I love some Helen Mirren, but the bitch says dumb sh-t all the time. If you ever want to hear someone you admire say something really stupid, just ask Dame Helen about hookers, nursing or rape. So, with that in mind, Dame Helen has decided to give her views on humor – specifically, how much she hates “British humor”. Basically, Helen hates her own country’s particular brand of humor, which she calls “harsher, more scathing, more cruel and more surreal”. She said this all to a French publication, probably not thinking that it would be picked up by the British press, who likely want her head at this very moment.

The actress told a French magazine that the tradition of British decency is in decline.

“I’m under the impression that this notion is disappearing from our society, where conflicts are made worse on cinema and on television, where people are nasty and cruel on the internet and where, in general terms, everybody seems to me to be very angry.

“This causes me a lot of pain,” she said.

She singled out British comedy as an example. “I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is harsher, more scathing, more cruel and more surreal too, as illustrated by Monty Python and the TV series Little Britain, where situations are far-fetched and over-the-top.”

The 65-year-old actress, who won an Oscar for her role in The Queen, said her home country had become too Americanised.

“England is constantly threatened by a savage assimilation. This isn’t the case with France which remains furiously protective of its culture.”

Dame Helen lives in Los Angeles with her American husband, Taylor Hackford.

Asked if she took an active interest in British politics, she replied: “Less and less. I see the wheel turn and turn without essential change. I don’t see myself as a political person but above all as a humanist, and I have the same positive attitude towards the future as my parents did. But the violence of the past can return, and I fear it.”

A love for the French way of life goes back to Dame Helen’s teens. She told Paris Match magazine: “I read Rimbaud and Verlaine, whom I found extremely romantic. I smoked Gitanes to appear cool, and I dreamed of being French. But not just any French woman – I wanted to be an elegant bourgeoisie or an artist just like Juliette Greco.

“From the age of 15, I desperately wanted to be Brigitte Bardot and to go and live in St Tropez. But I was just a small and plump English girl with spots. Then I had a French boyfriend called Jean-Louis with whom I’m still friends.”

[From The Telegraph]

Granted, I’m an American who likes British humor as an outsider looking in – Helen probably has to deal with “British humor” in a whole different way. Also: I really think Helen was trying to suck up to the French, and didn’t think her comments would be picked up. She thought she was gossiping behind Britain’s back. But… is Helen right? Is “British humor” getting more scatological, eccentric, cruel and nasty? Or does Helen just not get it? Or is she just tired of being the butt of so many jokes after she says crazy sh-t?

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