British comedy crosses cultural divide

Each country hates the humour of the other, but executives at Arte says show such as Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Absolutely Fabulous bridge the cultural divide.

Arte president Jérôme Clément said: ‘The Germans stay stony-faced when the French laugh. And when the Germans find something funny, the French think it’s a catastrophe. Only a certain form of English humour is approximately shared on both sides of the Rhine.’

Emmanuel Suard, deputy director of programmes, added that ‘comedy is more difficult because we [the French and the Germans] don’t laugh for the same .

But he said British comics worked because they often relied on visual humour: ‘Take the Ministry of Silly Walks. That’s very visual.’

Andreas Schreitmüller, head of cinema and drama at Arte, told The Times: ‘English humour is a kind of universal humour. French humour is more tied to the national culture and history.

‘French comics are always making references to French TV shows or actors whom Germans have never heard of.

‘And German humour tends to be regional. Bavarian humour is different to Rhineland humour. And if they don’t get the joke in the Rhineland, they’re certainly not going to get it in France.’

Arte was created in 1986 by François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl to bring the two nations closer together, but has long struggled to find an audience.

Published: 4 Feb 2008