I Love The Internets

by

by hilzoy

Via Balloon Juice, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britainplays the theme from Shaft:

(At about a minute in, you might find yourself wondering: is it all instrumental? The answer is: no.)

Thesis: Insofar as one can generalize, the British sense of humor depends to a greater degree than most on exploiting utter incongruity presented absolutely deadpan, as though there were nothing the least bit odd about it.

Discuss.

28 thoughts on “I Love The Internets”

  1. As a Brit I can confirm you’ve hit the nail on the head. Comedy, British style, often stems from strong sense of the ridiculous.

  2. As a Brit I can confirm you’ve hit the nail on the head. Comedy, British style, often stems from strong sense of the ridiculous.

  3. As a Brit I can confirm you’ve hit the nail on the head. Comedy, British style, often stems from strong sense of the ridiculous.

  4. As a Brit I can confirm you’ve hit the nail on the head. Comedy, British style, often stems from strong sense of the ridiculous.

  7. I love Brits, too (being half-one myself by birth).
    And I loved this clip.
    But it’s not exactly “deadpan” – or at least not very good deadpan.
    Ridiculous – yes. That I can accept. That makes the New Year better.

  8. once upon a time, YouTube had awesome vids of some choir doing all kinds of insane covers. my fav was their version of Sonic Youth’s Schizophrenia.
    but the vids have been removed, so i can’t share them with you.

  9. the British sense of humor depends to a greater degree than most on exploiting utter incongruity presented absolutely deadpan, as though there were nothing the least bit odd about it.
    I have no idea what you mean.

  11. I was crushed to discover, as any Wodehouse fan must be, that the ensemble contained not a single banjolele.
    WWBWD?

  15. the British sense of humor depends to a greater degree than most on exploiting utter incongruity presented absolutely deadpan, as though there were nothing the least bit odd about it.
    This sounds like the arguments, I used to have with an English girlfriend.
    I was had.

  16. Oh no, they cut out just as Toumani Diabate was about to comment on it. I really wanted to hear what he had to say – he’s been known to insert The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly into his kora pieces…

  17. Black tie and ukeleles to start the New Year.
    not to mention humor from Jes.
    ah, 2009 is already off to a better start than 2008.
    cheers everyone.

  18. I enjoy wry (as opposed to slapstick) British humor as much as the next person. But for wry humor combined with humility, I’m going to have to go with New Zealand humor FTW. Some of the funniest people I’ve ever met are New Zealanders. And they’re finally getting their due now that the Flight of the Conchords has achieved international acclaim.

  22. I was crushed to discover, as any Wodehouse fan must be, that the ensemble contained not a single banjolele.
    WWBWD?
    Depends whether or not Jeeves let him look at YouTube or regards it as ‘Fundamentally unsound, sir’.

  25. It’s worth noting that the ukulele is actually not original to Hawaii. It’s based on the cavaquinho, an instrument that is used widely in Brazilian samba and choro.
    Now I can find a relevant reason to post this video on my blog.

  27. Thanks, Randy. I forgot to point out here that my post also linked to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s rendition of the theme from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” which while not quite as hilarious as “Shaft,” did have more whistling, more “wa-wa” and more “aie-aaie!,” as well as 50% more “ooh-aah!”
    There’s also their version of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and a bunch of other songs.
    They deserve some Respect.
    I also like this one, where they keep losing their sheet music.

Comments are closed.