It really shouldnt be hard, but just to nudge you in the right direction i should remind you that we came up with The Goons, Monty Python, Peter Cook, and of course Spaced, while America, although it should be lauded for, among many other things, the genius that is Woody Allen, gave us American Pie and Frasier.
I'll let you decide, after all what is the Spaced forum if not democratic? (that's enough of that shit ed.)

A no-brainer (only that that is an americanispazzybastardfuckfacem)

What?

At the mo the poll only has british votes, so go figure (shit another un')

The term no-brainer is Ashmerican and hence the ironybot kicks in

Grass ain't always green

-m0r

Oh the Poms do it much better and it usualy lasts a lot longer....and give you rib damage!

(possible exceptions could be Jack Black in Orange County and Will Ferrel in ANYTHING!)

luvs nix

And my dead grandmother is funnier than Scary Movie.

I'm ashamed to go for Britain. It comes across as particularly smug!

Father Ted (Irish but made by Channel 4 wasn't it?) was amazing, and it's nice when shows like Little Britain etc can be fosterd and created on the many (maybe TOO many) BBC networks and brought to the masses. It's probably, I'm presuming, more diffiuclt witht he way american networks go for the big guns all-or-nothing sitcoms and don't 'waste' money doing smaller comedy fair on another subsidurary channel.

Unless of ocurse they do...and then er....

By the bys...Office US. yay or nay?! The Budweiser bit is suitably annoying..though the "Manamanah" bit is far better in the UK version.

I havent seen the new office, although going on past US British imports it doesnt look like a recipe for success. Although Coupling was so bad to begin with i don't know how they managed to reputedly make it worse. Isuppose that is a credible achievement in itself!

I can think of loads of UK comedians and chows etc, but can only think of a couple of US stand ups that I really like: Bill Hicks and Rich Hall.

It's not really a fair question, I don't believe. Both of our nations do their particular brand of humour in an inimitable fashion, so you really need both if you're to have a decent representation of it all. Historically, at least.

Woody Allen is a great example, although he's fallen into disgrace in the last decade or so. Even the Woodster, though, got his start under the tutelage of another: Sid Caesar. Caesar's programme, "Your Show of Shows," helped pave the way for sketch comedy on this side of the Atlantic, and launched a number of important writers, including Allen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart (better known for his work on M*A*S*H), and performers, such as Carl Reiner and Imogene Coca.

But I'm rambling... Anyway, I don't think you can really have one without the other, since there has been such cross-pollenation and, at times, outright copying over the years. We need each other.

As for the rest of the world, Turkey's adaptations and low-budget remakes of such classic cinema as Star Wars, E.T., Star Trek, and The Wizard of Oz are a marvel, though I don't believe they were intended to be as funny as they are. And the Canadians do a marvelous job penning satire, especially when it's at the expense of their neighbours to the south.

As i said in the SPOTTED bit i bumbed into Rich Hall in Heathrow a few weeks ago... he was in Burger King... reading a newspaper... he's also bloody tall!

Thank god for air!

What?

Can't someone vote for America just to make it more objective?

What a ridiculous poll - why seek division?

Sorry skip,

wrong thread/ making a joke as tpo how bad american humour GENERALLY is (ie Seinfeld etc. Look there's a Non Jewish Paraplegic Spazzy who's Black, poor, smells of shit and is a pregnant lesbian!!! hoo haa!, I'm glad I'm not them!!! Pass the gun Sheepboy)

</Madness>

-m0r

Fine then, i'll just start a conversation with myself, i see that's the only way i'm going to get any decent company... sniff.

Do you know m0r1arty i'm afraid i havent the slightest idea what you are on about.

British are certainly the more witty and satirical as proven by the likes of Sellers, Cook and Milligan (to name but a few).

<Genuine> Have you never noticed how racist/sexist/gayist/mobilityist/age-ist/non jewish American humour generally is?, if not just think about it when your watching it, It's absolutley shocking how obvious it is (and acceptable)</Genuine>

At least in Britain we've only got the French to complain about (Hey, I'm part French, I'm allowed!)

-m0r

And i'm part Irish so i can make Irish jokes!

An Englishman a Scotsman and an Irishman... oh what's the point.

Anybody?

It's only funny if your an American Jew!!! j/k

British Humour is best purely because we had Morecombe and Wise, but they were oly funny because they studied Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Keaton and Chaplin etc.

So I think it takes both ends of the pond to make up humour, one end to try it and the other end to make it funny (pick as appropriate)

-m0r

definately british comedy as american comedy has never made me cry laughing although takeshi's castle is rather funny

I have one additional word in defence of American humour: Ghostbusters.

If people weren't trying to create artifical divides, you wouldn't need to defend anything.

WTF is this artificial divide

I cannot stand Americans, there is no parody on my behalf, I have never met an American I did not like, each and every one has been absolutley superb. BUT, I cannot stand American TV, it is mundane, drab and far too predictable, the only thing I once saw and liked was a prog called American Gothic, and that was blown away because it was far too defined as a mirror for America.

So next time I see a magazine telling me what to say/do/buy while defiling old languages and attacking those who cannot defend themselves all in the name of being 'hip' I'll remember the guys who think America is ok, I'll I'll piss all over a sweatshop worker (not enough to put him our though)

-m0r

Bravo.

1

The US does shows to death and keeps going, i cant remember the last time i laughted at, Simpsons, Scrubs, Malcom in the middle etc.

I have to say I know a lot more about British comedy in comparison... but there have been some very funny American-grown comedies. In stand-up you have the wonderful Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks. In film you have Will Ferrell and Bill Murray - too many to really name from movies. Chapelle has done some of the funniest sketches I have seen in a long time... but I always come back to British comics and comedies.

What exactly is the point of the thread, anyway? To generate some nationalist pride?

It's apples and oranges, man. Not worth comparing, because there are so many other differences between the nations that influence their respective comedies.

Isn't that what the British Vs. American men thread is about?

There are as many genius works of comedy to come out of the US as Britain (Mallrats, Futurama, South Park, Wayne's World, Family Guy, Clerks, Spinal Tap, Anchorman, Scrubs, Happy Gilmore, The Simpsons etc.).

I wouldn't want to say which country was funnier, as it seems (as SFA says) an artificial divide.

Though I would say that most people probably find comedy which comes out of there own culture funnier as they can relate to the humour more. That said I haven't read a bad US based review for SotD so obviously some things are universal.

I've always been of the opinion that comedy is quite universal. There again I do find a lot of stuff funny. Most of my friends comment on the fact that one moment I'm laughing at stuff like South Park and the next Pete and Dud.

I ain't voting. I'm quite bored of the whole Americans don't get irony, British comedy is better malarky. Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious, as some bloke with rather nice outfits once said.

I'm rather a fan of Canadian comedy myself, it sort of the bastard step-child of British comedy, which has fascinated me since I was just a lass. Anyone ever watch Slings and Arrows, Made in Canada or Corner Gas?

Kids in the hall!

oh there have been some definate 'wheez the week' moments coming from that show!
luvs nix

YOu should have a poll hat asks whether the US or UK does better dramas.

Then hands down it'd be US TV. Six Feet Under was great (went a bit off the rails and seems still slightly 'off' from the very first series but I suppose that's to be expected) and the multitude of others really do exclipse Holby City and the odd star vehicle ITV 2 drama about a detective

^ ~Has a hands down supporter - Should try the Poll Button!

Percentage wise we make as much shit as they do.

^ Percentage wise you certainly do!

Talk about a classical victim - whitey WTF At least stand some ground!

-m0r

The highs are that much higher though....

(Look out for other sentences in my spring collection like

"They make beef chunks, chunkier"

and my favourite:

"It made the pissheads more pissed")

What does this mean?

Grounded opinions, standing your ground.....you know

That tosh you tried to enforce in another thread

come on man, continued prinicples are alotmore appealing than fantastic follies!

-m0r

Sorry, you're still talking in dribbles. Interpreter?

Try keeping the principles that you supposedly stand by




They really do



Justify, not amplify!

-m0r

How do my views on the opinions of morons have any bearing on my views of the non-existence of a trans-atlantic comedy imbalance?