I understand why the humor in Cold Comfort Farm might be difficult to understand. The style of dry British humor can be difficult for some to find funny when it is acted out in front of them, so trying to derive it from the narrative voice of Stella Gibbons is even more challenging. The class meeting after the first reading I was confused as to why the book was funny. I typically do not have a problem with dry humor, but this just wasn’t clicking. After discussing narrative voice in class I went home and decided to look up some old Monty Python sketches to get in the right mindset. I enjoyed them but I have always felt like there sketches were dated, so I jumped over to my favorite sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids You Know. They are a sketch group that met at NYU. They have a Sketch TV show very similar to Monty Pythons Flying Circus. They have the same kind of dry humor in some sketches but Monty Python is considered more silly, the while whitest kids are more edgy. I thought about why I enjoyed Whitest Kids more and I realized that its because its new and edgy, and thats when it clicked for me. The humor in Cold Comfort Farm and Monty Python is dated. If you are not in the right mindset the humor seems kind of silly, but if you are thinking about it from the time period of each it is edgy and clever. From this point on reading Cold Comfort Farm was much more understandable and enjoyable. Also here are The Whitest Kids sketches I was watching when I had this realization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPjBAdezIf4
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