Noone does drama and humour like the Brits. What were your favourites

[Hugh Cow]

I was inspired to write this from a BLD post about a few Brit shows on another thread. I must admit to a love British drama and comedy. No one does it quite like the Brits. Despite Australia being flooded with American humour it just does not have the same flavour or wit for me. There were some excellant ones like Seinfeld but the good ones were few and far between. The difference in the American version and english version of the office to me showcased the difference. I could never get into the American version.
I loved Only fools and horses with some wonderful comedic actors was great and I loved last of the summer wine. The Vicar of Dibley with Dawn french and Absolutely fabulous. The comic genious of french and saunders showing that Brit women could do wonderful comedy as well. And of course there was Monty Python introducing a totally different kind of comedy from the slapstick and one liners.
Even British drama was a much better alternative to American drama if you liked more realism. They had stars that looked like the average person rather than someone that had just stepped out of vogue magazine. The early episodes of the bill were really good until wokeism started creeping into it. Frost was another good one. David Jason is a fine actor and could do it all. I doubt he would've reached those heights in American television. All creatures great and small was another great series. Lark rise to Candleford was fantastic. I think another was the darling buds of may where Catherine zeta jones got her start. The Brits were so good at showcasing the ordinary lives of people and making them into a must watch series where you could really get into the lives of these people without the script writers turning it into a peyton place. There are many more that were excellent viewing Im sure many posters had their favourites.
I couldnt go without a small mention about Australian humour as a side note. If you haven't seen much of it, look at the Adventures of Russell Coight and Kath and Kim as two starters..

[Switch]

^Agreed in principle. Humour tends to be subjective, and even though we do have a few populist types, the US brand tends to be a sledge hammer cracking a nut.

UK humour is more thoughtful, observant and implied? Subtle perhaps.

Australian humour does have its moments. Must be genetic?

[Pragmatic]

No one better than Spike Milligan and Benny Hill. Still watching both on YouTube today.

[taxexile]

Reeves and Mortimer, Peep Show, Im sorry I Havent a Clue, Tony Hancock, Dinner Ladies, to name just 5.

Are you being served, The Two Ronnies, to name 2 more.

[cyrille]

Are you being served.

The legacy of Mollie Sugden is unmistakable in your posts.

[Hugh Cow]

^Agreed in principle. Humour tends to be subjective, and even though we do have a few populist types, the US brand tends to be a sledge hammer cracking a nut.

UK humour is more thoughtful, observant and implied? Subtle perhaps.

Australian humour does have its moments. Must be genetic?

I think that is a fairly good analysis of the difference.

[taxexile]

Talking of Australian humour,

[helge]

Noone does drama and humour like the Brits.

Bold statement if you do not speak and understand all languages of this planet.

I assume that your "world" can be narrowed down to the ...anglo speaking one

[Stumpy]

As an American, I find humor extremely subjective. What one person finds funny, the other thinks is stupid.

Other than Two and Half Men and Seinfeld I found most TV sitcoms dumb and never watched. I know my parents enjoyed "All in the Family".

I prefer stand up comedy and used to be regular at venues to enjoy local shows. Some were really funny, others not so much. I far more enjoy stand up to the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Ron White, Joe Koi, Russell Peters, the tour of the Kings of Comedy and a host of others.

I find Brit stand up comedians rather dry but I suspect it's a cultural thing to which the UK folks find funny.

[harrybarracuda]

I remember watching M*A*S*H and thinking what brilliant, poignant comedy it was.

Then I remember seeing the US version that had to have canned laughter inserted.

[misskit]

Canned laughter is really annoying. Never been a sit-com fan.

I do like American stand-up comedy more than British, though that may be because I’m not familiar with many British comedians. The ones I see are aren’t very edgy.

[Edmond]

Speed of thought certainly helps.

[helge]

Good program

( I hate the Intro..."music" with a passion)

[Switch]

For observational comedy, there are few to get even close to Billy Connolly.

Macintyre and Lycett leave me cold.

George Carlin was ok but I always thought of him as very angry. Jim Jeffries humour did well in the US, even though he made Americans laugh at their own absurd gun laws.

FawltyTowers was full of absurdities and quite self deprecating about English eccentricity.

I hated the office, but I find Ricky Gervase quite amusing.

All very subjective innit?

[Stumpy]

All very subjective innit?

Yep. I never watched the office. Thought it was really dumb. Tried a few episodes.

I did enjoy Cheers sitcom on and off.

[tomcat]

...maybe a mark of my old age, but I find Jimmy Carr hilarious...others available on Netflix like Gervais, Whitehall, Howard etc. leave me unamused...

[bsnub]

I find Ricky Gervase quite amusing.

He is brilliant and his podcasts are legendary. If you can catch his show "Idiot Abroad" it is gut bustingly funny. I also enjoy John Cleese and used to watch Benny Hill.

[misskit]

^^ I also enjoy Jimmy Carr.

[BLD]

I imagine tax and sausages had a diet of love thy neighbour and it ain't half hot mum. I also enjoyed both . Looking back at those shows now they would never be allowed to get away with it now. People are to woke, precious , offended. For me it was great fun and certainly didn't turn me into a racist or an offended asshole. There should be more of it. But sadly the cancel / wokism thingo is to appealing to many folks. Fuck them. Humourless fookers

[BLD]

Sausages is probably sporting a pith helmet as we speak. Getting his coolies organised to get the sedan chair out of the shed. No tuk tuks for sausages . Ghastly things.

[PlanK]

Thread needs to be renamed:

Noone did drama and humour like the Brits. What were your favourites

(This is a commentary on TV shows, standup is entirely another thing)




Take off your rose-coloured-nostalgia glasses and take a look around... Quality Brit comedy died a couple of decades ago.

Today it looks like slow, class-based, single joke efforts done by a couple of talented comedians on a limited budget. It struggles to keep up with the superior product that large teams of American writers who were raised on the likes of Monty Python now consistently churn out. Just look at the examples of Brit comedy shows referenced in this thread, you're going back decades to find something good and if you watched them again today you probably wouldn't find them as funny as you remember them.

True that the American family sitcoms were banal clones of each other with canned laughter sound tracks right up until Married With Children aired and bookmarked the end of that era. I think that opened the gates for more sophisticated, adult orientated humour from the US.

Over the last two(ish) decades the US has put out Scrubs, The Office*, Parks & Rec, (forget Friends) Community, and Superstore. Throw in the animated series that might be lesser appreciated ranging from family-friendly The Simpsons to the much more intellectual Rick & Morty with all the other very quick-witted shows like Family Guy and the very up to date, on the nose, South Park.

I can't remember the last time I watched a Brit comedy. My old Dad still watches them and thinks they're funny. Anything else is outside his comfort zone.







*
The Office ('merica!)
I believed the Pommy negative hype from this forum about this show. The kids at work were playing comedy series at lunch time in the break room and The Office was suggested. There was some discussion and it was agreed upon to skip the first two seasons and start from season three. It was really good, much better and more sophisticated than the Brit version. I watched the first two seasons in my own time and they were quite bad. They tried to copy the Brit humour and made the characters much too dark. From season three onwards they started balancing the characters out, expanded the roles of the background actors and gave the comedians and writers much more freedom while keeping the office politics satire intact.

[BLD]

Another one that springs to mind and certainly tickled my old dads funny bone was Dave Allen at large.

[BLD]

One that was popular but never appealed to me. Some mothers do have em. Accident prone frank spencer failed to navigate the simplest tasks of daily life. MEH yeah, nah couldn't watch much of that.

But on the Buses was fucking funny as fuck. Reg Varney? Damn. TV was fun back then. Blakey was the miserable inspector.i seem to recall?

[Edmond]

My dad like Reginald Perrin, apparently.


Gascoigne's miss at Euro 96 must be up there.

[BLD]

Thread needs to be renamed:

Noone did drama and humour like the Brits. What were your favourites

(This is a commentary on TV shows, standup is entirely another thing)




Take off your rose-coloured-nostalgia glasses and take a look around... Quality Brit comedy died a couple of decades ago.

Today it looks like slow, class-based, single joke efforts done by a couple of talented comedians on a limited budget. It struggles to keep up with the superior product that large teams of American writers who were raised on the likes of Monty Python now consistently churn out. Just look at the examples of Brit comedy shows referenced in this thread, you're going back decades to find something good and if you watched them again today you probably wouldn't find them as funny as you remember them.

True that the American family sitcoms were banal clones of each other with canned laughter sound tracks right up until Married With Children aired and bookmarked the end of that era. I think that opened the gates for more sophisticated, adult orientated humour from the US.

Over the last two(ish) decades the US has put out Scrubs, The Office*, Parks & Rec, (forget Friends) Community, and Superstore. Throw in the animated series that might be lesser appreciated ranging from family-friendly The Simpsons to the much more intellectual Rick & Morty with all the other very quick-witted shows like Family Guy and the very up to date, on the nose, South Park.

I can't remember the last time I watched a Brit comedy. My old Dad still watches them and thinks they're funny. Anything else is outside his comfort zone.







*
The Office ('merica!)
I believed the Pommy negative hype from this forum about this show. The kids at work were playing comedy series at lunch time in the break room and The Office was suggested. There was some discussion and it was agreed upon to skip the first two seasons and start from season three. It was really good, much better and more sophisticated than the Brit version. I watched the first two seasons in my own time and they were quite bad. They tried to copy the Brit humour and made the characters much too dark. From season three onwards they started balancing the characters out, expanded the roles of the background actors and gave the comedians and writers much more freedom while keeping the office politics satire intact.

They probably need to consult there lawyers now. Before any coont gets the hump. Fucking bollocks isn't it.