“You know what the funniest thing about Europe is? It’s the little differences.”
Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino is absolutly right when he said that little differences in Europe are funny! Humorists in Europe can typically make a carrier in their country or the countries in which they share the same language. It seems logical, as humor is linked to one specific language and a national history. Once again, the exercise of putting together on a same map one humorist from each country learns us a lot on the sense of humor of our neighbors. We may share some of their jokes, and simply don’t understand others. The European diversity is also here, in the complexity of our humor. The majority of the samples found on YouTube are available either in English or with subtitles (see mention in brackets).
Portugal
►►► Ricardo Arújo Pereira – Ricardo Arújo Pereira offers us a sketch in which he plays a young rapper with a high-pitched voice. He made his first appearance on television acting as a Freak, before being an actor in various series and comedies.
Spain
►►►► Joaquím Reyes – Joaquím Reyes has become popular with sketches he made for the TV show “Muchachada Nui”, “Camera Café” and “Fibrilando” and imitation of famous actor or movie directors such as Tim Burton.
France
►►►►► Florence Foresti (sub) – Florence Foresti may be the funniest and most famous comedian in France at the moment. Her one woman show always deals with situations as they occur in our everyday life. She has become famous with sketches she made in a weekly show on television, imitating Hollywood’s stars such as Madonna, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears (sub).
Iceland
►►► Jón Gnarr (sub) – Jón Gnarr is since 15 June 2010 the mayor of the Icelandic capital Reykjavík, with his satirical political party named “the best party”, even including Einar Örn Benediktsson formerly with the Sugarcubes. As Mayor, Jón Gnarr has been a source of amusement and shock by appearing at the 2010 Gay Pride parade as a drag queen,posting a video holiday greeting wearing a Darth Vader mask and a Santa Claus cap. In this sketch full of self-irony, he makes fun of Denmark and its language.
Ireland
►►►►► David O’Doherty (en) –David O’Doherty’s stand-up won many awards; he is also a singer and appeared in many TV series. O’Doherty is well-known for combining his comedic performance with tunes played on his miniature electronic keyboard. This is the case in this sketch of 2010.
United-Kingdom
►►►► Michael Mcintyre (en) – The English stand-up comedian has been awarded in 2009 the best live Stand up performer. He started as a judge on the fifth series of Britain’s Got Talent in April 2011. The extract comes from the BBC One’s Live at the Appollo.
Norway
►► Dagfinn Lyngbø(sub) – The Norwegian comedian Dagfinn Lyngbø was awarded the price of best stand-up artist in 2011, 2005 and 2008. In this excerpt, he explains why he didn’t like the movie “the Lord of the Ring”.
Sweden
►►► Magnus Betnér (sub) –Magnus Betnér started acting in Swedisch comic series. With his success in Sweden and two awards as “best Swedish comedian”, he has been starting performing increasingly in English, in the US, UK and Ireland. He uses dark comedy to tackle political and provocative topics, such as prostitution in this excerpt.
Finland
►►►► Tomi Walamies (en) – Tomi Walamies is a Finnish stand-up comedian based in London known for his dead-pan delivery. Tomi came third in the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition in 2006 and has since become a regular fixture on the London comedy scene. In this excerpt, Tomi Walamies tells jokes to a dead audience.
Denmark
►►►► Frank Hvam (sub) – After having completed his veterinarian studies, Frank Hvam became popular for his performance as the “geek” Kenny Nickelman in the Danish sitcom Langt fra Las Vegas and as a writer and performer in the Pythonesque comedy Casper og Mandrilaftalen. He now has his stand-up in which he tackles problems of our everyday life.
Netherlands
►►►► Hans Teeuwen (en) –The humor of our Dutch stand-up comedian is often absurdist, apolitical and confrontational. After 5 different spectacles, he made a comeback in 2011 for a new one man show. In this excerpt in English, he made a free interpretation of Mozart. We can find him in another extract to tackle the question of Genocide (en).
Belgium
►►► François Pirette – The Belgian comedian started his career on radio before moving to France and acting on French television. In his stand up, he often makes a mockery of the Belgian society, interpreting recurrent characters such as teenagers, professors or union activists. In this sketch, he acts a tourist with his children at Disneyland.
Germany
►►►► Michael Mittermeier (sub) – During a concert of U2 in München, Michael Mittermeier was chosen by Bono in the public to play guitar with him. Since then, the German humorist knew he would become an artist. In this sketch, Michael Mittermeier plays on stereotypes on German. In another, he discusses the American way of life.
Switzerland
►►► Yann Lambiel –Before being a stand-up comedian, Yann Lambiel from Switerland was a plumber. He now acts as a ventriloquist with his puppet Hans-Rudolf Merz, who promotes austerity during the crisis. This is in French, but easy to understand.
Italy
►►► Daniele Luttazzi – Daniele Luttazzi became famous in 2002 for being banned from RAI television by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was angry that Luttazzi evoked his potential links with the Mafia. His spectacle often deals with politics, religion, sex and death. All those topics are present in the excerpt of his spectacle.
Slovenia
►►►► Vid Valič (en) – The Slovenian scene is just starting, but some comedians are really promising. This is the case for Vid Valič who delivers a sketch about Europe, in front of Slovenians, and all of that in English!
Austria
►►► Thomas Stipsits – This young comedian from Austria started to act at the beginning of the decade. He presented various show and humor spectacles on Austrian television before starting with his own one man show, before associating himself with other comedians for the “longest cabaret night show”
Czech Republic
►►►► Lukáš Pavlásek –This comedian who is also presenter for the Czech television is very popular in Czech Republic. In this sketch, he just makes fun of Harry Potter.We are waiting for the subtitles…
Slovakia
►►► Tomáš Hudák –A stand-up comedian from Slovakia who also appears on television for some humorous shows. He became popular for a hip-hop song he wrote Hiphop pre Fica.
Poland
►► Gaweł Feliga(sub) – The stand-up scene is relatively new in Poland. In 2010, the comedy central channel organized for the first time shows to introduce a new generation of polish stand up comedians, such as Katarzyna Piasecka.
Lithuania
►► Justas Jankevičius (sub) – As for other countries of Eastern Europe, Stand-up comedy isn’t yet at an advanced stage. This small excerpt is from a young stand-up comedian named Justas Jankevičius and is full of self-irony about Lithuania.
Estonia
► Andrei Tuch (en) – In Estonia,the stand-up comedy scene is still in construction and was encouraged by the Tartu Comedy Festival from April 2010. Since then, stand-up comedy performances have become regular in the Estonian cities of Tartu and the capital, Tallinn. All shows so far have been in English. The video is not an excerpt of a sketch, but an interview of an Estonian stand-up comedian.
Ukraine
►► Дуэт имени Чехова – The nascent stand-up comedy scene in Ukraine was established through the TV show “real comedy”. This excerpt is a critic about the former USSR regime, but unfortunately without subtitles.
Romania
►► Teo –It seems that Teo is quite successful in Romania for his stand-up comedy, during which, he likes to make fun of Romania, but also of his European neighbors, be that Bulgaria or Ukraine. Unfortunately, no subtitles are available for this video.
Croatia
►► Pedja Bajović (en) – Pedja Bajović is a stand-up comedian and producer since 2005. His humor is often self-ironic or provocative towards Croatia, his home country. He acts both in English and Croatian, but this excerpt is entirely in English.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
►► Unknown artist –The Balkan stand-up comedy allows us to discover stand-up comedians such as this artist who seems to be quite appreciated but whose name appears nowhere. No subtitles.
Hungary
►►► Bödőcs Tibor – A stand-up comedian who seems to be a reference in Hungary. He sometimes appears on the TV show Showder Klub, which reveals new stand-up comedians since 2008
Bulgaria
► Росен Петров – Росен Петров performs at hot stage. Only for those who already understand Bulgarian.
Serbia
►► Сашко –Another stand-up comedian from Serbia discovered by the Balkan stand-up comedy festival. Once again, it’s a shame that no subtitles in English are available for this video.
Albania
►►►► Luan Bexheti (en) – This Albanian-American comedian moved from Tirana to New York, and explains in this excerpt the shock he had considering him newly as white. A very cosmopolitan sketch.
Greece
►►►► Angelo Tsarouchas (en) –Angelo Tsarouchas is a Canadian stand-up comedian, whose parents emigrated from Greece to Canada. This excerpt is thus in English, but a large element of his stand-up revolves around the parody of his Greek origins.
Turkey
►►►► Cem Yilmaz (sub) – Cem Yilmaz is famous in Turkey for his movies G.O.R.A., A.R.O.G, and Yahşi Batı. He started drawing comics for the Turkish humor magazine Leman, before acting in his first stand-up comedy in 1995. In this excerpt, the subtitles are (unfortunately) in German, but one can have a short TV intervention in English here (en).
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