Clerihews
One of the regular commenters on Platitude for the Day has got me into clerihews (wikip). An example from me this morning follows (with some peculiarities, following her trend).
THE REVEREND TOM BUTLER:
"Jesus said1 be subtler
Than the snakes to whom Saint Pat gave the shove.
Unfortunately everyone in Northern Ireland seems to have forgotten the second part about the doves."
1 Matthew 10:16, New Testament, Bible
You can therefore blame Dinah for the tombs of the Suitov lords' "friends and family" mausoleum being furnished with a clerihew apiece.
edit: Oddly, come to think of it, if you wanted something that defines Englishness and the English sense of humour, I reckon the whole clerihew thing would have to be an excellent example. Dry, irreverent, quirky and wordy. Mine's not a great example, but look at the ones on Wikipedia to see what I mean.
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