Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena
Philosophische Fakultät
Fachgebiet Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation
Seminar: Culture and Business

Hausarbeit zum Thema:

Humour in British advertisement

Verfasser: 

Claudia Felsch

Sommersemester 2004
4. Semester
Magister: Soziologie (HF), IWK, Volkskunde/ Kulturgeschichte
Datum: 30.09.2004

Table of contents

Introduction 2

1. Black Humour and Black Comedy 3

2. Black people on television adverts 5

3. Humour under cultural and lawful aspects 6
3.1 Different attitudes towards humour 6
3.2 Terms and conditions of advertisement 7

4. Example: Levis – a television advert 8

Conclusion 11

Bibliography 12

Introduction

As everyone knows does humour play a decisive role in conversations. Particularly in Great Britain black humour is used as the medium of communication.
People’s attitudes towards humour in advertisements are completely different. Naturally advertisement appears artificial and unreal. Due to the wittiness that is now to be used easily does an advert obtain its target more effectively.
After this brief introduction I want to show facts that are important to know about black humour and black comedy. It will be mentioned its development with the generations and its appearance in British advertisement. Another point will be to expose cultural and legitimate aspects concerning humour and advertisement.
At last there I want to attach an example of a British television spot of Levi’s 501 jeans with some reference to typical facts of British advertisement you will find in it.

1. Black humour and black comedy

Humour abolishes stress, supports creativity and in best cases loosens conflict situations. In spite of that humour can be hurting and lead to misunderstandings.

Humour is a form of entertainment and also a form of human communication, supposed to make people laugh and feel happy. The origins of this word lie in the lives of the ancient Greeks, who stated that a mixture of humours controlled human health and emotion.¹

There are different types of humour which appeal to different sectors of humanity. Young children particularly favour situation comedy, also known as sitcom, while satires tend to appeal more to the older and better-educated society. A British situation comedy is produced in the United Kingdom. The genre can be difficult to classify as it covers a wide range of styles and situations. A common factor is the exploration of social aspects, often with satire. British comedies are typically produced in series of six episodes each. Humour often varies by locality and is not easily transfered from one culture to another. The reason is that humour often relies on a context, and someone not understanding the context will usually not understand the humour. ²

The Expression black comedy got its name from black humour, which is contained in it. It is a comedy with an obvious cynical character, exposing taboo topics and making fun of everything. It is used as a basis on television and has been internationally popular. British comedy is a very particular type of humour that is performed in Britain and exported around the world. Currently, most British comedy is broadcasted via television with sketch shows and stand-up comedy as being some of the most popular forms. 
Examples of themes which underpin twentieth century British humour are disrespect to members of the establishment and authority, the absurdity and banality of everyday life, the war between parents or teachers and children, and the British class system.³

This kind of humour stands for a macabre, peculiar and grotesque shape with a bit of irony and sarcasm. Black humour is normally used in satires or glosses. People laugh at things that, in fact, are not funny, regardless ethic or sympathy for people concerned. Of course it is meant no harm. It is rather to take the terror from unpleasant things, as crimes, illnesses and particularly death, by laughing at it.

An example for a simple joke of this kind would be the following. An old man in a repair shop with the following demand: ‘I have a broken phonograph, is that yet worthwhile to be repaired?’ – ‘Well, I do not know. How old are you, though?’

There are special topics or things that are associated with black comedies or black humour. Common examples would be chopped parts of bodies, eating of unpopular people. Even topics like murder or death which are taboo are shown inoffensive. Nonsensical, paradoxical relations and situations can also be applied.⁴

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1 http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Humour

2 http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Humour

3 http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/British-humour

4 http://www.movie-watchers.de/volumes/volume.php?id=18&modus=artikel&artikel=196