1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study

Humor is everywhere in people's daily life, and the humor culture is an important part of social communication culture. With the frequent trade and increasing relationship between the U.K. and China, understanding the humor culture in Britain has contributed to the exchange of people from different cultures. This paper discusses the British humor culture from an English drama Sherlock, and then studies the characteristics and forming reasons of the British humor culture in detail. It analyzes the British people’s ways of expressing humor in their daily lives through the main characters, which, as a result, gives the reader a taste of humorous style that differs from China.

Through this paper, first we can have a general understanding of the key features and forming reasons about the British humor culture, and then absorb the best to enrich the national humor culture. Second, under the background of economic globalization, cultural exchanges have become increasingly frequent; grasping more culture can effectively avoid the embarrassment caused by the different humor cultures when negotiating with the Briton.