American vs British TV Comedy

[Zardnaar]

How many of you have seen/like British comedy. Heres a brief list of some of my favourites.

Fawlty Towers
The Young Ones
Bottom
New Statesman
Blackadder
Mr Bean
Red Dwarf
Doctor Who (ok sci fi with bad special effects)

How do you find it compared to American sitcoms and comedy show? My favourite American shows.

Simpsons
Futurama
Family Guy
Hogans Heroes
MASH(not my personal favourite but possibly the best comedy show ever).

 

[Immortal]

Seinfeld is pure comedic gold
Nobody makes animated comedy like Seth Macfarlaine (family guy)

While some Monty Python is funny, and I do enjoy Father Ted, though its not an english show per-se. Brit com just doesn't do it for me anymore. Theres only so many times that killer rabbit can be laughed at.

 

[Turner]

Apples and oranges, to me. British humor and american humor are so different... I've only seen Mr Bean from the British side, and watched the occasional episode of Are you being served?, but that's all I could get into. Ab Fab leaves me scratching my head.... But the British Who's Line is much better than the american one, IMO. Still like both, tho.

 

[Esckey]

Too different to say. American is more derogatory and close to being toilet humour and british is...................well british

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

American TV comedy uses gags.

British TV comedy uses wit.

It comes down to preferences, but I much prefer British.

 

[CurtSibling]

The British sense of humour is reliant on British culture knowledge,
and this goes for US humour in it's own field also.
I reckon true jokes in irony and sarcasm are mostly lost on many Americans...
But Americans are very good at self-depreciating gags though.

Everyone has got thier own taste in humour though...

 

[Illustrious]

Curt is right: all comedy depends to a huge degree on cultural context.

I enjoy Frasier (probably the wittiest and most literate of US comedies), but even there the occasional obscure US cultural reference creeps in and defeats me. Most of the other US stuff has a much higher ratio of "in" cultural referents (as MC so rightly says, gags substituting for wit), so is more likely to "miss" on my side of the Pond.

Admittedly, with the increasing globalisation of US culture (Coca-colonisation and the dread hand of Hollywood, inter alia), we non-Americans are getting more used to interpreting yankee slang. Yet there's still a culture gap.

Which convinces me that there's bound to be a similar culture gap in the opposite direction. Much as I would love to believe that Americans fail to "get" Brit comedy because they are lacking in wit and perception, the reality for many is that they simply don't know the references.

 

[Mark Young]

American TV comedy uses gags.

British TV comedy uses wit.

It comes down to preferences, but I much prefer British.

Ditto. I enjoy watching Frasier as much as I enjoy Fawlty Towers.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

This is the first time anyone has ever agreed with a comment of mine

 

[Mark Young]

This is the first time anyone has ever agreed with a comment of mine

Next time someone talks bad about Adelaide, I'm going tell them about this smart bloke called Mongoloid Cow...

 

[MrPresident]

From what I can see American comedy is much more obvious. For example in American sitcoms character crack jokes and everyone knows that they're telling a joke (other characters included). In Britain the humour is much more subtle, 'The Office' being a good example of this. I suppose British humour is more to do with situation than jokes.

Also pretty much all British humour can, in some way, be traced back to the class system.

 

[bobgote]

the americans have comedy now?

PS adelaide sucks.

 

[ellie]

It is a matter of taste of course, and cultural influences.

For me british comedy (unsurprisingly) , i like the simpsons in small doses.

But fawlty towers, only fools and horses, blackadder, yes minister/prime minister

are more to my taste.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

American TV comedy can be summed up with one phrase: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Its just one juvenile cliche after another about relationships.

 

[test_specimen]

Malcom in the Middle had some good anarchic moments in the first season. Dewey is the real star of the show, he's one of the most imaginative characters in US comedy.

Unfortunately most things are dubbed, once they are shown in Austria/Germany, but I know some original language episodes of Fawlty Towers which are great and Blackadder off course.

German comedy sucks so bad, I'd rather watch dubbed versions of sitcoms than a German comedy.

Harald Schmid you will be missed!

 

[Perfection]

Alls I know is Sienfeld kicks all the others shows in the tochus!

 

[Flak]

Absolutely Fabulous is probably my favorite British comedy ever.

 

[Chaos_BF1942]

I would say I like American TV comedy better than British TV comedy.


Like the British Whoes Line, I sometimes don't know who they are talking about when they talk about a British guy, But with the American one I do. Well one thing that is the same is they both have the same 2 people on every show.

 

[stormbind]

Seinfeld is pure comedic gold

Wha...? He's bloody awful!

Britain, and especially the BBC, make more comedies.

For seious & current showdown, I would pit Scrubs (US) vs. Coupling (UK)

 

[Mark Young]

the americans have comedy now?

PS adelaide sucks.

Now THATS comedy at it's finest! A Melbourneite bagging out someone from Adelaide.