Crowd 就可以看出英美笑点的差别。TBBT 笑点触发于「滑稽」，观众笑起来是捧腹哈哈大笑；The IT Crowd 笑点触发则主要是「尴尬」，观众笑起来往往是憋不住嗤嗤而笑。当然这也许跟两者的拍摄方式有关，<del>还留待考证</del>但是谁在乎呢。

最后，我感觉所谓「笑点奇怪」，也许是因为英国人的「幽默」已经是文化的组成部分。我们的文化里面没有完全对应的概念——不然也不会用这么一个音译。怪异感因此而来。


免责声明：我接触过的英国人并不多。
免责声明：我其实还是看 TBBT 多一点。
免责声明：当然，照林语堂的观点，中国人很幽默。
免责声明：看中文字幕你就输了。
原发布于 https://www.zhihu.com/question/20221515/answer/14409461