What is a British thing that other nations try to emulate but always miss the mark on?

Posted by zazabizarre@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 15 comments

I have been to self-proclaimed 'pubs' in other countries and it just isn't a pub. It's a bar, not a pub, but I'm never able to quite explain why that is to people from other countries. EDIT: Republic of Ireland is the exception here.

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15 Comments

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ChrisRR@reddit

Dry humour. Subtle sarcasm is just naturally baked into our speech patterns, and when americans try and do it, it just comes across as cringeworthy.

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IndependentGolf5421@reddit

Went to Czechia this guy called me out on it. “Why didn’t you laugh at my sarcasm” - I replied how it’s so ingrained in our speech that it’s just part and parcel of dat to day life. It doesn’t get a laugh outwardly but inwardly we are buzzing.

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BastardsCryinInnit@reddit

I find the Scandi countries have a very similar humour to us. Big on dry wit and sarcasm.

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Moistfruitcake@reddit

Germans too (this is not a sarcastic comment)

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Ok-Discount3131@reddit

I always found Germans to be very direct. British people will spend half an hour to tell a a joke about someone being an arsehole, while Germans will just say "this guy was an arsehole", and thats the joke.

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clockworkmice@reddit

I think New Zealand films are very similar in dry (and dark) wit

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SnooOwls9845@reddit

New Zealanders are almost brits anyway

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bareskyllz@reddit

Australians are famous for their “relaxed attitude & sense of humour”, but in my experience, living there for 2 years, Australians take themselves _very_ seriously, and do not like jokes at their own expense _at all_. I’ve made a grown up Australian man *cry* at work, with normal British piss-taking, that the vast majority of British people would just say “lol” to, and then move on.

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No_Flan1147@reddit

So they are Scottish or Scouse then? ;-)

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Holger-Starkruecken@reddit

>this guy was an arsehole I'm a German and I can confirm we say this almost everyday

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DogeatenbyCat7@reddit

No you say Arschloch (did I get that right?)

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menashem@reddit

Pub / bar debate; I've read that a pub is somewhere you'd bring a dog into. In a bar that wouldn't be allowed.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

My foreign pub pet peeve, you go to the bar to order a drink and the barman tells you 'go sit down, we'll come over to take your order' then you build up a tab, when you finally want to pay and leave the place is ridiculously busy and you can never get a staff member to come take your payment, I just want to shoot off ffs! Then of course when you finally manage to pay and your bill is something like €36.30 and you feel obliged to leave a tip because you don't want to seem like a skinflint, it's way too much pressure!

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Cam-I-Am@reddit

Used to bloody hate this living in Singapore as an Aussie. Just let me go to the bar and order a fucking beer and pay for it on the spot. Every single venue in Singapore wants to give you table service and a tab and it drove me mental.

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No_Flan1147@reddit

The best description of a pub I've heard was from an American. He described it a communal living room.