IT is said (usually by those with no qualms about stereotyping entire nations), that while Germans are devoid of humour and Americans don't do irony, the British love a laugh, and enjoy nothing better than seeing someone slip on a banana skin. Ha, blinking, ha!

I recently attended a trade fair in Lisbon. Our group of a dozen or so English journalists sat politely through a series of speeches, in Portugese, occasionally nodding as if we had the faintest idea what was going on, and then came the moment we had been waiting for - the free lunch!

From our seats in the hall we watched as the stage curtains swished back to reveal huge round tables laid out with fine wines and sparkling silver cutlery, and lavish floral centrepieces were lowered as if by magic from the ceiling.

We walked up and sat at a table by the edge. A waitress served the soup, the wine waiter charged our glasses and then a chap came along with the bread rolls.

I was sitting facing the auditorium, where a five-piece band played bossa nova, and struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to me. Then I heard a little thud and looked up to see the bread roll bloke had gone.

He'd stepped backwards and fallen off the stage, but everyone simply carried on slurping their soup as if nothing had happened, their reaction a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. Meanwhile, the poor waiter was doubled up in agony in row A.

A similar thing happened a few days after I returned to England. I was in the sauna at my health club, chatting with the chap opposite, when he suddenly started chortling.

"That bloke just went to sit down and missed the chair!" he chuckled, pointing through the glass door towards the side of the swimming pool where an elderly gent had injured more than his pride after losing his footing on the wet floor.

Is this what years of Benny Hill and Mr Bean has reduced us to? Is the misfortune of others really so hilarious? What other reason could there be for the popularity of TV programmes featuring home-video clips of people toppling headfirst into puddles, falling off their bikes and tripping over cats?

Perhaps my concern was misplaced after all, and the waiter and the man spread-eagled by the pool were really upset at missing out because none of their friends had been on hand with a camera. Aah, the good old English sense of fun, eh?