U.S. vs U.K. comedy?

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rickmaniac

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Hi All,
Just wondered if people had noticed any differences between American and English comedies and any thoughts as to what these differences might be? Reason being, I recently watched Hitch and, while I smiled every now and again, I didn't laugh much. Same goes for the trailers for 40 yr Old Virgin. Yet these made massive amounts of money, so how green am I?!

People might say it's down to irony- apparently irony isn't a big part of American humour, but surely it's more than that?
 

rich

Seems you blundered into answering your own question...and you did it based on the shadow of your smile plus monetary value. What next, my humo(u)r guru?
 

veinglory

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It is hard to generalise but here is an anecdote: I'm a Kiwi and I was staying in a local youth hostel with several Americans and several Brits. There was an old TV playing Blackadder--generally the Brits laughed and the Americans looked bored or confused. Then Three's Company came on and the Americans laughed and the Brits left the room.

Two generalisations I suggest. The strongest line of British comedy (Yes, Minister, Monty Python, Blackadder) is absurd, clever, ironic, makes many references and often involves creative insult. The strongest line in American comedy (Home Improvement, Meet the Fockers etc) seems to involve more common situations, broad appeal, physical humour, running jokes and embarrassment.

Americans didn't seem to get many of the references possibly as they are culture specific? Brits don't seem to like characters to be embarrassed? Generalisations shouldn't be made based on a sample of 5 hung-over backpackers?
 

loquax

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There's a massive difference. For the best example, watch "The Office", then "The Office: An American workplace".

Done.
 

dpaterso

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Couldn't stand The Office, waste of time and space. Gervais's standup comedy sucks rocks.

I like lots of American series and lots of British series. I think both have matured recently. The humor is becoming more international.

Coupling always cracks me up, and American pals finds it similarly funny.

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rich

Easy for you to say, man-on-the-other-side-of-the-pond. And yet, we colonist have enjoyed British humor immensely. There's even much ado about Canadian humor being superior to its southern neighbor's.

What makes one (read that as more than one) culture more able to produce a better quality humo(u)r than another?
 

Optimus

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It's mostly culture-specific and generation-specific.

I totally undestand most Brit humor, I just find it quite uncreative and unfunny. Monty Python and Benny Hill use some of the lamest gags I've ever enountered. I also don't think that Three's Company is funny, but I'm sure people who grew up in the 70s thought it was great and have fond memories of it.

A great example of seeing this in action is to watch the Brit version (original) of "Who's Line is it Anyway?" Whenever the Brit comedians get up to do their improv, it's almost a guaranteed yawner.

However, whenever the Canadian comedians get up there, it's usually hilarious.

And, Hitch is a bad example, because it sucked. Just because a bunch of bored, lonely fat girls went to see it in the US, and dragged their unwilling boyfriends/husbands along, doesn't mean it was any good. It was a steaming crapfest. It just had a broad commercial appeal, and nothing else decent was playing against it at the time it was out.

Same with "40-Year-Old Virgin." It's good for a few chuckles, but it is by far NOT hilarious. There's just nothing but crap out right now and, after a summer of horrible movies, people are desperate to see anything that might be good.

And, anyone who tries to use dumbed-down crap like "Home Improvement" (a dorky family show) and "Meet the Fockers" (another steaming pile of uncreative drivel) as examples of American comedy, truly has a very poor understanding of what is funny in America.

"Wedding Crashers," however, was funny, but certainly not the best we have to offer.
 
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Brian James

English comedies

rickmaniac said:
Hi All,
Just wondered if people had noticed any differences between American and English comedies and any thoughts as to what these differences might be? Reason being, I recently watched Hitch and, while I smiled every now and again, I didn't laugh much. Same goes for the trailers for 40 yr Old Virgin. Yet these made massive amounts of money, so how green am I?!

People might say it's down to irony- apparently irony isn't a big part of American humour, but surely it's more than that?

English comedies tend to take the time to introduce themselves to an audience. American comedies are all about marketing, a rush to the punchline and the all important money shot. Then advertise it to death before the release so anyone with half a brain knows the plot and most the jokes. English film makers aren't always the funniest but they are less afraid to treat their audience like adults. Their comedy also has hummor in it, which doesn't leave you laughing out loud but it's amusing. Take the early Peter Sellers films and compare them to the Pink Panter series. Sadly don't compare the Pink Panter movies to most comedies today, it makes it easier to see how down hill thing have gone.

Brian James
 

Boo_Radley

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Optimus said:
It's mostly culture-specific and generation-specific.

I totally undestand most Brit humor, I just find it quite uncreative and unfunny. Monty Python and Benny Hill use some of the lamest gags I've ever enountered. I also don't think that Three's Company is funny, but I'm sure people who grew up in the 70s thought it was great and have fond memories of it.

A great example of seeing this in action is to watch the Brit version (original) of "Who's Line is it Anyway?" Whenever the Brit comedians get up to do their improv, it's almost a guaranteed yawner.

However, whenever the Canadian comedians get up there, it's usually hilarious.

And, Hitch is a bad example, because it sucked. Just because a bunch of bored, lonely fat girls went to see it in the US, and dragged their unwilling boyfriends/husbands along, doesn't mean it was any good. It was a steaming crapfest. It just had a broad commercial appeal, and nothing else decent was playing against it at the time it was out.

Same with "40-Year-Old Virgin." It's good for a few chuckles, but it is by far NOT hilarious. There's just nothing but crap out right now and, after a summer of horrible movies, people are desperate to see anything that might be good.

And, anyone who tries to use dumbed-down crap like "Home Improvement" (a dorky family show) and "Meet the Fockers" (another steaming pile of uncreative drivel) as examples of American comedy, truly has a very poor understanding of what is funny in America.

"Wedding Crashers," however, was funny, but certainly not the best we have to offer.

Now here's something funny for you...I totally disagree with everything Optimus just said, but I'm from the same country. But, that's ironic so I guess that makes it British comedy?

The simple matter is that comedy, like anything else in life, is relative. What's not funny to some is downright hilarious to another. If you've never stubbed your toe in your life, then a comedy wherein someone does won't register as funny with you. But if you have, then seeing someone do it in a movie will make you crack up and think, "Yeah, stings, doesn't it!? Ha ha!"

I think it's ridiculous to say Brit comedy sucks just because you're American, or American comedy sucks just because you're British. If it doesn't make you laugh, then it's only because you don't understand it for whatever reason be it cultural, ironic or what have you. But other folks laugh at it, so that kind of throws the whole "I didn't laugh so it's not funny, period" argument right out the window.
 

pickman

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I have always been under the impression that British comedy is traditionally more subtle and dependant on verbal humour, which American comedy is traditionally more physical and dependant on comic acting.


I stressed the word 'traditionally' above, because there have been exceptions. One British comedy which displays crude, not-so-subtle humour and OTT acting is Bottom. And I suppose you could say, anything else starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson. There is also Fawlty Towers, where John Cleese just plays a manic hotel owner who keeps hitting his Spanish waiter and attacking his car with a branch. Both examples are still funny (in my opinion). And as for American comedies which don't fit into my statement above, I suppose there is Frasier, and other series which I cannot name off the top of my head.

Having said all this, I am no comedy expert (it's a field I'm still learning about). The above is simply based on my observations as a viewer over the years.
 

Optimus

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Boo_Radley said:
Now here's something funny for you...I totally disagree with everything Optimus just said, but I'm from the same country.

The simple matter is that comedy, like anything else in life, is relative. What's not funny to some is downright hilarious to another.

Obviously you didn't "totally disagree" with everything I said, since what I quoted above is essentially what I said in my post.

Perhaps you just didn't understand what I wrote.

If you've never stubbed your toe in your life, then a comedy wherein someone does won't register as funny with you. But if you have, then seeing someone do it in a movie will make you crack up and think, "Yeah, stings, doesn't it!? Ha ha!"

The fact that you wrote that AND actually believe it is incredibly hilarious to me. Now, THAT'S funny.

If it doesn't make you laugh, then it's only because you don't understand it for whatever reason be it cultural, ironic or what have you. But other folks laugh at it, so that kind of throws the whole "I didn't laugh so it's not funny, period" argument right out the window.

It has little to do with not understanding the material. It's more a matter of not being able to fully appreciate the material within its culture-specific or generation-specific context.

I'm pretty well-read and I understand 99% of the jokes/gags/references in Brit humor. But, I haven't been raised within a culture which has socially programmed me to find that type of material funny.

These types of debates always dwindle down into cultural snobbery. The argument is always that Yank humor is "stupid" or "unintelligent" or "low brow" and that Brit humor is somehow "sophisticated" and "nuanced" and "intelligent" and that if you don't get it, then you're somehow not any of those things.

Bollocks.

Also, the defenders of Brit humor always pull out the very best of what they have to offer as proof/defense of its superior quality (while conveniently leaving out all the utter sh!t that the Brits have supplied the comedic world with...like that idiot who plays Bean) and contrasting it only with the crappiest that America has to offer (Home Improvement, etc.).

How about mentioning some of the truly good American comedies? Someone in this thread mentioned Frasier. It was good (not great, but still good), but we have had more great comedies.

Seinfeld is classic. The Simpsons (in it's first 5 years) was superb. Arrested Development is US writing at some of its best. Family Guy even has promise.

My point is: this is an unwinnable debate. Both groups have produced good comedies. However, the Yank sense of humor and the Brit sense of humor, overall, is different, for socio-cultural reasons. Doesn't mean that one type of comedy is "superior" to the other. It just means that the consumers of such comedy approach it from different perspectives. It's all subjective.

And, in the end, who f-ing cares anyway?









However, I'll put Arrested Development up against any current Brit comedy and AD will kick all a$$!!!

;)
 
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three seven

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Boo_Radley said:
If it doesn't make you laugh, then it's only because you don't understand it for whatever reason be it cultural, ironic or what have you.
So if I don't laugh at that camp bloke prancing about and squealing in Will & Grace, it's because I don't understand American culture? Wow! And there was me thinking it was just because he's an annoying twat!
 

robeiae

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Optimus said:
...while conveniently leaving out all the utter sh!t that the Brits have supplied the comedic world with...like that idiot who plays Bean...
Ha! I find Mr. Bean to be hysterical...so do my wife (who is from another country) and my kids. Of course, I also think The Larry Sanders Show was the funniest thing ever, so don't go by me.

Seriously, I think Optimus is right:
It's mostly culture-specific and generation-specific.
One thing, however, that most people forget is that America has an awful lot of cultures. What ends up happening with mainstream comedies is, as Brain James noted, they are made in an attempt to appeal to a wide range of tastes or to the perceived majority tastes, thus marketing becomes all-important. Oftentimes, both methods fail somewhat. American TV series, on the other hand, have to maintain marketshare, so they continually repeat what works with the share they have attracted, like Everybody Loves Raymond. The great series manage to explore new humor while maintaining that share, like AD.

Oh, and BTW, Friends was really funny...not!

Rob :)
 

Nicholas S.H.J.M Woodhouse

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robeiae said:
One thing that most people forget is that America has an awful lot of cultures.

As does the UK.

Out of the US comedies I have seen I would have to say that the LS Show (earlier mentioned), Seinfeld (earlier mentioned) and Curb Your Enthusiasm rock my world. Family Guy at a distance.
parts of US culture(s) have had a very big influence on parts of UK comedy (Spaced is a good example of this - references to comic books, the editing and the cultural references to American films galore).
I think over here we seem to get two types of American comedies.
We get the commercially popular (Friends, Scrubs, Will & Grace etc) and then we also get some of the most incredible shows ever seen (such as those named above).
over here we have some terrible comedies - a little list for those in the UK so that we may cringe in rememberance:

Goodnight Sweetheart
My Family
Shoot the Writers!
anything from ITV
My Hero (or whatever it was called with Ardal 'rubbish stand up' O'Hanlan)
 

Nicholas S.H.J.M Woodhouse

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i think the title of this thread is a little misleading.

this isn't a contest

so
stop giggling, or I'll take down your particulars! (you know it - bringing out the Alan)
 

Boo_Radley

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Optimus - I wasn't singling you out as being wrong in my post, just using your post to illustrate the "comedy is relative" point. Wasn't a personal attack, sorry if it reads that way.
:)

Three Seven - He IS just an annoying twat, and an obvious exception (in my opinion, anyway) to what I'd said about not understanding the humor.
:)
 
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