American Humour : British Humour

[Snorri1234]

From an outsider viewpoint (being neither british nor american) I think that jimmy hit the nail on the head with his first post that British comedy is far more cerebral. I find it far more hilarious and can watch it in reruns far more often. It's just my taste though.

I think one of the main differences is that british comedy parodies daily life and big themes with the same far more wit. It's far more subtle and unconventional.

Let's compare the two versions of The Office. While they are both funny, I think the UK version is much more...painfully true. The American version still tries to make everyone a little likeable. It wants to keep people from watching it because some people are utter dicks, but that was what I thought was the brilliance of the UK-version. It's the quintessial example of Americans romanticizing everything.

[Snorri1234]

And maybe I am just dense, but neither version of the Office is funny.

this indeed is true. overated wanker.


oh and Curm, Young Frakenstein should never be mentioned with fooking Benny Hill(pervert) and Mr. Bean. you can't compar the comedy genius of Mel Brooks and the Comedy genius of actors like Marty Feldman and Gene Wilder.

That was the point. British humor seems dominated by Benny Hill, Mr. Bean, John Cleese and company, men in drag, and drunken women (Absolutely Fabulous).

Uhm....maybe the shit you've seen in the USA. But it's absolutely not.

[pimpdave]

Let's compare the two versions of The Office. While they are both funny, I think the UK version is much more...painfully true. The American version still tries to make everyone a little likeable. It wants to keep people from watching it because some people are utter dicks, but that was what I thought was the brilliance of the UK-version. It's the quintessial example of Americans romanticizing everything.

More than that, it's the American preoccupation with beating EVERYTHING to death. British Office had 12 episodes (and one christmas special, I believe). The Office on NBC is up to how many fucking episodes now?

And I still think there's just as much cerebral humor in America as in Britain, it's just that in Britain that cerebral stuff is the mainstream, whereas here, it's the pablum that becomes mainstream, and the good stuff remains cultish and hip.

[jonesthecurl]

Also I think we have aslightly biased view of each other: the Brit stuff that gets imported to the US includes the more obvious humour of the brits, the stuff the brits get from the US tends towards the soap-type sitcoms.

[pimpdave]

Another example of brilliant American comedy: Mr. Show

And of course, the first season of Arrested Development was genius. Sadly, it got beaten to death by the third season, but I think that's just a consequence of the network's standard number of episodes per season. Comedy is brief, but the television "season" isn't.

[Snorri1234]

Let's compare the two versions of The Office. While they are both funny, I think the UK version is much more...painfully true. The American version still tries to make everyone a little likeable. It wants to keep people from watching it because some people are utter dicks, but that was what I thought was the brilliance of the UK-version. It's the quintessial example of Americans romanticizing everything.

More than that, it's the American preoccupation with beating EVERYTHING to death. British Office had 12 episodes (and one christmas special, I believe). The Office on NBC is up to how many fucking episodes now?

Yeah that's another problem.

And I still think there's just as much cerebral humor in America as in Britain, it's just that in Britain that cerebral stuff is the mainstream, whereas here, it's the pablum that becomes mainstream, and the good stuff remains cultish and hip.

Yeah possibly. I think that that is the reason you rarely hear about cerebral American humour because it doesn't go into mainstream and therefore doesn't get brought out outside the US.

[jonesthecurl]

Well, I've jusr realised that nobody's mentioned the one live show that went for the same genre as the Simpsons & King of the Hill - the delightful Malcom in the Middle. The episodes in the UK tended to be shown out of synch, and to wander around the schedule, so I can't say how much it changed over time (apart from the cast getting older), but each episode I saw was a gem.

[Snorri1234]

Well, I've jusr realised that nobody's mentioned the one live show that went for the same genre as the Simpsons & King of the Hill - the delightful Malcom in the Middle. The episodes in the UK tended to be shown out of synch, and to wander around the schedule, so I can't say how much it changed over time (apart from the cast getting older), but each episode I saw was a gem.

Oh yeah Malcolm in the middle is great.

[pimpdave]

Oh yeah Malcolm in the middle is great.

I liked that show too, but after awhile (around third season maybe?) it seemed like the producers made the mistake of giving into the audience desire for "more". Good material leaves you wanting more, but more screen time of the dad, and his doing crazier and crazier things got tired, at least for me. It was better when it was brief, when he was a goofy dad, not some crazy Homer Simpson type caricature. This same rule applies to villains in story. The scariest villains are those the audience seldom sees. Malcolm was a great "straight guy" character, and had a large cast of supporting "color guy" characters in the first season. That changed as time went on, unfortunately.

Still, they eschewed the laugh track and shot it as a "single camera" show, as opposed to the "live audience" technique that allows producers to "sweeten" the laughter with a track. For that commitment alone, the show rates as something I'll gladly watch when I'm just aimlessly surfing the channels.

Also, the theme song was by They Might Be Giants, so like, whoa.