I realised that britain make some excellent comedies, i mean spaced, bottom, peep show, little britain, the young ones,the league of gentlemen,jam red dwarf, the office etc, where else can you get this wonderful humour from, i mean true i like simpsong,south park and futurama, but they never fully live up to Britains colourful sense of humour.What british comedies do you like?sorry, i kinda babbled my arse off, oops

you mean, in the Media...?

Yes we are a nation with a sound comic heritage. I like all of the above and Big Train, Bo Selecta, Blackadder and countless others over the years.

I kinda just mean in general, im just bad at explaining:D

Are we counting the Carry On movies in this discussion? Awwwww stop muckin' abowt.


JJM

Reggie Perrin, Father Ted, Black Books, Red Dwarf (the early years), Black Adder. . . I could go on and on. I'd say we have the edge.

Lets not mention Carry On, Love Thy Neighbour, Keeping Up Appearances and Last of the Summer Wine shall we.

ooooooooh Matron!

Feet...Smell....Something Horrible.



JJM

We`re counting them all dont worry your pretty heads about it:D, i cant believe i forgot father ted, black books, etc*is ashamed and shakes her head*

You might find this interesting: http://www.startribune.com/stories/459/5112013.html

It's obvious but interesting.

I think, 'Spaced' aside, my favourites are 'Black Books' and 'Father Ted' (or do both of those technically count as Irish comedy? Since both Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan are, you know, technically, from Ireland?)

Okay.. not-Irish.. 'The Office', 'Fawlty Towers', 'The Young Ones'..

Anything that's either insane, cruel or violent in it's approach to humour I seem to appreciate the most.

'The League of Gentlemen', 'Blackadder', 'Red Dwarf', 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', 'The Goon Show', 'How Do You Want Me?', 'Absolutely Fabulous' (Eddy reminded me of a girl who used to be one of my best friends.. seriously..)

America had some good shows too, though. 'The Larry Sanders Show', 'Frasier' and 'Seinfeld' were all good. And 'Family Guy'.. (but mainly because of Baby Stewie. Who was, for some reason, British. )

he he, good point:D

Moved thread to media. It being media and all

I only got into Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights in the second series, I thought it was great

We've been known to throw out our fair share of duffers though. Like the latter series of Ab Fab, Coupling (excpet Goeff or is it Jeff?), Anything on ITV, Anything called "My" something and opinion is Divided on Max and Paddy: Road to Nowhere although I don't think it's that bad.

That's because all British people are evil and plot world domination - maybe it's cos we miss the Empire...

Not enough for another fuckin' movie.


JJM

My favourites....

Black Books, Red Dwarf, Rab C Nesbitt, Spaced (of course), Brittas Empire, Men Behaving Badly.

However, has anyone here seen the Scottish show Still Game, and does anyone remember Citizen Smith or Get Some In?

i saw robert lindsay in the street the other day and had to fight the urge to shout 'power to the people!'.

cos i would have looked like an idiot.

My Hero, My Family.....what about 'All About Me'? I hate the latter the most....it started as some awful story of the world through the eys of a disabled 13 yr old...then suddenly this was sacrificed in exchange for some Steven Hawkingesque voice box. Family Guy was able to pull it off, but this show never will. And that's just the beginning of its badness.

Alan Partridge has always been my fave really. However at present I'm really enjoying Peep Show and The Mighty Boosh(even if it is on at a stupid time!), also when is the new series of 'Look Around You' going to appear, does anyone have any more info? sure I've asked this on the forum before and somebody kindly pointed me in the direction of the BBC web site, which basically said sometime in 2004?? Does anyone have any news so I can write it down in my copy book.

My boy's got the DVDs and we've been working our way through them of late. In fact, we watched 3 episodes from the second series last night. It's just bloody brilliant.

I think the fourth series is going to be shown nationally, and I urge people to catch it when it does. It's funny, but it's also got quite a few touching and serious moments - which I think are essential for good comedy. I think I'm right in saying that the first episode in series 3 was the most watched comedy show in Scotland, so it's popular up here - but because it's not national I think it's still underated.

Thats totally cool, i like him in my family, hes so bloody sarcastic and hes a really good actor too:D and The Phantom good taste liking peep show, its one of those comedies i just love, i mean i was watching it at like 12 this morning, i was totally tired when i woke up at like 6.40ish but its just worth it

In addition to all the great ones already mentioned how about The Comic Strip, Filthy Rich & Catflap, Morecambe & Wise Show, Spike Milligan's Q, Nightingales (Robert Lindsay's finest moment along with GBH) and Not Only But Also (Peter Cook & Dudley Moore)

Get Some In is a classic, it was only latterly shown on the satellite channel UK Gold, or whatever it's called these days, starring Robert Lindsay, Brian Pettifer, David Janson and Gerald Ryder as four National service recruits in the RAF. Tony Selby also stars as their sadistic Drill Instructor.

The guy went off the boil years ago...but the original couple of series' of Vic Reeves Big Night Out was outstanding.....
The Man With the Stick, Wavey Davey, Novelty Island, Lister et al....Comedy Nuggets all of them.
Now's there's a DVD to bring out.......but they wouldn't let it lie.

This isn't entirely related to this topic, but it's pretty close and I didn't feel it warranted a whole new thread of its own...........

The Goodies are coming to do a live show here in Australia!!!!
And I'm going!!!! (well the tickets aren't on sale till Monday but I'm *planning* on going!)

I know they are old, and it's weird, and blah blah blah.
But I'm still excited about it!!

I grew up with The Goodies from such a young age (it was really played as a kids show here) and went through that thing of gradually getting different jokes and more jokes as I got older.
They are just legends in my mind and to see them live will be so cool!



Cheers
AC

Ya know, there used to be a live comedy thread, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.....or else I have gone blind in my old age....oh, well.

This thread needs some livening up. Far too much "arn't we the coolest?" backslapping and shoulder-punching going on.

So here goes.

American television used to be laughably bad but since the early nineties it has been producing shows of many different genres that has left us Brits standing. One of these genres is sit-coms.

Frasier, Malcolm in the Middle, Friends, Family Guy, South Park, Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show and the funniest TV show ever made - The Simpsons. All produced (mainly) since 1990 and all funnier than most of the (7 episodes per series, 4 or 5 series then we stop cos we can't be arsed to really stretch ourselves creatively and we DO get SO tired with all our voice-over work) British output of the same period.

Only a handful of British shows (produced over the same period) can stand up to these and they have all been mentioned previously.

Still Game has been shown south of the border - and is very funny indeed. Loved it.

Max and Paddy started very badly but seemed to pick up from episode 4. Then it stopped. Why? Because they had done the requisite six episodes and needed a lie down. Peter Kay needed to rest. He's produced a WHOLE THREE HOURS OF TV THIS YEAR. He works SO hard. Just like all the rest of our domestic comedy talent. Am I alone? Does anybody else think that the traditional "blink and you miss it" approach to the British sitcom series needs to change. Do you want MORE!?

Has anyone mentioned Absolutely?

Ok - you've mentioned 8 US shows and then claimed that only a handful of UK shows can match them in that period - shows such as The Day Today, Spaced, Black Books, Big Train, Brass Eye, Jam, I'm Alan Partridge, Happiness, 15 Storeys High, Phoenix Nights, That Peter Kay Thing, Early Doors, Nighty Night, Marion & Geoff, Human Remains, The Royle Family, Peep Show, Look Around You, and others I've forgotten - that's quite a big handful.

And there's a difference in the way that shows are produced - quite often they're a labour of love for two or three people in the UK, whereas in the US they've developed the art of having teams working on shows - we tried that with My Family and look where it got us. Will you accuse Pegg & Stevenson of being lazy as they've only produced around 5-6 hours of Spaced, or can you recognise the sheer amount of hard work and craft that's gone into producing and refining the show into the true comedy landmark it is? I'm not saying that one or the other is best, and you have a point that US comedy is easily criticised, but that can apply either way.

just to be pedantic, does look around you qualify as a sitcom? sorry sorry

you know, my gf can't put CD;s away without turning them the right way round...

Are we talking sitcoms, or comedy in general?

*checks earlier post*

I see what you mean, but my point still stands, with added League of Gentlemen!

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that in order to defend something, you don't have to do something else down.

Canadian comedy is clearly superior to both.
Kids in The Hall pisses on our collective heads.

I was talking about sitcoms only. I don't believe I have seen a US sketch show that is worth seeing twice.

I am disappointed that I received such a reasoned and logical response to what is clearly an inflammatory and wholly insubstantial argument. Where's that Sophie Lover chappie when you need him? I wanted a fight.

It wasn't my intention to do anybody down. On rereading, however, I can see how my sarcasic sense of humour got the better of me. Of course I don't think Peter Kay is lazy. He is the funniest man in Britain. I wouldn't dream of calling Jess/Simon lazy either. Perish the thought. For yea, are they not the greatest comedic team to walk this damned and blighted land? Does their poop not smell of pot pourri? We are not fit to gaze upon........(shit. Doing it again. Sorry)

I am aware of how US sitcoms are made. And yes, My Family failed but that does not mean that another show written in the US style would not work. If it did work - we could have 26 cracking episodes per year of a comedy we all loved instead of 13 episodes all told.

I will now nitpick and say that Brass Eye, Jam, The Royle Family, Peep Show, Early Doors, Nighty Night and Marion & Geoff do absolutely nothing for me. Titter me not. ESPECIALLY THE FUCKING ROYLE FAMILY! HATE! BILE! DEATH TO RICKY! I WOULD RATHER WATCH 2 PINTS OF LAGER! (not the show, I mean I would rather sit and stare at 2 pints of beer for half an hour.)

To be fair , I think thats what the writers do as well.

I too hate the Royal family. DO SOMETHING!!! I could just watch me and my mates farting and watching telly if I so chose. Marion and Geoff on the other hand is such subtle humour I love it! The first series especially.

As for American sketch shows, what about that program which Will Ferrall started out on? I can't claim to have seen it, but I believe it is a sketch show, is it Saturday Night Live or something? Anyway, surely anything with Will Ferrall is funny? Can anyone shed any light on this?

EDIT: How many spelling mistakes did i make??!?!

I havn't seen Saturday Night Live since Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Dana Carvey were on it at the end of the 80's. Whatever happened to those guys anyway? Did they go back to theatre work or summat?

I take your point about longevity - 13 years of the Simpsons compared to 13 episodes of Fawlty Towers does rather make it look like we're just not pulling our fingers out, bucking our ideas up and making an effort.

On the other hand, there's the old saying about quality versus quantity. There's plenty of British sit-coms that have run for a relatively long time and all the ones I can think of have turned into festering cess-pools of non-talent after a few years.

Absolutely Fabulous, for example - hilariously funny and satirical at its beginning, now it's just a bloated excuse for Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders to totter around the screen swigging Bolly. Boring!

Or how about Only Fools and Horses - plodding on predictably for nearly 15 dull as fuck years, with a couple of awful "this is the last one, we promise!" Christmas specials tacked onto the end.

I think the blink-and-miss-it approach gives writers the chance to cram as much quality as they can into a short space of time, and leave people wanting more. If only the creators of Friends had taken that route...

I think the sarcasm is back...

No I really meant that.


Really.


Or did I?


You'll never know.


Or care.

To get more, won't another series do? I wish that American sitcoms were more like the British ones in that they had a limited amount of episodes. Part of the advantage of that is each series is like an extended movie. You have a beginning, middle & end. And to write in complete arc like that takes forethought and planning. The writers aren't struggling to think of ideas to fill the episodes.

I won't even mention how the British sitcoms tend to be created & written by the performers thus making it quality viewing.

I`ll be honest, I wouldn`t consider myself much of a fan of US shows. Frasier and the almight Scrubs (funniest TV show aside from Spaced IMHO). The story arcs tend to piss me off, mainly because they always tend to be milked to death i.e. Ross and Rachel. By the end of it I really couldn`t have cared less if they got back together, I didn`t even see the last episode of Friends so still don`t know. Or care.

I definitely think we have the advantage of quality over quantity, I can`t remember every single episode of Seinfeld, but I do every episode of The Office or Fawlty Towers, so I think that British Comedy will always be remembered more eventually.

And lest we forget, most of the US talent was inspired by what the Brits have done (Python, etc.).

Or Mr. Don & Mr. George (hint, hint)?

Vaguely remember it, wasn`t Jack Docherty something to do with it? And Morwenna Banks?

If so, that explains why I didn`t like it.

Jack Docherty
Moray Hunter
Morwenna Banks
Gordon Kennedy
Pete Baikie
John Sparkes

It was very, very good.

#Trousers, I'm wearing trousers#

Guess you had to be there. Being English, and most of them being Scots and Welsh, I guess it wasn`t aimed at me. ~shrugs~

I'm English.

I liked it.

Meh. Bottom line, it wasn`t my cup of tea. But then I think British comedy during that period went through a weird patch, with only a few coming out looking good. What I mean is, everything felt....marginalised.

The Real McCoy made it very plain that they didn`t really want white people watching their show, to the point that a lot of what they did was borderline racist, and exactly the sort of thing they`d been slagging off dinosaurs like Bernard Manning for years about.

There seemed to me to be a lot of political stuff going on with comedy that I didn`t much like, as if everything that made you laugh had to have a point. I could be wrong, that`s just the way I felt about that kind of show.

You think so? I don't remember it like that - I remember that it wasn't funny, though.