Posh people aren't very funny any more

[Wyatt Earp]

Are they? SR's comments about Sandi Toksvig have got me thinking.

Some of the Pythons were a bit posh, but they've faded from the scene rather. Humphrey Lyttelton was well posh, but he's dead.

That Miranda woman, the tall one; she's OK. But she's only OK. Ian Hislop can be scathing and satirical, but I think I've literally never laughed at anything he's ever said. Francis Wheen ditto. Simon Fanshawe: one approves, but one doesn't actually laugh.

Why aren't posh people funny any more?

[Purves Grundy]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Armstrong & Miller were originally turned down for a series because they were "too posh", IIRC.

David Mitchell always strikes me as "probably posh".

[RobW]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

I dunno. All we have for our trouble and pain is Michael McIntyre. I actually don't know if he is posh, but he just sounds it.

David Mitchell is pretty funny though.

Ha, great minds PG. Mitchell went to the independent Abingdon School, so I guess that's quite posh.

[Sean of the Shed]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

I find Stephen Fry very funny, and David Mitchell, who I'm presuming is posh, though I may be wrong.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

My first guess would be that the likes of the Pythons were pretty much first-generation rebels against the strictures of their own poshness (OK, not true of Lyttleton), struggling against the attitudes of their own class and the expectations their parents had for them, and a lot of their humour comes from that.

Nowadays, posh youths don't have any such strictures or expectations. Little Olly or Josh wants to be a stand-up? "Sure, son, borrow my 4x4 and my holiday flat in Edinburgh any time..."

[Purves Grundy]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Marcus Brigstocke's high-water mark was directing series 1 of I'm Alan Partridge, but he has done some pretty funny stuff when not on panel shows. "We Are History" (I think that was what it was called) was quite good.

Steven Fry isn't funny any more, which is a shame.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

They went round David Mitchell's mum's house for Who Do You Think You Are?. His parents are very middle class, but I wouldn't say 'posh' as such.

[RobW]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Purves Grundy wrote:

Steven Fry isn't funny any more, which is a shame.

I do hope he's not looking at this, given what happened last time.

[Purves Grundy]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Well, seeing as he's pretty much stopped trying to be funny he's no reason to be upset.

[tracteurgarcon]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Boris Johnson's pretty funny and the Duke of Edinburgh is hilarious, like a posh Ricky Gervais but without the pretense of "irony".

[RobW]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Brian Sewell? Well, his voice is funny.

[Wyatt Earp]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

I'd forgotten Mitchell and Brigstocke. Mitchell perhaps fails to be properly posh, and Brigstocke to be properly funny, but they do challenge my sweeping claim a bit.

I'd also forgotten to list Fry and Laurie among my Great Funny Posh People Of The Past Who For Whatever Reason No Longer Count. They were, of course, in their heyday, posh as the Queen and as funny as it's possible to be.

[Hofzinser]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

David Mitchell was going to be my nomination for funny posho too. As a privately educated Oxbridge graduate I think he counts.

And PG, Marcus Brigstocke didn't direct I'm Alan Partridge - you're thinking of his namesake, Dominic.

[Purves Grundy]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Hofzinser wrote:

And PG, Marcus Brigstocke didn't direct I'm Alan Partridge - you're thinking of his namesake, Dominic.

Figures. I was thinking he must have been in short trousers when he did it.

[Ginger Yellow]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

I warmed to Miller after his display of earnest enthusiasm for science on QI, but yeah, he's not very funny.

[Disco Child Ballads]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Graham Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor count as posh don't they? And I think they remain funny.

[Guest]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Jimmy Carr makes a big deal out of how he talks a bit posh.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Actually, there was a camp comedian bloke on BBLB the other night - Something Allen, I think - whose whole shtick is being Old Fashioned Posh, in the Young Fogey/The Chap magazine reader/High Court Judge sense. (He spoils it all by having a shaven head, which proper old-school posh people would never have done.)

[Bored Of Education]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Armstrong & Miller, Fry, Marcus Brigstock & Toksvig are all good, as is a guy called Will Smith (not that one)

Statistics show that the upper classes have as many funny people as the working and middle classes. Dalits, however, have been woefully under-represented in comedy.

[Ginger Yellow]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Actually, there was a camp comedian bloke on BBLB the other night - Something Allen, I think - whose whole shtick is being Old Fashioned Posh, in the Young Fogey/The Chap magazine reader/High Court Judge sense.

Miles Jupp has a similar schtick.

[Guest]

Posh people aren't very funny any more

Bored of Education wrote:

Armstrong & Miller, Fry, Marcus Brigstock & Toksvig are all good, as is a guy called Will Smith (not that one)

Will Smith is good on the Thick of It, and does other writing with Armando Iannucci I think.

One joke he told is that Will Smith is just a stage name; he's actually called Denzil Washington.