American vs British TV Comedy

[Mikoyan]

British comedy beats American comedy. Hands down.

The Young Ones

 

[Stapel]

When watching American comedies, I always applaud the Yankees for exporting their rubbish. That really is true salesmanship.

Nothing beats the blackadder series, I guess.

 

[thestonesfan]

I like German comedy.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

Brit comedy all the way...Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, Faulty Towers, who can compete with that?

I like German comedy.

Imagine that there is a German staying at your house, what is the worst thing that you could possibly do, short of greeting them with a Nazi salute? Sing the "Springtime for Hitler" song? Anyone who has seen Mel Brookes classic, 'The Producers' will know what I am talking about... Well, guess what my sister did, right in front of the German? I don't think she did it on purpose or anything, but its not as if she was singing it quietly, she was really singing the damn thing!

I wasn't there, but apparently the German ignored the song with Teutonic determination, and pretended that they did not understand what had been said...

That was a bit OT, but I had to share.

 

[Suppersalmon]

I prefer British comedy i do enjoy american comedies such as Family Guy and the simpsons but 9/10 time i would prefer to watch Britsh Comedies such as Dad's Army a personal favorite of mine Blackadder,,Fawlty towers and the Office

 

[Leonel]

I prefer British comedy. It seems more intellectual to me as opposed to American comedy, which I perceive as mostly crude and vulger. The crude parts may be the very vocal minority.

 

[cgannon64]

Wha...? He's bloody awful!

He's not that good. But Larry David is a ****ing genius.

BTW, American comedy sucks, because its so...American.

*shudders*

 

[CurtSibling]

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

I find the man as funny as anthrax on your cornflakes!

(which may actually be funny to some, I guess)

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

Not only do I not find Seinfeld funny, I completely fail to see how anybody else could either. Just cultural I suppose. Contrary to what Immortal said, there is no limit to how many times you can laugh at a killer rabbit. Not that this matters because there's always something "completely different" to laugh at. Familt Guy is excellent, at least when they aren't making references to stuff I've never heard of. The simpsons hasn't been funny for many years. I'm a big fan of Harry Hill and Peter Kay.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Wibble.

 

[ellie]

some comedy you can watch time after time
monty pythons "life of bryan", many scenes in only fools and horses
and a tonne of lines from blackadder goes fourth still have me in stiches even
though i know the lines off by heart..shrug

 

[stormbind]

I find that British comedy has a great way of making fun of itself, the British population, or the human race. American comedy seems to concentrate on the situation.

 

[phil87]

Although The Office has succeeded on both sides of the atlantic.

 

[cgannon64]

We're gonna ruin that show in our version though.

 

[Mr Black]

Where are you all seeing British comedy???

You all have satellite dishes, or something?

 

[nonconformist]

British comedy is so much witty and intelligent than American IMHO. Amercan comedy is a lot cruder anfd slapstick in a "fallign over, canned laughter" kind of way. British is funnier because it requires intelligence to understand.

Just a few random quotes:

Darling: "I'm as British as Queen Victoria!"
Blackadder: "So your father's German, you're half German and you married a German?"#
BlackAdder goes Forth.

Rik: Vivian, you set fire to my university coursework. That was very selfish. You could have given away my hiding place!

Viv:Neil, you cook. You have to look after your responsibilities. Just like we decided, you cook, I look after the fish and the plants".
Neil: What did we eat the first night we moved in?"
Viv: Sausages. It was a tuesday.
Neil: Sausages AND.......?
Viv:sausages and fish and plants
The Young Ones.

 

[cgannon64]

Where are you all seeing British comedy???

You all have satellite dishes, or something?

BBC America.

 

[stormbind]

Link above. There's even an episode guide to coupling

Of US Comedy, I occationally enjoy Scrubs, Frasier, Simpsons, Futurama, MASH but the rest of it can be binned for all I care.

That's not to say all British comedy is good. Some of it sucks too.

 

[Hitro]

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.

The "third" stations showed Monty Python's Flying Circus in the original version years ago. Later Sat.1 showed a dubbed version.

I think British comedy loses more in the translation than its American counterpart but both are of course much better in the original.

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

There are some gems, like Extra-3, which is of course more of a satire show. And I haven't seen it in quite some time, maybe it sucks now.

The mainstream stuff sucks plain and simple. Can someone please shoot Bully Herbig?

Harald Schmid you will be missed!

True.

 

[stormbind]

I loath Monty Python's Flying Circus. Most of the jokes are historic satire so it's only funny after reading old newspapers and how many viewers do that?