Am I without humour if I can't see why a lot of 'new' comedy is funny?

Comedy is definitely something personal isn't it? I've seen many great and well known stand ups aswell as unknown ones (on the TV anyway).
I've been disappointed by big names and laughed my socks off at less well known acts.
Swearing doesn't bother me at all if the joke/story is funny to me. According to my friends I have a dry sense of humour. I have been known to laugh at something in a movie theater that no one else is laughing at ?
(Better than talking through films....)
Its wonderful we all enjoy different things, it keeps actors and comedians in work all over the world!

Dick Emery and Benny Hill were vile, crude and unfunny. No natural wit at all.
Agree with 'Would I lie to you' - fast wit.

Love Kevin Bridges.

I like Ricky Gervais. Can’t stand Mrs. Brown’s boys, just embarrassingly crude. I also liked The Windsor’s,especially Princess Anne and Charles though they are a bit mean to Camilla. The new wave of comedians I don’t find funny in any way but it is probably a generational thing. They just seem overly fake to me.

Radio 4 " comedy" is the worst. Apart from I'm Sorry l haven't a Clue. Many years ago we went to the Hay festival, the only tickets left were for Ken Dodd. We went thinking we could nip off to the pub if he got too corny. He was hilarious, we ached with laughing. He went on for hours . Just when we thought the show was at an end he said it was half time. You just don't get live humour like that anymore. Although if anyone hasn't seen one of Gervais Phinns stand up tours you are in for a treat.

I have always loved Billy Connelly and his great observational humour. I now love Motherland, also so very well observed, and WIA for the same reason. Can't tolerated McIntyre or Millican, just don't find them funny. Growing up I enjoyed the Marx Brothers and Tommy Cooper.

I don't mind swearing at all from my favourite two comediens - Billy Connolly and Janey Godley - because they're not crude, smutty, sexually-oriented swearers, they just both come from a culture which uses cuss words very frequently. (I could embarrass a sailor myself with my own language!)

What they both have in common is an absolutely amazing insight into human foibles and the ability to make us laugh at our own absurdities.

Janey Godley - who unapologetically swears a LOT - regularly makes lots of Scots laugh with her "take-offs" of Nicola Sturgeon which she does to make people who wouldn't pay attention to Nicola as she's a politician, still take in the messages Nicola is giving in a way they can understand.

I absolutely loathe crude, unkind "humour" - it makes me cringe.

If you don't mind swearing, here are a couple of examples of Janey at work:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXxV1xvTtaQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0HmDA9qYtg

I think part of it is because they can all raise a laugh without
saying a word. It’s their facial expressions

Don't forget Ernie! The fastest milkman in the West!
Brilliant!

I forgot to mention the very un PC Richard Pryor who I used to find very funny. And Freddie Starr.

I don’t like swearing in place of humour either, smacks of laziness to me. That’s the one thing I disliked about the otherwise brilliant Billy Connelly.
These days I like Jason Manford, the Welsh guy who does the Work Experience shows, and the black comedian Mo something who also pops up on Celebrity Gogglebox.
I don’t find women funny very often although I did once see Victoria Wood live and she was very funny. Adored Acorn Antiques, but the whole cast were hilarious on that.
Also like Lee Mack but the repeats if Not Going Out are wearing a bit thin.
I loved THe Office in a very cringeworthy way and to a lesser extent Extras but haven’t watched his other stuff.
I like Joe Lycett too but have only seen him on the Sewing Bee and Grayson Perry’s Art Show.

I find Mrs Brown's Boys irritating. I may be a grumpy olf woman, but this seems like playground humour to me.

I much prefer many of the current comedians (Russell Howard, Sarah Millican, Chris Ramsey, Michael Macintyre etc). I used to hate folks like Roy Chubby Brown and the worst show I ever went to was Mike Reid who was so vile we all just say and squirmed and couldn't wait for his set to finish. Went to see Billy Connelly and the whole show was about the c&£t word which I hate but it was hilarious. I think it's just depends on how the words are used. I often now use the f word it is so expressive but do think of my mum who would give you a slap if you said so much as damn within earshot. Both the C and F words have been around for 100's of years and their history is fascinating. I hate to hear then used ad every other word but now and again I don't find offensive.

My favourites are Michael Mcintyre, Ricky Gervais and Russel
Brandt they all make me laugh, plus the 80's ladies of course.
I find the 'comedians' on Live at the Apollo mostly quite dreadfull and offensive , nothing but swearing, genital jokes and now the new brand of racist jokes which come from the people who have had to live with them as if that excuses them from making them, thus turning the tables .

No, not a fan of Sarah Milligan but French, Saunders, Lumley, Miranda (and their brilliantly gormless sidekicks) are much, much cleverer. No foul language, only the mildest of sleaze or double entendre, just wonderful observation of the human condition.

I second that. Where is her second series?

I don't think it's necessarily an age thing. I've always loved comedians who many on here seem to find offensive - swearing and what others describe as 'crude' humour doesn't bother me in the slightest. The late Bill Hicks was a comedy genius. During lockdown, I've also discovered Hannah Gadsby and Urzila Carlsson, both of whom are very funny indeed, but I suspect would be frowned upon by many on here. Oh, and I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than be forced to watch Mrs Brown's Boys!

I like situation comedy such as 'Open all Hours' (the original one with Ronnie Barker) and 'Only Fools and Horses'.
We went to see Ken Dodd a couple of years before he died and his wit was much slower but still hilarious. Bob Monkhouse was another who could hold a live audience captivated.

Lots of votes around for 'Would I Lie To You' and David Mitchell.
I think they are both brilliant

I think it is like everything else in life, your choice about what makes you laugh, cry, annoyed etc. Good job we are all different.

Everyone has their own taste in comedy, and that’s all to the good!

It is always interesting to see which comedians of the past are revered by younger comedians though. The same names come up again and again. Ronnie Barker in particular. There is definitely a strain of humour which is inherently funny regardless of current context.

Tastes also do seem to vary by nationality. US sitcoms generally have a sympathetic protagonist, whereas UK sitcoms generally have a hateful protagonist - see The Office, Reginald Perrin, Fawlty Towers, I’m Alan Partridge

On The Great British Sewing Bee Joe Lycett is the infunniest show off it has ever been my displeasure to witness. The contestants are forced to simper at his pathetic cavorting. I never got a laugh out of Morecambe and Wise either. A dead-eyed comedian forced to perform like a trick pony is not my idea of humour. Witty people like Paul Merton who can play with words seemingly effortlessly, Peter Kay, like a naughtily observant son,are more my bag.

I have always disliked the kind of humour, whether on stage or off it, that consists entirely of what we used to call "dirty" or "blue" jokes.

Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to people discussing sex, either seriously or in jokes, but why should it be necessary to use obscene language to do so?

I have never much cared for "mother-in-law jokes" or the kind of humour that makes fun of various groups of society for their (supposed) characteristics.

But there are other forms of humour I find side-splitting and that I think is quite normal.

Humour is very individual after all.

schnackie

I think Michael McIntyre (sp?) is brilliant. Very much observational comedy and not much swearing. Also David Mitchell is such a great writer and actor - particularly Upstart Crow (Shakespeare) and Back on Channel 4.

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I do area sense of humour but don't like stand up comedians. Occasionally something will make me laugh but on the whole not!! More into sitcoms

I loved 'All That Glitters'. The skills were amazing. Took some time to warm to the judges but the comedien Katherine Ryan was annoying throughout.

Infinity2

When I think how we used to roar at Benny Hill and Dick Emery ! We’d probably be condemned to death for it now.
I loved Stanley Baxter - I think he was an amazingly talented man.

They were two of my favourites and I can remember laughing out loud at Frankie Howard and turning see future FiL looking so po-faced. I think he was pretending to be offended in front of me. He probably thought I was an innocent little thing?.
Stanley Baxter could be outrageously funny.
I think Sarah Millican is just awful, so crude and vulgar.
Monthly Python, The Young Ones and Victoria Wood I didn’t watch or get sometimes but DH thought they were wonderful. We’re all different and different things make us laugh.
Infinity2……. I think you and I would get along.?.