My introduction to Aussie TV humour was “Hey Hey It’s Saturday.” I didn’t find it funny.

OK, Hey, Hey is low brow. You would expect an intellectual snob like me to deprecate this Aussie “salt of the Earth” production. But what about the Japanese cult movie, Weather Woman, much believed by, well, by intellectual snobs like me?

Nope, found that monumentally unfunny.

Here are some actual jokes from an Iranian joke book.

"Would you like your father to die so you would inherit his belongings?" they asked a naughty child. "I would like someone to kill him instead so I would receive blood money as well as inheritance," he replied.

"The devil went to a young man's bedside in a hideous form. 'I am death,' he roared. 'And if you want to be saved, you will have to perform one of these three alternatives: either you kill your old father, strangle your sister to death or drink a few mugs of wine.' 'I cannot commit such crimes against my father or sister,' the young man said shaking with fear. 'But I can drink some wine.' Then he drank mug after mug and in his drunkenness, the young man killed both his father and sister."

See:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-heard-the-one-about-the-child-and-the-blood-money-2319085.html

Nope, they don’t even raise a glimmer of a smile.

At this point you may ask what I have found funny.

Here are some examples:

--The Goons

--Monty Python

--A Fish Called Wanda (hilarious)

--Muhammad – I’m sure he was an early incarnation of Monty Python

--The Hollowmen – A documentary mislabelled as a comedy but funny nonetheless

--Q & A – A comedy mislabelled as discussion

--P.G. Wodehouse – especially Blandings Castle

--Julia Gillard (a riot)

--The ABC (I mean, come on, their attempts to be a down under version of the BBC are uproarious)

--The Institute for Public Affairs (A bit esoteric I know but generally when I’m half way through one of their ponderous studies I have to restrain myself from rolling on the floor)

What do other posters find funny?

Chris Lilley, Jimoein, Kitty Flanagan, Carl Barron, Shaun Micallef, Wayne Hope & Robyn Butler, Francis Greenslade....
This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryW29CNO_jw

Steven,

Just have to say that P. G. Wodehouse is a favourite of mine....very funny....What Ho!

Will think of some more later.

Nope Jay, yours don't do it for me.

Poirot, what are your favourite Wodehouse books?

More that I find funny:

--The Sarah Palin / Michelle Bachmann / Che Guevarra phenomena. Not so much Sarah, Michelle and Che themselves as the hype that surrounds them. How do people manage to delude themsleves to that extent? I don't know but their adherents are hilarious.

--Big Bang Theory - I mean like wow!

OK, I cannot resist this one from the Daily Mail:

HEADLINE:

>>Who are you calling fat? Children's weight fluctuates 'depending on the time of day'>>

Reasonable enough. Everyone’s weight fluctuates according to time of day because we eat, drink, sweat, micturate and defecate. I wouldn’t have bothered to look at the article if it weren’t for this subhead:

>>Scientists at the University of Worcester found that children were heavier in the afternoon due to a decrease in height throughout the day.>>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

So kids shrink during the day and this makes them get heavier?

Really?

Well here’s a link to the article. You can work it out for yourselves.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017935/Who-calling-fat-Childrens-weight-fluctuates-depending-time-day.html

Dear Steven,

I agree with the Monty Python series, even The Big Bang Theory, but my favourites were - Blackadder, and also the wondrously good sketch show - A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Love Stephen Fry.

And of course who could resist the charm and wit and humour of people like Peter Ustinov, and David Niven, to name just two. Niven's book,
"The Moon's a Balloon," had me laughing for weeks. Then also - Watching some of the old classics on
DVD - like the wonderfully talented Danny Kaye. His films often had me laughing out loud. Then there's people like - Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns, - all had their moments of hilarity. The Dave Allen jokes - also made me laugh. I'll add more current names - in my next post