[Roger Slater]

Thanks, Bazza. That makes sense. A very quick edit (I'll keep working) in response to your words:

Mark Twain and Benny Hill:

MT: The best advice I can give you, young man, is that the humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it.

BH: Okay, I think I get it. How about this? "Girls are like pianos. When they're not upright, they're grand."

MT: Clever, Benny. You do have a knack. But humor cannot do credit to itself without a good background of gravity and of earnestness.

BH: One thing I'm earnest about is half naked girls. I'm not against them, mind you - not as often as I'd like to be, if you know what I mean.

MT: I suppose English humor is hard to appreciate unless you are trained to it.

BH: What? You think that bit about painting a picket fence was funny? I like my humor biblical. Do unto others, then run.

MT: Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.