The English are a bunch of whingers. Let's not pretend otherwise. To the untrained ear, we do sound like people who are essentially bored an irritated with life - and this goes double for Londoners. London's overpriced, it's overpopulated, the weather is rubbish and the congestion is terrible (and this is only made worse by people not getting buses - OUT OF THE WAY). We, like New Yorkers, have a lot to complain about. Which, in my opinion, is why we're the two comedy capitals of the world...the fact is, this is where comedy works, where people are the most p*ssed off.

I would even go so far as to say that for comedy capital, England as a whole beats New York. As standup comedy alone goes, they probably surpass us - but no one beats us on unintentional comedy.
This country is, on the whole, the funniest place I've ever been - more so when no one's trying to make anyone laugh.

Case in point: one day, I flipped on the TV and like a rare gift, moments of pure comedy gold poured out of the screen in the form of The Jeremy Kyle Show (like Jerry Springer, except the guests don't often physically attack each other and instead get shouted at by the presenter). Jeremy Kyle was interviewing a disillusioned Londoner, and this was the exchange I stumbled upon:

"So, she doesn't trust you?"
"Nah."
"She thinks you're going to go out in the middle of the night and cheat on her?"
"Yeh."
"She's even had to tie her leg to your leg in bed."
Pause
"She's insecure."
(Only in Britain)

I overheard a conversation in a pub in which an old man confessed that in his youth he had been "a bit of a burglar". No, sir. You can't be a bit of a burglar. Either you broke into peoples' houses and took their possessions or you didn't.
(ONLY in Britain!)

The hilarity of England assaults me on every corner, and in all honesty this was a major contributing factor in choosing to do my internship here - after two years surrounded by Americans and Mexicans, it's nice to not to have to TELL people when I'm joking.

I first realized this about my country on New Years Eve 1999 at around 9pm, on the London Underground. My family and I were a few of the sanity-starved who decided to spend the Millennium on Waterloo Bridge, London. We didn't even particularly want to, truth be told, it was just that our connection to the city was such that the idea of spending it anywhere else seemed ridiculous.

We quickly revised this view.

We boarded the tube train, the beginning of our descent into sardinehood. It became so packed that if the guy in front of me had got any closer he'd have had to marry me. It was right around then that the train ground to a halt.

Brilliant.

The conductor's voice came over the speakers, informing us that we had stopped due to some bunnies hopping onto the tracks (I'm embellishing, I really don't remember why) and that we'd be up and running again as soon as possible. An awkward pause ensued as it often does on the tube, as people tried to avoid eye contact with people closer to them than their own clothes. However, after 2 or 3 seconds of quiet, the conductor's voice came back,

"So, I always wanted to be a pilot..."

Sod the weather, I love this place.