A London greeting cards firm is laughing all the way to the bank by exporting rude British humour to the Americans.
Marcus Ereira, 31, capitalised on TV shows such as The Office, Shameless and Veep which dispel the notion our comedy falls flat across the Atlantic.
His Soho-based online retailer Central 23 has seen a staggering 237 per cent increase in British-designed birthday cards with naughty jokes and some containing four-letter language being snapped up in the United States over 12 months.
The figures, taken from analysis of more than 500,000 sales, demonstrate tongue-in-cheek Britons are having the last laugh.
One card depicts an “elderly” 40-year-old needing a Zimmer frame to visit their favourite supermarket renamed “Oldi”.
A second says, “Happy Birthday you massive cockwomble”, a middle-class phrase Downing Street aides use to insult ministers.
A third card has a person sharply telling their smart speaker, “Alexa, buy a card for the ****”, while a fourth has the letter “D” missing from the word Happy Birthday to sexually suggest the recipient will get it later.
Mr Ereira, who co-founded Central 23 with fellow Londoner Luke Shelley says US buyers had traditionally preferred family-friendly cards.
But added: “When we introduced our cheeky cards online, it became evident that Americans wanted more sarcasm and banter — with the best intentions of course — and are turning to British humour to express that.
“British comedy undeniably stands out as some of the finest globally, and we’ve seen substantial growth in the sales of funny cards as a result.”
