With all eyes on the Oscars, it’s easy to forget about America’s overseas mate, England. This Sunday marks the 59th annual BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards, which honors 2005’s greatest achievements in U.K. cinema. Most of the categories resemble those of the Oscars and Golden Globes, but the different selection of films chosen make it clear that perhaps the Brits’ taste isn’t America’s cup of tea.

While The Constant Gardener was this year’s BAFTA darling with 10 nominations, the Oscars gave the film just four nods and focused more attention on Brokeback Mountain.

Perhaps American and British cinema are on different wavelengths. After all, the two cultures have different environments, types of people and ideas of humor. Some British films often gain attention only in cult status because of a small American following, as fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail know well.

Weinberg junior Chris Leikhim lived in England for six years before coming to Northwestern. He watched the same American films and television shows as his friends back in the States, rather than tuning into the BBC like other Brits.

“(The British) have a very different sense of humor,” he says. “It didn’t suit my personality and it isn’t really suited to the American sense of humor.”

This difference in humor is often exactly what sets apart the two cultures of entertainment and deters film fans from venturing to British borders.

“British humor is much more biting and intelligent,” says Communication sophomore Lucy Gillespie, who moved to London when she was six and lived there until she was 18. “It’s a more artistic sense of humor.”

Gillespie says the television show The Office truly reflects this style of humor. The Office, a BBC mockumentary about people who work at the Wernham Hogg paper company, like other shows such as American Idol, have been translated successfully from British to American television. She hasn’t watched the American version of The Office mostly because she predicts the humor will be different.

“I feel like it wouldn’t strike me,” she says. “It wouldn’t hit me the same way.”

Whereas Gillespie says American humor is playful, she considers British humor more serious, and that the difference is reflected in the show.

“In America, they want to give you hope all the time,” Gillespie says. “They want to make you a superhero.”

Other shows, such as BBC’s other hit, Coupling, a sort of a sexually amped version of Friends, have crossed ponds but sometimes get lost in translation. NBC attempted to bring Coupling to the U.S. without its staple raunchy humor. Because executives feared using the same level of humor in an American show, they created a tamer, lamer and ultimately unsuccessful version.

Communication senior Marco Naggar, who grew up in Switzerland, says that “cruder” British humor is hard for some Americans to take because of America’s cautious approach to humor.

“There’s something about political correctness (in the U.S.) that makes Americans think before they laugh,” Naggar says. “In Europe, people don’t think like that.”

Naggar says that even though The Office creator and star Ricky Gervais believes that American television is better than British television because it has greater depth and meaning, Naggar says he himself finds American television somewhat campy.

“There’s so much censorship in (American) movies and television that you end up laughing in a world that isn’t real,” he says. “British entertainment is very close to reality because it shows everyday life and the humor that comes out of it.”

Communication junior Janelle Kwan studied abroad in London last Fall Quarter at King’s College. Even though she didn’t have trouble acclimating to a slightly different culture of entertainment, Kwan did notice a difference.

“The (British) wit was more dry than typical American humor,” she says. “But it’s not so much the brand of humor, but the little cultural references they make use of.”

Gillespie says the Monty Python series and films by American Christopher Guest bring together the two worlds with their shared love of slapstick, but there are certain aspects of American humor that people would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

“I do prefer British (humor) in principle, but I’m a huge fan of improv, and that doesn’t exist in the English medium,” she says. “In England, the comedy is usually about yourself.”

Naggar admits that there are aspects of American humor that still sometimes confuse him.

“In America, people use sarcasm to look better than the person they’re making fun of,” he says. “I still have problems understanding it.”4

Medill junior Archana Ram is the PLAY film editor. She can be reached at [email protected].