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Comment by swozey | Hacker News Reader

For the probably 95% of us who don't know Scottish comedy I've surmised by painfully watching this for the last 5 minutes that Limmy is evidently some popular Scottish comedian. Knowing this will help you get the "joke" that lasts about 1:30min too long where you (you being a non-Scot) has no idea what the 2nd character is attempting to say until about 2 minutes in where the joke is then dragged out for a painfully long-feeling amount of time when it's only 3 minutes.

I get the joke but that execution was .. awful. Must be a Scotch delicacy sort of thing and I'm just not used to the flavor. No American would stand there for 2 minutes asking the same person "Where's the printer?" over and over again.

It might've been funny if he walked around the office asking other "Limmys" where the printer was and got all sorts of different reactions from them, but he half-assed it and made it a tiresome joke by sticking with that one tiring interaction.

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The clip is from Limmy's Show, an offbeat, and relatively niche sketch programme that was only shown at odd times on TV south of the border. It definitely isn't mainstream comedy and makes most sense in the context of the series and its reccuring characters, themes and the bouncing between surreal and mundane. He's probably best known for the mundane - e.g. a whole self-filmed sketch about repairing a single broken tile in his actual bathroom.

I'm not sure the fact that he's Scottish has much to do with your appreciation of the comedy in the linked sketch per se. It falls into a tradition of British sketch comedy which is quite different in style to improv originated sketch comedy in North America - more confronting and unsettling.

Before you completely write it off, watch a few episodes of the series, or look at his Twitter.

I grew up on British comedy, I'm an American who grew up in Europe. Lots of Are You Being Served, the one with Hyacinth the angry wife who abuses her husband (keeping up appearances?), etc. The Mighty Boosh.. I love a lot of British humor.

Strangely enough, I grew up in Germany and the only German show I remember at all is Asterix and Obelix but that may have been a language barrier thing.

I'll check it out!

Limmy's show is the only show I hate which I've watched four times, start to finish.

Do you can't stand it and still watched? De gustibus non est disputandum. [You can't argue about taste.]

It can work the other way as well. I actually like Hitman Agent 47 which got an epically bad rating of 8% from the critics though audiences were more indulgent at 40%. [0] It was comforting to read in the comments that the previous movie was less horrible. It should be an excellent viewing experience.

[0] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitman_agent_47

I have no idea, I find it weird and annoying, yet there's something comforting about watching it. I can't explain it.

There's a great Stewart Lee joke that's like this when he's talking about his critic who secretly love him... "I hate Stweart Lee, I've bought tickets to all of his live shows and seen him three times."

Maybe you love it and don't want to admit it to your exterior, rational persona, hence your "hate".

I don't, though. I don't laugh at the jokes, and it has this weird, offputting vibe, but there's something about it that makes me like watching it.

This is the opposite but somehow has the same energy as stubbornly trying to explain why a joke is funny.

Here's the rule about comedy: either you get it, or you don't and move on. The deeper you dive in, the more unbearably cringy it becomes, and no one will ever be able to convince you whether it is actually funny. Let it go, man.

Here's one to cheer you up: time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

It had the opposite effect on me, the repetition was like joke compound interest getting funnier the more it was drawn out, and on a 2nd layer also it's sort of meta-funny because he's getting away with sticking with it too.

Also I think the joke is Scottish agnostic, it would have worked for me in an accent, if I'd have seen an American doing it, and insisting to stick with it, it would still be funny. Wouldn't feel out of place on "I think you should leave right now".

First time hearing Scottish comedy. There is something interesting with the style but I just can't put my finger on it. I probably need to hear more. Any recommendations?

the meme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg

the other meme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzKo1JPNf4s

My favourite is the one about headphones: https://youtu.be/0k3tsb2owY8?si=FXmmGhvL_g2i9fBr

get tae fuck

Jesssssssssssus

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