I risk to differ.
Watching toothless senior men chase young women is not funny.
Beating a dead parrot against a counter top, now THAT is funny.
You're damned right. Beating a dead parrot against a countertop whilst screaming
"'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"Isn't just funny, it's bleeding from your eyeballs, blowing beer out your nose, gutwrenchingly hilarious. Quite possibly the 20th century's most brilliantly contrived and executed bit of humor of the English language. Charley Chapin and Abbot & Costello are mildly amusing next to this. Several scenes from
'Life of Brian' approach it in humor, but that has to be the single absolute over the top sketch I've ever seen.
'South Park' is making a decent American/Canadian version of a run for the Monty Python money though.
IMHO, English humor viewed from an American cultural perspective tends to be either not funny at all (Benny Hill) or very,
very funny and clever, without all that much middle ground, except for you super-sophisticated types.