Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
I would like to know just what bits you found funny. I didn't find any of it funny. It read as a strained attempt to be funny that fell flat. The fact that some of the characters are British didn't help. It's got none of the British humor that makes some British comedy funny. I didn't see what was funny about the pet cemetery. All I took from it was that pet cemeteries are the low end of the death business.
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I'll respond briefly with a gross generalization that there are two kinds of British comedy, the over-the-top slapsticky stuff that I don't find funny at all and the dry understated stuff which is my favorite form of humor.
So I'm agreeing with the consensus that humor is difficult and personal. I also think this appeals to me because my favorite literary period is Britain between the wars, which was Waugh's apotheosis. I have no objection to mocking American excess and what gives this additional savour is that it's tinged with bitterness, both from the British perspective of a nation that's ceded the top position to its crasser cousin and from Waugh's as an artist who was on the downslope. He was a bitter man who didn't adjust well to the post-war world.