Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today I thought we'd do another You Should Laugh More post.

Research has shown that laughter is good for us. It has all kinds of health benefits. Despite most of us knowing this, none of us laugh enough. Yeah, I know, being an adult is tough, and furthermore there is a lot of grim stuff happening in the world. These things may be true, but that just is all the more reason for trying to get a little laughter into our lives.

We've covered US comedy, mainly SNL, for the past few weeks on You Should Laugh More, so today I thought we'd jump across the pond as they say and do some UK comedy. Now when most people outside the UK think of British comedy, they probably think of Monty Python. Of course there is a good reason for that—Monty Python are pretty much the Beatles of comedy, having been so big, popular, and innovative that they have influenced all US and UK comedy since. But there are many other UK comedians that are pretty great. One of these is the pair Fry & Laurie.

You probably know Stephen Fry and you may know Hugh Laurie. If you are an American, you may only know Laurie from House with his fake (but pretty well done most of the time) American accent. In the 1980s and at various times since they teamed up to make us laugh. I'm going to give three of funnier clips here. Watch and enjoy!

Your Name

Have you ever been in the position of hearing a foreigner say their name and being completely confused, not sure what exactly you heard and having no idea how to reproduce the random sounds? I'm sure many of us have been in this position. Well, leave it to Fry & Laurie to take this idea to the extreme.

The English Teacher

As someone who owns a school and teaches English, this skit hits close to home. Having been teaching now for a bit over 20 years, I don't have many situations like this these days, but when I first started, there were many. I remember well the cold sweat when there was no response and the slight panic as nothing I tried worked. These days I more often find myself in Fry's role and am observing the teacher, feeling sorry for them. Watch and you'll understand.

The Well-Spoken Barber

This may be the most Stephen Fry role they ever did, with Fry rolling off language in a way that few can. That in itself is amusing, but what makes it even better is Laurie's increasing confusion. Add to it some physical gags and this skit is perfection.

Let's do one more for a bonus clip.

Hardware Store

I can fix simple things around the house, but that is where my DIY knowledge ends. As such, sometimes this is exactly what it sounds like to me at the hardware store.

So what do you think? Did any of them make you laugh or were they just stupid? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! If you liked any of these, by the way, just type search in YouTube "Fry and Laurie" and you will find many many more.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

Posted using CineTV