UK Comedy vs. US Comedy

[Pain]

I find tv comedies from the UK are generally funnier than us tv comedies. Movies are different though, I find British comedy movies terrible.

Pain recommends these UK comedies..

Harry Enfield And Chums
The Fast Show
I'm Alan Partridge
Rab C. Nesbitt
Steptoe & Son
Only Fools And Horses
One Foot In The Grave
Mr.Bean
The Office
Men Behaving Badly
Father Ted
Red Dwarf
Bottom
Black Adder

 

[ironheart]

UK.

i also like Fawlty towers and My family

 

[El Freako]

Avoid the last few series of Red Dwarf. It gets kind of lame. The first few are hilarious though.

Blackadder is a cult classic, I love that show.

The Goodies needs a mention also.

 

[lifterdead]

US, if only because I know more funny shows produced here. I would easily agree, however, that the US probably produces more unfunny shows than the UK.

 

[Tech]

The language barrier can be hard to get past sometimes.

I've watched both Spaced and The Office UK. They were both funny, but sometimes quite difficult to understand.

Even though it's not a comedy, I will say that Kitchen Nightmares (UK) was 100x better than Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA . Even though they are essentially the same show, the UK version seemed much more authentic.

 

[Rocky]

I like a great deal og both but I think some US and UK shows are indiginous to where they were made and may work better in their country of origin.

 

[Zigurd]

Could you please tell me what's funny about Mr. Bean ? I find it disgusting.

 

[Line]

Could you please tell me what's funny about Mr. Bean ? I find it disgusting.

He's a poor man's Monsieur Hulot.

 

[tim290280]

My main gripe with American "comedy" is that they have to explain the joke after they tell it. It's either funny or not, explaining the joke means it wasn't.

And I love how there is a language barrier between Americans and the UK. Talk about lame America.

 

[Skeptic]

UK! The young ones

 

[Line]

And I love how there is a language barrier between Americans and the UK. Talk about lame America.

Surely you're joking.

 

[Hypocrisy86]

US, since i know more of US movies and all. I think it would take time for me to prefer UK comedies more or as equal.. as i like US.

 

[tim290280]

The language barrier can be hard to get past sometimes.
I've watched both Spaced and The Office UK. They were both funny, but sometimes quite difficult to understand.

Even though it's not a comedy, I will say that Kitchen Nightmares (UK) was 100x better than Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA . Even though they are essentially the same show, the UK version seemed much more authentic.

Surely you're joking.

I had to speak pretty slowly when I was in the US so that people could understand me. Although that was only for dumb people. Most of the university people had no problem.

 

[Line]

I had to speak pretty slowly when I was in the US so that people could understand me. Although that was only for dumb people. Most of the university people had no problem.

My queries stem more from geographical, sociocultural concerns about slang and its inception as acceptable language and differing trends in pronunciation and, again, their inceptions as acceptable language. Similarly, your country was founded on UK convicts, yet you still have distinguishable accents and idioms in comparison to both the UK and us.

 

[tim290280]

^^ I think the idioms, colloquialisms and endemic vernacular are generally what confuses people about any other culture.

Although Australian society has largely lost a lot of these cultural linguistics and are seen as cliche. As way of an example: Steve Irwin used a lot of Australian colloquialisms such as "crickey" which the vast population do not due to a maturation of vernacular.

But Australian culture and cultural morays are still very much prominent in our lifestyle, media and art.

To be confused by this is usually one of two things (although I'd like to hear what you think, I'm thinking you may have some others):
1) A lack of exposure to other cultures, especially when the exposure doesn't involve interpersonal relations.
2) An ignorance or ellitist attitude towards other cultures.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

A show I enjoy watching is "Flight of the Conchords"

 

[Natzo]

A show I enjoy watching is "Flight of the Conchords"

it's a cool show!

 

[Line]

^^ I think the idioms, colloquialisms and endemic vernacular are generally what confuses people about any other culture.

Although Australian society has largely lost a lot of these cultural linguistics and are seen as cliche. As way of an example: Steve Irwin used a lot of Australian colloquialisms such as "crickey" which the vast population do not due to a maturation of vernacular.

But Australian culture and cultural morays are still very much prominent in our lifestyle, media and art.

To be confused by this is usually one of two things (although I'd like to hear what you think, I'm thinking you may have some others):
1) A lack of exposure to other cultures, especially when the exposure doesn't involve interpersonal relations.
2) An ignorance or ellitist attitude towards other cultures.

I would say it's more to do with ignorance than elitism, though you're right in saying art and media also have much to do with how a society communicates. Still, that ignorance probably stems from something other than exposure, as people are self-centered beings -- which is the nature of our perception -- and don't weigh other individuals and values as equal to their own.

 

[Robcardu]

UK accent makes me mad, its hard for me to understand them, ive lawsys thought comedy has a lot of cultural, idiosyncrasy, slang things involved, its really hard/stupid to compare comedy from different countries, bc whats funny here maybe its not there.

 

[Big_Guns_Lance]

^^