Saturday, June 27, 2009

Kentucky Fried Chicken Comedy

I have seen and heard plenty of comedy in the United States. It is an understatement to say that I pee my pants when I hear Dane Cook talk about the Kool-aid guy or see Jeff Dunham with his “Achmed the Terrorist” puppet. However, I had a difficult time relating to Andrew Lawrence’s comedy. Despite the heat, which did make it hard to concentrate, it was hard to understand exactly what he was talking about. First of all, I was surprised to see how young he is. For some reason I didn’t picture a young, scrawny kid who looked barely older than me. But besides the atmosphere and appearance, it was really the content of the comedy that kept me from “splitting my sides.” Andrew Lawrence, who probably didn’t know he was speaking to an audience full of Americans, used his normal British slang and, for me, it sounded like a completely different language! Words and names of people I didn’t know went in one ear and out the other. I guess this goes to show that just because we speak the same language doesn’t actually mean we do.

Although, one highlight I must mention, was Andrew’s skit on KFC. He made fun of the fact that KFC serves their food in buckets and how it makes him feel like an animal. The few, rare British people behind me laughed hysterically and I thought- doesn’t he know it’s supposed to be that way? It is Kentucky Fried after all! And then I laughed. Here was another perfect example of the cultural disconnect between the U.S. and the U.K.

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